Owen Patterson and sleaze- a shameful day in the House

Brilliant post Dickens.

"If there were concerns about the process, it is totally inappropriate to amend it while a case is still live."

A good point *growstuff". Why now?

Johnson is also being investigated. It couldn't be that Conservatives want to discredit the Commissioner and/or the Standards Committee before it reports on Johnson, could it?

If anybody's interested, there's a petition to keep scrutiny of MPs independent:

speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/we-need-independent-mp-scrutiny?utm_campaign=UVsUeeVNmg&utm_content&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share&fbclid=IwAR0HhQ99OPMoMhfGD-iSQ9OWeI1zOyddmY8Cq6kl5Iw3TNgabmo_NsWFe8M

Well, I wonder what next they will get away with.

A government such as this one doesn’t stop does it?

UrmstongranI wonder if Owen Patterson were a Labour MP would you be defending him? We should be condemning this disgusting episode of corruption whoever the culprit was. Angela Rayner wiped the floor with BJ yesterday by drawing the comparison with an MP accused of sexual harassment who was let off as they “couldn’t change the rules” - now they have.

Well done Dickens. Excellent reading. Thank you.

GillT57

No limits at all. Even by your Tory at any cost standards Urm, this episode cannot, just cannot be dismissed. I don't know about you, but this is not how I live my life or how I raised my children. Truly disgusting and those who think this is acceptable are just as bad

Well that’s me told.

If the front-page headline on today's Daily Mail says 'Shameless MPs sink back into sleaze', (I'm reading that off TV screen btw!)) then this is a new low

I have a feeling this isn't the last we'll hear of Randox.

The Times comment also roundly condemns the governments action. Maybe they have crossed the line?

Yes I think that Johnson is beginning to feel the draft of disapproval last week it was all the sewerage that they voted to dump into our waters this week it is voting to support sleaze.

Urmstongran

GillT57

No limits at all. Even by your Tory at any cost standards Urm, this episode cannot, just cannot be dismissed. I don't know about you, but this is not how I live my life or how I raised my children. Truly disgusting and those who think this is acceptable are just as bad

Well that’s me told.

I am afraid that if you insist on excusing the absolutely inexcusable, you do become part of it.

What a grubby little country we are becoming.

... and the world is watching!

I think *Dickens hits the nail on the head, sadly.

...Boris Johnson has never made any pretence of values, basic or otherwise: he’s never been anything but playfully delighted by his own dishonesty. Even were he to launch a moral crusade today, it would be viewed against the backdrop of his advertised self, the joshing chancer people voted for. ... Today’s Conservatives, defined by impunity, are impossible to embarrass. [Guardian Mon 19 Apr 2021 17.01 BST]

Expectations for a government that believes in democracy are as low as they have ever been. I care; many others care. However, in the middle are people who have not reached an opinion yet. They are too busy with their lives to have caught up with this. As Paul Mason said The Conservatives have become a machine whose only purpose is to keep themselves in power. Whatever yesterday seemed to be about it was most certainly a grab another of the levers of power. Going back to the old Guardian article I quoted above:

This model of government poses a threat to the nation’s wellbeing that is far more profound than small-time crooks and sexual moralisers. It requires the systematic degradation of the surrounding institutions and habits of democracy.

How can the country be defended against those who are prepared to sink so low? We saw the issues with the anti-democratic Trump in America. The difficulties of getting rid of those who did not want democracy but wanted power were overtaken because Trump over-reached himself.

I have a feeling that Johnson is more aware than Trump and will not let that happen. We know that those who followed every dictator in history thought they were good people - while only really caring about how they felt about themselves. There is no good discussing democracy with these people. In time they will walk through the carnage this government leaves in its wake and tell us they didn't know. Johnson's supporters know, and appear to want, the death of democracy. The issue is how politicians reach out to those who don't centre their live around politics and haven't yet realised what is happening.

"In time they will walk through the carnage this government leaves in its wake and tell us they didn't know."

I've read that before. Sadly, it will probably happen again.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post Pippa.

Well, I was right to think there would be an attempt to smear (bully even) Kathryn Stone. It seems Kwasi Kwarteng has been sent out to do the smearing, with the others frantically learning their scripts.

Why did the vote have to be whipped.?Why couldn't M.P's be allowed to vote with their conscience.
An appalling day in Parliament.

Good post, too, Pippa. Thank you.

Johnson's supporters know, and appear to want, the death of democracy

I think that for many their idea of democracy begins and ends with an X on a ballot paper.

MaizieD

Good post, too, Pippa. Thank you.

Johnson's supporters know, and appear to want, the death of democracy

I think that for many their idea of democracy begins and ends with an X on a ballot paper.

Only when they "win"!

Nothing to do with a possible by election I don’t suppose?! According to the BBC if an MP is suspended for 30 days which Patterson was then it can end up with a recall petition which could result in a by election.

I live in a town that is Tory through and through. People I know have defended Conservative party policies and practices that fly in the face of their own kind natures, some have not, but nevertheless have continued to support the party. Yesterday seems to have caused a real sea change with some of the latter saying they’re done with the party and the former finally acknowledging that there is a problem of morals and ethics that can no longer be supported.

I’m beginning to think we may actually see the end of Boris if the rank and file Conservative voters now want to distance themselves from the current leadership. One friend said last night that it was like the scales had fallen from her eyes; unlike most of my other Tory friends she has always been very pro-Boris, but not any longer.

Excellent post pippa well argued and thought through.

This is how Tories do politics