the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 27
Leading articles
Paterson, are receiving fees as advisers and con-
sultants to companies. There is no reason why
MPs should not have second jobs when those jobs,
such as working as doctors or lawyers, do not
create a conflict with their obligation to represent
the interests of their constituents. Indeed parlia-
ment is often enriched by the perspectives that
MPs with such employment can bring to its delib-
erations. Yet it takes the public for fools to pretend
companies do not expect the MPs, to whom they
pay lucrative “consultancy fees”, to represent their
interests in parliament. That Mr Paterson was able
to get away with his lobbying for so long simply
confirms that the present rules are hopelessly
inadequate.
As with any sleaze scandal, the risk is that with-
out swift action to restore confidence in the
system, the public will lose respect for the laws that
parliament passes. That is dangerous for demo-
cracy. But whereas in the past, efforts to clean up
the system came from the top, this time it is Down-
ing Street itself that appears intent on weakening
safeguards, led by a prime minister who himself
faces questions over his own reliance on corporate
cash, not least relating to the funding of the
redecoration of his Downing Street flat. So who if
not Boris Johnson will lead the effort to restorepublic trust in the political system? On this score
there is at least some grounds for optimism.
Monday’s debate on the Paterson scandal in the
Commons was striking for the contributions of
several members of the 2019 Conservative intake
who spoke out compellingly against the attempt
by Mr Johnson to overturn the Paterson verdict
and rewrite the rules on parliamentary standards.
They included Andy Carter and Mark Fletcher,
both members of the standards committee which
found Mr Paterson guilty, and Aaron Bell, who
bravely resisted disgraceful pressure from Con-
servative whips to back the so-called Leadsom
amendment.
It is of course alarming that 250 Tory MPs did as
Mr Johnson ordered. Nonetheless, the courage
and integrity of those who defied the whip, com-
bined with the numbers who have since admitted
their regret at succumbing to pressure to vote
against their consciences, suggests that the
Conservative Party is not yet in the position of
America’s Republican Party, which appears to
have capitulated to Donald Trump’s claims of a
stolen election. The hope must be that Britain’s
political system can show itself to be self-correct-
ing. That will require further displays of courage
by MPs to stem the tide of corporate cash.Union by illegal mass migration are not only
humanitarian but political and moral. Since 2015,
when a million migrants arrived in a single year,
some from north Africa and many fleeing the war
in Syria, the bloc has wrestled with its responsibili-
ties, its capacity and its conscience. While now
outside the EU, Britain is by no means insulated
from the flow. Some 20,000 have illegally crossed
the Channel this year alone.
The Polish border is the eastern limit of the EU’s
Schengen area, which permits free travel between
26 countries. With an increasingly authoritarian
and nationalist government which has worked to
politicise the judiciary and the state media, the
country finds itself in conflict with the liberal
ideals of Brussels. Warsaw is demanding help from
EU allies to keep migrants out and looks likely to
get it. To the north, Lithuania is safeguarding its
border with Belarus, fearing similar scenes. On
Europe’s southeastern border, Greece is pushing
back against an influx of migrants encouraged by
Turkey.
Belarus accused Poland, and by extension the
EU, of indifference and an “inhumane attitude”towards those massing at the border. Although
independent, Lukashenko’s Belarus functions on-
ly with the blessing of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, ac-
cused President Putin and President Erdogan of
Turkey of exploiting the human misery of migra-
tion to “destabilise the West”. He is right. Russian
suggestions that the EU should respond by offer-
ing financial assistance to Belarus, as it did with
Turkey in 2016, only serve to confirm the remarks
of a European Commission spokesman, who
described the “gangster-style approach” of the
Belarusian regime.
All nations have a duty towards refugees but
none can be expected to absorb a limitless
number, deliberately dispatched across the
frontier of a borderline hostile state. With so little
regard for their wellbeing, President Lukashenko
cannot be allowed to leverage the vulnerable to
undermine western resolve. Irrespective of
Poland’s internal politics, the EU should support
Warsaw in defending the integrity of its borders,
and make it clear to the Belarusian regime that it
is on a path to even more sanctions.that it’s not very good. Her prose is pedestrian, her
plots are preposterous and her characterisation is
unfailingly wooden. And anyone still unaware of
the identity of the murderer in Christie’s play The
Mousetrap, which next year marks its 70th anni-
versary in the West End, will be able to guess it
long before the drama’s denouement.
Yet the clamour for Christie continues, and
there is a ready explanation. Great novels some-
times transfer successfully to the stage or screen,
such as the celebrated 1982 Channel 4 dramatisa-
tion of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickle-
by. More often, however, they strive and fail, likeMartin Scorsese’s 1993 film version of Edith
Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, which is ravish-
ing to look at but lacks the novel’s insights into
obsession. In the case of works that make no pre-
tence to psychological insight, directors have
every opportunity to overlay them with period de-
tail, excellent acting and sheer enjoyment.
So it is with Christie’s whodunits. These do not
explore humans’ propensity to sin; they are puzzle
books, with an inevitably reassuring message that
life in the village, metropolis or exotic location will
return to normal once the solution is reached.
Long may this innocent recreation continue.Sleazy Business
To restore trust in the political system, more Conservative MPs will have to show the
same courage as some of those in the 2019 intake who rightly defied party whips
It is hard to draw many positives about the state of
the political system after the events of the past
week. In the days since the resignation of Owen
Paterson, the Shropshire North MP found guilty
of an egregious breach of parliament’s rules on
lobbying, the spotlight has turned to the way that
other Conservative MPs in particular try to
supplement their salaries. What has emerged
suggests the problems run far deeper than one bad
apple, or two if one counts the prime minister,
whose attempt to overturn the Paterson verdict
has brought parliament and his government into
disrepute.
One of those MPs under scrutiny is Sir Geoffrey
Cox QC. The former attorney-general spent
several weeks earlier this year not fighting for the
citizens of his Torridge & West Devon consti-
tuency but for the prime minister of the British
Virgin Islands against allegations of corruption. It
has yet to be proven that Sir Geoffrey has
breached parliamentary rules but the fact he has
spent so much time in the Caribbean while claim-
ing his Commons salary and exercising his parlia-
mentary vote by proxy will strike many as a breach
of the spirit of the rules. It is an approach redolent
of the 18th century.
The same can be said of many MPs who, like MrMoral Blackmail
The European Union should help Poland resist a manufactured migrant crisis
Belarus is quickly on the way to becoming
Europe’s rogue state. In May a Ryanair flight was
forced to land in Minsk after a false bomb threat to
enable the arrest of a critical journalist who was
flying from Greece to Lithuania. This and other
anti-democratic moves led to the levying of sanc-
tions on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime by Brit-
ain and the European Union among others. Now
Belarus is fighting back, and its weapon is people.
On Monday there were an estimated 4,000
migrants at the border between Belarus and
Poland. There have been more than 30,000
attempts to cross this year, and the numbers rise
month on month. According to Polish officials, the
migrants are being steered and directed by Belaru-
sian troops. “Belarus wants to cause a major inci-
dent, preferably with shots fired and casualties,”
Piotr Wawrzyk, the deputy foreign minister, has
said. The border is now closed but still they come.
There are 12,000 Polish troops at the frontier, too,
marking a high point in a crisis that has been
simmering for months. At least eight migrants
have died.
The challenges presented to the EuropeanClues to Christie
Enthusiasm for the bestselling novelist shows no sign of waning
Agatha Christie wrote many mysteries but none is
so baffling as why she retains popularity 45 years
after her death. More than two billion copies of her
novels have been sold. Her detectives Jane Marple
and Hercule Poirot are synonymous with inspired
sleuthing. Next year public appetite for Christie’s
characters will be met with a volume of “continua-
tion” stories featuring Miss Marple, a television
adaptation by Hugh Laurie, and a smartphone
game based on Death on the Nile. James Prichard,
controller of the Christie estate, acknowledges
that there is a danger of “saturation”.
The little-spoken truth of Christie’s oeuvre isUAE: England take on New Zealand in the
semi-final of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Germany: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer,
the German defence minister, welcomes Ben
Wallace, her UK counterpart, to Berlin.
Surely the oddest of
all mushrooms is the
devil’s fingers
fungus. First
emerging above the
soil as an egg-
shaped excrescence,
this egg then “hatches”, and three to eight
tentacles slowly unfurl. On your first
encounter with Clathrus archeri, you might
think you have found a luridly red starfish
cast upon the woodland floor. Should you get
down onto your knees for a closer inspection,
an unpleasant smell of rotting flesh will
assault your nostrils. Also known as octopus
stinkhorn, this fungus arrived in the UK
from Australia and New Zealand with war
supplies of wood in 1914. The stink attracts
flies and beetles who then spread the sticky
spores. jonathan tulloch
In 1928 Hirohito was enthroned as the 124th
emperor of Japan, in an imperial line dating
to 660BC. He reigned until his death in 1989.
Baroness (Ruth)
Davidson of Lundin
Links, pictured, leader of
the Scottish
Conservative and
Unionist Party in the
Scottish parliament
(2020-May 2021), MSP
for Edinburgh Central (2016-May 2021), 43;
Catherine Arnold, master, St Edmund’s
College, Cambridge, UK ambassador to
Mongolia (2015-18), 43; Hugh Bonneville,
actor, Notting Hill (1999), Paddington (2014),
Downton Abbey (2010-15, 2019), 58; Deborah
Cameron, Rupert Murdoch professor of
language and communication, 63; Terence
Davies, film-maker, Distant Voices, Still Lives
(1988), The House of Mirth (2000), 76; Taron
Egerton, actor, the Kingsman film series,
Rocketman (2019), 32; Roland Emmerich,
film-maker, Independence Day (1996), 66;
Nigel Evans, Conservative MP for Ribble
Valley, deputy speaker, 64; David Flood,
music director, organist and master of the
choristers, Canterbury Cathedral (1988-
2020), 66; Neil Gaiman, author, The Ocean
at the End of the Lane (2013), The Sandman
comic book series, 61; Prof Martin Green,
chief executive, Care England care services
charity, 62; George Herbert, Earl of
Carnarvon, owner of Highclere Castle, 65;
Eddie Irvine, Formula One racing driver
(1993-2002), 56; Robert Jones, rugby union
player, Wales (1986-95), 56; Jens Lehmann,
goalkeeper, Arsenal (2003-08, 2011) and
Germany (1998-2008), 52; Horacio Pagani,
founder of supercar company Pagani
Automobili, 66; Admiral Sir Tony Radakin,
chief of the Defence Staff from Nov 30, first
sea lord and chief of Naval Staff (2019-Nov
2021), 56; Jon Rahm, golfer, world golf rank
No 1, 27; Sir Tim Rice, lyricist, Jesus Christ
Superstar (1970), The Lion King (1994), 77;
Baroness (Maeve) Sherlock, opposition
whip and opposition spokeswoman on work
and pensions, House of Lords, 61; Sam
Simmonds, rugby union player, Exeter
Chiefs and England, 27.
“I remember I used to half-believe and wholly
play with fairies when I was a child. What
heaven can be more real than to retain the
spirit-world of childhood, tempered and
balanced by knowledge and common-sense.”
Beatrix Potter, writer, journal entry, 1896
Nature notes
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