David Laws that is, for fiddling his expenses to the tune we hear of about ninety grand, some of which, but not all, he has paid back. But others, including David Chaytor, who was a colleague with whom I was on good terms, have gone to prison, after months of hell for them and their families. So what is the difference? oh. Apparently David Laws is a fab bloke who ought to be in Cabinet. Maybe so. I wouldn't know. David Chaytor had the talents to be in Cabinet too. But he is in prison and David Laws is not. Some things are just hard to understand. When the law does not seem to apply to everyone equally, that's when I find the world, or some parts of it, very hard to figure out.
Blogger has had an outage, readers may know, and while I can now post again they are still in the process of restoring posts from the last 36 hours or so. So you can relax, nothing sinister is going on.
1 comment:
I am very pleased that you have noted this anomaly.
The sanctimonious bilge that has spewed out about Laws is disgraceful.
His offences were extremely serious;perpetrated over a period of seven years and every national newspaper in the country has fawned oevr him rather than calling him a crook and a bounder. The Times says that it is moved to instruct the Government to apply leniency to Laws and speed him back into the cabinet asap ; politician after politican has been wheeled out to say what a talented guy he is and what wonderful gifts he has to offer the nation.
And yes - David Chayter whom I kenw well too and respected -- is forced to slop out in jail. And Margaret Moran who seems guilty of nothing other than taking at its word, the terrible and flawed 'advice' of the discredited Fees Office when she rang to enquire what she could or could not claim for re houswe repairs - has been driven to a breakdown and is probably hiding in a cave somewhere abroad because of the shame.
Laws looked supremely confident as he made his 'apology' to the House. He is on a promise, to use famous last words of Lorna Fitz. He knows that he will be back and have a lovely salary to feed off. NAd with which to feed his friends and partners. He knows that, in as little as a year, his expenses saga will just be fodder for rueful comments he may make on a celebrity or political interview ( for which he may or may not be remunerated) about having gone on a 'journey' and learned from it.
Meanwhile, Chayter and Moran slink into a disgraced old age -- because they do not have anyone 'at the top' to bang their drum.
I am not saying that the prosecutions should not have gone ahead. Even that Chayter should not have been 'caged' as The Sun would have it! But let us at least bin the hypocrisy and admit that the law will be upheld or not, depending on what powerful allies you have holding your hand. In other words: Everyone is equal but some are more equal than others. Or, in other words:Four legs good. Two legs better'.
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