APPG

stands for All Party Parliamentary Group, as any fule kno. Nearly all MPs are members of a number of these, usually because they are interested in the issue, country, region or whatever with which the group is concerned. But these groups need to have members and officers from all parties, and also a minimum of 18 members, so it is also common for MPs to join such groups when they have no particular interest, to oblige a colleague, who may then oblige back. In fact the main reason for setting up or joining such groups for many MPs is a constituency one. If there is an active support group in the constituency on, for instance, a health issue, then the local MP will think it a good idea to set up or  join an all-party group on that issue. .I did this on the health issue of fibromyalgia during my time as MP for Reading East, because the fibromyalgia support group in the Reading area was very active and energetic. There was a similarly energetic group in Nottingham and so the Nottingham MPs all joined the fibromyalgia group and often attended its meetings. There's nothing improper about any of this. What is of course improper is to be paid for tabling questions and meeting ministers. Or to seek payment. It appears that the delightful fellow known as Lord Cunningham of Felling, formerly Jack Cunningham, MP for Copeland and a minister in Tony Blair's government, and incidentally a close associate, and former employer, of the longstanding councillor in Reading Tony Page, has been stung by journalists on this very issue. Never one to stint himself, he allegedly asked for £144,000 a year to work on behalf of a fictitious South Korean solar energy company. Others have been caught the same way. What I ask myself is this: these men have been in politics, and in Parliament, for decades. Why then are they so naive that when approached by people purporting to represent a company or organisation, they don't just Google the name they are given before any meeting, and certainly before entering into any discussion? Like, der. Anyway, couldn't happen to a nicer fellow. Git, I knew he was that. Venal, corrupt git? I suspected he was that.

gimme £144,000

follow the money

Cahuzac with Swiss emblem and Hollande with first aid box (pic: Le Monde)

Jerome Cahuzac is a former Socialist deputy in the French National Assembly, a former Budget Minister, and mayor of somewhere or other, as they mostly are in France. He spent months denying that he had any secret bank accounts in which money destined for the administration of public services had been squirrelled away. Then the MediaPart website managed to obtain the information (sought by prosecutors since Cahuzac was sacked as budget minister in March) that in fact he did have a bank account in Switzerland, and that it contained some 600,000 euros. It seems that this money may have come from sources identified as public funds, the administration of which was in part Cahuzac's responsibility. Cahuzac fessed up yesterday (just after texting President Hollande to tell him that he was going to) once he knew the jig was up. You can find Cahuzac's statement on his blog here.  He's now been expelled from the party, and told that he is "expected" to resign from elected office. President Hollande is going to make a televised statement this afternoon.

It's all a very bad business. Governments have fallen because of such things. I do not expect this government to fall over this, but it's hardly been helpful. Hollande has had some very poor polling lately, before this latest business, and is going to have to find a way to pull back. The intervention in Mali did him some good (and I congratulate him for it) but not enough it seems.