Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Angela Richardson is the MP who attacked the wrong James O'Brien and tried to bullshit her way out of it. She has Lib Dems breathing down her neck in Guildford, but fair dos.

Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP have all said they will not serve on the new 'Ethics' committee.

That isolates the Tories and also gives them a tricky decision to sell to the public if they let Paterson off.

This isn't going well for them. Well done, Andrea.

Cut the Tories some slack by pointing out there’s many good honest people in the party. The problem for Bozo is the one’s who aren’t are almost certain to be his supporters. Which is why he’s circling the wagons around toxic pondlife that any other leader would throw over board.

So, here comes the U-turn. Apparently everyone got confused about yesterday and thought that the amendment attached to the Owen Patterson motion was about him, and not about some higher level changes to the parliamentary standards system in general. Oh, and the whipping was all about attendance, and not about which way to vote.

Kudos to Thangnam Debbonaire for refusing to play along, and saying that Labour will have nothing to do with this whitewashing. Once again though, the Tories are forcing through things, realising that they're utterly hated by the electorate, then ripping up what they've just enacted. As one person on Twitter pointed out, it's like cheating at a Fighting Fantasy book - making a decision, flipping forward to see if it was right or wrong, then flipping back.

There seems to be genuine fury about this though, not just from the "political classes" or "politics Twitter". And finally Labour are looking angry.

Reports coming in that the government's u-turned on overhauling the standards system. For now, anyway.

They have u-turned. Can't see they can go anywhere near what they tried yesterday.

Apparently, Johnson has stacked up a whole lot of resentment with his actions.

HEY LOOK TORIES, JOHNSON IS AN ABSOLUTE TOSSER
Whoda thunk?

I wish I could say I heard the sound of knives being sharpened in the offices of the 1922 Committee...

Fascinated to know what sort of person these ‘decent Tories’ believed Boris Johnson was. Apart from an election winner.

What does ‘terrible calculation’ mean, didn’t think we’d get caught?

Breaking on BBC

Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP after a row over his conduct led to a government u-turn.

The Conservative was found to have broken lobbying rules and was facing suspension - until Tory MPs blocked it by calling for an overhaul of the MPs' standards watchdog instead.

They initially had the backing of No 10, but Downing Street reversed its decision after a furious backlash.

Mr Paterson said he now wanted a life "outside the cruel world of politics".

I haven't posted here for a while, but I really don't get what is going on here. Policy really does seem to be made up as they go along. Sometimes although it seems chaotic there is a longer-term plan, but with this, it really seems to be made up on the spot.

Does anyone have a view that there is a long term plan or it is just as it seems total chaos?

They will hope that this draws a line under the issue. It might. But there are reports that many Tory MPs are seething - the order to back the amendment came from the very top and was strongly enforced. They knew there would be a stink, they did their 'duty' regardless, and were sent out to defend it all. And then Johnson and Mogg realised they'd fucked up and left them all out to dry.

As for Paterson, fuck him. Don't even try the sympathy card. He got caught and couldn't take the punishment.

As for a long term plan, I don't think so. Aside from clinging onto power. Mogg, for instance, strikes me as someone whose entire life has been a quest for the keys to the executive bathroom. No idea what to do once he's in there, except to keep others out. They're just the school bullies who got made into prefects and convinced themselves that they were better than everyone else.

Kamm may not be referring to current MPs. He's not a writer who particularly trades on his access and friendships, to his credit.

Paterson is resigning as an MP. From cause celebre to pariah in less than a day.

Plan seemed to be Johnson was using Patterson as cover to go after (read: weaken) the parliamentary standards officer (Stone), possibly and quite probably because she was also investigating him for the 4th time. The triple backfire here is spectacular - Patterson has fucked off in a huff because he’s realised he was being thrown under a bus, Johnson has pissed off loads of his own party, and made the Tories all the more associated with sleaze. And as a bonus it probably strengthened Stone’s position.

...In a statement, the 65-year-old, who has represented North Shropshire since 1997, said the past two years had been "an indescribable nightmare for my family and me".

He said his integrity had been "repeatedly and publicly questioned", and that he was "totally innocent" of breaking lobbying rules...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59167783

Still doesn't believe he's done anything wrong.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:19 pm Plan seemed to be Johnson was using Patterson as cover to go after (read: weaken) the parliamentary standards officer (Stone), possibly and quite probably because she was also investigating him for the 4th time. The triple backfire here is spectacular - Patterson has fucked off in a huff because he’s realised he was being thrown under a bus, Johnson has pissed off loads of his own party, and made the Tories all the more associated with sleaze. And as a bonus it probably strengthened Stone’s position.

I'm impressed Stone didn't walk, I thought she had to.

She's still there, much more high profile, and will doubtless have some Covid contracts to look at.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:19 pm Plan seemed to be Johnson was using Patterson as cover to go after (read: weaken) the parliamentary standards officer (Stone), possibly and quite probably because she was also investigating him for the 4th time. The triple backfire here is spectacular - Patterson has fucked off in a huff because he’s realised he was being thrown under a bus, Johnson has pissed off loads of his own party, and made the Tories all the more associated with sleaze. And as a bonus it probably strengthened Stone’s position.

Yes, this was going to be another smoothly executed Trumpian power grab. We can safely assume the shocked Captain Renaults on the back benches already knew who Johnson is so why strike at election-winning Funtime Boris on this issue? Be interesting to see which seats the Tory rebels hold. Bet they’re not in Shropshire.

Must have sounded very clever- out of touch unelected civil servant goes after Brexit hero who lost his wife.

It wasn't.