#Akshata Murty

[eaglesnick]

“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”— Spencer Johnson

Unprecedented for a Conservative Prime Minister, it was Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty , who introduced him to the Party faithful at this years Conservative Party Conference.  But this stunt, an attempt to portray Sunak as more than just a cold-hearted technocrat accountant with no human emotions, has backfired big time.

She told us that

“Rishi is working hard to do the right thing for the country, not just for now but for the long-term, with honesty and with integrity"

Dear oh dear! Either she does not know her husband very well, or she was knowingly and deliberately misleading us.

This theatrical attempt to reveal the real Mr Sunak has worked only too well. Following his wife’s saccharine introduction, Mr Sunak came onto the Conference stage and announced his “long-term" policies for the future, scrapping HS2 and replacing it with a scheme he calls  "Network North".

Yet just 24 hours after being described as a man of “integrity" and “honesty", and having set out his plans for Network North we have this headline:

“Government U-turn on HS2 alternatives less than 24 hours after announcement” (Independent:05/10/23)

Far from being honest or acting with integrity Mr Sunak was knowingly lying to his party and lying to us the British electorate. Individual transport schemes he cited in his conference speech as going ahead have been removed from the Network North website. Just a day after Mr Sunak committed to the Gateshead to Tursdale line, for example, a project described as "the most important piece of infrastructure for the economic future of the North East", officials are now sayingMr Sunak  had committed only to “look into” the scheme.

In addition, Sunak’s conference promise that the existing HS2 line will end at Euston after - “We will complete the line from Birmingham to Euston.”  - is now  being  qualified by his admission that  this will only happen if private funding is forthcoming.

So much for honesty and integrity!

[channeledhistory]

[chadara]

the tory conference this year was so insane, labour doesn't even have to be remarkable at their one, they just have to not invite nigel farage

[charlotte-of-wales]

Roles to be performed at the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace is pleased to announce further details on the Ceremonial roles to be performed by individuals in the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey.

The Ceremonial roles include bearing the Regalia in the Procession and presenting the items to Their Majesties. Those undertaking these historic roles in the Service have been chosen to recognise, thank and represent the Nation due to their significant service, and include representatives from Orders of Chivalry, the military and wider public life.

The first processions into Westminster Abbey will be made up of Faith Leaders and Faith Representatives followed shortly afterwards by representatives from His Majesty’s Realms. Flags of each Realm will be carried by national representatives accompanied by the Governors General and Prime Ministers. Bearing the Flag of the United Kingdom ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mrs Akshata Murty will be Cadet Warrant Officer Elliott Tyson-Lee, who said: “It is a great and incredible honour to be a part of Their Majesties’ Coronation Service as a representative of the Royal Air Force Air Cadets."

This will be followed by The Procession of The King and The Queen which will be led by the Marquess of Anglesey, the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Caledon and the Earl of Dundee who will carry the Standards of the Quarterings of the Royal Arms and Standard of the Principality of Wales. Francis Dymoke will carry The Royal Standard.

Mr Dymoke’s claim to undertake a historic role in the Coronation was upheld by the Coronation Claims Office. The title of King or Queen’s Champion has been held by the Dymoke family since the Middle Ages. The King’s Champion would previously ride on horseback into the Coronation Banquet and challenge any who doubted the right of The King or Queen to the throne. There has not been a Coronation Banquet since that held by King George IV in 1821 so the Champion has instead undertaken a different role since, usually bearing a flag or Standard.

Also taking part in the procession will be Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Chief of the Defence Staff, acting as Lord High Constable of England, an office held for the day only. Traditionally the Lord High Constable is a Great Officer of State and has historically been connected to the military. He will take part alongside the Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk.

The Earl of Erroll will act as Lord High Constable of Scotland. Similar to that of Lord High Constable of England, this role has historically been connected to the military and the Earldom of Erroll through a Coronation claim. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres will act as Deputy to the Great Steward of Scotland, HRH The Prince of Wales.

The following will then process to the altar carrying Her Majesty’s Regalia:

Baroness (Helena) Kennedy of The Shaws – Carrying The Queen Consort's Rod

General Sir Patrick Sanders – Carrying The Queen Consort's Sceptre

The Duke of Wellington – Carrying Queen Mary’s Crown

The Rt. Reverend and Rt. Hon the Lord Chartres– Carrying The Queen Consort's Ring

Lord Chartres said: “The ceremonies of the Coronation are ancient but they have been freshly interpreted for our contemporary world.”

The following will then process to the altar carrying His Majesty’s Regalia:

General Sir Gordon Messenger, the Governor of HM Tower of London – Carrying St Edward’s Crown as Lord High Steward of England

Baroness (Elizabeth) Manningham-Buller LG – Carrying St Edward's Staff

The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry KT – Carrying the Sceptre with Cross

Baroness (Floella) Benjamin OM – Carrying the Sceptre with the Dove

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu OM – Carrying the Orb

The Keeper of the Jewel House, Brigadier Andrew Jackson – Carrying The Sovereign’s Ring

Petty Officer Amy Taylor – Carrying the Sword of Offering

Lord Hastings and The Earl of Loudoun – Carrying the Spurs

Lord President of the Council, Penny Mordaunt – Carrying the Sword of State in The King’s Procession

Air Chief Marshal the Lord Peach – Carrying the Sword of Mercy (The Curtana)

General the Lord Richards of Herstmonceux – Carrying the Sword of Spiritual Justice

General the Lord Houghton of Richmond – Carrying the Sword of Temporal Justice

General Sir Gordon Messenger, the Lord High Steward of England, (also an office held for the day only) is the most senior Great Officer of State for the Coronation, in order to bear the St Edward’s Crown into the Abbey, the most significant item of Regalia. On carrying St Edward’s Crown, General Sir Gordon Messenger said: “It is a huge and unique honour to be appointed Lord High Steward for His Majesty’s Coronation. To be playing a key role on such an important and historic occasion is a source of great pride to me, my family, the Royal Marines, and the Tower of London community.”

Petty Officer Amy Taylor will be the first woman to bear the Jewelled Sword of Offering into the Abbey. She has been selected to represent Service men and women, as a Royal Navy Petty Officer, a tribute to His Majesty’s military career. She said: "Having served most of my senior career as an Aircraft Engineer on 845 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton where His Majesty originally trained and served as a pilot, I am deeply honoured and humbled to play my part in this historic event. Coming from a farming family His Majesty has always been such a great advocate for our community and someone I have admired growing up."

Baroness Benjamin and Dame Elizabeth Anionwu are amongst recent appointees to the Order of Merit, the final members to be chosen for the Order by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Baroness Benjamin said: “I feel honoured and privileged to be part of the historic Coronation ceremony. To be selected to carry the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Dove, which represents spirituality, equity and mercy, is for me very symbolic as it’s everything I stand for and sends out a clear message that diversity and inclusion is being embraced."

Participating in the act of Recognition of His Majesty whereby His Majesty will be presented to the Congregation at the start of the Service will be:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Baroness (Valerie) Amos LG, Lady Elish Angiolini LT, and Christopher Finney GC, Chair of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association.

During the Coronation Service the Regalia will be presented to Their Majesties. Those presenting have been chosen on the advice of Government. Those presenting Regalia to His Majesty will be:

The Lord Carrington, Lord Great Chamberlain – Presenting the Spurs

The Lord (Syed) Kamall – Presenting the Armills

Baroness (Gillian) Merron – Presenting the Robe Royal

The Most Reverend John McDowell, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh – Presenting the Orb

Lord (Narendra) Patel KT – Presenting the Ring

Lord (Indarjit) Singh of Wimbledon – Presenting the Coronation Glove

The Most Reverend Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness, and Episcopal Primus of Scotland – Presenting the Sceptre with Cross

The Most Reverend Andrew John, the Archbishop of Wales – Presenting the Sceptre with Dove

The Archbishop of Canterbury – Performing the crowning with St Edward’s Crown

Those presenting Regalia to Her Majesty will be:

The Rt. Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin CD, The Bishop of Dover – Presenting The Queen Consort's Rod

The Rt. Reverend and Rt Hon. Lord Chartres – Presenting The Queen Consort's Sceptre with Cross

Brigadier Andrew Jackson, The Keeper of the Jewel House at HM Tower of London – Presenting The Queen Consort's Ring

The Archbishop of Canterbury – Performing the crowning with Queen Mary’s Crown

On presenting Regalia to Her Majesty, The Bishop of Dover said: “I am surprised, excited and honoured to have been asked to play a part in this historic once in a lifetime occasion. As I make my presentation, both Their Majesties will remain in my prayers as they seek to serve the nation and the Commonwealth.”

[mysteriouslytransparentwitch]

The glamorous Mrs Sunak: Rishi's wife dons £1,295 Claire Mischevani green trench coat at Balmoral church service with King Charles on eve of first anniversary of late Queen's death | Daily Mail Online

[eaglesnick]

101 Things You Should Know About the UK Tory Government

Thing 22  

It is well known that multi-millionaire Sunak’s wife was registered as a non-dom and therefore did not have to pay tax on her considerable over-seas income. When it became clear this was politically damaging to Mr Sunak career she agreed to pay tax in Britain 

“It has become clear that many do not feel it is compatible with my husband’s role as Chancellor. I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family.” (Akshata Murty)

So, she is now paying tax in this country not because it is the RIGHT thing to do but because she was found out and didn’t want to damage her husband’s political career.

What is less transparent is why money was given to Rishi Sunak by wealthy businessmen connected to offshore tax havens.

“Donors with links to offshore tax havens helped Rishi Sunak’s Tory leadership campaign. He accepted at least £60,000 from seven companies and individuals with links to the Cayman Islands, Luxemburg, Jersey, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.” (Mirror. 05/11/22)

[laura-elizabeth91]

Akshata Murty, wife of Prime minister @RishiSunak leads the spouses of former Prime ministers onto a balcony in Whitehall to watch today's Remembrance Service at The Cenotaph. By Stefan Rousseau/PA

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

INTERVIEW - The Times

Olena Zelenska: War fatigue? That’s just what Russia wants

Ukraine’s first lady tells Alice Thomson about the atrocities of the Russian invasion and why the West must not give up on her country

Olena Zelenska is the human face of the conflict, and says she feels “the burden of responsibility”

Olena Zelenska is the human face of the conflict, and says she feels “the burden of responsibility”

As the lights went out across Ukraine, Olena Zelenska arrived in London this week. It’s been hard to adjust, she says, the festive decorations feel jarring, the traffic raucous, loud noises make her nervous. The first lady of Ukraine appeared jumpy while she was hanging baubles on the Downing Street Christmas tree with a beaming Akshata Murty, Rishi Sunak’s wife, and distracted as she lined up to have her photograph taken with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Addressing both Houses of Parliament, she looked elegant in her grey jacket with velvet collar and spoke eloquently as she evoked the sirens of the London Blitz and talked about the diabolical destruction of her homeland, but she appeared haunted. “Do not forget my country’s tragedy and get used to our suffering,” she implored MPs.

Surrounded by Pugin wallpaper, peers wrapped in cashmere and radiators belting out warmth, she described freezing maternity hospitals destroyed by bombs, desecrated churches, deserted schools, the Russians booby-trapping a ten-year-old child’s piano, the rape of girls as young as four and elderly women of 85 and the mutilation of teenagers in the trenches. She doesn’t just want victory, she wants justice.

The juxtaposition between London and Kyiv must be discombobulating. When she receives an alert to say that air raids have restarted near her home, she worries whether her nine-year-old son Kyrylo has returned from school and if her older daughter Oleksandra is safe, that her neighbours have no bread and her country is yet again under attack. She seems torn between needing to come to Britain to ask for assistance and feeling drawn back to protect her people.

It’s like talking to a friend in shock. I want to give her a hug, make her a cake and have the kids to stay. This 44-year-old mother personifies the consequences of a war that has been dragging on for nine months. That, she says, is the point, she knows she is the human face of the conflict, and feels “the burden of responsibility”. Her Instagram account, with a following of three million, is filled with photos of her comforting war orphans, the disabled, distressed and bereaved.

Zelenska arrives at the News UK offices in a simple brown suit, she is slight but strong and beautiful, and is surrounded by a squad of female assistants. She talks in Ukrainian, never Russian. Her English is flawless, but she prefers to communicate through her translator.

Her husband, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been compared to Winston Churchill.

Do the Ukrainians feel a particular affinity with Britain? “I don’t think the closeness comes from being compared to Churchill,” she says, smiling for the first time at the idea of her husband with a cigar clenched in his teeth.

“But we definitely have a closeness. We are much closer to other countries geographically but in Britain there is such empathy and that impresses us.”

Her husband, whom she met at university, is a celebrated actor and comedian accustomed to being centre stage. She trained as an architect and preferred to stay behind the scenes, writing his comedy scripts. But she is visiting Britain because she is anxious the world is beginning to weary of the war. “It is quite understandable that the West is tired. However, this phrase, I hear it quite a lot — war fatigue — is quite a dangerous phrase for us because that is exactly what our adversary wants. They expect people to forget and the world to get tired of the sad news and for Ukraine to disappear from the front pages. They would then feel they had the permission to do what they want.” I realise she dislikes even using the word Russian.

She must be dreading the long winter, with plummeting temperatures, 48-hour blackouts, the struggle for heating, and cut off from the internet. Does she worry that the frail, young and those in hospital may die from hypothermia?

“No,” she says briskly, flipping to English, “we die because of Russian missiles.” The Ukrainians, she explains, are extremely tough and won’t capitulate even if they are starving. “Ukrainians, despite everything, have quite an optimistic outlook. It’s hard to imagine if it happened to London and the whole city was suddenly deprived of light, water, heat and communication, but Ukrainians are becoming quite resilient even though it’s getting difficult.” She is grateful if she can occasionally snatch a shower between blackouts or wash some clothes when the water is running. “These attacks on our energy sector are systematic now but the political leadership of the country is following the will of the people and they want to stand and continue to fight.”

The occupiers, as she prefers to call them, try to terrorise her people into believing they cannot survive the cold and darkness. “It would be wrong to say these things don’t scare us, they do, but we know we must endure this. The winter is treacherous and that is what they [the Russians] are counting on, it’s not the first time they are using the force of nature against the civilian population.”

Having seen the devastation wrought, she has launched a foundation to help those already reeling from losing their homes and livelihoods to stay alive this winter. “We are trying to do this in the territories of the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, we are buying technical support, generators and heaters, to help people survive. We are also supporting schools and the rebuilding of the hospital in Izium. Hundreds of thousands in the former occupied territories don’t have access to medical aid.”

Zelenska, right, at a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday to raise awareness of violence against women and girls

Zelenska, right, at a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday to raise awareness of violence against women and girls

Earlier in the week Zelenska joined a reception at Buckingham Palace as part of the conference on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict to warn about the atrocities being perpetrated on women in Ukraine. The 100 documented rape cases are the tip of the iceberg, she explained. “Rape is as serious a war crime as chemical weapons. The occupiers are using all the spectrum available to them for intimidating and murdering the Ukrainians.”

She wants the UK to lead the way in creating an international tribunal to seek justice for victims. “Domestic violence was a topic for me even before the invasion. But the war opens angles of violence we could never have envisaged before. Our life changed completely after February 24 and if you ask me what is shocking, every day is shocking. You can’t compare the rape of a little girl, or an old lady, they are all horrifying but what is truly appalling is the volume of girls being abused and how systematic this kind of violence is. The word systematic is important, these are not just occasional random rapes, what is so horrendous is that it is planned and occurring with the blessing of someone at the top.”

When I ask her whether she has witnessed any astonishing acts of bravery, her green-brown eyes well up and she chokes on her words.

Eventually she picks one story. “There is a professor of philosophy, Fedir Shandor, and his last lecture to students before the invasion was on the importance of behaviour of social groups. He has continued to lecture from the trenches, still delivering talks to students between fighting and bringing up the new generation to have the same high moral values they espoused before the war.”

Many Ukrainian women have also taken up arms, would she have gone to the front line if she wasn’t the president’s wife? “I have never carried weapons in my life so to be honest I think I would be more of a hindrance at the front line. But we have 40,000 brave women fighting and that is their choice. Many women come from different professions, for example a former history teacher I know is now a commander of the artillery unit.”

Like many Ukrainians, Zelenska had close Russian cousins and acquaintances but has cut off all contact with them. “Of course, Putin is to blame but without the support of the Russian people he couldn’t have done it on such a scale.” Does she have any Russian friends left? “No,” she says vehemently. “I have relatives there, but we don’t communicate. Those relationships have ended completely.”

When the war started, she explains, all her personal ties were cut off by security and she had to switch off all gadgets as her family became target number one. But even now none of her Russian friends have reached out to her. “There will be no point in returning to those dialogues, when your own life and children’s and your family’s is in great danger and people don’t even ask if you are still alive, I think such relationships are over.”

She sees her husband a couple of times a week in his presidential compound where they both work. But the children, she says, see him “very rarely”.

She thinks the young have adapted faster in some ways and believes in what psychologists call post-traumatic growth, that they will come out of these trials stronger. It’s hard not to feel paranoid, she says, “my job is to keep them safe”. Her husband says that 11,000 Ukrainian children have now been taken by the Russians. “It’s pure kidnapping, our state doesn’t know anything about their plight or about their destiny.”

Does she ever think back to her life before the war or is it too painful? “We think a lot about the present, a little bit about the future but we don’t think about the past.” She’s learnt to live, she says, without postponing anything for later.

When her husband first announced he was running for president long before the war, she tried to stop him, convinced it would ruin their lives. Now, the family live in danger of assassination. “As a wife I sometimes think about that but as a citizen of Ukraine I am 100 per cent sure he is the right president for our country now.”

There is a magazine picture on the table in front of us of President Zelensky before he became a war leader, his face clean-shaven, without the trademark olive green T-shirt, looking like the smooth, successful actor and TV producer he was, and the Ukrainian voice of Paddington Bear. Does she prefer him now he has a beard and appears more haggard? “I do,” she says, and smiles for the second time.

She must feel proud of him. “I sometimes feel this is not the role I would wish for myself. But we are doing something that works, we’ve had successes so we have to keep going and carry on and to even think that we could turn away from that path now is incomprehensible.”

Is she optimistic that one day they will rebuild Ukraine? “We haven’t got much choice, for us it’s a survival instinct, we are fighting for our lives. I often think of Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister, when she said during the war in Israel, “our enemies want us to die but we want to live so that doesn’t leave us much choice but to do everything to survive”. The British public, she says, do have a choice. They can just put their heads down and focus on their own trials and tribulations, but remember, Zelenska says, quietly, “this is a war of opposing world views, a fight for the truth and human values, it’s important for us all that these are preserved.”

She won’t be doing any Christmas shopping. “It’s painful to be here driving round London seeing Christmas decorations and everything lit up. For many of us it’s going to be just a very small Christmas meal, there won’t be any lavish decorations on the tree or presents, we can’t use too much energy and electricity consumption.”

What would she like most from the British for Christmas: food, generators, warm coats, love and sympathy, a welcome for displaced Ukrainians? “Everything please,” she says, simply. “But weapons before anything.”

To donate to the Olena Zelenska Foundation visit: https://zelenskafoundation.org/en

[sageglobalresponse]

Who is Rishi Sunak, UK's new Prime Minister? 15 Quick facts

Rishi Sunak was named the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Monday afternoon after his challenger, Penny Mordaunt pulled out of the race.

He has been confirmed the new Conservative Leader. He will take over from Liz Truss who resigned from the position last Thursday in just 44 days in office after a disastrous performance impeding on UK’s economy.

Who is Rishi Sunak? Here are 15 quick facts about him.

1. He will become the UK’s first British-Asian PM and at 42, the youngest in more than a century. He was born on 12 May, 1980.

2. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022 and Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2020.

3. Sunak has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) since 2015.

4. He was born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.

5. Sunak was educated at Winchester College. He subsequently read philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Lincoln College, Oxford, and later gained an MBA from Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Scholar.

6. He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy, the Indian billionaire businessman who founded Infosys.

7. Sunak and Murty are the 222nd richest people in Britain, with a combined fortune of £730m as of 2022.

8. Sunak supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. He voted three times in favour of May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement.

9. He was appointed to Theresa May’s second government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government in the 2018 reshuffle.

10. After May resigned, Sunak supported Boris Johnson’s campaign to become Conservative leader.

11. After Johnson was elected and appointed Prime Minister, he appointed Sunak as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

12. Sunak replaced Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer after his resignation in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle.

13. He resigned as chancellor on 5 July, 2022, citing his economic policy differences with Johnson in his resignation letter.

14. In July 2022, he stood in the Conservative party leadership election to replace Johnson and lost the members’ vote to Liz Truss.

15. Following Truss’ resignation amid a government crisis, Sunak won the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Rishi Sunak

Akshata Murty Rishi Sunak’s wife and richer than the Queen. Just months after Akshata Murty was born in April 1980, she was sent to live with her paternal grandparents after her parents moved hundreds of miles away to Mumbai for work