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The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland flouted the tax laws, broke employment laws she herself drafted and fiddled £170,000 in expenses. She was given a £5,000 fine for what she described as “technical breach of the rules”. The rest of us call it breaking the law. As far as Guido knows the only other issue she faces is a Bar Standards Council investigation for bringing the Bar into disrepute. The Attorney General has got off very lightly…
You could argue that her former maid, Loloahi Tapui, also committed a “technical breach of the rules” in overstaying her visa. She now faces charges and a prison sentence. Does anyone else feel that the weight of the law is falling disproportionately on Lolo?
The Blairite loyalist Baroness Morgan has been caught fiddling her overnight expenses by pretending her Wandsworth home isn’t her main home. The Lords authorities refuse to investigate this kind of fiddle despite, or perhaps because, it is so widespread. She tells the Lords that her main home is in Petersfield and she swears to Companies House on corporate filings she is ordinarily resident in Wandsworth. Give you one guess to whom she is lying…
On a lighter note, Elliot Morley, one of the few MPs predicted to face fraud charges, spends a lot of time reversing edits to his Wikipedia page, mainly trying to erase references to his claiming of our cash on false pretences. His detractors have managed to slip past the editors a change to the pronunciation of his name:
Guido suspects he won’t be a “shameless freeloader” for much longer…
Stephen Greenhalgh said…
“My mates are all in the shadow Cabinet, waiting to get those [ministerial] boxes, being terribly excited… I went to university with them, they haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery… they’re going to get a department of state, in one case running the finances of the nation.”
Guido is increasingly fascinated with the coverage of EU affairs by the Thunderer. Last month it crowned Tony Blair president of Europe on the front page. Guido said at the time this was a delusion.
Yesterday it reported on a great British diplomatic triumph over the damned French in Brussels. “French foiled” ran the headline:
The Times’ Brussels correspondent David Charter then turned around 180 degrees and today reports a British defeat by the French.
This is the kind of insight they are going to put behind Murdoch’s pay-wall?
If you were not one of the 52,381 visitors viewing 308,491 blog pages blog pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:
- Competition : What is Gordon Thinking?
- Time to Defund CRU’s Global Cooling Deniers
- Met Sends Four Expenses Files to CPS
- Brown and Cameron Say Sorry Over Armistice Photos
- Derek Draper Allowed to Practise Psychotherapy
- Tories Raise More Cash Than All Other Parties Combined
- Why No One Reads the New Statesman Anymore (Part 96)
You are either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
The Guy News TV broadcast is only available to Guidogram subscribers this weekend. We sent Tory Bear to report back from Copenhagen and Tripoli, Emily Nomates went to glamorous Hendon to report on the expense claims of London’s most expensive MP, Andrew Dismore. We also replay that moment of zen between Brillo and Michael White.
Guido, as ever, tells you about his week behind the blog. Subscribe – thousands already have:
