In todays news...

[KungFooBob]

Cos it'll use the same process as dumping it under the sea... but dumping it into space instead.

If we could form it into bricks, we could build a mass driver and shoot it all into space instead.

[slowsider]

But the pressure gradient is reversed...

[KungFooBob]

I'm just an ideas man, the scientists can work it all out.

[Lutin]

Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up

Conservative Owen Paterson has avoided punishment for now as the government ordered its MPs to back a review of standards investigations.

The result of the vote was met with cries of "shame" from opposition MPs.

Mr Paterson was found to have misused his position as an MP to benefit two companies he worked for.

But he said the probe into his conduct had been unfair - and the government backed plans by his allies to overhaul the system.

Oh, what a surprise! A tory gets off from any sanctions what so ever. Same old, same old.

It was only unfair because he got caught out. Typical abuse of power yet again.

[Mr. Dazzle]

If we could form it into bricks, we could build a mass driver and shoot it all into space instead.

And have a wicked prog rock concert while you wait.

[Cousin Jack]

So if we can capture and store carbon from power station exhausts, what exactly is wrong with using plentiful fossil fuel like coal ?

Is there a hint of perpetual motion machine about suggesting we could burn the coal to provide the energy to do it?

A hint perhaps, but providing the energy released from burning >> the energy needed to capture and store the carbon it should be fine.

I'm not suggesting we ignore wind/solar/et al, I just think that a less messianistic approach could achieve the same results with less drama and fallout. I would like an electric car, but the range/charge time needs improvement (that is happening) and the infrastructure needs to be in place. Then I will buy one. I would be happy to use a heat pump when I need to replace my boiler, but I am reluctant to do so just to meet a politician's empty promises

[Mr. Dazzle]

Petrol and diesel cars
Gas boilers
and soon
Meat (ban may be Fridays only)

Seriously, if we have the technology to bin 17m tons of carbon with a bit of effort we could be cabon neutral without major upheavel.

The proposed carbon capture tech doesn't work on cars, domestic boilers or meat production though.....so......yaknow.....

Don't get me wrong, it's deffo partof the solution but its not a panacea to burn shit willy nilly.

Plus coal may be plentiful, but wind is even more plentiful!

[Count Steer]

The Paterson and Vaz cases go together quite well. Conservative whips were instructed in both cases. In the Vaz case some MPs tried to stop his appointment. 150 Conservative MPs voted for it because the Government didn't want a precedent set whereby the house could block appointments to select committees. (He should have been drummed out of Parliament long before).

In the recent case they were whipped in an apparent attempt to undermine the current scrutiny system and a number of MPs that supported it have been/are being investigated.

The outside interests/paid lobbying thing stinks. Yet seems to be an integral part of the job for many - and supported as such.

[irie]

Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up

Conservative Owen Paterson has avoided punishment for now as the government ordered its MPs to back a review of standards investigations.

The result of the vote was met with cries of "shame" from opposition MPs.

Mr Paterson was found to have misused his position as an MP to benefit two companies he worked for.

But he said the probe into his conduct had been unfair - and the government backed plans by his allies to overhaul the system.

Oh, what a surprise! A tory gets off from any sanctions what so ever. Same old, same old.

It was only unfair because he got caught out. Typical abuse of power yet again.

It's worthy of a news story and IMHO this should be investigated further, but not because he's a tory, because of what he did regardless of political party. I'll wager that if he was a labour MP you'd have sat there quietly shuffling your feet and looking at the floor.

IMO two issues have been conflated.

It does seem that Chris Bryant and the Committee on Standards have been scrupulously fair in their condemnation of Owen Patterson.

At the same time there does seem to have been consistent political bias by Kathryn Stone (Commissioner for Standards) which indicates that the investigation system should in the future be overhauled.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... roversial/

(Behind a paywall so quoted in full).

Parliament’s chief sleaze inquisitor faces questions about her own partisanship

Kathryn Stone, the commissioner for standards, accused of inconsistencies following probes into leading Tories and Brexiteers

Kathryn Stone has been criticised following the investigation into Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary

Boris Johnson knows exactly what it feels like to have been investigated by Kathryn Stone, the nose-stud wearing parliamentary commissioner for standards - who, in a previous role, declined to describe the IRA as “terrorists”. 

When Westminster’s chief sleaze inquisitor launched a probe into the funding of the Prime Minister’s luxury 2019 holiday to Mustique, No 10 gained a greater understanding of why MPs had complained for years about what is widely perceived to be a one-sided and opaque process.

Although Ms Stone - a former social worker turned chief legal ombudsman - originally found that Mr Johnson had breached the MPs’ code of conduct for not having “fulfilled conscientiously” the requirements for registering the £15,000 accommodation, this was later overturned by the Committee on Standards that assesses her recommendations.

The cross-party committee, which comprises seven MPs and seven lay members, found that Mr Johnson’s account was “accurate and complete” after being provided supplementary evidence.

Yet eyebrows were raised when Ms Stone took months to make a ruling on the probe into the Christmas trip, where Mr Johnson proposed to Carrie Symonds, compared to the mere days it took to rectify a failure by Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and chairman of the standards committee, to disclose a trip to Poland he had undertaken in 2019. It was the third time she had investigated Mr Johnson for alleged breaches since becoming standards commissioner in 2018. 

Her appointment came after she had courted controversy in her previous role as the commissioner for victims and survivors in Northern Ireland. In 2013, she gave an interview to the Belfast News Letter in which she refused to be drawn on whether she believed the IRA and UVF were terrorists. She went on to become commissioner for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, before beginning her part-time tenure in Parliament. 

Ms Stone quickly established herself by resuming an investigation into Keith Vaz, the former Labour MP first started by her predecessor, Kathryn Hudson, in October 2016, which followed revelations that the former chairman of the home affairs select committee had partied with Romanian male escorts. 

There was widespread disbelief, however, when the initial investigation was suspended “on medical grounds” in December 2017. Critics pointed out that the then for Leicester East had been well enough to travel to India and Saudi Arabia as well as being spotted at several “ribbon cutting events”. 

It was not until nearly two years later that Mr Vaz was suspended for six months, after the long-running probe finally concluded there was "compelling evidence" that he had offered to pay for a class A drug, as well as paid-for sex while posing as a machine repair man called Jim.

Inconsistencies then started to appear in other rulings, prompting Tories to speculate as to why so many Brexiteers appeared to be in the firing line. In the 2020-21 period, probes were launched into the alleged wrongdoing of 13 Conservatives compared to just five Labour MPs. Of the Tories facing probes in the past year, all but three voted to leave the EU. 

In 2018, the commissioner launched an investigation into Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, a prominent leaver, for failing to declare a company shareholding.

The company in question had been set up to create a low-cost airline but the project had been abandoned after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. There were no employees or assets and the company had no bank account and capital of 2p. Ms Stone insisted on a public apology from Mr Mackinlay in the Commons, even though he appeared to have committed no more than a technical breach.

In January, the commissioner ordered Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Brexiteer backbenchers, to apologise not once but twice for writing a letter to Michel Barnier on Commons letterhead in the summer of 2020. Yet when Bambos Charalambous, the Labour MP, was investigated for the same offence that year, he was cleared for sending a letter on Commons notepaper to deal with a claim made against him by a former landlord.

Critics have also complained about her ruling this month that Stephen Doughty, another Labour MP, did not break the code in asking a vulnerable constituent to supply him with the class C prescription drug diazepam.

The MPs' code states that members “have a duty to uphold the law”. It is illegal to obtain diazepam - a tranquilliser - without a prescription, which Mr Doughty acknowledged. Yet Ms Stone found that while the MP had shown a “severe error of judgment”, he had “learned a very difficult lesson”. 

Allies of Owen Paterson claim that his alleged “wrongdoing” pales into insignificance by comparison, not least as the committee confirmed that no one had made an immediate profit from the former environment secretary’s paid “lobbying”. He vehemently claims it was in the public interest to alert the authorities to carcinogenic products in milk and ham.

There has also been continued consternation over why Ms Stone never launched an investigation into former John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons and a renowned remainer - despite him being dogged by allegations of bullying, which he has forcefully denied. It remains unclear two years on whether a formal probe is under way – or if one will ever be initiated, after the system was opened to historical complaints against present and former MPs after he left office in November 2019. 

Intriguingly, Mr Bercow has now thrown his weight behind Mr Paterson, telling him in a letter: “You have experienced a protracted, Kafkaesque process." 

He described the two years it took for the commissioner to carry out the probe as "indefensible" - a delay that Mr Paterson claims was a factor in his wife Rose’s suicide in June 2020. 

Summing up the mood on the backbenches, David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said: “What Tories in the tea room and beyond agree on is the current system isn't fit for purpose. 

“Nobody thinks this is a good system and there are concerns about Kathryn Stone's partisanship. People are calling for reform.”

MPs line up to question fairness of ‘lobbying’ inquiry before crucial vote

Jacob Rees-Mogg has become the latest MP to question the fairness of the investigation that found Owen Paterson guilty of breaching lobbying rules and facing a potentially career-ending 30-day suspension. 

The Parliamentary Committee on Standards has recommended that Mr Paterson be suspended for 30 days over an "egregious case of paid advocacy".

Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, opened the investigation in October 2019 following allegations Mr Paterson had improperly lobbied for the clinical diagnostics company Randox, and the meat processor Lynn's Country Foods.

Mr Paterson insists that the “lobbying” raised very serious concerns that milk and ham were being contaminated with carcinogenic prohibited substances and was in the public interest.

The MP for North Shropshire complained that the process did not comply with “natural justice”, a view increasingly shared by his Conservative colleagues ahead of a Commons vote on the proposed suspension on Wednesday.

Mr Rees-Mogg questioned why Ms Stone did not speak to 17 witnesses who came forward to support the former environment secretary. 

Despite putting up a series of “highly reliable and reputable” witnesses - including Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Rory Stewart, the former Tory minister and leadership contender - who all corroborated Mr Paterson’s version of events, Ms Stone declined to interview any of them before concluding he had brought the Commons into disrepute.

The Leader of the House of Commons described that decision as "interesting".

He told his ConservativeHome podcast: “Other people might say: 'How do you know whether it was relevant to the inquiry until you've taken their evidence and have found out the precise context of how things were done?"'

It is also suggested that the stress of the two-year probe may have contributed to his wife Rose’s suicide in June 2020. 

There are also growing concerns over the Commissioner admitting to making her mind up about Mr Paterson’s guilt before even speaking to him.

Mr Paterson’s lawyer, Philip Barden, along with Conservatives including Sir Iain Duncan Smith and David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, has argued that is unjudicial for Ms Stone to act as both “investigator and prosecutor”. 

MPs have also argued that being named and shamed as being under investigation skews the process against them. They are unable to publicly defend themselves, because they are bound by the rules of parliamentary privilege until any inquiry has been concluded. 

By that time, they have argued, it is too late to put their side of the story across, having seemingly been presumed to be guilty rather than innocent from the outset. 

They have also complained that they have no right to appeal decisions that have gone against them, denying them the right to judicial review. 

The “opaqueness” of the process has also sparked alarm, with Mr Paterson accusing Ms Stone of unnecessarily keeping him in the dark about exactly what she was investigating. 

He claims that after he answered one allegation, an altogether different claim would then be put to him, with his responses seemingly ignored. 

In a statement released after he was found guilty earlier this month, Mr Paterson said: “Parliament’s internal system of justice needs to operate properly within the principles of natural justice.”

On Wednesday, he will find out whether his parliamentary colleagues agree with him.

[Yambo]

The Guardian is a little kinder to Ms Stone, with a broad brush 'She's done/doing OK' slant.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ous-issues

[irie]

The Guardian is a little kinder to Ms Stone, with a broad brush 'She's done/doing OK' slant.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ous-issues

I guess that the truth will lie somewhere between the Telegraph and Guardian accounts.

[slowsider]

Paterson seems to have gone under the bus now

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... n-paterson

[Lutin]

Paterson seems to have gone under the bus now

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... n-paterson

About bloody time.

[irie]

IMO two issues have been conflated.

As said above.

Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg has now confirmed the changes will not go ahead without cross-party support.

He told the Commons there was a "strong feeling" that any change to the standards process "should not be based on a single case", and Wednesday's vote had "conflated" the two.

"This link needs to be broken" added Mr Rees-Mogg.

He said the government would come back to MPs with more detailed proposals to change the system after it had held discussions with the other parties.

And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.

[Count Steer]

As I said above.

Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg has now confirmed the changes will not go ahead without cross-party support.

He told the Commons there was a "strong feeling" that any change to the standards process "should not be based on a single case", and Wednesday's vote had "conflated" the two.

"This link needs to be broken" added Mr Rees-Mogg.

He said the government would come back to MPs with more detailed proposals to change the system after it had held discussions with the other parties.

And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.

It's like Whack-a-mole! I expect he'll do the decent thing and resign.

(And pigs might fly).

[irie]

And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.

I expect he'll do the decent thing and resign.

I'm willing to bet that he'll wait for the sword of the House of Commons vote to descend on him.

[Count Steer]

And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.

I expect he'll do the decent thing and resign.

I'm willing to bet that he'll wait for the sword of the House of Commons vote to descend on him.

We'd have both lost...he's gone!

[irie]

And it is also understood another vote will take place on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended.

I expect he'll do the decent thing and resign.

I'm willing to bet that he'll wait for the sword of the House of Commons vote to descend on him.

We'd have both lost...he's gone!

You were right, he resigned.

[Lutin]

You were right, he resigned.

Apparently he wants

... a life "outside the cruel world of politics".

Cruel world of politics? He doesn't know he's born.

Good riddance.

[gremlin]

I wouldn't be an MP for ten times my current salary. Fuck that.


Doesn't alter the fact that he was clearly bang to rights on all charges, mind.