Sir Gavin Williamson

While many were outraged at the way Gavin Williamson had acted towards a Conservative whip, I was not too bothered with this, especially with the way Conservative whips acted in the last big vote of the Liz Truss Premiership. I should actually refer to allegations as no improper behaviour was proven on a later investigation.

I did think he should resign over the allegations over how he treated civil servants, and he did.  Watching The Thick Of It with my daughter, again for me, I get the impression that bullying is, or was common in the past, and many of us remember how Priti Patel got away with allegations of bullying herself. I myself had engaged in bullying behaviour when I worked in our local hospital about twenty years ago, behaviour which I now accept was wrong. Well some of it. However I do not recall telling someone to jump out of a window, or to slit their throat and while I did promise to hit someone, that was when they refused to listen to me when I had explained why I had done something and instead decided to berate me without accepting what I did was right.

PMQs was interesting with a question about people who received a fix penalty notice due to Partygate being made Lords.  Starmer won again, his first question being about bullying and while Sunak gave a nice response, he did not answer the first question. Sunak was honest stating that he regretted the appointment of Williamson into his role, but then was silly saying his government is in favour of accountability while sitting next to Suella Braverman! Sunak did not answer the third question about thanking Williamson for his service.  The next question about the Windfall tax which Labour had called for (though Labour wanted a better one) was not answered, Starmer answering it for him in the preamble to he fifth question on how the Windfall tax should be changed. The final question mentioned how the Conservatives crashed the economy in its build up, but was wasted as it asked what chance the Prime Minister had of running the country. Sunak answered referring to Jeremy Corbyn who would have been a much better Prime Minister than any of the three we have had in this Parliament.

I was to go to bed before watching the SNP’s Ian Blackford answer his questions. Normally he asks the best questions of the session, he fell far short today.