Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Paterson-gate could be a flat tyre moment for Boris
THE American writer Tom Wolfe wrote a classic book, The Bonfire Of The Vanities, back in the 1980s.
It was said to have captured like no other work the very essence of the “greed is good” arrogance of that era.
It was also made into a not-so-good movie with Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis.
The story centres around Sherman Mccoy, a bond salesman who is raking it in. He has it all – the big house, the big car, the big money, a beautiful wife, a sultry mistress. He considers himself a “master of the universe”. It all came tumbling down, due in no small part to hubris on Sherman’s part in that he made the mistake of thinking the little people didn’t matter. Watching the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Sky News last week for some odd reason the story of Sherman Mccoy came back to me. Following the Tory Party’s decision to support Owen Paterson and dump on the Westminster Standards Commissioner, Kathryn Stone, Kwarteng suggested that maybe the commissioner should be “considering her position” – political speak for she should resign.
The clear implication – the injured party was now poor Mr Paterson who had accepted 500,000 quid for privately lobbying on behalf of two Northern Ireland firms whilst still collecting his public salary as an MP.
There was no conflict of interest between the two for the former Secretary of State, the Business Secretary said. So, the guilty party was clearly Ms Stone who had dared, after considerable investigation, to described Mr Paterson’s behaviour as “egregious”.
And, initially, it all went pretty well for the Tories with the Commons voting not to suspend Mr Paterson.
“Initially” lasted 18 hours. When all hell broke loose, even some of the rabid right wing media were going ape.
Downing Street went for the classic U-turn throwing Paterson to the wolves and claiming it was little more than a storm in a tea cup. Not so. The backlash has been intense. On Saturday morning former Prime Minister John Major called the actions of Boris Johnson’s Government “politically corrupt”. He commented: “I think the way the Government handled that was shameful, wrong and unworthy of this, or indeed any Government.
“There’s a general whiff of, ‘We are the masters now’, about their behaviour. They also behaved badly in other ways.”
Boris’ Government has been accused in the past of “lying to/or misleading” the Queen, unlawfully attempting to prorogue parliament, bad faith in negotiations with the EU and generally being untrustworthy.
But he keeps getting away with it. A flat tyre late at night in the wrong part of town was the catalyst for Sherman Mccoy’s destruction. Human experience has taught that you can only get away with this kind of thing for so long before fate or karma – call it whatever you like – catches up.
Might be a bit of over-egging on my part but could Paterson-gate be Boris’ flat tyre moment?