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Bishop Hill Jun 10, 2013 Climate: Parliament The Energy and Climate Change Committee meets to discuss the Yeo affair tomorrow, according to the Evening Standard:
Senior Tory Tim Yeo faces a showdown meeting tomorrow with MPs over whether he should continue chairing a Commons committee following controversy over commercial interests.
Speaking publicly on the row for the first time, Mr Yeo admitted talking to a freight firm boss five days before he appeared before the Commons energy and climate change committee which he chairs.
Reader Comments (27)
'What I say privartely is a different matter'...
Well - now we know how it works, don't we..?
Yep answers worked out before questions.
I wonder if Deben and Yeo are engaged in an internecine tussle with each other: Yeo vs Deben
So, what I want to know is this: if Trougher Tim was in fact lying to the sting operators when he claimed to have coached someone prior to a committee appearance, and if he was lying when claiming he would have to apply his enormous influence in an undercover way so it wasn't too obvious, and if he was lying just so he could pocket £7000/day and actually do nothing, is this a worse or lesser sin than being a corrupt gobshite?
I only hope that tomorrow's show down will not be the end of the matter. Cameron must treat this Trougher as he treated Col. Mercer. Unless, of course,Yeo has the decency to resign the Whip and his seat, then there will be no need to do anything.
So, what I want to know is this: if Trougher Tim was in fact lying to the sting operators when he claimed to have coached someone prior to a committee appearance, and if he was lying when claiming he would have to apply his enormous influence in an undercover way so it wasn't too obvious, and if he was lying just so he could pocket £7000/day and actually do nothing, is this a worse or lesser sin than being a corrupt gobshite?
Jun 10, 2013 at 1:22 PM | steveta
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This point ought to have been included in the letter to the Met.
If this is Yeo's line of argument, at first brush is implies that there may be a case to answer relating to seeking to obtain a pecumiary advantage (namely the £7,000 per day fee) by deception (lying about the extent of his connections, the influence he can bring to bear and his covert coaching of a witness etc).
As Steveta says, surely Yeo cannot have it both ways?
Troffa must not be allowed to wriggle of this hook.
If he does Parliament will be in total disrepute.
There is only one place fit for Troffa and that is where Hunhe was- albeit for too short a time.
So one lot of troughers are going to question one of their own?
Pardon me if I don't have high expectations of anything happening here!
Mailman
You do have to listen carefully, but that tectonic collision of political change does actually make a noise. Yeo porcine crackling anyone?
Pointman
whether he should continue chairing a Commons committee? Yes/No
I hear the bookies will not take bets.
Popcorn time hopefully.
The independent says:
Parliamentary investigation to be launched into Tim Yeo lobbying allegations
The Parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, is expected to launch an investigation today into an allegation that the chairman of a powerful Commons committee used his position to help business colleagues.
Trougher Tim referred himself to the standards commissioner, so I guess she can't ignore it.
Politics really attracts some pond life doesn't it?
Peter Stroud 1.52
The words Yeo and decency in the same sentence?
Steveta
The only way he can square this is if he is in fact Schroedinger's trougher, having mastered the art of simultaneously coaching John Smith (for the purpose of boasting to the undercover reporter) and not coaching him (for the record). If he does have this ability it may have helped him in his complicated life in the early 1990s, as well.
i bet he gets away with it. greenies always seem to get away with it.
It OK Yeo has explained how by 'lucky chance ' he happened to on a train in the same carriage has someone that by 'lucky chance ' was due to come before the his committee and has you do, along with talking about the weather , football etc then talked about the 'best' approach for him to take before said committee.
So just 'LUCK CHANCE' and casual conversation.
The problem is, AGW acted as a honey pot in the most amazing way, and this made it impossible for the science to get an objective hearing. It was an interesting and plausible hypothesis in much the same way as the saturated fat - cholesterol heart disease hypothesis was. And like that, it did deserve careful examination. Its just that as soon as it started to get acceptance, people like Yeo and Gore jumped on the opportunity, and we started to get vested interests advocating science by whatever means were possible.
It was funnily enough just like tobacco. They had to find some way of denigrating and refuting all opposition in order to persuad governments to put in the huge sums that were possible to extract from it.
I don't think it started out as a scam, but once it became an evangelical cause it certainly attracted scammers. And its not over yet. Today's Guardian has a piece about how 5 degrees is inevitable unless we act rapidly to avert it. And then we have maniacs arguing that the Bristol barrage will help save the planet in some way. Heaven knows how.
Andrew Pierce's piece in the Daily Mail weighs him up and how. Contempt leaps from the page.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338575/ANDREW-PIERCE-Tim-Yeo-accident-waiting-happen.html
KNR "It OK Yeo has explained how by 'lucky chance ' he happened to on a train..."
Hang on, it was a planned visit to a freight train (not obviously going anywhere, although it might have been), no chance involved. In other words, a venue for a meeting -
"Mr Yeo said he had met Mr Smith five days before he gave evidence during a visit to one of the firm's freight trains."
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22830707]
But the "train" contributes to Yeo's framing of the story:
"I spoke ... *to* Mr Smith" [Mr Smith was mute under my instruction.]
It was on a train [conversations on trains don't matter. Too much background noise, too many trips to the buffet.]
It was "brief" [nothing important can be said briefly - it takes at least 3 hours to say anything important.]
Obviously Yeo had never seen a train before and needed to check it out for billing purposes. No refreshments were harmed in the course of this meeting.
A separate point:
"I did not want him to think that my silence indicated a lack of interest in what he was saying." So he recused, but was actually present? My understanding is (BIAABOVLB) that recusal is physical - you are supposed to leave the room?
BIAABOVLB - But I am a bear...
SH
Apparently Trougher's wife is an insider at the BBC. Should have guessed, really - an easy ride all round.
Have I Got News For You? No, move along, nothing to see here, as per usual.
Breaking : Yeo stands down
http://order-order.com/2013/06/10/yeo-goes/
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get Yeo too
Another one bites the dust
Bu**er!
I was just thinking that what we really need is for Yeo to hang on grimly..thereby emasculating t'Committee and all who sail in her for the forseeable future
And now he's 'temporarily stood aside'.
Anybody want to offer odds on
1. Him ever returning to that post
2. His current value to other green troffers?
Wasn't it Yeo who was involved in saying that London taxis had to go green- and they were then supplied by the eco vehicles company by whom he was retained?
His 'speaking privately is another matter', and the likelihood that it would be HE that questions the freight firm boss at the Select Committee, reminds me of the old music hall magician joke:
'I want someone from the audience. You lad - come up here would you..? Now you've never seen me before, have you..?'
'No, Dad...'