The Anatomy of Tory Hubris
Someone else found themselves high and dry: the crooked member for North Shropshire himself. Reportedly out shopping in the supermarket when he heard, before the kids were home from school his resignation letter was in and zipping around the newsrooms and socials. Having blown up the standards committee to defend Paterson's non-existent honour, the screeching 180 meant Wednesday's theatrics were for nothing. He'd have to go through the humiliation of the suspension, and very probably the rigmarole of a by-election where his "integrity" would have had issues washing with local constituents.
The letter itself is as grubby a resignation note you're ever likely to see. He attacks unspecified MPs for mocking his late wife, Rose Paterson, and using the standards committee findings to "belittle our pain". This is news to anyone closely following proceedings. Hansard will show no MP has made light of the tragic circumstances surrounding her death - not that it stopped Paterson's Salopian confederate, Lucy Allen, from jumping in with her size nines. What a bit of diligent searching might find is how the official inquest found no evidence the standards investigation was a contributing factor, a position backed up by Paterson's own statements at the time. It's only since he was found guilty that the committee were retrospectively held responsible. Grotesque is the appropriate word for this situation, but is it any wonder when we consider the petty point scoring uses the murder of a fellow Tory MP was put to? There's sleaze, there's corruption, and then there are great black holes of moral vacuity.
After expending political capital and riling up backbenchers who cling to parliamentary mores, why did Boris Johnson pedal his bike into reverse? Quite obviously, painful headlines and a knock to the Tories could have been avoided had Paterson served his 30 days without a fuss. And the by-election, which was by no means a dead cert, might have passed without much excitement or attention from national media. As many have observed, the "solidarity" with Paterson - the sentiments that motivated the dread Andrea Leadsom in crafting her amendment - were utilised to eviscerate parliamentary accountability ahead of more standard hearings involving the poltroon-in-chief. Given that they won, why tip the fruits of their victory onto the compost heap?
The first is pain. Unlike the other awful things the Tories have done recently, like the raw sewage scandal and the Universal Credit cut, the wronged party, for most people the Tories want to influence, is not an abstract, unrelatable entity. It's them. As the MPs expenses scandal catalysed public antipathy and ran, and ran, and ran as the Telegraph drip fed the revelations, keeping Paterson around makes it look like Johnson went out on a limb to shield him from the consequences of corrupt dealings, and therefore could invite further scrutiny into the lobbying undertaken by other honourable members. Second, the manner of Wednesday's disgraceful spectacle so comprehensively irked the opposition that the cover was not there for a new standards system. Even the Daily Express would have had a difficult time selling a scrutiny system designed and staffed by the government to hold the government to account, to its gullible readers. Johnson and the chief whip were not expecting Labour and the SNP to boycott their "cross party" committee, and so were left with little choice to abandon their enterprise.
And then there is hubris. Politicians miscalculate, especially if they have an overinflated sense of their power and the depth of their support in the country. The persistent Tory leads in the wake of repeated failures and the growing pile of Covid dead has emboldened Johnson to Sun King levels of self-delusion. With an 80 strong majority, an opposition that won't say boo to a goose, and his own blue wall of black and white news print and broadcast journalism, Johnson is inflated by the bubble they puff up around him. Add to this the Tories' commitment to authoritarian statecraft in which the executive has the divine right to act with impunity, we have a social, political, and institutional context gravid with disasters. The inept handling of the Paterson episode probably won't matter a year from now, but it serves to remind us that, again, the Tories aren't infallible because they make the right calls. It shows that focused, determined opposition, even from a position of relative weakness, can help push the Tories into reverse and make political weather. And perhaps, just perhaps, if this is done more often maybe the political climate can change too.
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