Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Auctioning off the infamous Duck House for charidee - Expensegate - the Sequel

One good thing about the June 4th elections is that at last they have provided a firebreak for the Telegraph expensegate revelations. At one point I did think that the Telegraph would go on revealing expense claims details for ever. You know, actually add "The Newspaper of Expense revelations" to their mast head. I am glad they have stopped, in a way. Some of what they were revealing was just plain tedious. However, in toto they did the public a service.

We are now moving onto a new phase and seeing some post scripts or denouements coming out of the Telegraph expenses "revelations". In one sense, the elections of June 4th have lanced the boil a bit, and we seem to now be entering a less hysterical atmosphere, which is good.

So perhaps some of the expense revelations will now be seen in a bit more context.

A case in point may or may not be Sahid Malik MP. He's been cleared of any wrong doing according to the ministerial code of conduct, after an investigation by Sir Philip Mawer, the "independent" adviser on the code. He's being reinstated as a minister. Unfortunately, I cannot find any details of what the investigation did or did not find. So it is difficult to make up one's mind as to the degree, or not, of whitewash inherent in this investigation or, indeed, the degree of hysterical over-reaction, if there was any, in the Telegraph's reports about Malik.

On a cheerier note, the famous Duck House (which incidentally and ironically the ducks never used!) is being auctioned off for charidee.

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