In todays news...

[Felix]

[slowsider]

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.

So the whole revision of the disciplinary procedure has been dropped. Surely that can't be because the Tory it was intended to rescue has fallen on his sword?

[Screwdriver]

Mildly entertaining bollocks.

CO2 hasn't been "rising since the age of the dinosaurs" It has shot up hugely in only the past 200 years. Life's too short to treat any of the rest of it with anything other than contempt.

Meanwhile I've been looking at volcanos. It seems loss of ice and extra volcanic activity go hand in hand. I ignore it on the grounds that I don't have that much more time on this Earth and those sorts of things happen on geological timescales. It appears I may actually be wrong about that and volcanic activity could increase dramatically as soon as the shifting weight of ice starts upsetting the lake of magma just below the crust.

Might actually be a good idea to start thinking about a tinfoil hat. Quite literally...

[Treadeager]

Many of the old boys/gits on here will remember Aitken and his " Sword of Truth " protestations.....

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian ... newspapers

I thought a new low had been reached with this t***er involving his late wife's suicide....... She's probably turning in her grave at his actions

[millemille]

I find it more than a little amusing that Paterson is reported, from several sources, to have found out about his own resignation while shopping in a supermarket when he was rung by a BBC reporter seeking a comment.

[Horse]

Many of the old boys/gits on here will remember Aitken and his " Sword of Truth " protestations.....

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian ... newspapers

1999:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jun/08/uk

Former cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken was jailed at the Old Bailey today for 18 months after admitting perjury and perverting the course of justice.

He received 18 months for both counts, to run concurrently.

Mr Justice Scott Baker told Aitken: "For nearly four years you wove a web of deceit in which you entangled yourself and from which there was no way out unless you were prepared to come clean and tell the truth. Unfortunately you were not."

[DefTrap]

Paterson seems to have gone under the bus now

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

More and more disgusted by public servants with their snouts in the trough. As a group, they don't seem interested in solving it, rather more dismayed that one of them got found out.

[irie]

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.

So the whole revision of the disciplinary procedure has been dropped. Surely that can't be because the Tory it was intended to rescue has fallen on his sword?

You'll get no argument from me that the British political system and it's politicians are up there with the most corrupt in the world, I'm just saying it's both sides of the floor. Corruption and dishonesty is endemic in the UK, so why would anyone expect it not to be in politics.

Human nature is the same the world over which is why corruption and dishonesty is endemic everywhere in the world.

[KungFooBob]

Sooner we get the AI's running the shop the better

[Horse]

Sooner we get any I running the shop the better

ftfy

[Yorick]

Sooner we get the AI's running the shop the better

Had to think twice there. Folk talk a lot a out AI here. All Inclusive

[irie]

Paterson seems to have gone under the bus now

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

More and more disgusted by public servants with their snouts in the trough. As a group, they don't seem interested in solving it, rather more dismayed that one of them got found out.

Owen Patterson's self serving excuse for his lobbying is that he was raising an issue of public concern.

Paterson’s claim: He made approaches to government bodies about two firms, Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods, which employed him as a consultant. The MP said he was acting as a whistleblower in raising concerns about milk and pork standards and that this meant he could claim an exemption from the rules regarding paid advocacy because he was raising a “serious wrong”.

What seems to have escaped him was that being paid over £100,000 per year to do so was a prima facie breach of the rules.

For example in your neck of the woods, Sarkozy couldn't even plead the 'public good' mitigation in his corruption. Then trying to bribe a judge? That takes some chutzpah!

[Count Steer]

Fish rot from the head. If governments are corrupt then they lead by example. Less a case of 'well, everybody does it' more a 'well, if they do it'.

PS If the opposition is corrupt, some of them aren't very good at it. Maybe it's because power corrupts and they haven't got any, haven't had for years and probably won't have for some time.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Whistle-blowers don't normally charge six figures to blow their whistles.

[slowsider]

So the whole revision of the disciplinary procedure has been dropped. Surely that can't be because the Tory it was intended to rescue has fallen on his sword?

You'll get no argument from me that the British political system and it's politicians are up there with the most corrupt in the world, I'm just saying it's both sides of the floor. Corruption and dishonesty is endemic in the UK, so why would anyone expect it not to be in politics.

Human nature is the same the world over which is why corruption and dishonesty is endemic everywhere in the world.

pandemic

[Count Steer]

Fish rot from the head. If governments are corrupt then they lead by example. Less a case of 'well, everybody does it' more a 'well, if they do it'.

Are you saying that's justification, or are you just highlighting a slightly different lame excuse for crime?

Neither.

[Cousin Jack]

Politicians of all stripes are corrupt

Most British ones are slightly less corrupt than the Nigerian standard.

But only slightly.

[Yambo]

I find it more than a little amusing that Paterson is reported, from several sources, to have found out about his own resignation while shopping in a supermarket when he was rung by a BBC reporter seeking a comment.

That has to be a load of bollocks. He resigned as an MP and the only way he can be sacked as an MP is by his constituents 'recalling' him. Did his constituents vote to remove him?

[Yorick]

Not getting onto this arguing bollox.

But do corrupt folk become politicians?
Or do politicians become corrupt folk?

[Cousin Jack]

Not getting onto this arguing bollox.

But do corrupt folk become politicians?
Or do politicians become corrupt folk?

Power corrupts.

If they aren't corrupt when they start they soon acquire the habit.