EU Referendum


EU Referendum: a wasted day


04/02/2016



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Having been asked several times by the Environmental Audit Committee in the House of Commons to give oral evidence to them on flooding, I travelled to London yesterday, at my own expense, prepared for the session.

Because of the Prime Minister's statement on the EU, the session was late starting but, before the first witness was heard, I was called out by a clerk. In a nearby corridor, he told me there had been "allegations" against me, relating to my online activities, as a result of which, the committee had decided that my evidence would not be called.

That my evidence would have completely contradicted the evidence of the first witness, George Monbiot, is neither here nor there – one assumes. 

Who actually chaired the committee on this session I do not know, mainly because I don't care enough to find out. Such is the incompetence of the the committee that, until late this morning, it was recording on its website the chairman as Labour's Huw Irranca-Davies, even though he stood down on 25 January. Suffice to note that this is obviously the way our masters do business now, and how they treat us lowly serfs.

I would mind so much had I not been specifically called by the committee to give evidence. I had not asked to give it, and had not contacted the committee in any way, until they had invited me. And, in anticipation of giving evidence, I had to spend most of the weekend preparing a written report for the MPs, to their deadline of Monday.

But, to add insult to injury, the clerk who yesterday conveyed the news that the Irranca-Davies surrogate didn't have the guts or courtesy to tell me to my face, told me that, "if I wished", I could submit written evidence to the committee. I have to say that my response was what one might describe as "robust".

I need, however, to place on record this cowardly behaviour by a committee of MPs who obviously lack both manners and the courage to address me personally, and skulk behind their staff, getting them to do their dirty work. It is a measure of these loathsome creatures, however, that they don't even have the self-awareness to be ashamed of their own behaviour.