By Gabriel Princewill-
The head of the Committee for Parliamentary Standards has today published an open letter to all public office holders on the importance of maintaining high standards and implementing the Nolan Principles.
Lord (Jonathan) Evans of Weardale Chair, (pictured)published his open and persuasive letter to all public office holders, after
The letter comes in the wake of an ongoing investigation by The Eye Of Media.Com into the quality and integrity of the current Parliamentary codes of conduct and an extensive examination of the shock clearance of MP Andrew Griffiths.
The Parliamentary Committee has been honourable enough to discuss some of our concerns about its current code. Most troubling for the noble members of the Committee, are the occasional misdemeanours by unscrupulous Mps that put their codes under the microscope at any given time.
Parliament is facing a historical level of political adversity around Brexit, and does not need the extra set back of badly behaved Mps and the scourge that attend their misjudgements.
Parliament’s most recent casualty, Mp Andrew Griffiths, who was cleared after being reported for sending 2,00o explicit texts to two women, has sparked a broad inquiry into how MPs conduct themselves in public.
Griffiths conveniently ignored the fact he was married, that and his wife had just given birth to a baby boy when he embarked on a series of sexting messages to two women that backfired when he was exposed.
Embarrassed by the revelation of his grosse misconduct, Griffiths stepped down and admitted his shame. Yet, the manner of his acquittal raised eye brows by our eagle eyed team members, prompting a call for close scrutiny of way the inquiry was conducted.
The integrity of the Parliamentary Standards watchdog has been brought into question in the past, when it emerged that former Commissioner Kathryne Hudson only investigated 1 in 10 complaints against Mps.
Hudson often cited unreliable codes of conducts restricting her remit of operation. Codes which appeared(and still do) more to safeguard the political interests of Mps than to provide an honourable framework for upright ethical conduct and legitimate accountability .
STANDARDS
Now, the Head Of the Parliamentary Committee has expressed his deep concerns about the drop in public trust in the political system surrounding Mps, and called for all Mps to ”maintain high standards and implement the Nolan Principles in the current political situation, which is causing real concern to many people who care about how our public life is conducted”.
Lord Evans credited the key institutions of the British democracy for ”doing their job providing important constitutional checks and balances.
”The long running and fierce dispute over Brexit is being played out largely in Parliament, the courts and the media, including social media. Such openness is itself a key principle in our public life. But behaviour matters as much as formal structures”, he said.
”Leadership of standards needs to come from the top: from Government and from Parliament. In the current political situation, it is the view of our Committee that it is even more important that high standards are not only consistently observed but also demonstrably valued”. he said.
INTIMIDATION
”It is also vital that the tone of public debate should avoid abuse and intimidation, which have become increasingly widespread. Parliamentary democracy is under threat if those in public life and public office cannot express their views freely and without fear”.
”These long-established principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership are a personal responsibility and set the tone for leadership across the whole of public service. They are what the public expect of us.