Enough of this whining and hand wringing nonsense about what a noble and wonderful person David Laws is/was. Even Nick Clegg has joined the “Westminster Club” and the sound of doors banging shut as MP’s of all persuasions band together in closed ranks, defending the indefensible. The cold hard fact is that, had the question of £40k expenses claims not been brought into the public domain, David Laws would still be in the cabinet, would not have announced that he would immediately pay back the costs of the rent and other housing costs, and he would not have referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. His personal life has little, if anything, to do with the expenses claim. He was exposed as having made claims which should not have been made. How this equates with being an “honourable” man defies logic.
It seems that the age of a new cleaner political environment, much promised before the election, has lasted less than 30 days and we have reverted to the same old self interest of distortion and hypocrisy, as the Con/Lib cabinet of Clegg and Cameron perpetuate the “It’s ok if you pay the money back” philosophy.
With the newsreaders on Sky News and BBC News24 reporting that the Prime Minister is leading the tributes to David Laws, we should all remember that this is not reporting a death in the family, it’s reporting the discovery of another grubby little British MP with his fingers in the till.
