Are standards falling, or are our expectations rising? Derek Conway’s conduct would have been normal not very long ago at all. And I still can’t see any reason why MPs should not be permitted to employ their relatives. The practice is banned in the Congress and the Bundestag, neither of which is a model of incorruptibility; indeed, many members of the latter are paid lobbyists, since the only people who could ban them from being so are themselves.
Meanwhile, what of the great totem, social mobility? I do not know if Conway’s parents are still alive, but I do know that he is the product of a Gateshead Secondary Modern and that his uncle was a Labour Mayor of Gateshead. So I suspect that I can picture his parents, pretty much. As with Alderman Alfred Roberts on the one hand and Mark Thatcher on the other, compare and contrast them with their grandsons. From Mayor of Gateshead to Queen Sloane in two generations. Is that really supposed to be any sort of improvement?
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