Writhing, ducking and diving
British MPs continue to writhe, duck and dive as the expenses scandal reaches the Telegraph's Day 21 -- with many more days to come. For some backbenchers it has become a cruel and unusual punishment, a sort of Westminster water-boarding.
The political establishment on the Left, Right and Centre has tried to broaden the expenses issue into the wider one of constitutional reform; but the voters and much of the media still prefer the specific and their bloodlust is far from being assuaged.
In the spotlight two days running, , which is at least one day too many for survival. And spotlight is the right metaphor: as a Ö÷²¥´óÐã reporter said on the radio this morning, she's like an escaping prisoner caught in the guards' spotlights -- as she tries to flee into the darkness from one, she's caught in the glare of another, and another, and another ....
First it was claiming for a mortgage on a second home that didn't really exist, then herself doing the same, then a job on the taxpayer for her sister, who lives many miles from Westminster and the Kirkbride constituency, then a new spare room for her brother, paid for by us (natch). As the catalogue of claims unfolds, it becomes painful to watch. I'm not sure she can survive the day; if she does, David Cameron will be accused of dithering.
The Tories are currently taking more hits than Labour, but Labour still has huge questions to answer, biggest of all: if what did in flipping homes to avoid capital gains tax was "totally unacceptable" (Gordon Brown's words) why is that not also true of fellow cabinet ministers Alistair Darling and Geoff Hoon? The Chancellor is especially in the frame.
This morning's Daily Mail has a devastating rundown of the Mr Darling's tax avoiding property activities. Of course, being the Mail, it is designed to put the worst light on him flipping his homes four times in four years. But there's enough ammunition in the piece for interviewers like me to be slavering at the prospect of an interview with the Chancellor -- though I fear we might not get the chance very soon.
Indeed one of the problems for broadcasters when Parliament comes back from the Whitsun recess on Monday is likely to be the paucity of big political names prepared to venture near a studio. Those who used to queue up outside the Green Room might suddenly be in short supply.
The wider ramifications of the expenses fallout remains to be seen. Westminster's mind is already mulling over Gordon Brown's prospects post-June 4th election day, which everybody assumes will be a car crash for the government. Editorials in are influential and powerful once more and this morning's is particularly well-informed about frustrations with the Prime Minister inside the Cabinet. It argues that the real issue after June 4th is not Mr Brown's much-touted Cabinet reshuffle but a "big decision" by the Cabinet itself -- "whether or now to act" to get rid of the PM.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, often mentioned as a potential key figure in an palace coup, says that getting rid of Mr Brown is "a solution to nothing". But the very fact he feels the need to say this is not exactly helpful since it implies it is being talked about in Labour circles. And it is. One Labour grandee told me recently is was all senior Labour figures talked about! That's an exaggeration but not by much. The mood among Labour ministers I talk to is that Mr Brown will still probably survive a drubbing on June 4th -- but they're by no means as sure as they were a month ago. That's my view too.
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