Don't you just love the Tories?

£37 billions have gone walkabout. That's a very large number of tests. It's more than three times the NASA MSR budget. I

 

It was everybody's fault but theirs ,the narrative that fellow working class people are having it away with your taxes weather it's through benefit's or immigrants are all here for a free ride has definitely worked. The point that while we are all looking down no one's looking up is never better made we haven't a clue what money is we really haven't.

 

Meanwhile, at a more local level, there's a mysterious investigation imminent into Barnsley's own right-wing nutjob.

Given her track record, it's hard to guess what the circumstances are likely to be.

https://news.sky.com/story/tory-mp-...on-by-parliaments-standards-watchdog-13033359

 

“A co-chair of the New Conservatives - one of the "five families" of right-wing factions within the Tory party”

people’s popular front of judea springs to mind…

 

Lets say £1 per test in bulk. £37b is about 550 tests for every person in the UK. Obviously most people didn't use anything like that, but many employed in the NHS and social care were testing before each shift for an extended period of time. And many patients had tests before hospital appointments, etc. Then, you've got PCR tests that are £20-30 each time.

I'm not saying they spaffed the entire £37bn on tests, but it would easily be upwards of £10bn - and £20bn wouldn't surprise me.

 

I liked his column in VIZ.

 

It would seem that this concerns an event in the office of the Deputy Speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing. Sir Bernard Jenkin was also present. It has been claimed that this was a work event promoting 'Women2Win', which aims to help more women achieve public office. At some point it is reported that the curtains were drawn and it is implied that this became more of a social event when such were prohibited under the lockdown rules.

Johnson's woes related more to blatant lying to Parliament about such events, and Sunak simply received a FPN regarding his brush with such events. So I wouldn't have thought the Parliamentary Standards Committee would be issuing a sanction that would be likely to lead to her recall. Hopes of that probably rest more with her constituents being disillusioned with the damage caused by brexit and voting her out at the GE, when called.

 

Interesting. Where have you seen that it's connected to that event?

The story has arisen due to her name being added to a list of 8 MPs currently under investigation for various matters. Laing, Jenkin and Virginia Crosbie are all under investigation under the same alleged breach (Paragraph 17, 2019 code) but the investigation opened dates aren't consistent for each of them. Crosbie and Laing's are 15/11/23, Jenkin's is 7/12/23 and Cates is 14/12/23. It's possible that they relate to the same event, and that the investigative net is widening over time, but it's also feasible that they're unrelated matters.

No-one is allowed to provide further details officially while it's ongoing, so I'm intrigued as to who or where the speculation has come from. It sounds like a plausible explanation, but could potentially be unrelated too.

To be honest, I'll be a bit disappointed if it turns out to be a lockdown-related matter, as I think the seriousness of it will be glossed over in the public eye as that story has 'concluded' to some extent with Johnson's investigation and suspension. I thought it might be due to her links to conversion therapy or one of her other lunatic views.

 

I think it's a breaking lockdown thing isn't it?

 

Times report this morning, Mr S.