In the news

And well beyond most people's reach, especially as a third (?) place to live.

It’s been a thing here recently with Private Equity companies buying stuff up.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/20/ruthless-private-equity-firms-gobble-up-property-wreak-havoc-on-tenants-lives

But he’ll lose most of that with the inevitable divorce?

It may seem strange that Johnson is sticking his neck out for Paterson, but really this whole mechanism (corporate lobbying) is central to his business model.

At the last election, Johnson raised unpredecedented sums through coprorate donation, which was then ploughed back into attack-ads on FB that in turn played no small role in consolidating his 80 seat majority. By protecting Paterson, Johnson is signalling to past and future donors that he is prioritising their ROI, and even prepared to expend some political capital in doing so.

https://www.ft.com/content/eb4c2506-594d-11ea-abe5-8e03987b7b20

I do wonder why Paterson wasn't sacrificed and then the system quietly changed afterwards. It's pretty unlikely he'd have been recalled and even less likely the tories would have lost a very safe seat.

If this had all happened without the retrospectively changing the rules element I suspect it would have been far more palatable.

Johnson is also under investigation by the same committee..

Because they can and they don't give a fuck. They know it'll blow over in a few days and most people won't really care or understand what's gone on.

I thought it was a different one investigating Johnson (Electoral Commission?) although I can fully accept there may be more than one investigation going on.

I think that committee actually found that he hadn't done anything wrong (or at least that wrong) when it investigated him.

Exactly this. Keep doing what you're doing and the proles will lose interest.

Brilliant

I think that committee actually found that he hadn't done anything wrong (or at least that wrong) when it investigated him.

They found his dodgy holiday in Mustique was a breach of ministerial, but wasn't upheld (as PM is the final arbiter, natch). Now investigating whether doing up the flat with a 'loan' from a donor was a breach of rules.

And now they u turned, don't know how the spineless bunch who vote for whatever they are told to must feel each time they are undermined by thier leadership

They are the government of u-turns as well as the government (full) of cunts

Not saying it's not, just seems an odd thing for him to buy.

Unless of course he has bought a 7 bedroom Georgian town house worth 10m off a 'friend'.

Ah yes, makes sense. I was wondering why cause so much noise when this would have been forgotten about otherwise.

This a possible scenario, along with them being shameless, them being incompetent, them being an empathy free club for boarding school alumni.

The Committee found that Johnson hadn't breached the rules on his holiday. For the doing up the flat, that's been passed to some other committee (not quite sure why).

Full reverse ferret action today then.

Can scum feel?

Nice to see Kwarteng thrown under the bus tho.

Why would any senior minister agree to go out to bat for this shower of pricks? They u-turn minutes after they defend the indefensible. Every. Single. Time.

You love to see it though.

What the fuck is this U turn? Lost for words. What are they doing? It's like they're actively trying to destroy their own popularity

In Westminster the Tories are in thrall to lobbyists & donors. Individual MPs get bulging Inboxes of irate emails from voters.
Balancing these competing forces in beyond Johnson.

Westminster voting intention -

Con 120% +80%
Lab 20% -10%
LDem 10% -4%

...or something like that I expect.

Aaaaaand it's dropped that the Goldsmiths paid for Johnson's holiday to Marbella. And you'd be a fool and a communist to link that to Zac's peerage and ministerial post.

I think they bet on no one caring (as that's the case, more often than not). They also hedge on papers like the Express simping for them (today's front page is a joke).

But even the DM got a whiff of blood in the water today so u-turn it is.