Lobbydog...

Monday 12 October 2009

Authorities don't learn lesson of expenses coverage

Lobbydog is trying to chase up which MPs have been sent what from Sir Thomas Legg.

Every MP is going to get a letter of some sort today, but only some will be asked to repay money.

Legg’s press people are not putting out lists of the MPs who will have to pay and those that won’t – which was surprising given what’s happened in this whole saga so far.

They are setting themselves up for endless media speculation, a drip-drip of expenses stories and a constant battle for exclusives over the next three weeks, which is the period in which members must respond.

If they just put out a list today of everyone being sent letters asking them to repay, it would rob any particular paper of an exclusive and take the legs out of the story.

But total transparency seems to have taken a back seat again.

1 comment:

Gareth said...

Is it not for each MP to search their conscience and admit such a thing, ideally to their own constituents.

The link between constituency and MP has become too threadbare in recent decades. National Government should be on the back burner for all but the most major of issues. But of course, the media love to make every issue a major one.

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