Speaker cleared of wrongdoing by tough new watchdog
Miscreant MPs beware: John Lyon, the new Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, is going to be an extremely tough watchdog.
He has just released a report about Michael Martin and his wife's use of taxis. Opponents of the Speaker wont like the result: he found that the Speaker had a budget of £2,500 a year for taxis and that her use fell within the rules.
He didn't investigate whether this budget should exist in the first place. That was not his job and he couldn't have done anything about it - it's a political question that MPs could and should tackle.
But what is interesting is the extremely assidious way in which Lyon conducted the inquiry. You can see this for yourself here. He wrote, interviewed, re-questioned and double checked every assertion, before clearing Mrs Martin. He is a man to be feared.
One question that remains unanswered: why, given the conclusions of Lyon's report, did senior Luther Pendragon lobbyist Mike Granatt, his former spokesman, resign?
A helpful reader writes: Have you read the minutes at the back of the Standards report. It gives very clear impression the taxi journeys are for the Martins' personal groceries, including a bit of official stuff. Justified on the grounds that Martin doesn't have time to leave the building. Wasn't Granatt's defence at the time that the trips were actually for official functions? Lyon's right about the rules - but as usual it's the rules that are outrageous.
"He is a man to be feared".
Who by?
Posted by: Chuck Unsworth | 14 May 2008 13:55:13
W H I T E W A S H
Posted by: Silent Hunter | 15 May 2008 23:04:13
W H I T E W A S H
Posted by: Silent Hunter | 15 May 2008 23:05:10
The only mystery is why you think my resignation was a mystery. The reason was reported time and again, including in The Times. I had been led to mislead journalists. Up with that, I do not put.
Posted by: Mike Granatt | 16 May 2008 10:50:04