David Laws has apparently broken the rules on claiming expenses for monies paid to partners for renting a flat. I don't think this is in any doubt. Laws admits wrongdoing and is paying it back.
What complicates this is the somewhat emotive issue of his homosexuality. His defense is that he wished to keep secret his relationship with another man, and consequently did not declare that he was renting from a partner. Two wrongs, however, do not make a right. Firstly, he has been less than honest about his private life, and this would not have been much of an issue were it not for the fact that the claim for expenses was predicated on it.
In order to make sense of this one must try and separate the two strands of this story. But like DNA they are a double helix, of deceit and subterfuge.What many commenters are struggling with today is the inability of the issue to untangle the two strands; our heads tell us he is culpable, and must go, our hearts tell us otherwise.
UPDATE: David Laws has resigned from the Government. The dignity with which he went should be a marker for all those who have the audacity to aspire to high office, but are not perfect human beings. I hope he feels able to return at some point, as Clegg and Cameron have indicated.
1 comment:
Yes he seemed a good bloke but he'll have to go. I don't think taxpayers should give him £40K just because he wanted the gay affair to remain secret. That wouldn't work in the real world. A 'bidie in' is a 'bidie in.' He's a millionaire so could have easily funded his secret life and not claimed any money from taxpayers. Interesting that his incidental expenses dropped from the hundreds of pounds a month to £30 a month when reciepts were required for expenses. Was he giving that money to his lover as a top up ?
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