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May 30, 2010

out — laws

Filed under: just whinging,politics,sap of the month — anne thrope (miss) @ 2:37 am

now here’s rum thing. without wanting to put the wind up you so close to bedtime.

over breakfast, last monday, right out of nowhere i said to the bemusement of the present mrs rant:-

‘that laws geezer; he’s done something bad.’

‘who she said? what are you talking about?’

undeterred by her characteristic failure of comprehension i explained that i was referring to david laws, newly appointed chief sec to the treasury.

now as to the origin of this information or how i had garnered it i had, and still have no clue, but so it came to pass, which makes it all-the-more unnerving. swipe me!

still, since we’re on the subject i might as well give you the benefit of my wisdom on recent revelations, be they never so prosaic.

first, mr laws seems to have been well-front when brains were being dished out.

okay, so he bats for the other side: not my cup of tea but hardly a hanging offence in the 21st century.

but then his problems, if we are to believe everything he says, probably date back to the 20th century; not that it makes much difference.

anyway, despite the brevity of his tenure in office the politics junkies among us have been left in no doubt as to his brilliance and his multi-millionaireness. nothing wrong with that.

so let’s look at the details here, in so far as we seem to have them.

for the purpose of concealing his gay relationship he claimed expenses presumably comparable to those of a person renting a room in another’s home when had he been open about his relationship he would have been able to claim perhaps double the amount in question.

on the one hand this suggests a certain persisisting perversity in the rules surrounding mps’ expenses claims.

but it also suggests, at least to me, that a mind as sharp as mr laws should have seen this coming and realised that the wise choice would have been to simply claim nothing.

in the words of the prophet: ‘they can’t touch you for it!’

but you don’t get to be a multi-millionare at his age without a preference to bag a quid here-and-there when you get the chance.

in summary: chances of:-

1. concealing your sexual preferences and leading any kind of relaxed lifestyle … tricky.

2. doing the above as a high-profile member of the cabinet … in prurient 21st century britain … next to impossible.

3. doing the above having broken the rules on mps’ expenses … vanishingly small.

at this moment david laws displays many of the characteristics of peter mandelson so he’s a long way from being politically dead-and-buried and must be grateful for the gracious words of his prime minister and party leader.

though what they must have said in private about his crass screw-up less than three weeks into the coalition he had such a prominent role in crafting one can only imagine.

still expect him back before to long; the coalition can ill afford to do without him.

let’s hope that, unlike mandelson, he doesn’t screw-up a second time. anyhow, if he does i’ll at least make the effort to let you know beforehand 😉

cheery bye soothsayers.

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