Friday, 14 May 2021

POLITICO

POLITICO

Irish health service’s IT systems shut down after ransomware attack

Posted: 14 May 2021 02:01 AM PDT

DUBLIN – Ireland's hospitals were forced to shut down IT systems and cancel many appointments Friday after an overnight ransomware attack against the central servers of the Health Service Executive. Vaccine appointments to fight the pandemic were not disrupted.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said investigators from the state's Computer Security Incident Response Team were working with police and military specialists to aid the state agency's own efforts to protect patient data and isolate the threat.

"It’s a very sophisticated attack," Reid told RTÉ radio.

Hospital staff switched Friday morning to using whatever paper records existed for patients and canceled at least some outpatient services until they could get the all-clear to go back online. 

At the nation's biggest maternity hospital, the Rotunda in central Dublin, most appointments were canceled except for patients over 36 weeks' pregnant.

Reid said the attackers have not targeted separate servers running Ireland's COVID-19 vaccination program, so thousands of inoculation appointments were proceeding Friday without cancellations. 

He described it as "a human-operated ransomware attack where they would seek access to data and obviously seek a ransom for it." 

He said the HSE's own cybersecurity consultants had confirmed it as a ransomware attack, but the state agency — responsible for managing medical services across this nation of nearly 5 million people — has yet to receive any specific financial demands.

"It is impacting all of our national and indeed local systems involved in all of our core services. We did become aware of it during the night and we've been acting on it straightaway. The immediate priority is to contain this," Reid said.

As is the case globally, ransomware attacks are on the rise in Ireland, a European base for hundreds of U.S. multinationals and tech firms' data centers.

Last week, one of Ireland's top engineering firms was hit with ransomware demands seeking at least $1 million. But Jones Engineering, which employs 1,500 people, didn't pay and hired cybersecurity experts to reclaim and protect their data.

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Boris Johnson ‘anxious’ about ‘Indian’ variant spread in UK

Posted: 14 May 2021 01:01 AM PDT

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “anxious” about the spread of the so-called Indian variant in the country, he said on Thursday. The statement follows the release of government data showing that the strain of coronavirus, known as B1.617.2, has recorded 1,313 cases in the country this week, a substantial increase from last week’s 520.

Johnson’s government is now implementing measures to halt the spread of the variant, including “surge testing”, which is an increase in testing in impacted locations, including in some cases door-to-door testing. Surge testing is currently being carried out in some parts of London, Bolton, Birmingham and Worcestershire.

Documents published by Public Health England (PHE) show that the Indian variant appears to be more infectious than the first wave SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nadhim Zahawi, the U.K.’s vaccine minister, said on Sky News on Friday that the government roadmap for exiting lockdown, which includes a further loosening of restrictions on Monday, “remains in place”. When asked about local lockdowns, the minister echoed Boris Johnson’s Thursday comments: “we rule nothing out.”

As well as testing, the government is also focusing on vaccines. Doses are being sent to affected areas, and the possibility that certain groups could receive an early second dose is being considered. Zahawi said that the government “will continue to be guided by the clinicians, by the data” as they make decisions.

PHE said there is insufficient information regarding the severity of illness that the variant causes, and “as yet no confirmation of impact” on vaccine effectiveness. The European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday that is “confident” that the coronavirus vaccines it has approved are effective against B1.617.2.

Meet Angela Rayner — Labour’s deputy leader on winning back the North

Posted: 13 May 2021 08:34 PM PDT

Listen on

After a tumultuous week for the U.K. Labour Party, Jack Blanchard sits down with deputy leader Angela Rayner to discuss where the party goes from here.

Rayner discusses the challenge the U.K. Labour Party faces in winning back its former heartlands, and explains the appeal of Boris Johnson to voters in the North of England. She also opens up about her relationship with Labour leader Keir Starmer following his decision to remove her as party chair, and attacks the “magnolia politics” which she says turns voters off. And she reflects on how her own troubled childhood has made her the impassioned politician she is today.

UK Labour deputy warns ‘magnolia politics’ is turning voters off

Posted: 13 May 2021 08:00 PM PDT

LONDON — The deputy leader of the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party warned that “magnolia politics” is turning off voters, and urged her colleagues to campaign in primary colors to win back former heartlands.

Speaking to POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast, Angela Rayner said people have flocked to Prime Minister Boris Johnson because he “comes across as authentic,” and admitted she could well have been a Tory voter were she an 18-year-old in Northern England today.

“I think a lot of people like the authenticity,” she said of Johnson’s appeal. “For a long time, people have felt that politicians are just saying what they think they want to hear. Or they try to 'triangulate,' is the word that they use. I call it ‘magnolia politics.’ Let’s not offend anyone, and have no opinion on anything … I think all parties were a bit (guilty) of that. And Boris just sort of cut through that.”

She added: “The Angie Rayner at 18 would have liked someone a bit spicy, and willing to throw a grenade in … That’s why we like soaps, isn't it? We like a bit of argy bargy, or someone who is going to upset what the norm is.”

Rayner was speaking to the podcast in the wake of Labour’s crushing by-election defeat in Hartlepool, a heartland seat the party had held for almost 60 years.

“If I'm honest, I think we lost it before we even picked a candidate,” she said. “I think it’s an emotional shift away from Labour that takes time to get back … We can’t just say, ‘OK, we’ve got a different leader — now vote for us.’ It takes a lot longer to earn that respect back.”

Rayner clashed dramatically with Labour leader Keir Starmer in the wake of the defeat, after he decided to remove her as campaign co-ordinator and party chair. After heated talks, she emerged with several plum new roles, including shadow secretary of state for the future of work, and shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

“I've been trying to learn them!” she laughed. “‘Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster'! I had to keep saying 'caster,' like in sugar — that's how I have to think of it in my head. Because I thought some media person's going to ask me, and I’m going to mispronounce it, and they’re going to say, ‘Look she’s really thick! She can’t even say her own title!'”

Rayner insisted her relationship with Starmer remains strong, despite their public clash at the weekend.

“Me and Keir are like ying and yang,” she said. “I just like to say it how it is. So I go in there, like the trade unionist I am, and I’m like, ‘Right, I’m not happy about this, what’s gone on here?’ And Keir's this incredibly professional guy. So he’s like, ‘Oh, OK, this is what I think.’ And so it’s just like the two worlds collide.

“But I will say this about Keir — he is a total professional and he does want to do the right thing. The trust and the bond hasn't been broken. You know, he might cheese me off now and again, but that’s how partnerships are … But, you know, Keir's heart’s in the right place.

“The media went mad, and it all went a bit like crazy. But actually, reshuffles are difficult. And me and Keir have had loads of robust conversations since we’ve been leader and deputy leader — but I’ve never fallen out with him.”

Rayner did have harsh words, however, for those within the party who seem determined to keep Labour stuck in a perpetual state of civil war.

“Where we’re actually talking to the voters, we’re doing really well,” she said. “But there is a small group that get the headlines that are just in a power struggle. And that’s nonsense — because we’re not in power in Westminster! And we won’t be in power in Westminster for a very long time, until we start realizing that we look like bald men fighting over combs.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Rayner also opened up about her poverty-stricken childhood, and how the challenges she faced as a single mother at 16 have made her more resilient today.

“When these people are crying over a bad headline or something, I’m like — get a grip!” she said. “Do you know how hard it is when your kid comes home and they say they need shoes, and you literally feel like your whole world has melted?”

She added: “You’re absolutely bricking it, because you're like — what I’m going to do? I can’t borrow any more … I already owe money there. That is real fear. When it’s in your stomach, and it literally makes you feel sick, because you don’t know how you’re going to get to the end of the week. Not a bad headline: Get over yourselves!”

Echoes of Lesvos as migrants get stuck in limbo on Canary Islands

Posted: 13 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT

GRAN CANARIA, Spain — If any lessons were learned from Lesvos, there’s little to show for it in Europe’s latest migration hotspot.

The Canary Islands have experienced a surge in migrant arrivals over the past six months. Though numbers remain much lower than those seen on Greece’s easternmost islands at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis, an eightfold increase — from about 2,700 people in 2019 to more than 23,000 in 2020 — has left authorities on the Spanish archipelago struggling to cope.

Upon their arrival, many migrants face the prospect of staying in camps for an extended period of time. That, combined with Spain’s unwillingness to move large numbers to the mainland, has sparked concerns that the Canary Islands are becoming the next Lesvos or Lampedusa — yet more islands where migrants are kept in poor conditions on Europe’s periphery while they await a decision on their asylum application.

While women are transferred to mainland facilities and minors are taken into the care of local authorities, thousands of men are currently housed in newly built camps spread over three islands, facilities staffed by NGO workers and funded by the European Union to the tune of €43 million. But hundreds of them, fearing deportation and searching for better living conditions, have left the camps to live on the streets without support.

Among them is Moussa, a 34-year-old from Senegal, who arrived in November. Out of work and tired of scraping by, he felt he had no other option than make the perilous 10-day journey from Dakar to the Canary Islands in order to reach Europe. “I want to find a job to send money back to my family,” he said.

He’s not alone. While people fleeing armed conflict also arrive on the archipelago, many are attempting the crossing — which can take weeks and has seen hundreds die of dehydration or starvation en route — in a desperate effort to improve their and their families’ lives.

Upon their arrival, many migrants face the prospect of staying in camps for an extended period of time | Photo by Sarah Hucal

The pandemic, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) notes, may have driven the increased popularity of the route, as “many of those attempting the Canary Islands crossing worked in fishing or agriculture, two sectors that have been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19.”

So far, Moussa has been stuck on Gran Canaria. Three months ago, he left the tent camp, fearing his deportation was imminent, and now sleeps with dozens of other migrants by a beach in the island capital Las Palmas. Every morning at dawn, police wake them with instructions to pack up their things and move along before beachgoers arrive. “It’s been two months since I slept properly,” Moussa said. “It’s not human.”

NGOs such as the Spanish Refugee Council (CEAR) have demanded Madrid transfer more migrants to the mainland, regardless of their nationality. Keeping them on the islands is a strategy designed “mainly to facilitate their deportation,” said CEAR spokesman Juan Carlos Lorenzo, just as “we see in other Southern European border territories like Lesbos and Lampedusa.”

The Spanish government has so far refused, fearing doing so would entice more migrants to make the journey.

Migration Minister José Luis Escrivá has rejected comparisons with Lesvos, noting that the majority of arrivals to the Canary Islands have little chance of getting refugee status and will therefore be deported.

Some 52 percent of migrants who arrived in 2020 hailed from Morocco and 20 percent from Senegal — countries generally considered safe, though asylum claims are based on individual circumstances, not nationality. About 18 percent came from conflict-ravaged Mali. The majority of arrivals on Greece’s islands, in contrast, come from countries like Afghanistan or Syria.

Tourists watch migrants play football at Playa del Inglés | Photo by Sarah Hucal

He added that the situation on the islands is temporary as deportations will speed up once the pandemic ends. Deportations to Morocco, for instance, are currently on pause due to coronavirus-related border closures. No deportation flights to Senegal have been carried out since 2018.

Yet others argue that Spain’s strategy is not dissimilar from that of Greece, which is hoping to return people to their departure country of Turkey under the 2016 migration deal between the EU and Ankara.

Jude Sunderland, Human Rights Watch's associate director for Europe and Central Asia, said that "the current containment policy offers a direct parallel to Lesbos of keeping as many people as they can on the islands with this idea that these are people that they will be able to deport easily."

‘Island jail’

Some migrants have managed to move to the Spanish mainland by themselves, even though the Spanish government has tried preventing them from boarding flights.

"What we are seeing here is many people being blocked from leaving the islands although they are not legally detained. This contributes to the concept of island jail," said Gran Canaria-based lawyer Daniel Arencibia, who sued the police on behalf of a Moroccan man who was stopped by officers while boarding a flight to Barcelona.

A Spanish court sided with Arencibia on April 15, ruling that it was against the law to stop migrants from traveling to the mainland if they have a pending asylum application and a valid passport and are complying with coronavirus measures.

The camp entrance | Photo by Sarah Hucal

Many migrants, however, can’t afford the plane ticket and remain stuck in the camps — or the streets.

The largest camp in particular, Las Raíces on Tenerife, has been described as inadequate by migrants and rights groups, who say the site is overcrowded and unsanitary, lacking medical supplies and access to legal services. The NGO running the camp, Accem, has rejected such accusations; journalists are not permitted inside the facility. The conditions in other camps, too, have been criticized by human rights groups. The Spanish Ombudsman, however, said in late April that conditions were improving in all camps.

For a few months, Spain looked into other options. When arrival numbers gradually began to increase over the summer, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez started moving migrants into hotels around the island — empty due to the pandemic — with hoteliers providing food and lodging, and the government footing the bill.

In the beginning, it was a welcome move, offering financial relief to parts of the struggling tourism sector, the backbone of the archipelago’s economy. But with more and more people arriving, tensions surged, too.

In November, when numbers spiked and 8,000 people arrived within a month, many were left to languish in poor conditions. An overcrowded makeshift camp set up on the pier of Arguineguín, a small fishing village in the south of Gran Canaria, was dubbed the "dock of shame." The new arrivals had no access to legal counsel and slept side by side on the concrete ground, with dozens sharing a portable toilet.

The camp on the pier was shuttered in December, with more migrants moved into hotels. But by then, groups of locals had begun voicing protests, with some hoteliers worrying the migrants would deter the few tourists that might come to the islands during the winter season despite the pandemic. The far-right Vox party, meanwhile, stoked anti-migrant sentiment, describing the situation as a “migratory invasion.”

By early 2021, the government had opened the EU-funded camps and no longer paid for hotel accommodation.

‘Europe has to respond’

Some locals are organizing help. On a balmy Tuesday evening in April, around 100 young men lined up in Las Palmas to pick up sandwiches made by volunteer group Somos Red, whose members also offer translation and legal assistance and accommodation to migrants — sometimes in their own homes.

"We had been powerless for a year, seeing pictures of people who arrived dead on our islands, of children who died here, and of course this makes you more indignant and want to act," said Antonio Santana, a social worker who volunteers with the group.

For many, like 26-year-old Babacar from Senegal, the sandwich was their only meal of the day. He made the journey in the hope of joining family members in southern Spain and finding a job. “Senegal is beautiful,” he said, “but there’s nothing there, no work at all.”

Babacar was offered a place in Las Raíces but was deterred both by the camp’s bad reputation and concerns that he would be deported once he accepted. Instead, he and some friends decided to take a ferry to another island, Lanzarote, but were detained by police in transit. He’s lived on the streets ever since.

The Spanish government, meanwhile, has called on its fellow EU members to show solidarity and take in some of the migrants arriving in the country. Few countries have shown interest; France has returned 16,000 irregular migrants to Spain between November and March, according to data from the French border police reported by newspaper Le Figaro.

Volunteers from the Somos Red volunteer organization hand out sandwiches to homeless migrants | Photo by Sarah Hucal

Anselmo Pestana, the Spanish government’s delegate to the Canary Islands, maintained that Europe has to do its part: "Their [destination] is not the Canary Islands, it is Europe as a concept, as a place of opportunities. Well, then Europe has to respond to this challenge as a whole and not leave it to the Canary Islands or only the Spanish territory. It's just not fair,” he said.

In the meantime, migrants continue to arrive on the archipelago. More than 4,800 people have arrived in 2021 so far, according to the IOM, twice as many as in the same period last year. Their wooden fishing boats, painted with names like “Amal” and “Fatima,” pile up in the south of Gran Canaria.

There’s no estimate of how many boats do not make it. The Atlantic crossing is considered by many as the most dangerous sea route to Europe; last year, 850 men, women and children were reported to have died on the journey, though the IOM believes the real number is far higher given the length of the journey and “the fact that many migrants are believed to have lost their lives due to starvation or dehydration while at sea.”

More than 126 deaths have been documented this year so far, according to the IOM. On April 27, the Spanish coast guard picked up a boat 500 kilometers south of the islands, holding 17 bodies; the three survivors, suffering from hypothermia, were taken to Gran Canaria.

Just two days later, rescue services brought ashore the bodies of another 24 migrants. The three survivors of this journey, local media reported, told their rescuers that they had spent 22 days at sea.

Vaccine envy and the world’s worst pub

Posted: 13 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly column looking at the lighter side of politics.

First there was vaccine envy. Now there’s vaccine center envy!

If, like me, you received your vaccination in what appeared to be a 1970s leisure center built out of breeze blocks and architects’ tears, then you’ll have cast envious glances at Romania, where Pfizer shots are being offered to everyone who visits the 14th-century Bran Castle, believed to have inspired the vampire’s lair in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula.”

"We wanted to show people a different way to get the needle," Alexandru Priscu, the marketing manager at Bran Castle in Transylvania, told AP. You even get a "vaccination diploma" illustrated with a fanged medical worker brandishing a syringe as well as free entry to the castle's torture rooms, featuring a whopping 52 instruments of torture (the same number as at a Mumford & Sons concert).

Speaking of torture … people queuing for the vaccination at Home Park stadium in Plymouth in southwest England got a surprise when they reached the end of the line only to discover that, thanks to a stewarding mishap, they had accidentally queued up for Plymouth Argyle Football Club season tickets instead of the jab. And they thought they were only in for a few seconds of pain!

Speaking of unpleasant pricks … Richard Tice, leader of the Reform UK party, which you may remember from its days as the Brexit Party, went on the radio and announced that he was opening a pub with the actor Laurence Fox, who, a few days later, would get about 11 votes in the London mayoral election, finishing behind Niko Omilana, a YouTuber whose manifesto included proposals such as “Any McDonald’s with a broken McFlurry machine will be shut down and turned into low rent housing” and who called for anyone wearing three-quarter-length trousers to be sentenced to death.

“It will be the home of free speech and right-wing comedy. It’ll only be British food, no vaccine passports, no masks,” Tice said of his planned pub. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Although “British food only” might be a problem if you want a slice of lemon in your gin and tonic. Or anything with rice or pasta or, if we’re really being sticklers for historical accuracy, potatoes, as they were first cultivated in Peru. Maybe it’s best to have a cheese sandwich before you go.

In the best tradition of British pub names, the Reform UK chief said the establishment would be called The Fox & Tice. It sounds about as appealing a destination for a pint at The Slaughtered Lamb from “An American Werewolf in London” or the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars.

CAPTION COMPETITION

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Can you do better? Email pdallison@politico.eu or on Twitter @pdallisonesque

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Paul Dallison is POLITICO‘s slot news editor.

House of Lords should tour the UK, says newly elected speaker

Posted: 13 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT

LONDON — The new man at the helm of the U.K.’s House of Lords is on a mission to make the august upper chamber more representative of the country — but he knows he has his work cut out.

The newly elected Lord Speaker, Lord McFall of Alcluith (or John McFall), wants to change the Lords’ reputation as a remote and overstuffed anachronism.

Apart from reducing the size of the ballooning legislature — a task his predecessor tried and failed to tackle — he wants to bring their lordships closer to the people. Literally.

Like the world’s biggest aging rock band, he has ambitions to take the chamber on a tour of the U.K. In addition, he must steer the chamber through the tricky process of unwinding many of the remote-working practices that have been necessary during the COVID crisis, while retaining those that have proved most useful.

First though, there was the traditional pomp and ceremony to attend to. It is difficult to think of many jobs in which your first week entails meeting Queen Elizabeth II. But this was McFall’s introduction to the job as he took part in the state opening of parliament as one of his first items of business.

Lord McFall of Alcluith wants to take the chamber on a tour of the U.K. | Eddie Mulholland/AFP via Getty Images

"It’s wonderful that the queen is coming along," he tells POLITICO, "given everything else that has been happening in her life. I've got nothing but admiration for that." The state opening on Tuesday was her first official engagement since the death of her husband, the duke of Edinburgh.

Ahead of the practice run, McFall was fitted for black-and-gold ceremonial robes which the speaker must wear for the occasion, which marks the start of the new parliamentary session.

"Some of the jobs I’ve had in the past, I’ve been given a uniform to stick on — a boiler suit, but nothing as grand as this," he says.

McFall, 78, who hails from Dumbarton on the River Clyde, an area once famed for shipbuilding, had his share of jobs before winding up in parliament. He left school at 15 before working for the local parks department and in a factory before training as a chemistry teacher. 

He spent 13 years teaching, latterly as a deputy head, which may have proved useful experience when he ended up as a Labour MP and then as chairman of the Treasury select committee. In that role he took on responsibility for hauling bankers and regulators over the coals at the time of the 2008 financial crash.

He first entered the Lords in 2010, a few months after standing down as an MP and in 2016 became senior deputy speaker of the Lords, a key role in the administration and supervision of the House. That résumé assisted him in beating the widely tipped favorite, Labour's Dianne Hayter, to the post in an election last month.

An unruly lot

The lord speaker is a strange and sometimes misunderstood part of parliament's machinery. The position was created less than 20 years ago to act as a kind of emissary for the House of Lords, raising awareness of its often bizarre workings and taking ultimate responsibility for its management. 

Unlike the Commons speaker, the Lords equivalent does not have a formal role in maintaining order or acting as an umpire. The chamber prides itself on being "self-governing,” and, as such, it is often much more unruly than the Commons.

It would not be uncommon, particularly during four years of fractious debates on Brexit, for peers to be heard shouting over one another, refusing to sit down, or, if they felt another member had started waffling, to simply call out: "Too long!"

Those days are gone, and it is unclear when they might return. COVID-19 put paid to the practice of some 500 peers with an average age of 70 gathering together in an overcrowded chamber every day to interrogate one another. "It's hard to imagine a more perfectly designed superspreader environment," as one parliamentary official put it.

The House of Lords has adapted, some would say more enthusiastically than the Commons. Most contributions now take place via videoconference, voting is conducted electronically (unlike in the short-lived experiment in the Commons) and only 30 peers can attend in person at any one time.

Could it remain a work-from-home legislature? "I would start from the premise …. that it will have to get back to normal,” McFall says. “We do miss a lot. I’ve been very fortunate and been able to work through the pandemic remotely but there just isn’t the same cut and thrust."

Once the Lords is back in full force, however, he suggests it ought to consider reintroducing digital voting in limited circumstances, such as for peers who would otherwise have to travel a great distance. It’s a move that would reduce their carbon footprint and increase regional diversity.

McFall is passionate about breaking London’s grip on politics — something that chimes with one of British politics' current preoccupations, as the Labour Party struggles to connect with its traditional strongholds in the north of England and the government eyes the future of the United Kingdom's union nervously. 

"The big feeling is, at the moment, that people feel they are not listened to, that they’re not understood," he says. "It's important for us to reach out to the whole country and, coming from Scotland, I want to ensure that the voices in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are represented."

To this end, he mentions the example of a colleague, Lord Bassam, who took a committee inquiry into coastal towns on tour to different areas of the country. He admits that replicating this for the Lords as a whole would be "a big ambition" but adds: "I think it’s worth starting down the road on that.”

Lords a-leaping

The job of the second chamber is to scrutinize and revise legislation sent its way by MPs in the Commons. Alongside the former MPs, party donors and handful of remaining hereditary peers, many of its unelected members are seasoned experts in their fields who bring a lifetime of experience to debates on science, housing, foreign affairs and the rest.

While McFall has little power over the makeup of the Lords, he is keen to tackle a long-running problem — the chamber’s size. It is a source of perennial embarrassment to the U.K. legislature that its upper chamber has, while nobody was looking, swelled to 797 members. Everyone agrees it is too large, but nobody can agree on what to do about it. McFall calls it a "fundamental reputational issue".

A report commissioned by McFall’s predecessor Norman Fowler in 2017 recommended a one-in, two-out system, like the most elite nightclub imaginable, but that’s proved difficult to enforce. Boris Johnson has created 52 new peers since he became prime minister. The entreaties of Fowler, a well-liked Conservative veteran of Thatcher's government, fell on deaf ears, so how does McFall — a Labour politician by training — expect to succeed with a Tory government?

"I was in the House last week and I was passing by the prime minister. He shouted a congratulatory message to me, to which I responded, 'I’m going to come and see you.' And he said, 'Yeah, good.' So I’m going to sit down with the prime minister and put the point of view of the House itself," he said.

The wider question of Lords reform to bring about a mostly or wholly elected chamber is, McFall maintains, a matter for government, as is the continued survival of hereditary peers, one of the most glaring anachronisms of the current setup. He says it’s not for him to criticize individuals but to promote a “working House”. He envisages changes to the Lords appointment process so that it would examine nominees’ suitability as well as their propriety, while whips have their part to play in ensuring participants are “firing on all cylinders”.

The list of agenda items for him to raise with the prime minister does not end there. Restoration of the crumbling Palace of Westminster has stalled for years as the government, and particularly Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, look suspiciously at the prospect of relocating while essential works are carried out.

A recent review of the "decant" — as wholesale relocation is called — confirmed it is the most cost-effective way forward, but Rees-Mogg sought to pour cold water on its findings. McFall has little sympathy with this point of view, arguing that it is the only practical way to do it. 

"We've been looking at it for years and years going back to 2012. Let’s get on with this, for goodness' sake," he said.

Don’t worry about the French military

Posted: 13 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT

Jérôme Pellistrandi is a retired French general and chief editor at the magazine Revue Défense Nationale.

PARIS — A pair of open letters has caused media frenzy in France. Signed by members of the armed forces and warning of civil war, these interventions into the public debate have raised the specter in some quarters of military interference in the political process — a phenomenon not unheard of in post-war France.

These concerns are overblown. While some members of the military have clearly — and consciously — shrugged off their obligation to political neutrality, their actions are not representative of the vast majority of the French rank and file, which remains professional, apolitical and committed to doing their jobs.

The letters, published in a right-wing magazine, warn of "civil insurrection" and criticize what they describe as government "laxism" toward Islamism. Published as the country enters a heated campaign season ahead of a presidential election next year and quickly picked up by politicians, they have highlighted and amplified the tensions that fracture French society today.

The form, substance and timing has fanned further alarm. The first letter, signed by a group of retired general and soldiers, was published on April 21, which happened to be the 60th anniversary of a failed putsch intended to stop President Charles de Gaulle from pulling out of Algeria — leading many in the media to make simplistic and inaccurate parallels.

The second letter, published on May 9, was attributed to active-duty soldiers who had served in Mali, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic and in domestic counterterrorism operations.

But while the authors may be members of the military, there's no reason to believe they have more expertise than any other citizens on the subjects they are warning about. Their field of competence is operating in a rapidly changing strategic environment — not the intricacies of internal security policy.

Indeed, the debate the letters have provoked so far has ultimately undermined the intentions of the authors, who wanted to spark a debate about French values and divisions in society — not the proper role of the military in society.

In limiting the signatories to soldiers or former soldiers, with no representation from civil society, they were bound to provoke a strong reaction, to the detriment of the military. That decision also gave the impression in the media that the authors were speaking for the armed forces, while the subsequent debate has exposed a clear rift between their views and those of the vast majority serving today.

To the contrary, the calls to order from political leaders like the prime minister and the minister for the armed forces were more necessary to douse the fires being lit by their politicians than any sense of mutiny in the ranks.

The letters generated very little excitement among the rank and file, who clearly didn't recognize themselves in the signatories. With regard to the first letter especially, there's a clear generational divide, with military attitudes having much evolved since President Jacques Chirac ended conscription to create a modern, professional military in 1966.

France's military today is more diverse than it has ever been, with significant recruitment from all walks of life. This “melting pot” is a success and a legitimate source of pride for our forces, allowing everyone to find their place in uniform. This characteristic, built on the notion of “esprit de corps,” has accumulated in recent years, as the military was called to deploy overseas.

None of this means the military can remain complacent. With the presidential campaign just beginning, it will be important that military leaders underline that the armed forces are at the service of France. This will mean an acceptance among serving and retired members of the military of rules limiting their expression, without preventing them from participating in the debate on the future of our country. That too is a way they can serve our country.

UK’s David Cameron denies Greensill lobbying was for personal gain

Posted: 13 May 2021 09:35 AM PDT

David Cameron repeatedly lobbied the British government on behalf of a finance firm for the public good, and not his own financial gain, he told MPs Thursday.

The former U.K. prime minister has been at the center of Britain’s biggest lobbying row in a generation after it emerged he pressed senior ministers and officials to include Greensill Capital — a supply-chain finance specialist that employed him as an adviser after he left government — in a coronavirus lending scheme.

Greensill collapsed earlier this year, leaving 3,000 jobs at a steel manufacturer at risk, and prompting the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority to launch an investigation into the “potentially criminal” circumstances of its failure.

Cameron's 2020 pleas to the Treasury — detailed in a frantic series of text messages and emails to senior figures like Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove published this week — were ultimately rejected. But the row has shone a harsh spotlight on the links between business and the state in the U.K., as well as the transparency setup meant to police conflicts of interest.

Hauled before MPs Thursday to explain his actions, the former Conservative prime minister, who quit government in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum, denied claims he had debased himself and his old office through his post-government corporate lobbying.

“I spent most of my adult life in public service,” he told the Commons Treasury committee. “I believe in it deeply. I would never put forward something that I didn’t think was absolutely in the interests of the public good, and that’s what I thought I was doing for Greensill.”

Cameron insisted he had not been aware of financial difficulties at Greensill at the time he had made use of his government contacts book, saying he felt the firm was in “good financial health” and not “in any serious financial difficulty.”

"I've sat on the other side of the fence in government, where you have a credit crunch, you have difficulties in the credit market, and you’re desperate to get banks lending," he said.

But Cameron faced the embarrassment of having his own 2010 condemnation of Westminster’s influence culture read back to him. The ex-PM once described lobbying as “the next big scandal waiting to happen,” a point seized on by Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh.

“You’re one of only five people post-war to have been reelected to lead our government,” she said, asking Cameron: “Do you not feel that you have demeaned yourself and your position by WhatsApp-ing your way around Whitehall?”

Committee Chairman Mel Stride, a Conservative, put it to Cameron that a "fear of losing out" on the "substantial gains" he was set to make as a shareholder of Greensill amid a tightening of the global credit markets could be perceived as having driven his lobbying efforts. That charge was rejected by Cameron, who acknowledged he “wanted the business to succeed,” but said the exact nature of his shareholding in the firm was “a private matter.”

The ex-PM came armed with his own modest proposals for reforming Britain’s lax lobbying rules, which, despite changes introduced by Cameron’s own government, cover only a small subset of agency lobbyists and miss the vast swath of corporate influencers working directly for companies.

“Lobbying itself is a necessary and healthy part of our democratic process, but I accept there’s a strong argument that having a former prime minister engage on behalf of any commercial interest, no matter how laudable the motives and cause, can be open to misinterpretation,” he told MPs, saying he would be open to a longer post-government cooling-off period before taking on work.

Cameron said there may also be a case to include in-house lobbyists in Britain’s transparency register, provided that can be done “without excessive bureaucracy or damaging the interests of charities.”

Westminster’s revolving door watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, long derided as ineffective by critics, is “well-established and in my view works,” Cameron argued, although he called for more guidance for ex-prime ministers who want to do more than just “be on the board of some big bank and make the odd speech around the world.”

Cameron, who told the committee his evidence marked a "painful day," reserved much of his contrition for the casual nature of his lobbying messages, saying he should have opted for a “more formal approach” than text messages to old colleagues. One such message, sent to senior Treasury official Tom Scholar and published this week, said: "See you with [Chancellor] Rishi's for an elbow bump or a foot tap. Love Dc."

The ex-prime minister promised MPs: "If ever there’s an occasion, and I doubt there will be, where a business has a commercial proposition to put the government, it will be a single letter or email.”

The Treasury committee’s probe is one of several Westminster inquiries into Greensill now underway, with MPs delving into the specifics of the firm’s collapse as well as wider reform of Britain’s lobbying arrangements. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has meanwhile ordered a review of Greensill’s influence on government supply-chain finance policy.

Facebook top lobbyist pushes back on ‘contradictory’ Trump ban guidance

Posted: 13 May 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Facebook has been ordered to clarify rules on political speech in the wake of its ban on Donald Trump — and the company’s top lobbyist isn’t happy.

In an interview with POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast, Facebook’s Vice President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg criticized the guidance issued by a panel of experts to extend the ban as sending confusing signals on how political speech should be handled on the platform.

“The oversight board said two things which are in tension with each other, to be honest,” Clegg said. “They on the one hand recognized that political speech, particularly in democracies, is a particular form of speech, and as a matter of first principle it’s important that people have as unhindered an access as possible to what politicians are saying.

“On the other hand, they suggested that politicians with significant reach shouldn’t be regarded as different in any way to any other user of Facebook with significant reach. So we have to grapple with that,” he added.

The comments from Clegg — who has reportedly played a key role in shaping Facebook’s approach to Trump — point to a drawn-out process to review the decision as well as an increasingly strained relationship between the firm and its oversight board.

Launched in October, the global panel of experts is paid by Facebook to rule on content matters, such as if the company was right in ordering a certain post taken down. But no decision has been as consequential as the move to ban Trump indefinitely in the wake of the January 6 assault on Capitol Hill for inciting violence.

While the board upheld Facebook’s initial decision, its 12,000-word response blasted the “ad hoc” way in which Facebook had reached it, calling on the firm to implement “special procedures” for highly influential users, namely by escalating decisions to “specialized staff” who are insulated from influence.

It also urged Facebook to spell out how Trump would be affected by the firm’s “newsworthiness allowance” — a policy which says content that’s newsworthy and in the public interest can stay up even if it violates community standards. (Facebook previously said it hadn’t applied this policy to Trump, even though researchers found that Trump posts that were in violation prior to January 6 had stayed up.)

Clegg suggested that the board may not have reached a definitive conclusion on the best way to handle such matters. “I don’t think [these questions] were fully resolved in the oversight board’s pronouncements,” he said.

But Thomas Hughes, oversight board director, said the guidance was plenty clear.

In the case of influential users and political leaders like Trump, he said, the company needed to apply a “test of harm” — ie, evaluate whether a post was inciting discrimination, violence or lawless action, then state publicly why it had taken a certain decision and specify the duration of the penalty.

“If there is a very severe violation, then an account may be also permanently deleted,” he added in a conversation prior to the podcast recording.

Midterm misery

Facebook now has six months to amend its policies and make a final decision on Trump.

Clegg said the company was unlikely to use the full period and didn’t want to bounce the decision back up to the oversight board.

“It’s certainly not my intention, it’s certainly not our intention at Facebook, for this to become an endless sort of pinball exercise, where it just gets, you know, pinged from one body to another,” he said.

But the challenge facing Clegg and other top Facebook executives is immense.

Trump remains central to the U.S. Republican Party, with his influence set to grow in the lead-up to midterm elections in 2022. Any decision regarding his status on Facebook, either to keep him on or ban him permanently, is sure to inflame further partisan tensions over Big Tech’s role in politics.

As other Republicans continue to embrace Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, the company will have to determine whether those comments, too, are deserving of bans or suspensions.

Beyond the United States, any changes to Facebook’s rules around political speech could bring the company into conflict with national regulations — not just in non-democratic countries where social media firms face growing pressure to remove offending content, but also in U.S.-allied countries like the United Kingdom.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government proposed content rules that crack down on illegal and harmful content online, but shield politicians from the threat of takedowns in the name of “democratically important” speech.

When those laws are passed, Clegg, a former deputy U.K. prime minister and party leader, could find himself in the awkward position of having to defend new Facebook policies that contradict or undermine London’s carve-outs for political speech.

For now, the ex-politician is keeping his cards close to his chest. “I can’t sort of peer into my crystal ball and tell you what’s going to happen,” he said. But whatever Clegg’s next move, it’s likely to bring him ever closer to the political game he left behind when joining Facebook.
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