Wasting police time?

Like most Tory-hating bloggers, I’ve been watching this Conway Twitty story with interest. It’s nice when they are shown up for what they are. The Tory MP and anyone in his party who knew what he was up to should be punished, made to hand back the money, and be prepared for a knock to their collective reputation. If there is more to come out of the story, then there should be enough there for his opponents at the next election to publicise so that his poorly served electors get rid of him.

But it seems the Liberal Democrats don’t want that to be the way it happens. They would rather waste police time. Now financial irregularities involving the public purse are a serious matter, as is the conduct in particular of MPs. If we didn’t know that before the 1990s then we do now. But as a result of what happened in the 1990s, facilities exist to pursue, investigate and punish bad behaviour. Only if these options are exhausted or a wider fraud seems to be underway should opposing parties call the police.

This is a story because it went to the Standards and Privileges Committee, who investigated and punished Mr Conway. If that had not been the case, there is still the Parliamentary Commissioner for standards. There is also an Electoral Commission, a free press and a ballot box.

All of these things combined can serve to prevent wrongdoing, stop it if it has started and offer appropriate punishment. Ultimately and rightly, this is provided by constituents of the politician. There is a necessary role for the press here in letting people know what is happening, and a necessary role for political parties to make the argument for what is wrong and right.

If it’s Watergate, call the police. If it’s not, investigate and alert the proper authorities and, above all, make your case to the electorate at the next election. But the Liberal Democrats seem to think themselves incapable of making this case, and instead are wasting police time in order to make their case to the rolling news channels.

This seems to be a pattern which could cause serious problems in the future and undermine the voters. Increasingly political events are portrayed with certain features. The culmination of any story is a resignation. To get there, letters to the police are just one item in an arsenal guaranteed to keep the bandwagon rolling. If Derek Conway loses his seat at the next election, and I hope that he does, then his opponents can consider it a job well done.

But it’s not a job well done to turn the ticker tape red/yellow depending on your choice of station for ten minutes in order to make it look like politics is corrupt and unregulated. Nor is it a good job to involve the Metropolitan police in matters that are already being dealt with by perfectly appropriate authorities.

If you’ve got a good case against a politician, you should make it, rather than looking for the next opportunity to call the police. They have better things to be doing.

 

*UPDATE* The Metropolitan police might have more time for sleaze if they weren’t having to arrest Tory MPs on assault charges.