Pooh, Pooh, Where Are You?

-


Well, surprise, surprise; Doris Pooh is not present at the debate on Parliamentary standards: the very debate that has been triggered by his own actions in last week's abortive attack on Parliamentary democratic process. The collective smirk of the Tory party is being wiped off their collective physiognomy, with the entire Opposition laying into - entirely justifiably - every last infringement that the Bear-Of-Little-Brain has committed since becoming Prime Minister. And the Leader of the House simply sits silently without contribution - his job is House business, after all - in his place, normally to the right hand of the Prime Minister; predictably absent, as I've said.

Now we have Alberto Costa (Conservative, Leicestershire South) arguing that the processes operated in enforcing standards are flawed and that reform of those processes is necessary. This is generally agreed upon on both sides of the House, although Sir Keir Starmer's contribution to the debate as Leader of the Opposition pointed out that in the case in question that spurred this debate, there was ample opportunity afforded to the individual involved to offer rebuttal to the accusations against him.

The point that the Opposition - and anyone else who cares a whit for democracy - are making is not that the standards process currently extant is at fault, though might it be; rather that the Prime Minister and his Government sought last week to force through a vote which, with it's subsequent rapid reversal has seriously damaged the public's trust - once again - in the probity of it's Government and Prime Minister alike. Still the stalwarts of Tory obfuscation and misdirection - Sir Bill Cash offering  his usual blather to the debate - operate the tired old "...who me/us?..." stratagem, blithely ignoring the simple facts of the matter laid before them.

The point of the debate is not the particulars of the specific case of lobbying misconduct against Owen Paterson - the facts of the case itself are incontrovertible and the individual has resigned - but the fact that the Prime Minister  has consistently sought to subvert Parliamentary democracy in the service of his friends and allies and by extension himself. If there is any natural justice in this world, his legacy on leaving office will be that he presided over one of the most corrupt administrations hitherto seen in this country. I think Pooh should just bugger off back to the woods and leave the rest of us in peace. Oh, I forgot, that's where he's already hiding...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [
Read more