Morning:
14°c
How sorry do you feel for Baroness Scotland, whose cleaner has just cost her a £5,000 fine and a grovelling apology for failing to check her immigration status?
Answers will range from zero to not-very-much. The woes of the political class are not the subject likely to have voters in floods of tears.
The Baroness employed her household help from Tonga. The woman turned out to be an illegal migrant working on an expired student visa. Lady Scotland claims she checked the cleaner's paperwork — but didn't retain it, which is a bit careless for an Attorney General, let alone one who spearheaded legislation to make employers carry the can for taking on illegal workers.
The first rule of political survival is don't mess up unnecessarily: there are enough unbidden pratfalls to keep you busy. The Baroness failed that test with flying colours.
A senior Conservative voiced to me what a lot of others at Westminster are thinking: “I'd have done the same as she did: taken a cursory look at the paperwork and employed her.” He paused to add a glint of happy malice: “But then, I'm not the one who put the legislation against employers who condone illegal working through parliament.”
Baroness Scotland is a typically symbolic New Labour figure, being modestly competent, generally charming and malleable in her leadership loyalties. She is also a symbol of the party's creditable commitment to the promotion of women from ethnic minorities, which is not unimportant. She has been a genuinely inspiring figure for young women from ethnic minorties at the Bar, and that should not be entirely forgotten.
If you do happen to feel a sneaking moment of empathy for her plight, I'd say it's odds-on that you are a professional woman whose domestic arrangements are the area most likely to drive you to Prozac.
Company takeovers? Scary project deadlines? Corporate restructuring? Little sleep lost on those. Hours of anguish though, over the administration of the home front, which is like running a small war — just on a weekly basis. Privately, that must surely be Patricia Scotland's defence. But she lives and works in the public realm. Her core argument is also bizarre.
If she checked her employee's paperwork, how could she not have noticed that it consisted of a student visa, which precluded work — and had expired? Whether she failed to photocopy the papers is a red herring. A QC should know better than to throw one of those before the court of public opinion — we can smell them a mile off.
Politicians have yet to realise that the expenses affair has changed everything. So the Attorney General looks like yet another member of a distant class, who prescribed rules for the rest of us while disregarding them herself.
She escaped the sack because she had not “knowingly” hired an illegal worker. But ordinary taxpayers don't for one second feel that they are treated with the same leeway if they unknowingly fall foul of the law. One reason the anger over MPs remuneration became so toxic was that people immediately compared the leeway given by the Commons fees office to dodgy claims for household improvements with the nitpicking doled out to them by the state's agencies.
It's true, there are some downsides to the new Puritanism. It is very easy to turn politics into a game in which tiny improprieties are seen as the most important aspect of a record, so that careers are destroyed for the want of a horseshoe nail — or these days, a good accountant.
That pretty much rules out anyone who has not been zealously mindful of their future prospects when it comes to hiring cleaners, paying babysitters cash (you, too?) and the sundry other transgressions which make middle- class life work smoothly. The very rich can always arrange to cover themselves more protectively, not least by paying others to manage their households for them. What is not so obvious is why the Baroness has not eaten humble pie. If there was ever a time for its consumption, this is it.
Just as I was feeling the prickle of working-mother solidarity for her, she undermined it with a crass response to her punishment, claiming that she had merely received a “civil penalty” akin to “the congestion charge”.
Oh dear, that really is a lawyer's point too far. I gather that the reason No 10 added the stern requirement for a “profuse” apology was that Downing Street was concerned about the Baroness's tendency to mount a legalistic defence of her position, rather than take her punishment on the chin.
In a more forgiving era, she might have got away with it. After all, the Conservative frontbencher Caroline Spelman did some very imaginative things with her home arrangements, which combined the roles of nanny and constituency secretary.
Senior Tory sources subsequently told me they had been so happy to have a few presentable women at the top that they did not think to question it. So Ms Spelman got off lightly in the end; she might not have done so in the current climate. It is a sign of the Attorney General's daft naivety that she is deaf to the mood on such matters.
As for Gordon Brown, he has little interest in whether she retains her job or not. In New Labour clan terms, she is a hangover from the Society of Labour Lawyers, so beloved of (the lawyer) Tony Blair.
If his own position were stronger, Mr Brown would surely have dismissed her pour encourager les autres. Now, however, the Prime Minister is hostage to misfortune. Any more resignations after the summer glut of Hazel Blears, James Purnell and John Hutton, looks like a Cabinet dissolving around him.
So the blundering Baroness Scotland remains in post, but barely in authority — another member of the ghost of a government that was once in power.
Reader views (23)
I am appalled that this foolishly arrogant woman has not resigned yet.
Rather than being a minor technical matter, it would appear that this case is another example of a senior Labour politician believing them self above the law.
It would appear that;
Either Baroness Scotland was guilty of employing her cleaner knowing her to ineligible for employment and probably being able to do so at a cheaper rate because of this.
Or the fact is, a photocopy of her cleaner's passport would have shown that she was not eligible for employment. This would have exposed a lack of diligence on the part of Baroness Scotland in assessing the cleaner's suitability for employment, which is the whole point of taking a copy in the first place. Therefore this has been cynically managed down to a case of an oversight in taking a photocopy to reduce embarrassment.
In accepting Baroness Scotland's explanation despite the hard evidence, the Borders Agency appears to be in need of a serious shake up. As for Brown and Mandelson and the rest of their corrupt gang. They may have grown accustomed to believing that the public are fools. It is our responsibility to teach them a lesson at the next election.
That leaves a big question. A vote for self interested millionaire Tories or honest, even if a little muddled by genuine democracy, Lib Dems. I think it is about time that an expectation of honesty became the deciding factor when placing a vote.
- Harry H, London UK
Until such time as she leaves office (probably as a result of the next General Election) she will be a constant reminder that Gordon Brown's ministers think they are above the law.
One suspects that this government actually wants to lose the next election.
- Alan Combe, London
If she had checked the paperwork she would of realised the error, but she doesn't need to as she is above the Law. Just another Cabinet Minister that is not elected, therefore is not answerable to anyone.
Part of the new breed of politi****s that run the EU Police State, so get used to it.
- William, Hay~Heath UK
Surely, she would have noticed that the housekeeper's visa had expired - I'm just a lowly paid NHS worker and I would have spotted that!
- Patricia, London
The dishonourable egotistical Lady is setting a grand example to the rest of us: ignore or bend the rules, duck and dive, cheat, obfuscate, be deaf to what you don't want to hear, have no honour,do unto others as you wouldn't be done by! So society slips further down the pan!
- Judith C, London, England
Well if Mandy supports her I'm sure she was truthful and I'm sure that the appropriate photocopies will be found later in another file - maybe in the expenses claim file? It will be proven that she took all appropriate action and the documents were simply mislaid and she forgot she had taken the photocopies.The photocopies will of course show that the employer is in the clear. I do hope she gets her £5000 back as she seems to be hard done by especially after being forced to pay back expenses.
- Terry, Hennebont France
£5000 seems pretty close to the single person's pension or an allowance for a handicapped person . I wonder what would happen to members of either group if they were found to employ an illegal immigrant to assist them.
What an obnoxious ,pompous ,and notably greedy woman.
- Terry, Hennebont France
I await with interest to hear her "excuse" for claiming £170,000 of tax payers' money for a non-existent/non-essential "second home". Was this too a "technical error"? It is clear that Blair and Brown have surrounded themselves with some of the most dishonest people who have no sense of decency, honesty or integrity. A law degree does not guarantee that one is a "lady" or a "lord" - as has been proven by the contempt for the law shown by this country's attorney general.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
Resign end of story. You cannot prosecute others when you break the law. This isn't a parking ticket, its a significantly greater offence and it is intolerable that she remains in Office.
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
This is another example of how the ruling class looks after it's self. In the meantime, "To Hell" with the rest of us to whom they should be subservient and accountable. Our government and democracy used to be the envy of the world - now it is merely a "Laughing Stock".
Political reform is long overdue. I would suggest a new Prime Minister - try Peter Davis (Mayor of Doncaster). Such a man could turn this country around in a very short space of time and make us all proud to be British again.
- Peter Ellis, Newhaven, East Sussex.
It doesn't say much for her ability as a lawyer, even less about her integrity, and that of her Government. It would seem that integrity is not a word that politicians know the meaning of.
- Nigel,, Banstead Surrey
I wonder if they will be placing Lady Scotlands name on the 'EMPLOYERS AGAINST WHOM NOTICES OF LIABILITY (NOLS) HAVE BEEN ISSUED AND CIVIL
PENALTIES IMPOSED FOR THE USE OF ILLEGAL MIGRANT WORKERS' which can be found at the border agency website http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/listemployerspenalties/
- Patrick, Bristol
to take the law and squander it in such a mannor is just pathetic and to expect to retain the job is even more so! come on gordon why do you think the public who put you where you are now are all mushrooms? why try to keep us in the dark and feed us what it takes to make mushrooms grow? you talk of corruption and turmoil in afganistan and pakistan, but the truth is that our government is just as corrupt as them,the fact that you hide behind parliaments walls and secret meetings makes it worse. at least the taliban are very open with their intensions. what will be next? oh yeah the euro! another way to rip off the public? how do you sleep with all the lies you come up with?
- Scott, blackpool
If she had really taken a look at the paperwork and the woman's passport it would have been obvious the woman's student visa had expired. For her to say she is only guilty of not taking copies is absolute rubbish! If she'd looked at the passport as she claims she would have spotted an out-of-date visa.
- Peter Jones, Peterborough
This is all rather unfair! The lady comes from Dominica and is merely following time honoured Dominican traditions. In terms of government corruption it really is petty. She is a glowing example of New Labour
- Simon Gosnell, Cambridge UK
Too true but this Government's finger nail grip on power will still cling on despite this idiot who couldn't manage her own house within the laws of land. God help us!!
Will the next lot be any better? We know the answer sadly.
- Oil Consultant, Monaco
legislation to make employers carry the can for taking on illegal workers, should be prison and a hefty fine.
there are rules them and laws for the rest of us.
still it's something for her to giggle about.
we must understand she is better than us.
Did her household help get paid the minimum wage?
If her fine is a joke to her. maybe a year or so with no job and income might make her understand that most of us work hard for very little.
- Chuck, essex
So does this mean she has a criminal record & that her fine will show up on an Enhanced CRB Disclosure?
- Lesley, Loughborough
Am I the only person less concerned with the 'offence' committed by this woman than the manner of how it was dealt with? Before what Court was the matter tried, who decided on the fine? The continuing move to 'decriminalise' so many crimes is undermining what little faith I had in British Justice. What next, FTP's for Burglary, Serious Assaults to be dealt with by an unknown panel of Administrators?
The process by which Baroness Scotland was found guilty needs to be fair, honest and Transparent. Would she have been found guilty in a proper court? Is behind closed doors to become the norm?
- Barry P, portsmouth
As Attorney General she should resign. Not for employing the young woman but for sacking her. Justice should be tempered with fairness and mercy.
- Bernard Pierce, Hebden Bridge
My only comment would be that she seems to think she is above the law - if this woman, in the position she holds, did not know she was breaking the law then its time for her to be given the push and I suggest she look for another job perhaps more suited to her brain power!!!
- Jackie Mulvey, Dundee
If baroness Scotland as a top lawyer cannot get this right what hope have the rest of us?
- John, Reading Berkshire
The reason she didn't take copies was simply this - she could not have taken copies of things she never saw. She is lying through her teeth.
Technical breech; inadvertance - pull the other one.
They only thing she is sorry for is being caught.
- Chris, Haslemere
