Nice work
This from the current Private Eye (not online) about former Hove MP and erstwhile Defence Minister (for politically expedient genocide), Ivor Caplin:
Caplin surpised many by refusing to fight his Hove seat in 2005. Instead, he left parliament and this year became a senior consultant with Foresight Communications. a lobbyist that represents firms with defence interests – including warplane make EADS, computer firm EDS and caterer Sodexho.
Caplin is supposed to consult the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before taking this kind of job. The committee told Private Eye that Caplin had in fact sought advice in January, but the committee was still “waiting for further information about the post”. It had sought clarification from Caplin on the lobbying job before making a ruling. Caplin has not given that clarification nut has taken the job.
From the Foresight Communications website:
Ivor was a Defence Minister and Labour Member of Parliament for Hove until the 2005 General Election. Before being elected in 1997, Ivor had a lengthy career in the commercial sector. After 1997, he gained an impressive range of experience inside Government. His rapid move to the front bench reflected his ability as a politician with real flair and he has worked at the highest level within Government. He is able to offer Foresight’s clients genuine insights into the workings of the Government.
Not to mention a big fat contact book.
With most things to do with New Labour, perception is everything. Remember Health Secretary Alan Milburn resigning to spend more time with his consultancy role for a firm flogging MRI scanners to the NHS?
For the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, the key word is “Advisory”. They can advise, make recommendations, but there is nothing in its “Guidelines on the acceptance of appointments or employment outside Government by former Ministers of the Crown” (PDF, 23kb) to prevent ministers, either in or out of office, taking moody jobs. The perception, that it is some kind of watchdog of standards, is everything.
Posted on May 15th, 2006 at 9:05am under Sleaze
| Related posts... • Watch the watchers not watching • Nothing to see here • The Peter Principle strikes again |
• Permalink • Trackback • Subscribe |
|
|
|
• 2 Comments |
So it seems, according to publicwhip.
I’d very much like a structure for tracking these people after they leave Parliament for all the conflicts of interests they have left ripe for the picking from all the policies and laws they had passed while they were in the House. Their accountability does not end when they leave Parliament; it remains for as long as the laws they have helped to pass remain on the Statute Books.
If a judge left the bench and joined a firm in which he had found in favour of in one of his court hearings, there would be an outrage. This should be no different.
Has to be said that the Tories have been doing this for decades but no-one really ever batted an eyelid becaus they were ‘the party of business’. That’s not to say that it doesn’t annoy more when it’s people who are at least nominally socialist who are stepping daintily from the cabinet office to the boardroom. ‘Huge cheques and trebles all round’, as the inspiring item came from the Eye.