SLEAZEBUSTER

I’m not a great believer in posting complete texts from articles contained in papers and magazines etc as it seems a bit pointless; the best thing to do is highlight the offending item and let you read it yourselves. I’m going to make an exception however with an article which is in this weeks “Private Eye” (No 1185). Under the title “Called to Ordure”, the commentary encapsulates the very essence of Blair’s tenure as PM.

Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, has not been offered a second term in his post. The reason? Well, according to the Eye, “he was far too good at his job first time around”. Whilst being grilled by a committee of MP’s, the following interesting item emerged;

1. Graham did not get the chance to meet his boss, who in fact was Tony Blair. The PM, who promised to bring in the novel concept of sleaze free government, never once invited Sir Alistair into the Downing Street den, always sending the Cabinet Secretary as a liaison.

2. When Blairite Tony Wright (Lab, Cannock Castle) put it to Graham that in truth British public life was pretty darn squeaky clean, he was faced with the retort;

“Well, we still haven’t completed a long running police investigation into loans for peerages. I don’t know if that’s a hallmark of the cleanest system in the world”

Suitably smacked, Wright retreated from what was obviously going to be a tirade against Sir Alistair’s committee.

3. Obviously on a roll, Graham couldn’t resist a dig at the governments over the BAE affair.

“There’s a danger we’ve prided ourselves for too long on having a clean system but the reputation doesn’t look quite so good.”

Stating the he was “personally affronted” by No 10’s interference, he dealt a killer blow by stating that he was often sent abroad by Blair’s cohorts to “lecture foreigners on Britain’s anti corruption measures. We really are damaging our international position”

4. Gordon Prentice (Lab, Pendle) tried to attack Sir Alistair on the perceived refusal to punish John Prescott and Tessa Jowell over the various tribulations. Wrong again, the Committee had made recommendations, but they couldn’t get them past Blair’s chum and Comptroller General, Sir John Bourn. With recent revelations about Bourn’s own freeloading, no wonder he didn’t feel he could let Graham punish Blair’s close allies.

5. The final swipe was directed against the Scottish election and the Electoral Commission, who with the knowledge that 9% of votes had been deemed spoilt, had done nothing. Graham said “if that had happened in England there would have been a scandal”. Why had there not been such an outcry about the Scottish results? Because the blame lay at Labour’s door.

The Eye finished the article with the all too true comment;

“No wonder Sir Alistair wasn’t offered a second term”

So there you have it, a good man removed from his post because he challenged the system. What is even more worrying however, is that his job was to make sure that politicians stayed on the straight and narrow but wasn’t allowed to fulfil his remit, with Blair himself having a hand in this restriction. So when people talk about the legacy of the last ten years, they should perhaps pay more attention to the arrogance and sleaze which corrupted his leadership from virtually the first day.