The best piece I saw this week about the scandal of the Tory MP Derek Conway, who paid public funds to his sons for patently non-existent reasons, came from Alice Miles in The Times. As Alice says: "Today, in the 21st century, when we have rules for public appointments, open selection procedures, scrutinising committees, how can it possibly be acceptable for an MP to appoint his wife and children to his Commons staff and pay them tens of thousands of pounds of public money each?"
Conway responds to his critics in an interview with the Mail on Sunday tomorrow, in which he reportedly states: "I am not a crook." He possesses an appreciation of political precedent, then, as finely tuned as his sense of public service.
I know a lot of people who work, like Derek Conway, in the public sector (my wife included). Had any of them come under suspicion of financial mismanagement of the type that Mr Conway has been accused of, then they would have been immediately suspended - and dismissed pending a disciplinary hearing.
None of them would be given the option to say, "ok, admit I did it - I'll quit in the next couple of years" - which effectively is what Conway has done.
Posted by: Mark | February 03, 2008 at 01:01 PM
It is rather ironical that most Labour MPs don't see anything wrong about their aunts, mothers and children working for them, paid by pubic funds but at the same time disapprove about the Royal Family and its perks.
Posted by: andrew | February 04, 2008 at 07:11 PM
When I saw the link for the "Conway says, 'I'm not a crook'" story on the BBC News page, I assumed they were mockingly paraphrasing him. That's fantastic!
Posted by: Sam Hardy | February 06, 2008 at 11:45 AM