Standard Practice

Since those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, especially when Fishy Rishi has yet to appoint anyone to oversee ministerial interests, ministers from the party of Boris Johnson and Owen Paterson have balked at accepting all twenty of the recommendations for a new code of conduct which have been drawn up by the standards commmittee. For whatever her word is worth, the leader of the House of Expenses Claimants is pledged to raise no objections to tightening the rules on lobbying, and depriving members of a limited selection of their accustomed kickbacks; but ministers are objecting to the idea of declaring hospitality worth more than £300 within a specified time limit, as is required of the Commons herd. Since discrimination has no place in public life, the Government also objects to the idea that public servants (our lords and masters, in Oldspeak) should speak and behave in a non-discriminatory manner.