Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Letter in the Guardian about Corruption

Wahey! Got a letter in the Grauniad this morning:
It's here if you don't believe me. And it goes like this:
Glad to see Timothy Garton Ash touching on the question of corruption in parliament (It’s not just parliament’s buildings that require extensive renovation, 28 March). The full charge sheet is as follows: cash for questions, cash for access (twice), cash for honours, cash for influence (twice), Jowellgate, Peter Watt, Michael Brown, Bernie Ecclestone, Werrittygate, Hunt, Rifkind and Straw. One scandal every 18 months or so. Then we have the institutionalised cultural corruption of corporate lobbying, directorships, revolving doors and political donations. And last but not least, the alleged 14 cases where the Metropolitan police terminated investigations that were implicating MPs and establishment figures and the 46 instances where similar cover-ups took place. All these are in addition to the absurd spectacle of PMQs and the House of Lords, and spadocracy and MPs’ expenses, which were mentioned by Timothy Garton Ash.
In the face of this elephantine boil on the fat buttock of Westminster, we are being treated to prolonged national debate over the layout of Miliband’s second kitchen. No wonder so many people are turning away from electoral politics.
Dr Richard Lawson
Green PPC for Weston-super-Mare


4 comments:

chris sivewright said...

where is the evidence for the 14 cases?

DocRichard said...

Hi Chris
"The IPCC will look into 16 allegations, including one involving a surveillance operation in the late 70s that gathered intelligence on a politician being involved in paedophile activities and was closed down by a senior Met officer."
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/16/police-watchdog-investigate-claims-met-covered-up-child-abuse

And ITV:
The 14 referrals, which span the 1970s and 2000s, being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission are:
An allegation of a potential cover up around failures to properly investigate child sex abuse offences in south London and further information about criminal allegations against a politician being dropped [snip]

http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2015-03-16/watchdog-investigates-claims-met-covered-up-child-abuse/

chris sivewright said...

Ok - thanks. After I had commented, I found those on google but I couldn't see the '46 instances' so what is your source for that?

DocRichard said...

Hi Chris
In fact it is probably much more than 46; I just took the 14 away from the 60 I have already collected here: http://vipcsa.wikidot.com/cover-ups and here: http://vipcsa.wikidot.com/police

THB I just cannot keep up. Still 60 is enough to convince any unbiased observer that something is wrong with our system, don't you think?