I wouldn't normally bother to comment on the resignation of a junior minister in the UK, but the fall of Grant Shapps is interesting for the light it sheds on the inner workings of the Conservative Party. The casual nastiness and infantile ruthlessness of the team that Mr. Shapps largely recruited has certainly rebounded on him- indeed has forced him to quit as a minister. That the bullying seems to have driven one young man to suicide is not merely tragic: it reflects a culture as brash and excessive as much as Mr. Shapps' own brand of politics.
For this is not the first time that Grant Shapps has been involved in the disreputable side of the game of politics- he has credibly been linked to Internet smears on other political figures, including some in his own party. He has also been found to have lied about his earnings from other sources, which he claimed had ceased when he became an MP, when they did not. Indeed there are allegations that some of Mr. Shapps' business dealings may have been less than honest.
The fact is that Grant Shapps is not a particularly intelligent man, but he is certainly a greedy and ruthless one. His sharp elbows have not been restrained by custom or taste and he reflects a certain kind of vulgarity that regards common rules of restraint and decency as being more for they other people than for he himself. It is arrogance pure and simple.
Unfortunately David Cameron has plenty more of these shits in his Parliamentary party.
If Labour were not themselves in deep trouble as the hard left around Jeremy Corbyn plot to remake the Labour Parliamentary party in their own, unlovely, image, then the disreputable and dishonourable in the Conservative ranks would be being outed on a far bigger scale.
The Tories only have a slight majority, despite their triumphalism, and there are many more people like Grant Shapps out there.
For this is not the first time that Grant Shapps has been involved in the disreputable side of the game of politics- he has credibly been linked to Internet smears on other political figures, including some in his own party. He has also been found to have lied about his earnings from other sources, which he claimed had ceased when he became an MP, when they did not. Indeed there are allegations that some of Mr. Shapps' business dealings may have been less than honest.
The fact is that Grant Shapps is not a particularly intelligent man, but he is certainly a greedy and ruthless one. His sharp elbows have not been restrained by custom or taste and he reflects a certain kind of vulgarity that regards common rules of restraint and decency as being more for they other people than for he himself. It is arrogance pure and simple.
Unfortunately David Cameron has plenty more of these shits in his Parliamentary party.
If Labour were not themselves in deep trouble as the hard left around Jeremy Corbyn plot to remake the Labour Parliamentary party in their own, unlovely, image, then the disreputable and dishonourable in the Conservative ranks would be being outed on a far bigger scale.
The Tories only have a slight majority, despite their triumphalism, and there are many more people like Grant Shapps out there.
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