Derek Conway, Simon Hughes, silk sheets and criminal damage.........

There has been a fair bit of commentary on the Conway affair, go Duncan Borrowman! It seems clear, as the BBC have observed, that this will open a can of worms, or maybe Pandora's Box......



The house has just debated the issue. George Young, chair of the Standards Committee opened the debate by explaining the unanimous decision of his committee. He commented on the belief in some quarters that perhaps they had not been hard enough, but reflected that "reputational consequences can be fatal". The conclusion of the committee was that Freddie had done some work for his father, but there was no independent evidence of this resulting in any output (hmmm, I am sure Freddie is in good company with a number of his father's fellow MPs!). So the unanimous recommendation was that he should re-emburse the house appropriately and be suspended for10 days. They had taken the view that it was not appropriate to refer the matter to the police, that the issue of the employment of family members was a debate for another day, as were steps to address the reputational damage inflicted by this case.

I was, as you may expect, particularly impressed with Simon Hughes' contribution to the debate. Some practical suggestions re MPs receipting their expenditure, spot checks and in particular calling for employment legislation to apply to parliamentary posts. It beggars belief that the mother of our legislation sits outside of said legislation when it applies to itself, not just in this respect.

There are clearly some dodgy practices going on in the hallowed halls, not just in the office of Mr Conway, I was interested to hear from a colleague who used to deal with MPs' expenses of the case of Alan Clarke's need for silk sheets to be included as a legitimate expense (hmmmm, let's not go there!) and of the unnamed MP whose son was charged with criminal damage. Strangely paying his fine was also regarded as a legitimate expense.

Let us hope this sorry tale leads to more transparency and accountability in the hallowed halls......and best of all, it may also lead to the election of our very own DB MP!