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A senior civil servant tricked the Government into paying him for three full-time jobs as he used working from home to help him to go undetected for at least two years.

Cabinet Office documents reveal the man worked for both the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) between 2022 and 2024.

It added that the official held three jobs at the same time on two separate occasions and was only identified when a government fraud squad stepped in.

The case, first reported by the i newspaper, showed the senior civil servant, who held higher security clearances in two government departments, was able to avoid initial detection by lying about his employment history.

Disgraceful!
Only non-executive directors are allowed to have multiple jobs paying a fortune for sod all.

Weird how so many posters who don’t like/don’t miss Leon bother to take the time to post something about him.

For someone who is banned from the site he’s done well to be still spamming it.

That has been one of the benefits of his temporary absence- considerably less spamming of irrelevant shite.

I think I am the only poster who has made the comments you have suggested, so you can blame me, but no one else.

The problem with the absence of Sandpit and Leon etc is in a nation where 25% now back Reform and at least 45% the Tories or Reform this site is now dominated by left liberals and Remainers.

The number of Tory voters on here now is in single digits and I can't think of a Reform voter except maybe Lucky guy who would be Tory if Jenrick was their leader

We should run a poll. I think you’d be surprised on the Tory count.

When you’re at one end of the political spectrum it’s no surprise everyone else seems to be at the other. BJO would doubtless tell us the whole forum is full of Tories.

At a guess, I’d say Lib Dems and Tories are over represented here vs polls, Reform and Green are underrepresented, and Labour is in line.

Reform are vastly underrepresented on here, there are probably more Green than Reform voters on PB

You're implicitly assuming PB is a random sample of the UK voter. Which it certainly is not. Income, education, age, IT cluedupness, all score differently from the average voter. For all I know the proportion of RefUK on here is actually correct when those factors are considered, together with their interaction.

To be fair to HYUFD, I think that is his point - that this board isn't representative - implicitly (?) for the reasons you set out.

Not only is this site something of a middle class bubble (though I certainly wouldn't say a left-leaning middle class bubble - we have the full range of middle class opinions on here) - for many of us we all exist pretty much in middle class bubbles. So (and I think this was HYUFD's point) it is at the very least interesting when we get someone on here with views from outside that bubble.

And to Mexicanpete's point - I quite like the random shite that some people post. I mean, I like politics, or I wouldn't be here - but it's nice to broaden our range beyond politics.

We, inevitably, are overrepresented by people who are either (a) retired, or (b) work in jobs where we have our own computer and are trusted to manage our own time.

This rules out large segments of the population.

a

Off Topic
Anyone seen our resident narcissist recently? It's very quiet atm.

{Looks at long list}

Which one?

@Sandpit isn't a narcissist but he did flounce-ish. Has he come back?

Talking of PB events, somebody's mum died recently but my swiss cheese memory misfiled the name. Can somebody remind me plz?

I suspect events post 1/10/2025 have overtaken @Sandpit . I don't share his politics but he was interesting, holding the absurdly contradictory view of being both very much pro-Ukraine and pro-Trump. His post Trump inauguration analysis would be very welcome.

Yeah, I miss sandpit too. I disagreed with him about almost everything, but he was generally kind and gracious, and also interesting. I felt quite sorry for how conflicted he must be feeling re Ukraine.

The first poll in Runcorn and Helsby ahead of the upcoming by-election has Reform UK winning the constituency

https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1900457587335643348

Anyone surprised?

How can anyone look at what has happened to America and still want British Trump with more MPs?

What they want is stuff to happen and things to work. They want GP appointments and an NHS waiting list of less than 6 months. They want the criminals warehoused. Some improvements on the high street would be nice.

Round here, the council is "consulting" about moving bin collections from once every two weeks, to once a month. The well off make extra arrangements. The poor people on the estates have a pile of stinking garbage. But they are all Deplorables or something. So that's all good then.

Telling people that nothing can be done and no one can do it, is a simple recipe for "Well, we will try this lot, then"

This is why Starmer is trying to do stuff.

And when people do try the other lot, as they will with Reform they merely get abused for their choice. But why not when other parties have lied to them and let them down time and time again. Nothing to lose really and those abusing them for their choice were never really on the side of these communities anyway.

The really big issue where I am is a group of youths in the town centre on a Friday and Saturday evening causing problems and the police know about it, have ‘spoke to them’ but it never improves and people and businesses and the town suffers as a consequence. It’s not about ‘being back the birch’ it’s just about making a visit to town enjoyable. It’s been going on a few years. Little happens.

I’ve been impressed with Starmer this year. Not just on Ukraine but on growth and a few other things. There are signs he gets it and is growing into the role.

So many things in the UK are like that. Lots of things have been allowed to slip, lots of people in power just shrug and totality it gives the impression nothing works.

And of course on the flip side of the coin, highest tax for 50+ years.

Too many politicians have in recent past thought give a speech or two and that is that issue sorted.

The first poll in Runcorn and Helsby ahead of the upcoming by-election has Reform UK winning the constituency

https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1900457587335643348

Anyone surprised?

How can anyone look at what has happened to America and still want British Trump with more MPs?

What they want is stuff to happen and things to work. They want GP appointments and an NHS waiting list of less than 6 months. They want the criminals warehoused. Some improvements on the high street would be nice.

Round here, the council is "consulting" about moving bin collections from once every two weeks, to once a month. The well off make extra arrangements. The poor people on the estates have a pile of stinking garbage. But they are all Deplorables or something. So that's all good then.

Telling people that nothing can be done and no one can do it, is a simple recipe for "Well, we will try this lot, then"

This is why Starmer is trying to do stuff.

Russia is moving into Belarus and now pointing out the Finland used to be Russian. Not the comments of someone worried about Trump.

Morning.

Any further info or links, on this ?

Worthwhile site to get an idea of alternative information. They monitor specific Russian bloggers and Russian media to get an idea of what Russians are being told. Allows anyone (including Presidents) to understand the optics on the other side.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-13-2025

Thanks, will take a look there.

Some worrying comments from Musk this morning, considering that Thiel and Yarvin want to weaken the courts.

@elonmusk

Without judicial reform, which means at least the absolute worst judges get impeached, we don’t have real democracy in America

I am wondering what the new USA capitalist autocracy model will look like. I am assuming it will operate more on the Chinese model than the Russian one.

There is a lot of throwing around of the democracy word by the new administration. Expect more of this: without autocracy we’re not a true democracy.

It’s the tactic of populists the world over to conflate democracy with majoritarianism. Except in America they’re not even representing the majority.