Brazen Paisley emblematic of DUP disregard for accountability
Sammy Wilson’s staunch defence of MP fails to distract from a brass-necked disposition
DUP MP Ian Paisley made an emotional apology to the House of Commons for failing to disclose two paid family holidays to Sri Lanka. Video: Parliamentlive.tv
The poet WR Rodgers once said of Ian Paisley snr, “there but for the grace of God, goes God”. But if the Big Man was a bit of a bully, the son is better known as a buffoon. Yesterday evening MPs voted to apply the sanction recommended by the Commons Committee on Standards. Its chairman spelled it out: the North Antrim MP was guilty of serious misconduct capable of bringing parliament itself into disrepute. The DUP was forced to face up to the gravity of the situation and suspend Paisley from party membership.
Up to that point the party had seemed to think it could brazen it out.