Owen Paterson

[Thomas]

Scottish local council elections first preference voting intentions:

SNP 45%
Conservatives 22%

Labour 21%
Liberal Democrats 6%
Greens 4%

Alba 2%
https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2021/10/exclusive-scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll.html

[Thomas]

Should've been suspended imo,Boris is taking parliament which is not universally viewed as reputable down to sleaze again.

I think the patterson debacle was quite obviously a blunder by the tories, but what remains remarkable is after 11 years of tories in power , labour still arent making much headway within margin of error.

Tories still ahead by four points uk wide , and in scotland its still snp v tory , with labour in third place.

I would expect within normal times , after 11 years in power and facing stuff like covid , for labour to be doing much much better in the polls.

What was it blair was alleged to have said about corbyn? Any other labour leader would be twenty points ahead?

This should apply to starmer as well. Thats before we even get into general election campaigning territory , with labour facing the awkward questionsn they try desperately to avoid.

[Thomas]

As I am sure you will appreciate, I am no fan of John Major and his Tory government, which privatised the railways and water companies,

Only in England in terms of water steve , and remember  , it was labour who attempted to privatise scottish water before they were booted out at holyrood.( i thought it was thatchers goernment in 1989 who privatised english and welsh water?)

Major was a can't  , and so was his administration whom i well remember.

Major certainly was well aware of the cash for questions corruption at the heart of his governing party . An extremely poor uk prime minister , who led the rot that enabled the red tory tony blair to come to power in 1997 , and his party to reign largely unchalleneged for the best part of thirteen years.

People on here and elsewhere go on about boris johnsons luck and perceived charms and positivity. Its all bollocks.

Boris johnson is prime minister for one reason and one reason only....brexit.

If major had been in charge of the tories in 2019 spouting pro EU propaganda as he is wont to do , the man would have hamstrung the tories  , and i suspect pro leave parties on the right would have mopped up in the tory shires across england such was the exasperation of the electorate for what went on between 2016 - 2019.

Its hard to quantify and compare majors administration and johnsons , different times , different political eras , but for me personally i think majors government was worse than johnsons in many ways.

[srb7677]

And as my last post in steams arch remainer Major,whilst Boris has failed in this totally it's a bit rich Major citing standards when his administration was full of sleaze and if he wants to call morally corrupt has he forgotten his penchant for curry,pot and kettle springs to mind.

As I am sure you will appreciate, I am no fan of John Major and his Tory government, which privatised the railways and water companies, and viscerally opposed the working time directive in spite of it's pro EU bona fides and opposed the minimum wage tooth and nail. We had to wait for Blair's lot for that.

But most of the sleeze in the Major years came from a few backbench individuals on the make and not from the heart of government as now. And Major's government did not break treaties or attempt to act in illegal and corrupt ways led from the top. In other words, it is much worse now and goes to the heart of government.

But yes, he was having it away with Edwina Currie at the time whilst he and his government were preaching back to basics and family values to the rest of us. So on that score Major cannot be beaten for hypocrisy.

[cromwell]

And as my last post in steams arch remainer Major,whilst Boris has failed in this totally it's a bit rich Major citing standards when his administration was full of sleaze and if he wants to call morally corrupt has he forgotten his penchant for curry,pot and kettle springs to mind.

[srb7677]

there's the opportunity to roll back brexit and I'm pretty sure that's what's coming.

That is almost certain if Starmer gets in. He will say anything to an electorate to get votes, but if elected he will do what he really wants regardless of what he said. He has done that in his own party already. If you don't want Brexit rolled back, never trust a party led by Starmer with your vote.

[cromwell]

Read a piece somewhere can't remember where that this and other things make the govt look like a tired old administration creaking along been in power to long and the feeling is they need to go.

And yeah that looks fair comment,ripe for replacement and what with covid,brexit,the climate emergencyRant I stick on my conspiracy hat there's the opportunity to roll back brexit and I'm pretty sure that's what's coming.

[Sampanviking]

Without a rudder, even ships of state will just follow the flow of every passing tide......

[srb7677]

The Tories seem to be making a habit of doing the wrong thing, then doing a U turn to do the right thing after some kind of backlash. 

I will say this for the obnoxious Thatcher:- right or wrong, once she'd made a decision she stuck to it for good or ill.

It seems that "the lady is not for turning" has been replaced by someone with more turns than a weather vane in a tornado.

Doing something bad - getting a predictable backlash - then reversing to belatedly do the right thing in response to pressure, is not good politics. Far better to do the right thing in the first place and then stick by that.

This government is indeed fortunate to have Sir Wet Luttuce and a bunch of people who still think it is 1997 in opposition.

But when it comes to deciding whether to vote for either, it is about as fruitful an exercise as trying to decide between the virtues of dogshit or catshit on your lawn.

[patman post]

Describing the sprayed words "Tory Sleaze" on the office of a Tory hardline dinosaur as vandalism seems a bit OTT, even though it's probably legally referred to as criminal damage. Admittedly, it's not to be encouraged...

[papasmurf]

Resigned — now let's see how much of the 22,000 majority the Tories can hold on to...

Link:- Tory MP Owen Paterson resigns amid standards row - BBC News

[Barry]

Resigned — now let's see how much of the 22,000 majority the Tories can hold on to...

Very wise decision. Feelings are running high over this standards issue, Peter Bone's office in Wellingborough was vandalised in response to his vote in the commons yesterday.
The resignation will hopefully reduce the pressure a bit. 

[patman post]

Resigned — now let's see how much of the 22,000 majority the Tories can hold on to...

[Borchester]

It's all very well to say it wasn't fair and the system wrong,as many have pointed out  why did he not change this a while ago.

This stinks more than what Paterson was alleged to have done.

It does seem odd.

What with this and allying himself with the tree buggers, Boris seems to be losing his touch. It is hard not to think of the last years of the Blessed St Margaret

[papasmurf]

I am more than angry about this what can only be called  corruption.  Owen Paterson is being paid a lot of money by Randox, a company on the government approved Covid 19 testing list who charged me an amount of money for the two tests my wife and I had to have when we returned from holiday a few days ago, I can only describe as robbery.