John Purvis’ press officer has just called Guido with this official statement from him:

“I have asked the Quaestors to investigate the reason that I did not receive clarification from the European Parliament about my arrangements for paying staff, even though I specifically asked for it as far back as January 2007. I will not be commenting further until they get back to me.”

1. All financial actors and any other person involved in budget implementation, management, audit or control shall be prohibited from taking any action which may bring their own interests into conflict with those of the Communities. Should such a case arise, the person in question must refrain from such actions and refer the matter to the competent authority.

2. There is a conflict of interests where the impartial and objective exercise of the functions of a financial actor or other person, as referred to in paragraph 1, is compromised for reasons involving family, emotional life, political or national affinity, economic interest or any other shared interest with the beneficiary.

So Guido asked him a few obvious questions this morning about his contract with Purvis & Company:

Guido has found out some of the answers already, you can probably guess some of the answers yourself. (No doubt the mainstream media will finish the job.) He has essentially, just like Den Dover and Giles Chichester broken the rules. Lack of clarity? It is obvious to a 12-year old that what they have been up to is unethical. Paying taxpayers money to their family fiddles and/or gaming the rules for personal profit? Plain and simple crooked behaviour. Whoops-a-daisies “in good faith” don’t cut it with Guido…