Breaking The Laws

John Pilger writes:

Imagine someone on state benefits caught claiming £40,000 of taxpayers' money in a second-home scam. A prison sentence would almost certainly follow. But David Laws, chief secretary to the Treasury, does the same and is described as follows: "I have always admired his intelligence, his sense of public duty and his personal integrity" (Nick Clegg). "You are a good and honourable man" (David Cameron). Laws is "a man of quite exceptional nobility" (Julian Glover, The Guardian), and "a brilliant mind" (BBC).

The Oxbridge club and its associate members in politics and the media have tried to link Laws's "error of judgement" and "naivety" to his "right to privacy" as a gay man, an irrelevance. The "brilliant mind" is a wealthy, Cambridge-groomed investment banker devoted to the noble task of cutting the public services of mostly poor and honest people.

And Olching writes:

Since the coalition got together two and a half weeks ago, David Laws has been praised as a 'talented politician' and has been widely tipped to be the next big thing. There's something curious about the media in that certain phrases and wisdoms become established without anyone knowing (or even asking) why.

This talented politician has since been involved in a post-expenses scandal whereby he has been claiming 40 grand (over a number of years) to pay his secret male partner...it all sounds a bit dated.

Since the media are currently enamoured with the Lib-Con coalition, the reaction to his resignation (surely the only possible outcome) has been hugely bizarre. It's as if David Laws has somehow been wronged. The government, so we are told, is losing a hugely talented individual with a glittering career ahead of him (it's so easy to churn out these cliches...I'm doing it in a stream of consciousness as I sip a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday morning).

There are several points to make in this respect:

Firstly, the reactions are in stark contrast to the reactions to the expenses scandal last year. Jacqui Smith's £10 claim for her husbands porn was met with such incredible indignation as if it constituted some constitutional crisis. There were plenty of other examples of over the top reactions; two others that come to mind were Menzies Campbell slightly high bill for food expenditure and Chris Huhne's trouser press. With the exception of a few clearly criminal offences, the expenses scandal was an anti-democratic media frenzy during which people utterly lost any perspective.

What's interesting is that David Laws' talent has embezzled 40k, which probably makes up about 100 trouser presses and 8,000 porn films for Jacqui Smith's husband. Yet last year's claims were an outrage, whereas Laws' claim is a personal tragedy. Brecht's saying about banks and debt comes to mind, only with a slight variation (a millionaire embezzles a lot of money and it becomes a tragedy).

Then there's the diversion towards his hidden sexuality. While this is, on a personal level, a little sad, it doesn't and shouldn't concern the public, and in any case the link between claiming 40k and hiding one's sexuality is utterly unclear and in fact nonsensical (though it's accepted uncritically in the media).

Now, finally, there's the whole trope of David Laws being talented. Is he? Here's his story: He takes the classical route of public school education followed by Cambridge and then becomes an investment banker, then VP and MD at JP Morgan. He was also head of US Dollar and Sterling Treasuries at Barclays de Zoete Wedd (wiki) from 1992 onwards.

So Laws has a firm rooting in neoliberal practices and processes. But there's more still: In 2004 he co-edited the infamous Orange Book - a neoliberal blueprint for a new generation of Liberal Democrats who began to follow a similar path the neoliberal extremists in Germany (FDP). Contributions to this book were made by the Sainted Vince Cable, Nick Clegg, Ed Davey, Susan Kramer, Chris Huhne and others. In short most of those who are now in positions of power. A Coincidence? Absolutely not. Clegg, Laws, Cable, Huhne and others plotted to turn the Liberal Democrats into a neoliberal party and succeeded (while stabbing Kennedy and others in the back on the way). One might even argue that David Laws is probably more to the right than David Cameron is.

I had an inkling before the election that this marriage might take place (this orange book business has been nagging me since it first gained prominence in 2005), but now the deal's been done, it's so obvious: The coalition is not that far-fetched. It's the ultimate neoliberal coalition. Add to that the 55% needed in the house to call a new election and it looks like this stranglehold on British politics is set to continue.

In any case, having made millions out of that very rotten neoliberal system that has caused these, Laws then has the gall to announce public spending cuts (and would have continued to do so had this revelation not emerged) while pocketing 40k off the tax payer. But the media outrage is muted. Instead, they bemoan the passing of a 'talented' politician.

It can only be hoped that such 'talented' individuals like David Laws (talented means: neoliberal doctrinaires) continue to fall by the wayside, though judging by the media fawning and lovey-dovey towards this coalition, it might just be a short lived joy.