Two fewer snouts in the trough? Winterton and Robinson

Sir Nicholas Winterton, the Conservative backbencher, gained notoriety by defending the right of MPs to retain undeclared interests in conjunction with their political work. Unsurprisingly, in the current climate, he has decided to stand down at the next election; a decision which will no doubt cause his party leader little enough distress.

Winterton, you’ll remember, addressed an audience of DUP members back in January, criticising the UUP-Conservative pact for undermining ‘unionist unity’. With his attitude to expenses, it is easy to see how he could be drawn towards a party containing the Swish Family Robinson.

The fewer sitting MPs of Winterton’s ilk that seek re-election, the better it is for the reputation of the House of Commons. And with his ally, Peter Robinson, also likely to step down from Westminster at the next election, at least two of the most notorious snouts could have been withdrawn from the trough.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would not be at all surprised if he took the DUP Whip a la Andrew Hunter
25 May 2009 at 20:51
Timothy Belmont said…
Any speculation as to Peter Robinson's DUP successor in East Belfast? The bets would surely be on the DUP to retain Belfast East; still, it shan't be a clear-cut next time round.

Tim
25 May 2009 at 22:24
Owen Polley said…
Haven't heard anything about the DUP Tim, but rumours abound that Tim Collins will be the Conservative and Unionist candidate.
26 May 2009 at 09:08
Timothy Belmont said…
That's most intriguing, Chekov. They lived (his Mum still does) very close to us; he and I were great pals as boys and we used to take short-cuts through "the woods" to school. One day we were playing at an old sand-pit and I fell on a piece of corrugated-iron, causing a one inch gash on my wrist. Timothy Collins took me to Mrs Collins nearby and she dressed my wound.
I still have the scar and it can be clearly seen today.
Tim Collins and I lost touch when we grew up and I haven;t met him for forty years; I still see Mrs Collins, though and know her.

Tim
26 May 2009 at 09:58
Timothy Belmont said…
Meant to add, you'll be unsurprised to hear that we loved playing soldiers! Tim and I formed a platoon of boy-soldiers; we used our fathers' military gear and dressed up as soldiers. We paraded in our back gardens and Tim acted Capt Mainwaring! It was great fun and I have a snap or two of those times. Timothy Collins really looked the part - very smart - with his Dad's medal ribbons etc. I looked quite authentic too because my Dad was a major in the Army!

Tim
26 May 2009 at 10:06
Jeffrey Peel said…
Well said. Good riddance to 'em.
26 May 2009 at 10:19
Owen Polley said…
A classic boyhood by the sounds of it Tim!
26 May 2009 at 10:27
Frank Little said…
I note that both Howard and Duncan Smith found Ann Winterton's racist humour too much. I guess that the pair are white supremacists who would be an embarrassment to Cameron if they remained.
26 May 2009 at 10:43
Anonymous said…
It is warning to those who want to step out of line - don't annoy Cameron just as the Winterton's and the DUP did.

He seems to to be in the you are 'for me or a agin me' mould about time too.
CU
26 May 2009 at 12:46
Dinamo said…
In Smolenskia oblast we had a commissar who we had to get rid of due to his excessive behaviour in Moscow. He betrayed the people.
And I had a comrade in the uniform -making gubernia who stole corn and was found to be a kulak. Again his fate was sealed and a new comrade elected.
26 May 2009 at 20:39
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football fever in Russia

Russia Blog is getting excited about Euro 2008. Indeed it is drawing parallels between Guus Hiddink and Peter the Great in terms of successful Russo-Dutch exchanges of expertise. Meanwhile, in Moscow, fans have been taking to the streets in order to celebrate the national team’s achievements.
Read more

Stormont might not collapse but paramilitaries continue to disfigure Northern Ireland

Image
The devolved institutions in Northern Ireland are supposedly ‘teetering on the brink’ of collapse yet again.  After repeated failures to agree a balanced budget or implement welfare reform created months of uncertainty, the Executive’s future is now in doubt because the PSNI believes members of the IRA were involved in murdering a republican hit man.  Despite its apparent seriousness, this particular predicament is unlikely to bring the shaky edifice at Stormont crashing down. The IRA was supposed to have disbanded its military ‘structures’ and decommissioned its entire arsenal of weapons back in 2005.  It was on the basis of this understanding that power-sharing resumed in 2007 and the DUP entered government with Sinn Féin.  From the outset it was a fairly flimsy pretext.   Less than a year after John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general, oversaw decommissioning, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported that the IRA retaine...
Read more

Walker loada rubbish

Former BBC employee Brian Walker has overrun Slugger O’Toole lately with countless poorly structured, poorly written posts. It is possible quickly to recognize and avoid these by subjecting each Slugger piece to a cursory inspection and identifying those which feature characteristic lack of paragraphing and a tenuous grasp on the technicalities of linking source articles. Although I generally evade Walker’s posts by this method, occasionally (and unfortunately) I have persevered and found that their content is as unrewarding as the style in which they are written. Today, for instance, I inflicted upon myself Brian’s thoughts on a mooted Fianna Fail / SDLP merger . In actual fact, he is right to welcome news that the Southern Irish party has dropped this proposal from its agenda; however, the logic by which he arrives at this conclusion is parochial nonsense. To summarise, Walker believes that pursuing realignment with larger parties, whether they are from the rest of the UK or fro...
Read more