Former Tory MP Matthew Parris was chatting to Matt Chorley about why MPs end up in sex scandals:
“When I was a Member of Parliament I was cruising for sex on Clapham Common, and that was a really stupid stupid thing to do, and looking back on it, it was over 40 years ago now, I can’t imagine why I did it and why I thought I wouldn’t be caught. I got beaten up, I broke my jaw and lots of ribs, but it never got into the newspapers. Why did I do it? I don’t know. I think the kind of person that goes into politics has an extraordinary sense that they’re going to be luckier than others and that fortunes are going to turn their way.“
Lee Anderson, seeing the number of MPs rushing for a cigarette after last night’s vote, tells Guido:
“It must’ve been incredibly stressful for some MPs to vote to ban smoking last night, so much so that they dashed through the “Aye” lobby straight onto the Terrace to spark up. Stressful times indeed.“
Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says..
“A new era of prohibition has begun. No matter how this absurd policy is dressed up, it is a gross infringement on freedom and opens the door to future prohibitions on alcohol, gambling, vaping and so-called junk food. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.”
Nick Robinson explains his use of language…
“There’s been some controversy about words I used when I was interviewing the Foreign Secretary David Cameron on The Today Programme abut Israel this morning. My final question was about the perceived “morality” of the government’s position – in particular the “risk” that their position could “appear” to look like active support for Israel when it is under attack but nothing other than words “when Israel attacks or murders tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians”. I should have been clearer that I was not expressing my own view let alone that of the BBC when I used the words “murders”. In this 15 minute long interview I asked the Foreign Secretary why ministers had supported Israel militarily; why they didn’t go further & support Israel in confronting Iran; why they weren’t tougher in confronting Israel over Gaza and ended with that question about the perceived “morality” and the “risk” of how the government’s position “appears”. It was a lengthy and detailed exploration of the policy choices made by the government.”
Cameron throws shade on Boris…
“I have not been sitting like some latter day de Gaulle … waiting to be asked, how should I put it, to ‘take back control’. Nor am I Cincinnatus, hovering over my plough. I leave all classical allusions, and indeed illusions for that matter, to another former prime minister with whom I shared a number of educational experiences”.
John Rentoul writes…
“Of course, Rayner should explain in more detail why she was not liable for tax on the sale of her house. It may be, for example, that, having nominated her house as her primary residence, as she was entitled to do, her former husband was liable for tax on the sale of his house – as a married couple may nominate only one… She will have to come clean eventually, because this is the sort of story that could catch fire in an election campaign, however unfair it may seem to her.”
