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jailed Tory minister lands cushy job - 11/12/2007 3:52:12 AM

LadyEllen

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Jonathan Aitkin resigned his position as a minister in the last Conservative government to fight a legal case. He was later jailed for his perjury during that case, for 18 months in 1999. This was just one of a series of instances involving Conservative MPs and ministers whose "sleaze" helped lead to the landslide for Blair in 1997.

Mr Aitkin is to be appointed to a taskforce on prison reform today in the Centre For Social Justice, headed by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith (a serving Conservative MP). The Centre advises the Conservative party and is supposedly separate from the party.

Now, given that Mr Aitken has direct experience of the penal system, his appointment appears sensible and useful. At the same time though, I wonder why it is that he, having served only ten months in prison, is necessarily the ideal person for such a job? And taken against a backdrop in which any prison sentence in this country is a virtually automatic bar to any employment whatever thereafter (let alone to an employment carrying an above average salary) - I am left wondering whether in fact for all the change the Tories have promised they have made, we are still dealing with the "old boys network" and the sense of social privilege that was ever the case with that party?

E

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RE: jailed Tory minister lands cushy job - 11/12/2007 4:07:47 AM

Level

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Lady E, it does indeed sound like the "old boys network", and it is alive and well everywhere, I believe.

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RE: jailed Tory minister lands cushy job - 11/12/2007 4:26:28 AM

meatcleaver

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LE Politicians always look after their own that fall by the wayside because they empathize with those that get caught. There for the grace of god etc. etc. I'm sure many politicians think in private that Atkin's biggest sin was getting caught in the first place and not the crime itself.

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RE: jailed Tory minister lands cushy job - 11/12/2007 4:59:14 AM

pahunkboy

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Both Chicago and Washington DC had mayors voted in despite having a record. Tho Chicago every now and then discovers ghost employees. Names listed as workers- but these people dont actually do jobs which a check is cut for.

Curruption is all around. One would think the former head of FEMA would never work again. Wrong.

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RE: jailed Tory minister lands cushy job - 11/12/2007 9:06:46 AM

RealityLicks

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I can't believe that I'm writing this but I actually think his appointment is ...sort of OK. There. It's out. I feel unwell.

He's one of three ex-offenders on this panel and he did hold senior Govt jobs, so there is a rationale behind his being handed this one. If anything, it might mean they are planning something draconian with regard to offenders and need him to soften criticism from Nacro et al.

I thought his crimes were despicable - as you'd expect from most politicians - the worse of them all was to try to get his teenage daughter to lie for him in court. That was nauseating. But he's now gone on record saying that he will not seek office.

I do believe that in principle, everyone deserves a second chance. If this is a cynical attempt by the Tories to turn him into a second Jack Profumo - and I am skeptical of the "saintly penance" routine - I hope that it backfires on them. The one reservation that I have, is that he can technically still run for Parl. because he served only 10mths, not a year. I thought his early release was an establishment inside job so he could return to the fold someday. I think that any conviction for perjury should mean disbarment from office for life, regardless of being allowed home for health reasons.

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