Parliamentary woes then and now

Owen Paterson, former Northern Ireland Secretary, was the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry, alleging breach of House of Commons rules.

He was accused, and found guilty, of lobbying on behalf of two companies from whom he received payment of £100,000 per annum. Not bad work if you can get it!

The investigating body decided that he should be suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days, a sentence equivalent to the punishment meted out some years back to the member for North Antrim.

Attempts by Tory members to defend their colleague misfired, and Mr. Paterson then resigned his seat.

Flying under the radar was a court sentence on Claudia Webbe, formerly Labour M.P. for Leicester East, and not sitting as an independent member.

She was found guilty on one charge of harassment and given a ten-week prison sentence suspended for two years.

The court was told that she had threatened to throw acid in the face of another woman who had befriended her partner.

Although we expect better behaviour from those chosen to make our laws, but know full well that they are just frail human beings like the rest of us.

The list of politicians who have fallen foul of the law is a lengthy one.

The names of Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aiken spring to mind, as well as that of the high-profile Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan.

Almost 100 years ago, another high-flier was brought low.

Horatio Bottomley was a journalist, financier, Member of Parliament and swindler. He edited the robustly British magazine, ‘John Bull’, and was noted for his patriotic oratory during World War One.

In 1922, however, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

The chaplain to Wormwood Scrubs prison was somewhat apprehensive about meeting this distinguished prisoner, and decided that his best method of approach was simply to give his own testimony.

He told Bottomley how one evening Bristol’s Colston Hall (named after the slave trader beneficiary whose statue was recently hauled down), he had heard Canon Hay Aitken preach on the words of Jesus to Nicodemus ‘Ye must be born again’(John 3:7).

That evening, the chaplain said, I responded to the call of Christ.

Bottomley then asked, ‘What year was that?’, and when the chaplain answered Bottomley said, ‘That’s amazing! I too was in the Colston Hall that night, and heard Canon Hay Aiken preach in the words of Jesus, ‘Ye must be born again’.

I was on the point of going forward, and then I said to myself, ‘No, I’m going to live my own life my own way’.

After a brief silence, he said, ‘All I can say now is that a life without Christ is a wasted life!’

Don’t waste your life, gentle reader.