Owen Paterson.

Sigh, the Labour Party are going to do it again aren't they? They're going to miss the point and lose this massive opportunity.

The scandal at the minute isn't the expenses or the technicalities, talking about Johnsons flat or his holiday just pushes it into the future. It's an accusation that is to an extent old news but isn't yet solid enough to make new news.

The scandal is the vote! Focus on the vote and ONLY the vote.

This is the opportunity to drive a wedge down the Conservatives between the ministers who forced the result and the backbenchers who didn't want to vote that way. This is where you can get the Red Wall voters to ask questions on whether their representatives can be trusted to vote in their best interests or even on their own morals and the individuals involved can't defend it.

Talking about Kathryn Stone (somebody none of the public know or care about) or wider sleeze might make things uncomfortable in Westminster but it's not going to get the public engaged because they already think politicians as a whole are sleazy anyway.

 

They know exactly what to do and it has little to do with Paterson. It's all about damaging Johnson and the Tory party. Prior to this episode they have got away with little damage but it's cumulative, eventually mud sticks and it will be impossible for them to wash it off. That is precisely what happened to the Major government.

 

No!! That's what they always do and (a)They do it badly and (b) It doesn't accumulate in the way Guardian reading, dyed in the wool Labour supporters think it does. It wears people down rather than building up.

Sperate out Johnson from the backbenchers, divide the party and they can build momentum. Read the quotes from the backbench tories, they're on the verge if open rebellion so feed it and make it worse. Treating they all as "Tory sleeze" drives them together.

 

Of course you go for the big fish, not much use going for the red wall minnows. If you go for the 'nobs' at the top of the party you damage the Tory party as a whole. I think that is fairly obvious.

 

The sht is really hitting the fan. Things are just warming up:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/06/johnson-sleaze-crisis-deepens-amid-pressure-on-covid-deals

 

What a load of bullshit. This wasn't a 'mistake'. It was a calculated attempt to scupper the parliamentary scrutiny process to get Paterson off the hook and avoid Johnson's own misdemeanours being investigated.

BBC News - Owen Paterson: Minister Stephen Barclay expresses regret over vote
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59213255

 

He's clearly trying to bully the Standards Commissioner out of her job to avoid scrutiny of his actions. The man is up to his eyeballs in sleaze.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/08/boris-johnson-no-10-flat-renovation-watchdog?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

I'm sure that Paterson is the tip of the iceberg. Does anyone seriously think that companies pay these eye watering sums (for minimal work) for any other reason than the parliamentary influence they can buy?

30 MPs have paid consultancies. 28 are Tories. Snouts in the trough.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/07/30-mps-who-could-be-affected-by-proposed-consultancy-ban?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

Boris didn't bother to turn up to the debate in parliament today, instead is has been pictured in a hospital without a mask, so that has got everyone wound up instead.

To be fair to him he knows how to divert attention from what people should be looking at re the debate in parliament, and get everyone upset about something like masks elsewhere when he has probably been tested.

 

Don’t think he ever attends debates set by the opposition.

I can imagine the moans if he had cancelled the visit for a debate that can not do anything

 

Theres this

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/owen-paterson-case-randox-won-test-deal-despite-lack-of-equipment-5wdrc296b

 

Nope, I don't think anyone believes it is, but the trick is actually proving it. Insinuation doesn't work any more.

All they need to do is ban second jobs....but nobody suggests or promises it. Why? Because if they any of them ever got into power they'd want to benefit from it as well?

 

This should bring this lot down, but it won't.

 

Brexit gave these people license to lie and deceive. It worked before why not now? Its all the same cronies.

 

Angela Rayner’s opinion of the Tories has been proved to be accurate after all.

 

Did he mention Edwina?