The whole lobbygate issue that has seen Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt see out their last days in the commons suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party is another case where the Lib Dems called for more transparency.
Just as in the summer of 2008 my Lib Dem colleagues placed an amendment to make the expenses more transparent and in line with most employees, in October 2006 they also looked to tackle the lobbying situation. Unlike the expenses where some from each of the other parties almost made the amendment pass, with lobbying Labour voted against and the Tories just sat on their hands and abstained.
So while David Cameron is taking the opportunity to call for an investigation into this lobbying case, why hadn't he or his party taken action about the possibility in the past? The answer is quite probably that they are gaining from it themselves, just not caught on camera as the Labour former ministers have been.
Yet again it is the Liberal Democrats who had been leading the campaign to clean up politics, something that the Davey come lately only signed up for last month.
I think our commitment to fair and open politics goes back much further than that. I remember campaigning against interests like big business and unions in politics in the 80s and it wasn't a new thing then.
ReplyDeleteI know it does Caron. But I'm merely highlighting what has been going on in the lifetime of this Parliament and how little action the other parties have been taking until it is whoops election time and things look shoddy.
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