It is noteworthy that Kwarteng was one of the Tory MPs who managed not to vote on Leadsom's amendment... https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Co...24#notrecorded

Awful interview: he was allowed to spout all manner of unchallenged rubbish. This is becoming typical of PM, regardless of who is interviewing.

Good riddance to him. Nobody that I saw or read 'mocked' his wife's sad death, but expressed their contempt for him using it to try to get himself off scot free.

It's notable that she killed herself on his birthday!
He said at the inquest that he knew of no reason she would take her own life.
Last week he said it was because he was being investigated and might be ruined.
Which was the truth?

I've already made my views about Paterson using his wife in this quite expletively deletedly clear.

However, I shall use my background as one who did overdose assessment for a living for a few years (volunteering to work with folk who want to be dead as my team leader put it once) and say that family members are usually not very good sources of information about the thinking of the overdosee, other things about the OD-ees life maybe, but the final thought processes, no, not at all.

Could it be purely a coincidence that certain Tories have tried to use this whole farrago as a means of blackening Kathryn Stone and that Stone is still investigating a certain B Johnson, MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip?

Mjust be some class of coincidence, mustn't it?

Just to add: it was Paterson himself who introduced his wife's suicide and any potential reasons for that to the whole debate, no-one else, just him.

The man clearly has no shame, odds must be short on him being the next prime minister

Johnson was never out to save Paterson's skin but to attack the Standards Commissioner to protect his own.

His claims about the "cruel world of politics" look especially hollow when one recalls all those times he referred to folk with different ideas as "nazis", how he attended various pretty far right events (Heritage Foundation being one and another UK-ian one being in favour of the death penalty and opposing non-white immigration), cut funding for work on climate change adatations as he was a denier.

And that is before we get into all the financial dodginess, which goes back a long way.

Shame is passé in modern politics. Just scream about bias and fake news loud enough and you can ride anything out if your brazen enough.

Lucy Allan deleted this tweet

Telegraph Sport

Michael Vaughan: "I am named in the Azeem Rafiq report - but I totally deny any accusation of racism"

https://telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021...ny-accusation/





John Spiers
@squeezyjohn
I've seen Michael Vaughan absolutely pissed in a kebab shop on the Eccleshall Road in Sheffield and I can categorically say that he was totally capable of being racist then!

To go back to some things about the investigation into Paterson: Chris Bryant in an interview on R4 the other day did confirm that there are actually 3 stages of appeal in the process, making it, at best, disingenuous for Paterson and his colluders to claim he's had no right of appeal; Nadim Zahawi is definitely under the impression that the gubbmint explicitly linked the proposed changes to standards investigation with the whole Paterson thing (mentioned in the Guardian, but apparently was on interviews with Sky and the like) and who are we to doubt the word of a cabinet minister? This is also confirmed from several different sources within the Tory party in another piece on the Guardian.

Labour has ruled out standing aside in favour of a cross-party "anti-sleaze" candidate in the by-election to replace Tory MP Owen Paterson.

Mr Paterson announced his resignation after the government changed its mind over blocking his suspension from Parliament for breaking lobbying rules.

Labour held talks with the Lib Dems and Greens about whether to get behind an independent candidate in the by-election to replace him.

But the party says it will stand.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59167967

This one is calling out for a Martin Bell type candidate to stand.

Shouldn't all candidates be 'anti-sleaze' ?


Yeah, I know, I'm an idealist, but I'm surprised that any party wouldn't proclaim themselves as the anti-sleaze choice.

And how on earth could the Tories with any self respect and integrity claim that? ...... Ok, I think I have answered my own question.

The Tories can claim all they want, but, let's borrow an old phrase, we shall know them by their actions. And we already do.

Seriously, a Martin Bell type candidate, preferably local and of known probity, who can be backed by any and all opposition parties in as non-partisan a manner as possible, to keep the focus on dishonesty and corruption has to be considered.

When changing the rules
Makes you all look like fools
You're a Tory

No10 announce Boris Johnson will refuse to declare how much his freebie Spanish holiday at Zac Goldsmith's villa was worth.

It was never about Paterson, it's all about stopping investigations in to Johnson .

Paterson was a pawn to try and scrap the committee who start the Johnson investigations next week.

Senior Tory MP Peter Bottomley has stated we must ‘pay MPs more’ if we want to avoid another Owen Paterson scandal.

“That’s a lovely parliamentary democracy you’ve got there, it would be a shame if something bad happened to it"

You’ve got to hand it to Boris, the chaos caused defending Owen Paterson’s right to be corrup means that we’ve forgotten that just a week ago they voted to pump human **** in to the rivers.
That meant that we totally forgot about the shortages of fuel and basic items in the shops, and a panic about that in the run up to Christmas meant we completely forgot about his catastrophic handling of COVID-19.

Paterson has shot that idea down really, by very clearly demonstrating that an MP's job is so undemanding that it is possible to take on 2 (that we know of) extra jobs. That looks like an argument for either cutting their pay or upping their work hours...

Did your MP tell you it would cost too much to stop dumping sewage into rivers?

Here's the Sewage Taskfoce report where the £660bn figures came from.

Those numbers were made up, by the water industry.

https://assets.publishing.service.go...ce-project.pdf

John Major:

“There is a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about [the govt’s] behaviour. I think this is cutting through to the public. This has to stop and it has to stop now.”

“Whenever they run up against difficulties with somebody - the Supreme Court, the electoral commission, the BBC - they react not with an understanding, not trying to placate what has gone wrong but in a hostile fashion.
It’s profoundly unconservative and something I dislike intensely”

Boris Johnson's Week

Saturday Gladiator!
Sunday Save the planet!
Monday Fight the French!
Tuesday Dinner with chum!
Wednesday Friend in need!
Thursday Saved democracy!
Friday Need another free holiday!

The DAILY MAIL headlines, then and now.

The Tory press, finally, beginning to acknowledge that this Johnson government is useless and hideously corrupt because they were left with no choice.

BBC Radio 4 Today
@BBCr4today
"Shameful and wrong" & "trashing Parliament" - two of the accusations from former PM Sir John Major about the handling of the standards watchdog's findings on Owen Paterson.

Hear his full interview with @bbcnickrobinson
here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0b2mrh7

Wait! Are you telling me that a whole bunch of those incredibly hard-working, in need of a payrise as their job is so onerous, MPs swallowed a load of made up figures without checking their veracity?

That can't be true, as we are assured that they all work tirelessly for the interests of their constituents and the country.

That report does not mention £660 billion that I could see; £600 billion as the upper end of estimated costs for a total separation of waste and storm waters, with the lower estimate being £350 billion.

Which means someone then stuck another £60 billion on to that figure...

In the week when the Tories tried to destroy the standards committee so they could get away with bribery, corruption and whatever they want.

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 40% (+2)
LAB: 37% (-)
LDEM: 8% (-1)
GRN: 6% (-)

via @DeltapollUK, 03 - 05 Nov
Chgs. w/ 15 Oct

New Tory sleaze row as donors who pay £3m get seats in House of Lords
An Insight investigation has revealed that party treasurer is the most ennobled job

The Conservative Party has been accused of abusing the honours system by systematically offering seats in the House of Lords to a select group of multimillionaire donors who pay more than £3 million to the party.

An investigation by The Sunday Times and Open Democracy reveals that wealthy benefactors appear to be guaranteed a peerage if they take on the temporary role as the party treasurer and increase their own donations beyond £3 million. In the past two decades, all 16 of the party’s main treasurers — apart from the most recent, who stood down two months ago having donated £3.8 million — have been offered a seat in the Lords.

Among them was Peter Cruddas, the billionaire whose peerage was pushed through by Boris Johnson against the recommendation of the Lords appointments commission. One of the commission’s members has broken the panel’s silence over the process, saying the prime minister’s decision to “override what we did ... left a bad taste in my mouth”.

The role of Conservative treasurer has become the most ennobled job in Britain — ahead of holders of the great offices of state, leaders of the country’s institutions, charitable organisations and even former prime ministers.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5...59359e2ad91e44

Remember this?

"Sarkozy: Ex-French president gets jail sentence over campaign funding"

Maybe we should take a leaf out of their book.

Cases of scurvy – a widespread illness in Victorian times – have more than doubled in a decade.

NHS Digital statistics also reveal hospital admissions for malnutrition have tripled since the Conservatives came to power in the 2010 election.

The increases coincide with soaring numbers of people relying on food banks in the wake of austerity policies.

In 2010-11, 61,000 people needed food handouts but a decade on this figure now stands at 2.5 million.

Hospitals reported cases of scurvy – a vitamin C deficiency that can cause fatigue, bruised skin, swelling of the limbs and tooth loss – rising from 82 in 2010-11 to 171 in 2020-21.

NHS Digital also revealed 10,109 cases of malnutrition – which was widespread among the poor in the 19th century – in 2020-21, up from 4,657 in 2010-11.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...-rule-25396035

Anne-Marie Treveleyan (Minister for International Trade) says on radio 4 that it doesn’t matter if Boris Johnson doesn’t attend the debate on corruption in the Commons because he will probably “have parliament on the TV in the corner of whatever room he is in.”
She also wouldn't say whether she felt Boris and co were following the 7 Nolan Principles!

Apparently he probably won’t attend today’s debate because "he has a very important job that only he can do.”



As someone commented

‘doesn’t matter’ - doesn’t give a ****
‘probably’ - he won’t
‘on the TV’ - Escape To The Country

As for the Nolan Principles, she is probably confused because there were only five of them after Bernie left. Who was the 7th?

I'd been wondering where Tory Girl had got to, as she somehow managed not to be around for either the **** in rivers vote nor the how to keep ***** in Parliament vote, without having apparently been an obvious abstainer.

And I don't expect that Tory Girl ever knew what the Nolan Principles are, given she has a slender grasp on the truth of certain things she did in a public role before becoming our MP.

Well, BlowJob knows where Hexham is, but still can't bring himself to go north of the Tyne...

And - surprise, surprise - pix on the Chronicle website show him greeting masked clinical staffinside the hospital but not wearing a mask himself. Pillock!

Weeeeeeel, Tory Girl has been claiming to the meejah that us poor ickle voters up here aren't interested in Westminster sleaze...

She has already received a couple of e-mails from this household disabusing her of this notion.

Boris Johnson says he only wears masks in indoor settings with people he doesn’t know. Apart from hospitals obviously. No need for a mask there.