beyond the standards committee imbroglio of the last few days. there is a general whiff of, "we are the masters now" about their behaviour. he's referring to the former cabinet minister owen paterson, who's now resigned as an mp. he was facing a 30 days commons suspension and the possibility of a by—election for breaking rules around the work he did for private companies, alongside being an mp. but the government tried to block or delay that. until, at least, it changed its mind. i think the way the government handled that was shameful and wrong and unworthy of this or indeed any government. it also had the effect of trashing the reputation of parliament. if there is one man who knows a thing or two about how damaging sleaze can be to a government, it would be sirjohn major. it came, at least in part, to define his time in office. and we should remember, sirjohn is no fan of borisjohnson, and hasn't been for some time —