UKC

Anyone seen this story?

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/6217054?ncid=newsletter-uk

Truly a repulsive individual, but it is so predictable that it is not really news.

In reply to The New NickB:

"...I've been in the Cabinet, I'm an award-winning broadcaster, I'm a Queen's Counsel. You think that your experiences are anything compared to mine?..."

But what's he done on grit?

In reply to mypyrex:

I remember what he did in government, I remember his radio programme, I've not seen him in court, but the first two are certainly nothing to brag about.

In reply to mypyrex:

Not to mention being a famously irresistible babe magnet, of course.

In reply to The New NickB:

Until Cameron came along I've always supported a Conservative government(but I'm not going to get into any UKC brawls about that!) but Mellor is about as big an embarrassment the Tories could wish for. Thank goodness he's no longer in government.

In reply to The New NickB:

The Mellorphant Man! He 'did' Antonia De Sancha.

In reply to The New NickB:

Paint him green and he's a doppelgänger for Mr Toad.

In reply to The New NickB:


Probably not the sort of barrister any right minded person would want.

In reply to The New NickB:

oh, but just imaging that ripped adonis writhing in rapture as you play this little piggy in your Chelsea shirt....*











*I am aware this may or may not have actually occured

In reply to The New NickB:

Maybe he and Andrew Mitchell attended the same Charm School?

In reply to The New NickB:

I've just remembered how he lost his seat in Putney, an early incarnation of UKIP (sort of) Goldsmith's Referendum Party managed take enough Tory votes to hand the seat to Labour. I seem to remember Mellor being particularly ungracious loser.

I was of mixed emotions, Goldsmith was as unpleasant as Mellor. It's a bit like when Clarkson punched Piers Morgan.

In reply to The New NickB:

Whilst in no way condoning Mellor (or Mitchell for that matter) I've seen plenty of instances of shocking behaviour that are largely driven by stress. Whilst the headline is always attention grabbing, there's usually a back story that we never get to hear. Most people do not engage in tw*tish behaviour all the time, but we all do some of the time. People with high profile and highly pressured jobs are subjected to stress and it takes a significant effort to try to recognise when your becoming stressed and to avoid it affecting your behaviour. I'm guessing taking your other half to the palace for an investiture and being late might very well count as a stressful situation.

In reply to cander:

It's not really him losing his temper that is the story though is it? It's what he says when he does and what that reveals about his underlying attitudes towards taxi drivers and presumably many others. Although, as the OP says, Mellor showing himself to be a pompous arrogant arse is hardly news.

In reply to cander:

Mellor doesn't have a high profile, high stress job. The people of Puntney saw to that.

In reply to MG:

If his other half is anything like mine - I'd have been nearly demented before the taxi showed up - she'd have fannied around getting ready, dress, make up, hairdresser, shoes then handbag to match, then changing them spending hours gurgling looking in the mirror, all the time you know you're not going to make it through the traffic. I'm only surprised he's not locked up for attempted murder - poor taxi driver - though he probably said just the wrong thing at the wrong time - it's nothing to do with looking down on taxi drivers, it's stress.

In reply to The New NickB:

Since they were leaving a restuarant at almost 6 o' clock having just picked up her CBE I suspect several bottles of stress may have been invovled

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Take it all back, you're right they'd already been to the Investiture - drunken slimeball

In reply to cander:


Not sure how you could know either way but it looks a lot like being pompous prick to me whether he's stressed or not.

Heading to east London and all the references to Palace ceremonies are in the past tense, it appears they'd been rather than were on their way.

jk

In reply to The New NickB:

Another jumped up state school pleb, like the Thornbury woman and Cherie Blair

What is it about barristers?

In reply to Postmanpat:


Now, now calling people plebs will get you in all sorts of trouble.

In reply to The New NickB:

makes a change for the unpleasant views to be coming from the back seat of a black cab

In reply to jkarran:

Do you actually bother to read any of the previous posts on the thread?

In reply to mypyrex:


They can't resist telling us how important they are/were. Michael Portillo often has to remind us that he was once an M.P. What that has to do with rail journeys is beyond me.

In reply to The New NickB:

"You've been driving a cab for 10 years, I've been in the Cabinet, I'm an award-winning broadcaster, I'm a Queen's Counsel. You think that your experiences are anything compared to mine?"

Apparently they were arguing over which was the best route to take, so no their experiences were not comparable: the taxi driver's experience was directly relevant.

Ironic that Mellor should brag about being a barrister as part of such a witless argument. I wonder if he's ever tried a similar tack with an expert witness in court?

In reply to cander:

Most of them but I clearly missed your last one. Oops.

By the same token I could ask did you actually bother to read the story before making up a nonsensical excuse for him. Oops.

Good on you for acknowledging your mistake though when it was pointed out.
jk

In reply to The New NickB:


Was it him that forced a Mad Cow burger on his daughter for the cameras?

In reply to Removed UserBwox:


No. that was Seldom Glummer

In reply to deepsoup:


Should have innocently congratulated him on doing all those things and finding the time to fit in the knowledge as well.

In reply to dissonance:

Shame the taxi driver wasn't able to say: 'Yes, but I won Mastermind.'

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Fred Housego, that is going back a bit!

In reply to The New NickB:

Interestingly the taxi drivers interviewed on radio 4 were more Mellor's favour.

In reply to The New NickB:

Politeness and respect are obviously desirable but I am fed up with people moaning ( especially to the media) whenever anyone is rude and obnoxious. Plus sometimes the whole point IS to be offensive.

Sadly, most evenings cabbies will have drunk, loud and horrible fares. Just because it is someone 'famous' , I don' t care.

Pleb gate ......... Just man up. It is hardly the worst thing that one might be called and yet £millions are being wasted on investigations.

In reply to Postmanpat:



I might be wrong but I don't think Cherie Blair has any previous in being obnoxious and condescending to someone trying to do their job

In reply to earlsdonwhu:



Too true. Nice little bit of evidence at the Plebgate libel trial from the senior constable on the Downing St gates. Asked why he had not made up his notes immeidately he said ,i. could not be arsed. I was having my sandwiches. It was hardly the crime of the century. we weren't taping off the street. It was just a quirky little incident with a man on a bike'
If only everyone had been. so sensible!

In reply to toad:

I am tempted to use the dislike button or to complain to the mods about it being offensive since it really should have come with a "likely to make you project vomit" warning.
However since the image is now seared into my mind I think i will leave it to catch others.

In reply to Babika:

Just obnoxious and condescending in every other way. The desperate and hypocritical need to acquire and flaunt power and wealth.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Umm. It wasn't actually 'a quirky little incident'. There was as very obvious backstory to it that later emerged, of a general arrogance towards the police guarding number 10, and some ministers refusing to dismount and go through the gate for pedestrians/cyclists. At the end of the day - as always - it comes down to respect, and lack of. What that whole story exposed was an appalling lack of mutual respect, a trickle-down effect, I suspect , from the very top.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Well that's not my word Gordon. it's the sworn testimony of the senior constable on duty on the gate. Presumably he has quite a bit of experience there and from his evidence (it's on the UKPG website) and he obviously thought it was a lot of fuss about nothing.

In reply to Postmanpat:


I must have missed those stories.....what exactly did she do/say/publish to get up your nose so much? Buying a flat in Bristol for her son, a second-hand toy off eBay and having a spiritualist friend is all I recall her getting "caught out" on.

Not exactly in the same league of obnoxious as Mitchell and Mellor (or even Thornbury)

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

OK, fine, yes I saw that. But there were other people's testimonies, and also a well-reported back story, as I say. Which seem to have vanished now without a trace. Not so surprising in a world in which we can't find out at all easily what's going on now in Gaze, for example.

In reply to Babika:

Well clearly you have. She's an old left socialist human rights lawyer who enjoys living a life of wealth and privilege based on, amongst other things, a property empire and consulting fees from dodgy dictators and dodgy deals. And that's before we get on to opening doors for her kids that even I'd blanche at.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

.. bloody hell ... I write Gaza and the UKC software turns it to Gaze ...

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

As you say, it's hard now for anyone to know what was said exactly. Mitchell admits swearing but denies plebs. However, even if he did say it I can't honestly see it as being worth all the grief it's caused and cost. A cabinet ministerresigned and how many cops? two or three? fired over something they would all have all been wiser to shrug off. In any other circumstances it would have been dismissed as 'handbags' and quickly forgotten.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

It seems that you haven't quite grasped the seething bad relations underlying that whole episode. I.e There were suddenly people in No.10 who hadn't a clue how to 'manage people', in the best possible sense. Because of their very narrow, privileged experience of life, which has no bearing on the way 98-99% people live.

If you think I'm being paranoid, just consider the way this govt is continually backsliding over the CSA enquiry. It's really shocking, and spills right down into other cases that have now been going on for over 7 years and costing the taxpayer millions, when there are blatant cases to be answered. We even had someone bleating last week that we mustn't give Leon Brittan a hard time because he's very old and frail.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

What is your evidence for this.? Cameron and Gove, for example, are known for their good manners,whatever you think of their policies.In contrast to Brown who was infamous for bullying his juniors.
Do you really think that Rugby gives much more narrow and privileged experience than Tonbridge or that three years in the army is a narrow existence?

In reply to Wiley Coyote:


I forgot to answer this very point. He, and their like, actually think it's ok to be swearing at people (it's well testified that he said the f-word several times) and yet they can see there's something a bit offensive about 'pleb'. I found that topsy-turvy assessment amusing at the time and still do. They honestly think it's OK to swear at people they regard as their inferiors, just as David Mellor did last night.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

It's not the swearing that's the (main) problem. It's the attitudes dispalyed towards others by e.g. Mellor and Thornberry.

In reply to Postmanpat:


Millions of people would have seen Gove's bad manners in Parliament last year, that finally led the Speaker to give him '500 lines'. It was funny, but also deeply embarrassing, and also a bit shocking just how out of touch he was with real life. Braying like an immature schoolboy.

How Brown treated his minions in private is a completely different subject.


Not at all. But, I'll tell you, Tonbridge under McCrum did not tolerate the kind of arrogance you are now condoning.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

That you are even mentioning the child sex abuse allegations and plebgate in the same breath shows how daft things have got. And I'm a
sure you are not equating them in any way. The CSA and the fiasco over the inquiry is a scandal of the very highest order and a source of shame. Plebgate to me is still a lot of fuss about vey little, a few angry words from a pompous self-important jerk. i suspect all invovled wish it had been brushed off. Mitchell forced out of the cabinet, met officers losing thleir jobs for falsifying statements, one who was not there making false allegations that he was and i believe it's three officers out of their jobs, the fedeation discredited, the met itself under a cloud, senior officers tied up and nowa small fortune being spent on a libel case. What a pantomime!

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


That was just the usual parliamentary tw*tishness most of them indulge in. Shouting at opponents is not at all the same as bullying your "juniors" and a much lesser sin.

There's good and bad and both sides and from all backgrounds but as a generalisation the real toffs' sense of entitlement means they don't feel they need bully their "minions"(your word!)-patronise them, maybe. It's the Insecure little twits like Mellor (and Bercow) who take it out on them.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Cameron known for his good manners, are you on crack?

In reply to The New NickB:

No, that's his reputation. I've no doubt, like all good toffs (think Tony Benn) he can turn it on and off as required.
But then again, we see all these things through a media prism.

In reply to Postmanpat:


I've only just seen this piece of nonsense of yours, Nick. I have always heard, even from his opponents (inc. my cousin, a Conservative MP, now in the cabinet) that TB had impeccable manners. I think almost all his obituaries agree on that. Your previous comments suggest that you've never quite grasped the notion of manners, i.e. that it's all about behaviour in public (no trivial matter) and nothing to do with how difficult or otherwise someone may be to live with in private, e.g. as a spouse or offspring. But typically there's no contradiction there either.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Calm down dear!

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
As on of his ex labour colleagues told me of Benn " the most charming in man in the world until you got in his way, when he became a complete shit", confirmed by a relative of mine. Obviously your relative didnt get the in his way.

I don't know what you are referring to about wives etc. You seem to have misunderstood what i was saying. I was refering to their behaviour with people in general.

In reply to The New NickB:


Nice put downn

In reply to Postmanpat:


Not mine as you know. Terrible manners.

In reply to The New NickB:


A gentleman is never rude.......unintentionally.

Anyway, H of C rules apply

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


The interesting thing is that he was judged as a Conservative MP rather than as a cyclist!

In reply to Postmanpat:


What? Sending your kids to what is, for Islington residents rich and poor, a local school.

In reply to Mike Highbury:


Well, except that it's in Chelsea and selective. Never mind, a little bit of private tuition at Cleggie's alma mater got young Euan on him on his way.

I know they pay well at Morgan Stanley where his dad's mate Jonathan Powell works, but possibly not enough to pay for Euan's 3.6mn quid house. Maybe that was helped by the earnings from his internship at daddy's old mucker, Bernard Arnault's radio station, or maybe from his political internship in the US. Who can tell?

In reply to Postmanpat:

Do you spend a lot of time researching the value of the properties in which the children of ex-politicians live?

In reply to Postmanpat:


Yes, my apologies. I thought that it was Thornberry who was getting it in the neck but is was Blair.

In reply to Dave Garnett:


No, just read the papers

In reply to Postmanpat:

No scope to acknowledge sensible tax planning by his parents, at least?

In reply to Mike Highbury:


Like the Benns you mean? Gotta luv these lefties.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Well, we're all hypocrites to some degree but I'd suggest that Tony Benn would be a long way down the list if you're lining up unprincipled self-serving champagne socialists to take a pop at.

In reply to Dave Garnett:
Well, he liked to toast "the working class"
with his champagne apparently (or was it claret?) in his Holland Park mansion so he must be OK

Glad to see he redistributed his wealth.......



to his children.

In reply to Postmanpat:
Ah Yes the 'Socialist Toff' Benn, left his millions to the proles, in the party, right?

In reply to Postmanpat:

Actually, Tony Benn was teetotal and vegetarian and famous for producing a pot of tea at every opportunity.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Don't let facts get in the way of a good slandering of the dead.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Vegetarian since 1970. Don't know on the booze. Maybe he toasted in tea and his socialist chum Lord Young quaffed all the champers?
So that'll be alright

In reply to The New NickB:


Sorry , didnt realise the period of mourninh hadnt finished. Do we have to wait until he's sanctified?
Story actually came from a witness. Lord Young then drive home in his Bentley!
Couldnt make this stuff up

In reply to Postmanpat:

Who said anything about mourning? The two salient facts here are that he was tea total and he is dead.

In reply to The New NickB:

tea total


That was accident, wasn't it?

In reply to MG:



It was, but he did love his tea by all accounts.

In reply to The New NickB:


What's being dead got to do with anything? Since when can we not criticise the dead? That's the end of history then.

I'd actually agree that hypocrisy was not his major failing, although of course hypocrisy should be judged by the size of the gap between the pretension and the reality. Blair never pretended to have any objection to the stinking rich so his relationships with the stinking rich and attempts to be stinking rich, whilst they may be distasteful, are not particularly hypocritical. Similarly, Roy Jenkins never pretended to be a hard left egalitarian so his penchant for claret and the high life is faintly ridiculous rather than outright hypocrisy.

Benn may not have had much of a taste for claret and the highlife if you spend your life preaching against inherited privilege and then not only enjoy that privilege but ensure your children inherit it you've created quite a big gap between pretension and reality.

In reply to The New NickB:

Looks like another high profile litigant has learned the wisdom of 'Don't sue' the expensive way. Mitchell loses Plebgate case

In reply to The New NickB:
But I wonder how the copper feels about the clinching factor. Judge says he's too 'unimaginative' to have made it up. Reminds me of a court case years ago when a copper said he'd been saved from injury by his 'thick policeman's trousers'. The proverbial muffled titter ran round the court.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Criticism is fine, but then I didn't use the term criticism, I used the word slander, although I suppose technically it is libel, but this is such a chatty, or should that be chattery medium of communication.

In reply to The New NickB:

Slander, in the legal sense, can only be applied to the living (except in China, to protect Mao)

In reply to The New NickB:

Lol,so it's not that he's dead it's the gross slander? If he wasn't quaffing champagne whilst toasting the workers in his mansion in Holland Park it may not be such a good story but it hardly changes the point of it. Mind you, if you lefties have your way it'll not be a slander, it'll be a hate crime soon

In reply to MG:


I know. I'm not suggesting prosecution. I'm sure my meaning was clear, although Pat seems keen to suggest otherwise.

In reply to Postmanpat:


Has Stroppygob hacked your profile?