Scandal

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Legg latest

The Legg report is about 240 pages, if you can manage it.  But the message you can take from it is short enough: there’s going to be plenty more public anger with our political class.  Guido’s post here should tell you why.  But, suffice to say, there are MPs paying back up to £42,458.  There are dodgy claims for flagpole accoutrements, luxury furniture and expensive gardeners.  And even the report itself cost more than the money than it’s going to recoup. Although I don’t think the parties should be trying to make political capital out of each other’s misdemeanours – beyond, of course, proposing ways to fix the mess –

Peter Hoskin

It's Legg time

Consider the expenses wound well-and-truly reopened – not that it ever really closed in the first place.  Sir Thomas Legg’s report into the matter will today identify around 350 MPs who have to return a total of about £1 million in dubious claims.  What’s more, in his introduction to the document, Legg is set to attack MPs in general for “knowingly” encouraging and exploiting a “culture of deference” in the Parliamentary fees office.  The papers are calling it “devastating”. But what will it all come to?  The worry is that Legg’s report won’t draw a line under the whole stinking affair – but will instead kickstart a new round of

Friday

David Blackburn

Here's to you Mrs Robinson

The Spectator will have to amend its list of political scandals because if the sinisterly-named Selwyn Black’s allegations stand up, then Iris Robinson’s in a league of her own. An older woman seduces a toy boy and strives to set him up in business: this is a remake of The Graduate with high politics thrown into the mix.    There is a further, potentially serious complication. The BBC allege that DUP leader Peter Robinson was aware of his wife’s financial misdemeanours but neglected to inform the appropriate authorities, as the ministerial code dictates he should. Robinson denies this with the tenacity of a man fighting for his political life. The delicate

Friday

Peter Hoskin

And so it rumbles on...

Expenses, expenses, expenses.  This morning’s Telegraph splashes with the news that the junior culture minister Sion Simon paid over £40,000 in taxpayers’ cash to his sister.  How so?  Well, he rented a London flat from her between 2004 and 2008, and claimed against it as his “second home”.  Problem is, the practice of renting a property from a family member at taxpayers’ expense was banned in 2006.  Simon has since said he’ll pay back the money that he “inadvertently” claimed. Aside from the fact that it’s yet another example of, at best, gross error on a politician’s part, two other details stand out.  First, as the Telegraph puts it, “Mr

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

What will today mean for the expenses saga?

So MPs have until the end of today to declare whether they’re appealing against Sir Thomas Legg’s request that they repay certain expenses claims.  Three have already done just that, one from each of the main parties: Jeremy Browne, Frank Cook and Bernard Jenkin.  You imagine that more may follow throughout the day, especially given the rumblings that the Legg review contained a fair few errors. Now, it’s only fair that MPs have a right of appeal – but you still wonder what it will mean for the expenses saga more generally.  From the public’s perspective, a swathe of appeals could look like MPs resisting reform.  From Parliament’s perspective, it

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Committee overload

We all know how bureaucratic and convoluted a lot of Parliamentary practice is, but this reminder from Heather Brooke of the bodies involved in reforming MPs’ pay and expenses is still pretty astonishing: “Currently we have: the senior salaries review body (which makes recommendations on MPs’ salaries and pensions); the committee on standards and privileges (appointed by the House of Commons to decide on complaints against individual MPs reported to them by the parliamentary commissioner for standards – currently John Lyon); the committee on standards in public life (which deals with complaints about unethical conduct among MPs – the current chair is Sir Christopher Kelly); the members allowances committee (made

Wednesday

Lewis Jones

Adored friends

Years ago the late ‘Brookie’ Warwick, 8th Earl, asked me to ghost his memoirs. Years ago the late ‘Brookie’ Warwick, 8th Earl, asked me to ghost his memoirs. In conversation he was full of amusing scandal, but the transcript of his dictated reminiscences was painfully discreet. I suggested they might be ‘sexed up’ — a new, comparatively innocent but still obviously vulgar expression — and he looked puzzled. ‘The first boy I met at Eton was my cousin Bingham,’ the transcript read, ‘who was very stupid and rather dirty, and came to a bad end.’ Bingham became Lord Lucan, so if there were more about his stupidity and dirtiness, along

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Dodgy expenses referred to the CPS

And so the expenses scandal rumbles on.  This morning’s Telegraph lead with home-flipping allegations against Andrew Dismore, a member of the Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges.  And now it’s emerged that the Met have referred the cases of four parliamentarians to the Crown Prosecution Service.  All of which makes Brown’s decision not to mention expenses in the Queen’s Speech seem even more unwise.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

When will they learn?

Why argue your case when you can smear your opponent’s name? According to this morning’s Telegraph, that’s the approach that a group of MPs are taking over the Sir Thomas Legg letters. The plan they’re apparently considering is to use parliamentary questions to find out details such as Legg’s pay, his team’s expenses and how much they’ve spent on media advice. One Tory MP tells the paper that there are “legitimate questions” about these things.  Hm. It’s not only a pernicious strategy, it’s also stupid.  Even if MPs manage to uncover some sort of hypocrisy on Legg’s part, do they really think it will divert public anger away from them? 

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Brown told to repay £12,415.10 of expenses

Here’s the statement from the office of the PM, courtesy of Sky’s Cheryl Smith: Mr Brown received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg this afternoon. Sir Thomas Legg has issued his provisional conclusions to MPs, asking for further information where necessary before concluding in December. Mr Brown has always supported this process and will cooperate fully and make the necessary repayment. Mr Brown’s expenses have always been cleared by the House Authorities as entirely consistent with the rules. He has not claimed the maximum level of expenses. The Review says its findings “carry no implication about the conduct or motives of the MPs concerned”. To be absolutely sure, Mr Brown

Peter Hoskin

Smith to apologise to Commons

Sky report that the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee have judged that Jacqui Smith was “clearly” wrong to claim that her sister’s home was her main residence.  Smith has been ordered to apologise to the Commons, which she’s expected to do later today.  No further action will be taken. Throw in the news about Damian Green’s “not proportionate” arrest, and the hubbub over Sir Thomas Legg’s letters, and you feel that today will do little to restore the public’s faith in the political class…

Thursday

Alex Massie

The myth of progress, Victoria

Foreign Policy on a splendid Greek sex scandal: Now, it’s Greece’s turn, and it may be the most fascinating one yet. Here’s the story: A young woman slept with the general secretary of the culture ministry in the hopes of obtaining a permanent job (judging by his photo, left, that had to be the only reason). When he didn’t follow through, she recorded her encounters with him on a DVD, allegedly to blackmail him, and ended up taking it to the press. Most journalists wouldn’t work with her, but a copy of the DVD somehow found its way to the prime minister’s office. Once the official being blackmailed got wind of

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Scandal? What scandal?

Memo to Senator David Vitter: This is how you do it. Paddy Agnew, reporting from Rome for The Irish Times , writes: What does a public figure do when caught in flagrante with a prostitute? If you are an Italian deputy, the best line of defence would appear to be all-out attack, brazen it out and hope for the best. At least, that seems to be the tactic adopted by 50-year-old Cosimo Mele, of the ex-Christian Democrat UDC party, deputy for the constituency of Brindisi, southern Italy. The story began last Saturday morning when a “lady of the night” was rushed to Rome’s San Giacomo hospital from the fashionable Hotel