ReallyReallyGoodMeat

So the media is expecting David Laws to return to the cabinet.

Stealing several thousands of pounds of tax-payers money would normally cause a prison sentence, but with this guy he didn't even lose his seat!? Just his cabinet position for 18 months, and he's being welcomed back with open arms??

Don't these guys realise how rediculous this all is to everyone else outside the world of politics!? It's difficult to know whether to laugh or cry at these ****s.

dpb

Absence of real characters probably forces the governments hand


Come on, he's no Jeffery Archer

Leslie

Politicians in general think that they are incredibly intelligent and that the electorate are as thick as the proverbial. They thus believe they can get away with anything because the rest of us are so easy to fool!

Les

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Sadly Les for a large proportion of the population they are right

David Lock

David Laws was treated very roughly. All he wanted to do was keep quiet about being gay, largely to save upsetting his parents.

Thoroughly nice guy and very bright indeed. As asset to any government.

dl

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Claiming £40k of public money and effectively giving it to his lover is a strange way of keeping quiet about the relationship.

The fact remains that people have (rightly) gone to prison for a lot less.

Leslie

Just discovered that he went to my old school. After I had left I am glad to say.

Les

David Lock

There is no doubt Laws messed up but it was for privacy, not profit. He is a millionaire in his own right after all.

And certainly HMG need someone with a brain in the Liberals? Cleggy doesn't really cut the mustard.

dl

hodgy0_2

means nothing (accept he is cute with his money)

I remember commentators saying about the SA cricketer Hansje Cronje, why would he cheat he is a millionaire in his own right after all

I just thought -- means nothing (accept he is cute with his money)

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Indeed, and if he was not in need of money then why did he claim the expenses in the first place?

Martin2005

I don't know...do you?

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

No I do not, but finiancially he was better off (as was his partner) as a result of it - but it is irrelevant why he did it. The fact is that he deliberately defrauded the taxpayer, and in the last 18 months that has not changed.

David Lock

I think claiming the money was OK except that he should have owned up that his Landlord was his partner. And if he had done that he would have been outed. It was not claimed to enrich himself. dl

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

I understand, but I don't buy it. If he wanted it to be a private relationship away from prying eyes, he would either

a) not have claimed anything, live where/with whom he likes. Nothing to see here.
b) claimed £40k expenses but lived in an apartment not owned by his partner - hence no conflict of interest, nothing to see here.
c) claimed £40k expenses, and gave it to his partner (which parliamentary rules ban) on the assumption no-one would ever scrutinise his expenses. As a minor plus side his partner is enriched by £40k.
d) not become an MP.

Oh look at which one he took!

Martin2005

Why he did it is not entirely irrelevant though is it?

I guess we come at this from different start points, I see him a decent bloke who broke the rules, for apparently complex reasons. You seem him as a crook... End of.

Fair enough I suppose, but I want see a few bankers and tax avoiders locked up with him

Martin2005

He has also paid a pretty heavy price for his wrong-doing though hasn't he?

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Yes that is a fair assessment. But my point is less about David Laws' expense claims, and more that he is being reintroduced to the cabinet, when nothing really has changed. What was the point of his 18months hiatus? Either he did something wrong and was punished as a result, or he did nothing wrong and shouldn't have been gotten rid of in the first place. What we have now is some crap grey compromise, and the public being told it's okay for MPs to defraud the taxpayer if they have a sob-story to back it up.

As for bankers and tax avoiders, absolutely.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

His career has stalled for 18 months, but will pick up where he left off, so I'd say the damage has been minimal. A heavy price would be for him to have been put in prison - a women's prison, a men's prison probably wouldn't be the intended deterrent.

Martin2005

His career in government has been reduced from 5 years to 2.5, including a significant loss of wages. There is little prospect of the lib dems getting into power again anytime soon. He had his private life splashed all over the media, and cannot go anywhere without being called a crook and a liar. I'd say thats a pretty high price, especially if what he did was mitigated by circumstances, which it would appear it was.

hodgy0_2

I am sure prision is full of decent blokes who have broken the rules

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

A good mate of mine was in prison with Jeffery Archer. His claim to fame being he kelp one of his prison jackets as a memento. Said he was an alright bloke actually whilst inside.

hodgy0_2

was your mate a decent bloke who had broken the rules? COB

Dingdongler

What a load of blinkered tosh. If I defrauded my employer (or hmrc) of £40k then I'd be sacked, struck off and probably go to jail. No matter what the so called mitigating circumstances that would be the result. It should be no different for him.

And to be honest I don't have a great deal of respect for somebody who wants to govern me but doesn't even have the backbone to tell his parents that he is a homosexual

Martin2005

Don't see how it's blinkered, I don't support the Lib Dems at all, I was looking at this as a human story rather than party political. I see very little compassion on here whatsoever.

So yes I guess I'm blinkered by compassion and being non-judgemental

All I have said is that there is likely to be more to this than meets the eye, which, if you can remember back that far, was the general view when he had to resign in the first place.

btw if Laws had broken the law then he would be prosecuted would he not?

Jimbob

iTrader: (13)

Doesn`t stop the Daily Mail massive, from beating their drums and spouting rubbish does it??

But as with others who did wrong, if there is a case they will answer for it, if not then they won't.
Some cannot accept that lol. We KNOW he is guilty as it said do in the papers!!

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

It's more a question of them all genuinely believing that they didn't do anything wrong, and that the media were out to get them.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Yeah. He's a good bloke actually, think he was inside for tax avoidance or council tax misdemeanours iirc (my mate I mean).

Dingdongler

Yes, you are some form of enlightened being or even a god in human form perhaps?









Or are you just a plonker?

ScoobyWon't

At the end of the day, you have to remember "We're all in it together"

Just some of us more than the others...

Martin2005

[QUOTE=Dingdongler;10775608]Yes, you are some form of enlightened being or even a god in human form perhaps?









Or are you just a plonker?

[/QUOTE

Well done for learning to cut and paste pictures - this is usually the first sign that somebody has lost the argument.

Oh and speaking of losing the argument, I notice you still refuse to respond on your silly Gove thread (actually you should use one of your silly pictures in that thread to describe your bizarre worship of him)