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April 2, 2004

Trust

And so the immigration row rumbles on, with attention now switching to David Blunkett. It would be a shame if one of this government's more able ministers was forced to resign, but at the end of the day it is important that openess and accountability are brought to what is one of the most contentious areas of politics at the moment. After all, the mendacity of Ms Hughes, and the generally poor handling of this row is merely playing into the hands of extreme racist groups such as the BNP. After all, it's about trust, stupid. As long as the government fails to come clean on this matter, people are going to think the worst, or at least give credance to rumours, and that is the worst possible situation to be in with regards to immigration and asylum seekers. As an illustration of just how far this government has slipped in the people's trust, consider that Tony Blair was told of the correspondance between Hughes and Ainsworth before Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, yet chose to say nothing about it. Add in the fact that the two whistleblowers involved are both facing disciplinary action, and you are left with the abiding impression of a government incapable of honesty and determine to silence any criticism from within, an impression made all the worse by the fact that Labour actually introduced the Public Interest Disclosure Act precisely to protect whistleblowers in these cases. --------

Posted by Clive on April 2, 2004 9:42 AM in the category Old Stuff

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