There is universal condemnation of the Tory vote to find MP Owen Paterson not guilty of offences he very clearly committed yesterday. When the Mail says this the government clearly has something very wrong:
Sleaze killed John Major's government. It could kill this one too.
There's a particular reason for that. No one in Tory ranks really gave a damn about the fate of Owen Paterson. But this vote was never about him, excepting one thing, which was that he faced the threat of recall and a by-election as a result of this sanction. As the Guardian notes:
Johnson whipped his MPs to halt Paterson's parliamentary suspension and demand a review of the entire standards process to allow for appeals. Johnson is himself facing what would be a fourth inquiry by Kathryn Stone – the parliamentary standards commissioner – this time over refurbishments to Johnson's Downing Street flat that were initially paid for by a Tory donor.
This vote was all about saving Johnson, who clearly knew how likely it is that he too would be sanctioned by proper due process and wanteded to stop it in its tracks as a result.
As Robert Shrimsley in the FT puts it, as a result:
The British system relies on the readiness of all sides to accept the rules even when doing so is uncomfortable.
By his actions Johnson has shown contempt for the system and swept away another check on the power of the government and its friends. It is a shameful and damaging day for British politics.
A blatantly corrupt Prime Minister wanted to save his own skin - and thought this the way to do it.
Now we need to bring that blatantly corrupt Prime Minister to account for his blatant corruption.
A great many Tories might be thinking that the right thing to do this morning. As is well known, a Tory Prime Minister commands the absolute support of his party until the moment that they do not. A great many Tory MPs will be feeling profoundly uncomfortable today. Johnson is pushing his luck very hard. Sometime he will go too far. At this rate that may be soon. He can only humiliate his own party so often before they will have had enough of him. Let us hope that is soon.
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And all this was done in full view of dozens of world leaders, gathered in Glasgow (where they were treated to a full-blown series of Johnson prat-falls). It can’t have done global Britain’s image much good.
Ah – yes – the PM’s flat refurbishment – of course!
What was it that Milan Kundera said:
‘Mans struggle with power is that of memory against forgetting’. How apt.
And we remembered this time! There’s hope.
This should be Labour’s policy right there.
But I was watching Andrea Leadsom last night. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman I assure you but
I ask myself what is a person like that doing in Parliament? Isn’t she a tool? She gives Jacob Rees Mogg a good run for his money that’s for sure when it comes to being out of touch and delighting in being in power and seemingly able and willing to offend people’s sensibilities at will.
Agreed – but if he goes the are not the alternatives just as bad – Truss, Sunak, Gove, Patel ?
Just when you think they cannot get any lower, they prove us wrong and sink to even greater depths. The actions of this depraved, corrupt, evil, incompetent government are affecting people’s lives (and have caused many to lose their life) and they don’t care. They just don’t care.
All we get are people in smart clothes sprouting words that mean diddly-squat. Here’s a 3-word slogan for them – ‘Do one, scumbags’.
Craig
“All we get are people in smart clothes [and Boris Johnson !] sprouting words that mean diddly-squat.”
After the sham of Glasgow, where not a single move towards reducing our actual carbon usage has been undertaken by the West,
It seems to me that it is game set and match to these who wanted to remove all the benefits of the postwar welfare state and regain all the inequalities in merry old theocratic monarchy England.
What Winnie and the Tories objected 21 times to stop and 30 years later the Callaghan era gave Thatcher the chink in the armour and what Joseph, Letwin etc mapped out for the Brittannia Unhinged loons in the whole Cabinet now to deliver the coup de gras.
Johnson has done his bit and will go just as Major did after his delivery of the WTO and Maastricht. The Back to Basics was a exploding cigar that would be the excuse to usher in the Blair and Brown era – they who made not a single reversal of the deadly changes to the NHS since Thatcher. In actual fact they tied chains and balls too it with pfi and further ‘enhancements’ and threw it in the canals of Britain to drown in all its localities.
When the Opposition failed to stand up and depart from Parliament yesterday, when not enough Tories thought it necessary to support the sanction against Patterson – that truly was the Reichstag moment for the British People.
Parliament does not matter anymore. Elections don’t matter anymore. Taxes don’t matter. Interest rates can go up and the populace can be scalped once again for the benefit of globe straddling hedge funds and financiers. Sham democracy doesn’t need bothering with.
I am not sorry that I despair. I believe the next inevitable step is some concocted conflict to send our young to be sacrificed in to keep us in our place.
Our only Hope than must reside in the emerging non-western controlled people’s success in standing up against ‘us’ and winning.
This is beyond scandalous. As you note, even the Daily Mail thinks so.
Only a handful of Tory MPs voted against and THAT is the real measure of the matter, a tiny minority of the governing party against corruption in public office!
Everything you need to know about the ethics of the current Tory paty :
“Owen Paterson has said he “wouldn’t hesitate” to act in the same manner “tomorrow” after he was heavily criticised by a standards body for breaching lobbying rules.
Speaking to Sky News, the former minister said he would “absolutely” do the same thing again after he was reprimanded by the Committee on Standards.
He also admitted that he continues to work with the two firms he was found to have lobbied on behalf of.”
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/owen-paterson-says-he-wouldnt-hesitate-to-act-in-the-same-manner-tomorrow-299801/
The Mail seems to have mistakenly omitted “Tory” between “shameless” and “MP’s”. Funny, that.
That thought occurred to me Jeff. I never find the Mail’s criticism of anything or anyone very convincing, given it’s groteque right wing partisanship and hysterical moralising.
If this was a Labour (or any non right wing) government you can bet the rotten neo fascist rag would have said ‘shameless Labour MP’s……’
Still, its good to see the arrogant oaf Patterson resigning; although of course, his resignation statement is full of self pity, accepts no responsibility for wrongdoing, and blames others for pushing his children to ask him to leave politics.
“Worst of all was seeing people, including MPs, publicly mock and deride Rose’s death and belittle our pain. My children have therefore asked me to leave politics altogether, for my sake as well as theirs.”
But according to John Crace of The Guardian:
“Oppositon MPs may be surprised by the claim in Owen Paterson’s statement that some of them mocked his wife’s death by suicide last year. (See 2.45pm.) He may have been referring to a moment during PMQs yesterday. In his sketch (paywall) for The Times (paywall), Quentin Letts said: “At PMQs earlier, Boris Johnson had mentioned Rose Paterson’s suicide. Up went several aw-diddums “ahhs” from the Labour side.” My colleague John Crace, the Guardian’s sketchwriter, was also in the gallery and he tells me he did not see anything that could be described as MPs mocking Rose’s death.”
Well, well. So Patterson’s claim that MP’s mocked his wifes suicide is a lie, produced by the ex DM right wing ‘journalist’ Quentin Letts.
I never ever thought I’d live to see the day when I praised the Daily Mail for calling out Conservative corruption. Well done Rothermere – keep up the good work!
One suspects the Daily Mail’s outrage was fuelled as much by its rivalry with the Telegraph. Andrew Pierce, of the Mail, confirmed as much today without actually saying so, with his account of the Garrick Club dinner attended by former Telegraph leader writers on Tuesday night where Boris Johnson was supposedly egged on to do what he did by Charles Moore, who is a long-standing friend of Owen Paterson.
You may well be right….