David Laws - corrupt hypocrite?

Degenerate

jonewer wrote: »

Indeed, and theres an unsettling undercurrent of casual homophobia in a number of posts in this thread, "he should fall on a pork sword" for example.

That's not homophobia, it's humour.

PhylPho

Laws is an extremely clever man -- and good on him: he worked hard; he learned well; he occupied a senior position in a bank that, even after all the disasters of recent times, is still one of the world's most significant and respected.

You don't get to that level without looking at all the options.

The option, in this case, must have been clear: privacy = private money. Publicity = public money.

Laws knows that. I know that. Everyone here knows that. It ain't a Collateralised Debt Obligation we're talking about.

The suspicion arises -- rightly or wrongly -- that the homophobic card was being played to advantage, otherwise how else to explain the funding of your lover's income with £000s of public monies?

Laws' departure will be a loss to the Coalition Government -- and likely, a loss to all of us: the words "bright" and "politician" have gone so infrequently together (witness Nick Brown, Minister for Agriculture, Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary; etc et al) that it's downright amazing to find a senior Government figure numerate enough to tackle problems involving numeracy.

But. . . So what?

As others have said here -- and posts have been refreshingly free of any political bias -- Laws must go.

Either he calculated that he'd get away with this by ultimately playing the homophobia card. Or he made "an error of judgment", in much the same way that so many of us make errors of judgment when we're nicked for exceeding some urban or motorway speed limit.

Who we are and what we are is no defence when a penalty has to be paid -- and in this case, for a multi-millioinaire to merely apologise and repay some loose change from his back pocket, is no penalty at all.

If he doesn't resign, Cameron / Clegg should sack him. If they fail to do so, then the erosion of the dream of a new, fresh, ethical and accountable government will have begun a damn sight sooner than voters such as myself ever anticipated, way, way back on May 6th.

lostinrates

Somerset wrote: »

Remember the legislation they were talking about, were going to introduce, about constituency voter's being able to 'recall'/sack an M.P. ?? Wonder if this will get to that stage ?

Laws is my M.P.

Howdy near neighbour.

I feel very sad about this, which surely makes a ''backwards movement'' for gay rights/equality. I think its also interesting because of the semantics around think of someone as a spouse or not, with the Tory priority to cement ''families'' (to me, and with civil partnerships I feel this is somewhat confirmed, a gay partnership is as much one as a heterosexual one, I'm interested to know whether families must have children in them.....) the haziness over what a committed relationship is is very interesting whether you are millionaires or the opposite end of the scale.

I feel personally sorry for Mr Laws and his ''un spouse like'' partner. It is to be hoped that, after the professional loss of face and attacks on his honesty he is now able to at least open up discussion on ''where they are at'' personally.

amcluesent

He's gone!

treliac

PhylPho wrote: »

If he doesn't resign, Cameron / Clegg should sack him. If they fail to do so, then the erosion of the dream of a new, fresh, ethical and accountable government will have begun a damn sight sooner than voters such as myself ever anticipated, way, way back on May 6th.

Good post Phyl. You're quite right imo.... and I can't imagine that the two C's won't realise that. Let's hope it doesn't get too messy.... better that he goes of his own accord.

I thought Cameron was right in banning mobile phones during cabinet meetings and hope that, once MPs understand and accept a clear message re standards of behaviour, they'll think of the consequences of their actions before getting involved in dodgy deals.

Edit: Just seen amcluesent's post!

lynzpower

I just heard on the radio he has resigned.

jonewer

An ill wind.

withabix

He should have resigned yesterday.

He will probably 'do a Mandleson' in a couple of years. No pun intended. Possibly.

StevieJ

withabix wrote: »

He lost that right when he decided to commit the offence.

What offence? it appears even the Telegraph are not sure about that.

The claims could be against parliamentary rules governing MPs’ second home expenses.

Jennifer_Jane

Oh dear, how sad this all is! A man who could have helped the Country so much, and was at the top of his game, brought down by this shameful theft.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10191524.stm

What I don't understand, however, is that David Cameron has said that perhaps he can come back again. What! No, no, no! Is Cameron thinking we will all forget about it? I hope that Cameron issues a strong statement about this.

And I hope that someone, somewhere, is investigating Ms Dorries's pamphlets which were printed by a friend of hers for £40,000 (what a coincidence) but appeared to be run up rather more cheaply. (Sorry, can't be bothered to find a reference for this, but read about it somewhere).

So sad that the millionaire David Laws had to grub about for a few thousand pounds from the taxpayer. He deserves to go, and I wonder if his constituency will want to get rid of him as their MP - I doubt it, though.