By James Simons And Tony O'Riley-
The Parliamentary Standards Watchdog has said they cannot reveal recommendations made by the previous commissioner watchdog way back in April 2017.
Following a probe by The Eye Of Media.Com, in the wake of the acquittal of MP Andrew Griffiths, the Parliamentary Standards Committee has said that recommendations made by the previous commissioner cannot be disclosed to the public.
The proposals made over two years ago by former Commissioner Kathryn Hudson has not got off the ground since then, and the contents of those recommendations are not in the public domain. There are also no plans to put them in the public domain unless they are adopted.
CRITICISED
Hudson herself was criticised by her predecessor, Sir Alistair Graham , after Rifkin and Jack Straw were filmed by the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme offering their services to a fake Chinese programme.
Sir Graham at the time said he had publicly criticised the House Of Commons Standards for failing to meet the professional Standards of other groups.
Four years later in 2019, these poor standards have reared their ugly heads again. Despite the existence of those recommendations show Hudson’s discontentment with the codes of conduct for Mps as they stood, those codes of conduct have continued to be used in assessing where the boundaries of Mps conducts lie.
The deeply flawed and unchanged codes of conduct were used to clear MP Andrew Griffiths of wrongdoing in the face of overwhelming evidence of sexual misconduct, so shortly after the birth of his first child. Griffiths stood down from his position because to remain in his post would have undermined the integrity of Mps.
INTERPRETATION
The automatic interpretation would have been that Mps can behave as they please in private, and a smartly written report using codes of conduct already questioned and deemed unsatisfactory by a previous Commissioner would make an offending Mp continue to hold a post of honour which includes making laws for the country.
Griffiths referred to himself in a text message to one of the women as ‘daddy’, adding that he had been making laws up and down the country. The report published by current parliamentary commissioner, Kathryne Stone, would have the effect of keeping an MP with mental health and very limited morals, still making laws if he had not offered to step down.
This sad state of affairs needs to be knocked on the head if the mean and women who lead our country are to be truly respected for the positions they hold.
P.S: These article was contributed to by both authours.