Political

Monday morning miscellany of stories

Nick Clegg has spoken out against moves to stop British Olympics athletes from speaking out over China’s human rights record, calling any such ban “a real abdication of our moral responsibility”

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott is introducing a bill into the House of Lords to require all its members to be British taxpayers. This will increase the pressure on controversial Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft, who promised to become a UK taxpayer when he was appointed to the Lords but hasn’t provided clear evidence that he has kept this promise.

James Purnell, he of the photoshopping and staff problems, is one of the latest MPs to be accused of fiddling the expenses system – in his case claiming that one property was both his main home and also not his main home (so getting the most out of both the tax and Parliamentary expenses systems). As Norman Baker MP says, “MPs can’t argue with the House [of Commons] authorities that it is a second home and then argue with the tax authorities that it is their main home.”

And finally, Brian Paddick has another newspaper profile today – this time it’s The Guardian. Luckily, they don’t seem to have the same filtering software as these people, whose system seem to struggle a little with Brian’s name.

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