I'm actually beginning to enjoy this, personally. All these new Tory MPs who got in off the back of the hard work of Michael Howard and then ditched him once they were safely over the threshold are getting their karmic order of the boot now. The ones I campaigned for - particularly John Redwood and Rob Wilson - are largely in the clean - but the rest of the nest of vampires that have enjoyed the fruits of 2005 without really acknowledging who won them their seats are getting searched out.
Nadine "No Smoke Without Fire" Dorries is the latest to get into trouble over a mystery hotel room receipt. Allegedly - according to the Daily Mail -
"Ms Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said that on New Year's Eve 2006, when she is alleged to have claimed the cost of a hotel room, she 'held a party and cooked a 12 bird roast and... blogged the entire evening'.
An invoice - charged to 'Mr N Dorries' - had been submitted by her PA, she said, but said it must have been a mistake and in any case had not been paid by the Commons."
Prior to that, Ms Dorries added to her blog...
''There is one thing I know about me better than anyone else. I never do anything I know to be wrong and I have common sense by the bucketful,' she wrote.'
Obviously not enough bucketfuls to know that there is no smoke without fire. Labour's dodgy emails notwithstanding (unforgiveable when there are plenty of other, nicer emails I and anyone on their email list or Twitterfeed gets in terms of policy), Dorries' private life was the subject of journalistic gossip anyway and reading the thing objectively you had to ask - there isn't normally anything that surfaces without something going on. I complained last autumn about MPs using their blogs for character assassination of their opponents or their leaderships rather than informed, dignified and intelligent discourse.
Now it seems Ms Dorries has shopped herself as not even knowing where she was on 31 December 2006. Perhaps the electorate in Mid-Bedfordshire and the hardworking activists that selected her and campaigned for her might like to vouch for her presence during the campaign too as maybe she has other blank spots as to her whereabouts. Perhaps if she does sue Labour's spin doctors that bit of amnesia would be taken into account.
I would like to read for Ms Dorries, so let's see.
Situation
Ten of Wands - A card denoting a burden placed upon the querent and an oppressive weight digging into their backs. Dorries has to prove that these allegations are false and untangle her other issues as well rather than face the fate of other wayward MPs. This is an intolerable situation and needs resolution fast before it cripples her as well as others.
As it appears to the public
The Tower - The last days of Sodom and Gommorah seems to have come to "Troughminster", and even I, a defender of the parliamentary faith to the last, draw the line at this point. I have always believed our system was good but there were some people who were bent. Now unfortunately I - along with a lot of other people - believe the situation has become the other way round - there are good people, but the system itself has been broken in two and needs to be drastically restored to what it was (at least) before these catastrophic rules were liberalised in 2004-odd. Owlperson would go further and restore them to what it was before the 1832 Reform Act, but I fear we already have made it back to Eatenswill, so perhaps that's not entirely necessary.
As it appears to Ms Dorries
Judgement - They're all coming up. This is a reckoning with her and her conscience. She got off lightly during Smeargate because she appeared to be the innocent victim of nasty slurs, not someone who can submit an invoice in her name by mistake and not remember where she was at the time. Karmic judgement always comes back to haunt you, and it just has...and she knows this.
As it appears to her electorate
Eight of Pentacles - A more sober card and at least a more constructive verdict. This is representative of hard graft, and it looks as if Ms Dorries might in the end survive because Mid Beds - I lived there, I know it - is so dyed in the wool Tory territory it would elect a fokssss if it stood with a blue rosette on. They already have (Ms Dorries is yer typical Vulpes Vulpes) but this is progress towards a constructive solution. It may construct something other than Ms Dorries wants, but she has to learn that you can't really get very far in politics solely lying on your back.
As it really is
King of Wands - The King is in control, and although he can direct things, he lacks the stable control of the more grounded suits. Wands represent fire - the short duration of a flaring match. Dorries may think she can ride this one out - she had the public's sympathy for what happened during Smeargate, but she must take care not to go out in a blaze of glory by calling undue attention to her lack of attention to her whereabouts on New Year's Eve.
Roots of the situation
Knight of Cups - The Knight represents the development of his suit from the innocent page into the experienced warrior. But the Knight of Cups is a figure who enjoys the thrill of the chase much more than he should do - the goal is secondary to the means used. Wading through this, Ms Dorries got herself into a situation where she didn't think she would have to account for herself - and gets pilloried as a result.
Seeds of the situation
The Chariot - Too far, too fast, too soon. There is too much energy in this situation for things to be brought to a halt, and more movement is fed into the system with every titbit like this. It is still destined to continue in the way it is going. Let's burn some more rubber, say I.
Advice to Ms Dorries
Two of Cups - Be more honest, take the situation seriously and come clean on what you actually did, Nadine. There needs to be more intimacy between her and her associates, and there needs to be more expression of regret rather than simply claiming she has too much common sense. She needs to be honest with the other person, which in her case is her Association and electorate.
Warning to Ms Dorries
Six of Pentacles - She can't go back. No-one can - there is no more place for this blithe arcadia, there is no more trough, no more horse much, no more 12 bird roasts. The damage to the old world is fatal, and this card represents that painful nostalgia that MPs who have been caught out must feel when they look back to when these rules were instated.
Solution
Knight of Pentacles - Bluntly, keep more control of your money and where you spend it. Ms Dorries has been caught out not knowing what was submitted in her name, and what she was doing submitting an invoice for something that allegedly didn't exist I don't know but it doesn't show that she has that much common sense at all. Humility also comes along with this card, and cultivating current opinion as well as one's own pursestrings is imperative with this card.
Outcome
Knight of Wands - Another Knight, and the Knight of the fiery suit of Wands is what will happen - another MP trying to defend the indefensible. Dorries cannot and will not control herself, and, perhaps more clearly than Cameron, shows just what knots the people in power will tie themselves in in order to justify themselves. This approach is not what is necessary in the Knight of Pentacles, and suggests a continuation of bluster and blame - meaning the Tories will suffer as much as Labour are.
