Nadine, Jacob, Boris - And Contempt

As the not-really-news-channels out there on the right vie with one another to cobble together the most seriously wacko defence of disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson over the distinct possibility that he misled the House over all those Downing Street parties, two of their pundits have made what could prove a seriously bad mistake.

First, on Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkTV, trying its best to emulate the wacko level of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) has come a sneak preview of no discernible subtlety for new show Friday Night with Nadine, fronted by Mid Bedfordshire MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries, who gives every appearance of forgetting that she sits in that House.

“Nadine Dorries says Boris Johnson will be found guilty by the ‘kangaroo court’ privileges committee, but thinks he and his legal team would not ‘take this egregious abuse of parliamentary procedure lying down’” proclaimed the TalkTV Twitter feed. Catherine Mayer noted “If Boris Johnson is Westminster's version of Trump, here's its Marjorie Taylor Greene”. OUCH!

Open contempt of an active investigation, is it? Alastair Campbell, who knows a little about these things, reckoned so. “A Tory MP on a tv station funded by right wing hedge fund Sovereign Individual types using the channel for open contempt of a Parliamentary committee and therefore of Parliament. All to defend another Tory MP who has promised her a peerage”.

It’s all a bit Gladys Pugh, isn’t it? “Ooh that Boris, ‘e’s my ‘ero”. But, as Ian Dunt observed after Bozo’s appearance before the Privileges Committee, “Important fact there from Harman. Johnson is going to try to discredit the committee as a kangaroo court, In fact, it is responding to a request of the Commons and follows the rules of the Commons”.

And she’s a member of the Commons. It’s not such a big deal for other pundits on TalkTV or Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) to slag off the Committee, but for an MP to do it while an investigation is still in progress - Oh Dear. And, talking of GB News and MPs slagging off the Privileges Committee, someone else has been at it.

That someone is the member for times long past Jacob Rees Mogg, who has slagged off the Privileges Committee during the latest iteration of “Jacob’s Moggologue” (I say, isn’t this a bit Flowerpot Men? - Ed. Yob. Wobba lobba floggin’ cloblobs). GB News told “Jacob Rees-Mogg says the Privileges Committee was 'determined to get Boris' during his hearing today”. How so?

Get this from the Moggster. “It’s this position of Boris, his success in leading Brexit, that has ultimately led to him being in front of the Privileges Committee [bullshit, but do go on] today. So never really about cake or curtains, or indeed about Chris Pincher [no-one said it was. Get on with it]. It was fundamentally about Brexit and the reaction of the establishment to Boris as the figure … Boris is the Fortnum and Mason of Brexiteers”.

24 carat shite. Bozo and Mogg are as establishment as they come. The latter digs himself in deeper by calling the Privileges Committee “partial and unfair”, while managing not to notice that the Committee member whose persistence tipped Bozo over the edge was Bernard Jenkin - an arch-Brexiteer.

Big Al called it straight away, adding “[Ofcom] people will begin questioning why you exist unless you deal with this. [Commons Speakr] is this not contempt of Parliament ? And [Rishi Sunak] if you allow Johnson his resignation honours it will taint you almost as much as it taints him and his crony peers. Be warned”. It looks like contempt, and waddles like contempt.

Meanwhile, Adam Bienkov of Byline Times pointed out the flaw in the Dorries argument. “I note that Dorries thinks triggering a by-election would ‘end the career’ of Boris Johnson. Surely she believes this massive election-winning asset would storm home in his own constituency?” But Bozo would lose, and badly. He is a spent force, rumbled, no longer credible, and disgraced.

Still, two separate contempt of Parliament hearings would liven things up a little. A by-election in Mid Bedfordshire would be even better. Bring it on.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton