Did EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan breach European Commission rules on document security

It doesn’t rain but it pours.

Further to Golfgate….

…William Campbell, host of podcast Here’s How writes (full article at link below):

‘Phil Hogan’s spokesperson, in their defence of his shifting story of how he drove laps around Ireland, in and out of Covid hot-spot Kildare, said that the reason for him visiting his apartment in the K Club was that:

“He stopped briefly at his apartment to collect personal belongings and essential documents relating to the EU-US trade negotiations, which continued while the Commissioner was in Galway.”

…A European Commission spokesperson confirmed they have a detailed policy, Security Notice C(2019) 1904, for dealing with confidential documents, and that the documents in question were in the category “sensitive non-classified”.

The problem for Hogan is how could documents so trivial as not to be covered by Commission document security rules, still meet the ‘essential work’ standard in the lockdown rules.

…The EC spokesperson also confirmed that the commissioner’s home in Brussels got a security audit, but not his other residences, and said that, as per their policy, these documents must only be distributed on a need-to-know basis, that all recipients should be aware of the handling instructions, and the documents must be shredded to a particular standard when no longer needed.

And where possible, documents should be stored in a locked office or a locked cupboard when not in use.

Phil Hogan drove to Covid-stricken Kildare and picked up these sensitive documents, perhaps from a locked office or a locking document cupboard in his apartment, that’s not clear.

He then drove with them to the golf dinner in Galway. Then what? Maybe he left them in his car, but that certainly doesn’t meet the handling requirements.

Maybe he had a hotel room and he left them there. Or maybe he just kept them in his jacket pocket, or under the table in his briefcase as he downed the gargle.

These requirements are not suggestions. The Commission has confirmed that the document handling rules are binding and apply to all staff and commissioners.’ (continued below)

Phil Hogan May have Broken EC Document Security Rules (William Campbell, here’s How)

Earlier: Too Phil To Fail

Rollingnews

Behold: the Baxley Moto – a conceptual electric bike by Hollywood movie artist and vehicle designer Shane Baxley.

A monocoque carbon-fibre body with low-mounted handlebars, hub-centre steering and hub-less wheels make for a fairly cinematic design, in fairness.

hiconsumption

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan

1pm UPDATE: EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan has provided around 20 pages of documents to the President of the European Commission in the ongoing controversy over his trip to Ireland and the Clifden golf dinner, according to an EU official.  The documents include guidelines from the Irish Hotels Federation and a map of Ireland showing individual counties.

Earlier…

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has given a deadline of 1pm Dublin time to Phil Hogan to submit a full account of his movements in Ireland.

Earlier…

It has emerged that following [EU Commission President] Urulsa von der Leyen’s request there were “further contacts” but an EU source last night sounded a pessimistic note saying they “could not say whether she received all clarifications or not”

There are growing doubts among senior Ministers that Mr Hogan can hold on to his role as EU trade commissioner.

Doubts grow in Dublin, Brussels over Phil Hogan’s future amid controversy over golf event travel (Irish Times)

Alternatively…

Hogan could, in theory, be dismissed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. But it is hard to see what advantage she could accrue from toppling her trade commissioner and destabilizing her administration for the sake of calming a political storm in a country that accounts for only 1.1 percent of the EU’s population.

Only once has a commissioner been obliged to resign — Malta’s John Dalli in 2012, amid allegations that the tobacco industry sought to bribe the then commissioner for health to alter proposed legislation.

No such corruption is involved in the case of the golf society dinner. The allegation is rather one of rank hypocrisy: that the politicians in attendance were ignoring the coronavirus measures they had imposed on others.

Why Phil Hogan will survive ‘golfgate’ (Politico)

Rollingnews

Padraig Jack – Minnie

He’s alright, Jack.

Bilingual Aran Islander Padraig Jack (top) shows his class as a songwriter on his new single, taken from his album Making Sand which is out next month.

The video is directed and produced by Aisling Ni Fhlaithearta and Martin Hartnett.

Padraig says:

“‘Minnie’ tells the story of a woman who has lost her way in life and is trapped in a loveless marriage. When she ends up in a whirlwind affair with a younger man he reminds her that there can be joy in life and that it’s not too late to ‘reignite her spark’.

“Eventually they part ways after a passionate evening under a Galway sunset, and Minnie seeks and eventually finds lasting love.”

Nick says: I’d rather Jack.

Padraig Jack

Gay men married to women in 21st century Ireland ‘exist more than we will ever know’, according to Fluffybiscuits.

Fluffybiscuits writes:

My phone rings at home on a Tuesday evening more miserable than the previous evening, surprising the weather given it is August. At the end of the line is a nervous voice that asks me “Say, ‘you are calling about the car'”.

Attempting to remember, I cop it, this is a a call on foot of a personal ad I posted looking to meet a lad for coffee and a chat and perhaps more than Friendship.

Hushing his voice down a notch, he quietly tells me “the wife is in the other room, would you be up for a bit of fun”. Straight away I have to play along as he follows up with “yeah so will I call over about the car” expecting me to go along with the ruse.

I hung up – cardinal rule, don’t mess around with other relationships, do not be a home wrecker. Lads like these are ten a penny, you couldn’t swing a large fat overweight cat for fear of striking one of these ubiquitous types.

The demographic tends to be men who are 40+ and just as being gay became acceptable/fashionable at the start of the century, there was still too much of an unwelcoming atmosphere for a lot of them.

Men at that time were feeling compelled to enter into a straight relationship with women, have children, dote on them, provide for said family. Weekends certainly came and go and these men would drop up to the park to satiate a lust for the same sex that straight marriage did not provide. These trysts 99% of the time never really became anything more than a casual hook up.

This post came about via a conversation with a man from a particular website and curiosity more than ever prompted me to ask him about his life and what his story was. Let’s call him D.

D got married at a young age going on to have three kids and said love making with his wife was extraordinary but he knew at the back of his mind that he was gay from a young age , engaging in trysts however the wife will never find out as he has too much to lose.

Growing up he suffered abuse at the hands of a family friend so love and sex perhaps became intertwined in ways that deviated from standard norms. Messages came from D either late at night well after midnight or very early in the morning, always a tell tale sign that they are trying to attempt to not let the wives find out their minor indiscretions.

TV presenter Philip Schofield came out at a time when it was reported that there was a potential kiss and tell story coming in that Sunday’s papers. The sympathy was certainly pouring out at how brave he was at coming out but there appeared to be little sympathy for his wife at the time.

I parked this article as I was writing it as I needed to run a few errands and popped back home last night to settle down with a bit of TV and a take away, standard midweek fare. Unsurprisingly my phone rang again and this time was a chap we will call B from down the country.

Married for 14 years and living in a small rural town it was fairly easy to read between the lines. B was engaged and was due to get married to the love of his life who he had been with for a few years.

Bluntly and directly I asked him was he gay, the poor lad stuttered: “No, I just like sex with men”

‘Sex with men’ was a term brought into common parlance for such men, something coined to avoid demeaning their masculinity if you were to ask me.

Every time a lad like this rings me he usually blocks his number. B then asked “you are not going to out me are you”…heavily I reassured him no as that was not what I was about but said firmly married men are not my cup of tea.

Unfortunately I have the bad habit of trying to be their friend when at the end of the day and attempting to urge them not to get married and giving numbers for helplines so they avoid future unhappiness.

Then there is the man who I met for a coffee after he insisting in calling into my place. We agreed to go to the Spar up the road from me and once we sat down he told me about his wife. He left her September last year for a man he met down the Phoenix Park, a young chap that made him realise he was truly batting for my side and took it upon himself to move into the chap’s bedsit.

Asking after the welfare of the wife and kids, he shuts me down (and perhaps rightly so, I’m nosey) he tells me that he no longer talks to them but that he is happy now, grabs his coffee gleefuly informing me of heading down the park that evening.

Ask any gay man who is out and on the prowl or on the pull and they will tell you that they have different and varying ideas on their approach to married men.

One friend of mine avoids them at all costs, scoldin’ them for their infidelity, pouring scorn on their cheating ways. Many though will accept that they are homme fatales, liaisons should go ahead because if it’s not them getting the married man then it’s going to be someone else thus they may as well enable the behaviour.

There is no right or wrong answer in any of this. Just men finding their feet among many different realities they cannot accept.’

Previously: Fluffybiscuits on Broadsheet

Pic; Allstock

Van Morrison will play three socially distanced concerts in England this Autumn but said he needs full capacity audiences “going forward”.

Van Morrison writes:

As you know, we are doing socially distanced gigs at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Gosforth Park, Electric Ballroom and The London Palladium.

This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs, this is to get my band up and running and out of the doldrums. This is also not the answer going forward. We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward.

I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this.

Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and myself appear to be the only people in the music business trying to get it back up and running again. Come forward.

It’s not economically viable to do socially distanced gigs. Come forward now, the future is now.

We would like to publish a list of names of all those who are supporting the industry. If you would like your name included contact us at webadmin@exileproductions.net

Who’s with Van?

Anyone?/FIGHT!

Save Live Music (Van Morrison)

Van Morrison divides fans with attack on coronavirus gig rules (Belfast Telegraph)

Van pic: BBC

A gritty BAFTA-winning short by UK-based animator John Hodgson based on his own experience of student life in 1980s England. To wit:

Three friends embark on a new adventure in a strange town, but when a manipulative new member joins their gang, their loyalty is torn apart with terrifying consequences.

shortoftheweek

Supreme Court Justice Séamus Woulfe and retired judge Gillian Hussey

This morning.

RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne.

“It beggars belief but it doesn’t surprise me. Nothing changes, this has been going on for years. We all bear responsibility for this, we vote these people in. These politicians were not voted into government.”

Ms Hussey acknowledged that her appointment as a judge had been a political one, but she said:

“The minute I was appointed I distanced myself from the political scene. Personally I don’t know any politicians. I’ve kept well away from them and from reporters.”

Ms Hussey said she would not have attended such a function.

Former judge says golfgate ‘beggars belief’ but ‘this has been going on for years (Irish Examiner)

Yesterday: And Justice For All

Meanwhile…

Broadsheet.ie