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Chloe Smith on Newsnight


Matt

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Balls was bad, so was the tory muppet before him, again that should have been Osborne on there but once again the submarine has gone into deep water as trouble is ahead.

 

This libor thing is an absolute mess, fat white middle class golf players have been caught with every finger in every till (or alterboy) there is in this country. The only that is honest is the oldest profession, you both know you are going to get screwed and set the price accordingly.

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That's not the debate I'm watching. Balls, is schooling the Tories, even the attorney general has torpedoed that there shouldn't be a parliamentary enquiry and it should be a public enquiry.

I didn't see enough to follow the debated, just looked like Balls and the Labour side in general were rattled. Maybe I enjoy Balls' discomfort so much I am starting to see it everywhere.

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The Tories could do worse that put Andrea Leadsom is Chloe Smiths place, she sits on the Treasury Committee. She was the only one that asked sensible questions, and none of the party poltical posturing and class statemetns of a Labour member (rather tan ask a searching question).

She later appeared on the Sky newspaper review, and talked sense and said polictians (and included hereself as a we)cannot asked the right question.

Shes repeated this, and its appeared in Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/were-powerless-to-get-truth-about-bankers-says-key-mp-7923528.html

In the news paper review she was asked if she should chair the committee (good question that will expose her angle) Not a chance she said, and they would never ask me anyway.

Most sensible poitician I have heard for a long while.

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Point of order, I agree that she did ask some very good questions, especially when you consider she used to work for Barclays! Not just being partisan but there were some terrible questions from both Tories and Labour MPs as well as some very good questions from MPs from both parties.

 

The overall impression though is that a committee of that nature is not going to get to the bottom of the issue, they don't have the skills, knowledge or ability to do the job in hand.

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Point of order, I agree that she did ask some very good questions, especially when you consider she used to work for Barclays! Not just being partisan but there were some terrible questions from both Tories and Labour MPs as well as some very good questions from MPs from both parties.

 

The overall impression though is that a committee of that nature is not going to get to the bottom of the issue, they don't have the skills, knowledge or ability to do the job in hand.

The format isn't right, they need to be given as long as it takes rather than having a set number of questions or time, which means the witnesses can just bat away until it's time for the next guy to start on a completely different tack.

 

Re: Barclays, I really am starting to think that they are the fall guys in the Libor business - in the middle of a banking crisis, the BoE send someone round to tell you that the Government are seriously concerned that you aren't fiddling the figures like everyone else is, what do you do?

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People have been gunning for Bob for some time, Barclays are just the first runner out of the gate, at least 20 other institutions are going to be shown to have done this and other heads will roll.

 

As we saw with the select committee hearings with Murdoch, Diamond or the old bill, the committee do not work as a team and as you say ask completely different questions on different lines of questioning or grind their own particular axe. As much as I hate to do it I have to agree with that Wensch woman, they need QC support, time and other resources allocating in order for them to be effective in areas such as this. Some Parliamentary committees are good at what they do but in cases such as what has become "Leveson", banking and countless others they are woefully inadequate.

 

Occasionally there instances where a committee member has indepth or inside knowledge that makes their questioning produce fireworks, Andrea Leadsom is a case in point, she also veered off the beaten track a few times asking Bob whether he attended the morning meetings where libor fixing was discussed. I'm sure most people of Bob's status haven't attended a grubby little meeting like that for about 20 years. She knew the answer but most be playing the long game, possibly to show that those at the top had lost touch with their organisations? Same as Tom Watson did with Murdoch, his line of questioning when he wasn't grandstanding was playing to the US authorities and their foreign business laws. But as in both of these cases, if they are playing a different game to the other members then the effectiveness can be reduced.

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People have been gunning for Bob for some time, Barclays are just the first runner out of the gate, at least 20 other institutions are going to be shown to have done this and other heads will roll.

 

As we saw with the select committee hearings with Murdoch, Diamond or the old bill, the committee do not work as a team and as you say ask completely different questions on different lines of questioning or grind their own particular axe. As much as I hate to do it I have to agree with that Wensch woman, they need QC support, time and other resources allocating in order for them to be effective in areas such as this. Some Parliamentary committees are good at what they do but in cases such as what has become "Leveson", banking and countless others they are woefully inadequate.

 

Occasionally there instances where a committee member has indepth or inside knowledge that makes their questioning produce fireworks, Andrea Leadsom is a case in point, she also veered off the beaten track a few times asking Bob whether he attended the morning meetings where libor fixing was discussed. I'm sure most people of Bob's status haven't attended a grubby little meeting like that for about 20 years. She knew the answer but most be playing the long game, possibly to show that those at the top had lost touch with their organisations? Same as Tom Watson did with Murdoch, his line of questioning when he wasn't grandstanding was playing to the US authorities and their foreign business laws. But as in both of these cases, if they are playing a different game to the other members then the effectiveness can be reduced.

 

It's not quite as organised as that. Basically, most MPs on Select Committees do absolutely nothing - it's all done by the Clerk and his/her team. They write the brief, which is then slavishly kept to by Committee Members on the grounds that they have no ideas of their own and won't do something themselves if they can get someone else to do it (ie the Clerk). All the follow-up questions are in the brief. All the information they use is in the brief. Leadsom included.

 

If Mensch is asking for QC support, she's basically complaining that the Clerk hasn't done their job properly - meaning they haven't done Mensch's job properly, just like Mensch. It really is that :censored:.

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It's not quite as organised as that. Basically, most MPs on Select Committees do absolutely nothing - it's all done by the Clerk and his/her team. They write the brief, which is then slavishly kept to by Committee Members on the grounds that they have no ideas of their own and won't do something themselves if they can get someone else to do it (ie the Clerk). All the follow-up questions are in the brief. All the information they use is in the brief. Leadsom included.

 

If Mensch is asking for QC support, she's basically complaining that the Clerk hasn't done their job properly - meaning they haven't done Mensch's job properly, just like Mensch. It really is that :censored:.

It sounds like members of Oldham Planning Committee, but on bigger expenses.

Edited by Diego_Sideburns
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