Hauntings

I could never be a Politician for the simple reason that some of the embarrassing and occasionally unpleasant things that have happened to me in my life would eventually catch up with me. I dare say that most people are the same as are modern day Politicians. The difference between us and them is generally the thickness of their skin and their sheer front.

I always try to work by the adage that if I do something I would not be proud of others knowing then it's probably a wise idea not to do it. The Max Mosley issue is a case in question and that man has so much front he's going all the way to the Court of Human Rights to have his dignity bought back after his bizarre orgy was filmed.

For Jaqui Smith, expenses had seemed to become a part of family life. Already at the centre of a hubbub over expenses we now find that her husband had claimed for several films to be viewed. She is actually trying the falsely enraged act over the issue that two of the films happened to be blue movies and he got a real ear bashing.

The fact is that there is no earthly reason why she or any of her family should be claiming for watching films at all.

McNulty is one of those great characters too. One of the go getting set of MPs living just outside the limit of the expense line in London and just 11 miles from his 'office' he claims for a second home - which happens to be his parents while he keeps another in Westminster.

It is not a question of whether he does anything wrong on expenses prodecures, as they are as daft as a bag of spanners anyway, but that he has the front to say this is morally right.

Having spent a pleasant weekend in Milan, the local talk is of Berlusconi and how he has had 3 terms in office but continues to front out the dodgy dealings in his business life. Tessa Jowell's husband was not so lucky, having been one of the Berlusconi 'bag men' he took his pay off and blatantly used it to pay off a mortgage while Tessa herself unquestioningly signed off the papers. She later ditched him when the trail led back to the Italian Master and that would be no good for her career.

Blind trusts are another example of good political thinking. Peter Mandelson, a career politician with no other visible source of income, has one set up to keep his investments away from the public eye. To set up such a trust is itself an expensive business, at least £20,000 of keenly attuned accounting and lawyering to make sure 'tax is mitigated'. For such an earner though, it makes you wonder where he gets so much money to have to hide it. The Blairs had one and even though they are not allowed to be accessed, Cherie did so - to buy her young one a flat in Bristol both to accommodate him as a student and as an investment. Good thinking, until we found out she bought not one but two. And there was the small affair of the convicted conman who brokered the mortgages without a licence - and she a QC and all that. There is never smoke without fire and as a lawyer she would have known how indefensible her actions were.

The Blairs courted controversy when Cherie got paid handsomely for dinner speeches about being the 'First Lady' while touring with Tony and latterly in his role as peace envoy to the Middle East, he has visited once after the latest violence because he was too busy lining his pockets on conference speeches, adviser roles and penning the 'story' of his gifted life.

So what is the point of this article today?

Well choosing your friends is one thing but choosing your 'employees' is another. We find that Lord Myners was indeed one of the in crowd of blind trusters who had protected his wealth from public view. Mainly as he was one of the City boys and when it came to understanding how he or any of his clan would deal with Fred Goodwin and the boys at RBS, he was one of the team. We are about to hear the rebuttals from McKillip and Scott, the NXDs who negotiated the pension, and it will assert that Myners and the Government were fully aware of Goodwin's pension prior to him signing the deal.

If the Government is going to lie, do so convincingly rather than just trying to hang a single individual out to dry.

Finally, after his exhausting and wasted trip around the globe, the PM has now told us that tax havens are the next area to be targeted. I do hope he makes sure that all those around him, the likes of Glen Mareno, Lord Levy, Lord Sainsbury, Blair, Mandelson, Myners and the rest have got their books in order. I feel we are yet to hear the full Deripaska story, maybe we will soon.

I feel another set of hauntings coming on.