Owen Paterson

[River Don]

They've had to row back on this.

Basically they accept they have to have cross party agreement on any changes.

[Donnywolf]

Mogg proposing "full fat retreat" or u turn

They will now introduce a Bill to uphold  Patersons 30 day suspension - and it will be upheld. Hope his Constituency now deselect him with a fanfare as Neil Hamilton got when he was caught with his "brown envelopes"

Then they have to act to get opposition to come back onside with cross party support

Spun by Sleeze-Bogg but an enormous u turn not my worde but those of Tory MPs queuing up to say it on SKY

[SydneyRover]

Tony Diver, twitter:

Feeling in gvt is that Owen Paterson's media round last night was far too strong and undermined the support Tories had given him yesterday.

There is talk now of Paterson dealing with the lobbying allegations himself...by fighting a by-election to get a new mandate from voters.

[mugnapper]

 :Patterson has just resigned as an MP

[BillyStubbsTears]

This U-turn is potentially very serious for Johnson.

The real driver here has been his determination to emasculate the Parliamentary watchdogs. he wanted to scuttle the Standards Committee, but his real target has been the Electoral Commission.

Why?

Because if it decides to properly investigate the funding of his flat work, it has the power to prosecute for perjury people who lie to it.

Johnson has been reported as planning to replace the key people in the Electoral Commission with his own appointees. Much harder for him to get away with that now they whole can of worms of corruption has been opened.

If Labour has any sense, they will go for Johnson's throat and scream that the EC investigation into his flat has to go ahead now.

[DonnyOsmond]

CON: (+14)

[ravenrover]

As well as the financed holiday in Marbella by the Goldsmith clan

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

[River Don]

There is a need for transparency. In parliament, in everything, in the media, anywhere.

There should always be a clear announcement that these views are paid for.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Thinking about this whole shitshow, it's hard to know what reflects worse on Johnson .

The fact that he thought he could get away with such an outrageous show of contempt.

Or the fact that he hasn't got the balls to see it through once he's started.

The first shows that he's a would-be demagogue.

The second shows that he's a coward.

We Brits should all ponder on the first.

I'm sure there are numerous unfriendly foreign leaders taking lessons about the second.

[foxbat]

Nothing new about fraud in the HOC.
The PPE theft, Arcuri, the referendum, expenses .
The Tories are  flush with dirty money, like our country & it’s tax avoidance havens are. We are the bank for criminals & tax dodgers.

[SydneyRover]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

The only reason he's had a 'rough time' is that he decided to break the rules on many occasions knowing full well what penalty could be incurred.

Sounds as though he's entitled or really thick to me.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

The only reason he's had a 'rough time' is that he decided to break the rules on many occasions knowing full well what penalty could be incurred.

Sounds as though he's entitled or really thick to me.

Really? The guys wife died, I'd call that pretty tough.

[SydneyRover]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

The only reason he's had a 'rough time' is that he decided to break the rules on many occasions knowing full well what penalty could be incurred.

Sounds as though he's entitled or really thick to me.

Really? The guys wife died, I'd call that pretty tough.

Yes it is, so I guess he should have thought about her health more.

[ravenrover]

All an attempt from No10 to keep Boris out of the firing line. Trouble is the hunters are getting itchy trigger fingers

[wilts rover]

All an attempt from No10 to keep Boris out of the firing line. Trouble is the hunters are getting itchy trigger fingers

He told his MP's to vote for something many of them didn't want to do. Which has led to them getting hundreds of emails and letters from constituents saying how disgusted they are at what they voted for - only for the Johnson to say less than 24 hours later that what they voted for isn't going to happen! How to make friends and influence people.

[SydneyRover]

That's the problem when one follows a blimp, the direction changes with the wind.

[BillyStubbsTears]

All an attempt from No10 to keep Boris out of the firing line. Trouble is the hunters are getting itchy trigger fingers

He told his MP's to vote for something many of them didn't want to do. Which has led to them getting hundreds of emails and letters from constituents saying how disgusted they are at what they voted for - only for the Johnson to say less than 24 hours later that what they voted for isn't going to happen! How to make friends and influence people.

Like when he trotted ministers out to support Hancock. When the whole world knew his position was untenable.

Or when he had them support Cummings when he was obviously toxic.

This will have sharpened the knives that will be unsheathed one day soon.

[wilts rover]

All an attempt from No10 to keep Boris out of the firing line. Trouble is the hunters are getting itchy trigger fingers

He told his MP's to vote for something many of them didn't want to do. Which has led to them getting hundreds of emails and letters from constituents saying how disgusted they are at what they voted for - only for the Johnson to say less than 24 hours later that what they voted for isn't going to happen! How to make friends and influence people.

Like when he trotted ministers out to support Hancock. When the whole world knew his position was untenable.

Or when he had them support Cummings when he was obviously toxic.

This will have sharpened the knives that will be unsheathed one day soon.

Or the dumping of raw sewage in the sea and rivers which they also u-turned on after a public outcry a day later.

It  happens so frequently that he may very well be struggling for support on the next controversial issue - and it will be soon because this is Johnson.

[i_ateallthepies]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

The only reason he's had a 'rough time' is that he decided to break the rules on many occasions knowing full well what penalty could be incurred.

Sounds as though he's entitled or really thick to me.

Really? The guys wife died, I'd call that pretty tough.

The fact he's prepared to make public claim that the inquiry was the cause of his wife's suicide - if that is even true - only adds to the evidence of what a lowlife he truly is.  He really thinks he'll get sympathy from the public when the whole shit show is down to his actions and his alone - persistently lobbying in contravention of the parliamentary rules.  Yet we have somebody on here willing to give him a pass.

[Donnywolf]

Common sense came from the government at last.  It's obvious things can better and it's more than obvious it shouldn't have taken this case to push for change, all done the very wrong way and potentially damaging. 

I do think Paterson's had a rough time and he has some sympathy, but lobbying is a dangerous game and difficult to control, which he's taken more than a chance on and been very well rewarded for.  Where's the anti bribery line vs ensuring MP's aren't just full time politicians - very difficult one.  Maybe perhaps we pay our MPs more and make the paid elements totally illegal.  It is right for companies to make their views heard, very questionable that MPs do it - the same can be said for any entity, charities, unions etc.

The only reason he's had a 'rough time' is that he decided to break the rules on many occasions knowing full well what penalty could be incurred.

Sounds as though he's entitled or really thick to me.

Really? The guys wife died, I'd call that pretty tough.

Agree that is the very definition of rougg and "way beyond" - especially as she killed herself. Paterson and many others among his supporters attempted to link the 2 but as I posted above

Sad as it was for his Wife who killed herself due to this process [Paterson said],  in Court people would say "calls for speculation" - that the link is unproven.

IF it were true did he think before raking the money in " I had better not do this in case I get caught and the stress might be detrimental to my family"

Some Tory grandee was savaging the Party, Johnson but mainly Paterson of whom he said " what was he thinking - as an MP before you act just imagine what the Newspapers would say and if its bad just DONT do it

[wilts rover]

As ever Marina Hyde sums the whole episode up perfectly:

An edifying week in the government of Britain, a country run by the third prize in a competition to build Winston Churchill out of marshmallows. Yup, this man is our sorry lot: this pool-float Targaryen, this gurning English Krankie cousin, this former child star still squeezing himself into his little suit for coins. The sole bright spot for Boris Johnson is that furious Tory MPs are currently only comparing him to the nursery rhyme Duke of York. Still, give it time.

On, then, to the unforced blunderrhoea of the Owen Paterson affair and its fallout. The sheer full-spectrum shitshow of it makes sense when you understand two things: the Carl von Clownewitzes behind the government’s shameful “strategy” for sweeping aside a vital democratic check on corruption; and the fact that for Johnson, none of it was to do with Owen Paterson. The departing MP for North Shropshire was simply useful for the prime minister’s personal goals – until he wasn’t.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/05/owen-paterson-boris-johnson-standards-commissioner

[BigH]

It's a tragedy for the Paterson family and one that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

But I'd just draw attention to this article in the Mail in which Owen Paterson made no mention of the supposed effect of the case on his wife:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9204559/MP-Owen-Paterson-believes-catching-coronavirus-affected-wifes-mental-health.html

[BillyStubbsTears]

So get this.

One of the companies that Paterson says were paying him just to be a good citizen, and not to lobby on their behalf, was awarded a £133m contract to provide COVID test equipment before officials looked into the case and judged that the company wasn't capable of fulfilling the contract.

It's happening right in front of your eyes. The Banana Republicisation of the UK.

[SydneyRover]

Yep contracts for mates and donors, nothing this govt is real, those engineers at the cereal factory they are trying to bounce and re-hire, where does that fit in with the new high tech high pay vision.

[Axholme Lion]

The Government are shooting themselves in the foot every week but where is a viable alternative to take their place. If there was a general election tomorrow i'll bet you they'd still win it. They know this so don't care what anyone thinks because Labour are unelectable. It's all about the least worst option in many people's eyes.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Which specific policies do Labour have that makes them unelectable, compared to ones the Tories have that make them electable?

[Filo]

Standards debate today, the Govt benches are nearly empty, that shows what they thunk about standards

[scawsby steve]

Which specific policies do Labour have that makes them unelectable, compared to ones the Tories have that make them electable?

It's not policies, BST, it's Keith.

That's what makes them unelectable.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Which specific policies do Labour have that makes them unelectable, compared to ones the Tories have that make them electable?

It's not policies, BST, it's Keith.

That's what makes them unelectable.

Whereas it's fine to have Johnson as PM because...?