Thursday, 3 June 2010

A series of sad events

While I have been away on holiday, two things have dominated the news: the appalling incident in Cumbria and the resignation of David Laws.

Obviously, the first of these has little bearing on the coalition other than meaning the news media’s spotlight will be firmly turned away from Westminster in the coming days. However, one test of the liberalism of the new government will be the reaction to the tragic events in Whitehaven.

Gun laws in Britain are strict. Indeed, the banning of Olympic training in many shooting events suggests that things have gone too far. You cannot legislate for people going totally off the scale. Fortunately, these events only occur once in many many years. Stopping the legitimate use of firearms due to these events would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The David Laws mini-scandal is interesting.

While many will feel sorry for him, the extent to which he portrayed himself as an expenses saint in the general election campaign prevents me from doing so to any great extent.

He knew full well that he had opted not to comply with the changes to the rules on paying rent to partners in order to keep his place in the closet. He could have quietly stopped making the claims or, had he been so desperate to keep his sexuality under wraps, as he had every right to do so, he could have rented a small flat for a similar amount as his base.

By choosing to continue flagrantly breaking the rules, while making himself out to be whiter than white in some astounding (in hindsight) leaflets, he has made his position in Government untenable.

What is staggering is the arrogance of the political class that allows them to claim to be aiming to clean up Parliament while suggesting Laws should not have resigned and that he’ll be back in Government shortly.

If he’s back within a year, the coalition will prove that their statements on probity in public life are nothing more than rhetoric.