Originally published @ 11:22 pm, Mon 31st May 2010
The resignation of David Laws is because he claimed money which (upon the first serious challenge) he did not believe he was entitled to under the rules introduce in 2006. A millionaire, claiming £40,000, to help his lover pay for a mortgage. Claiming the money is what led to the exposure of his private life.
So what of the impact to the new government; a government for change. Well, it seems hand-wringing statements upon a resignation are in order. "An honourable man." Well, no, actually. £40,000 claimed by a millionaire, who claimed against the rules. And yet, apparently, they want him back. Surely a government looking to embody change, especially when the offence was committed in the previous parliament, needed to draw a clearer line.
Apparently, in his 17 days, David Laws was doing a good job as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Now this seems a tad premature. Deciding to press on with cuts to public expenditure despite revised Treasury figures on the scale of this year’s deficit.
Only now are the media picking up on what some of these extra cuts actually mean, featuring the Future Jobs Fund on BBC East Midlands this Sunday. Not efficiency savings, but cuts to provision and the reduction of capital programmes.
There's a lot more to say about the new Government at the end of the month that it has been elected in.
In Nottingham, May has also been defined as Robin Hood month, using the launch of the new film to re-affirm the links between the city and the legend of Robin Hood.
Finally got to see the film, despite being put off by the reviews. And I enjoyed it immensely. Now maybe I should have seen the battle on the coast could not possibly have had oared versions of the Higgins boats that stormed Normandy on D-Day, but I enjoyed watching them. Maybe the enthusiasm of seeing the crusades and Richard the Lionheart put in a more critical but credible light should have not overcome the idea that Robin Hood was part of the movement for an early Magna Carta (an idea not referred to in Wikipedia).
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