The European Court of Human Rights has thrown out a challenge by former cabinet minister Owen Paterson. The ex-Tory MP, accused of breaking lobby rules, took the government to court in a bid to have a 2021 parliamentary investigation into his conduct declared unfair. That Paterson went to the Strasbourg Court in the first place might be considered a remarkable show of chutzpah (or perhaps simply rank hypocrisy) given that he had previously campaigned for the UK to leave the ECHR, prior to his own personal travails.