Here's another thing, which I believe many predicted nine months ago but still few will be able to believe...David Laws is about to be ushered back into the Cabinet as Nick Clegg's number two.
So, the man who used £40,000 of public funds to cover up the fact that he's gay is going to go back into a job after just nine months, while three Labour MPs who stole much smaller amounts of money are going to prison. That's a really fair and well-balanced justice system, isn't it? The opposition go to jail, while the government stay in government. It's like Belarus in here. (yes, yes, I know)
Why is there some kind of sympathy for Laws because he's gay? Are people still afraid to engage with the fact that some guys like other guys? Frankly it shouldn't really be an excuse to run up a massive bill for the taxpayer, just because you don't want them to find out what side your bread is buttered on. Christ, Laws is a Liberal Democrat! He's not running for the EDL or the BNP, nobody is going to care which bed he was sleeping in in his shared flat, as long as he doesn't use their money to lie about it! Lying and stealing are things we're not really meant to tolerate from our politicians, especially in a government which ran their election campaign so very, very strongly on cleaning up expenses and Westminster sleaze. And one which appears to feature a male couple as leadership duo...
What's even more hilarious is the way they're trying to sell this as 'poor overworked Nick Clegg needs some help', a blatant attempt to reverse that public perception that he doesn't actually do anything. Right now casually raising Nick's work-rate in conversation will probably yield memories of all those headlines about him skipping out of work at three every afternoon (actually really only receiveing new business at 3, for all the impact that had on the public perception) and going off skiing as the Middle East collapsed into outright revolt. The Tories have very skilfully painted him as a complete bastard - one of the benefits of a coalition is that there are two parties to take the blame for unpopular policies, and David Cameron has done an excellent job of shifting almost the entire shower of shit onto his Deputy. It just makes the Lib Dems look a tad inexperienced, really - they've never been in government before, so they don't quite understand just which part of the spine to slip the blade into. The public perception seems to have swung to the point that Nick Clegg is just a spherical bastard, a bastard every way you come at him, while the Conservatives are working to clean up the budget - and christ, those Labour lot weren't much use, were they? This is the message we get hammered into us time and time again, every press release and every PMQs. It's a god-damn masterpiece Dave's painted so far, frankly.
