Virtually Naked

First of all I must apologise to all my followers on twitter (@charlotteahenry) for all my slightly hysterical tweets over the past 24 hours or so. The truth is I was so utterly disappointed by the demise of David Laws I couldn’t stop myself!

I consider Davis Laws an excellent, exceptionally intelligent, hard working MP and minister. Sadly, he clearly was so uncomfortable in his own skin that he broke some rules to cover himself. Let’s never forget that Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper cynically and deliberately made the same arrangement, with only financial gain in mind. They kept their front bench jobs.

Ironically, by making the arrangement he did, David Laws claimed less money than he could have and saved the tax payer money. I have said that David Laws resigned to maintain his integrity and have been mocked, mainly by Labour members/tweeters. He is without doubt a man of integrity as the motivation for this arrangement was not financial gain or greed but was a matter of personal privacy. For Labour members, the Telegraph, and assorted Coalition bashers question David Law’s integrity they is so very misguided. If he didn’t feel able to come out, that is his own personal choice and a stark reminder that even in these supposedly enlightened times coming out as a gay person is incredibly difficult and scary.

As for tonights Danny Alexander debacle I don’t know what to say…I havn’t had a chance to look into the intricacies so I won’t comment  in too much depth, but the case against Danny Alexander  at the moment seems to be very weak. It simply illustrates that this ring wing newspaper is determined to impose its agenda on the Coalition government to punish Cameron for working and compromising with the Liberal Democrats.
Personally, I was never massively exercised by the expenses scandal in the first place. Yes I thought many of the actions of MPs were entirely unacceptable, that the system needed serious reform, and I am pleased that a Government involving Liberal Democrats has firmly said they put these reforms into place. However, I don’t find politicians talking about themselves all that interesting. These stories are again different, not because they involved Lib Dems (although that is a novelty in the expenses scandal,) but because they have clearly been gleefully sat on, like time bombs primed to be let off to cause most damage. Our media should absolutely hold politicians to account, but they do no set the agenda. By behaving like this the Telegraph simply discredits itself and other newspapers. Next time there is an important story, nobody will be interested.

This ‘trial by Telegraph’ needs to end so that the Coalition can fix the expenses system, fix the economy  and be held to account, not ransom, by the media.