"The Prime Minister's official spokesman has come up with a new formulation to side-step those pesky sleaze stories.
When asked today about the row embroiling Tony McNulty, he said:
"These are not really issues that relate to Mr McNulty's Government responsibilities. These really are questions that arise in his capacity as a Member of Parliament and therefore it's not for me to get into that."
This is a novel attempt to divide politicians into ministers on the one hand and MPs on the other. It's a tactic that suggests ministers are a Dr Jekyll in their Whitehall office during the day and then - kpow! - turn into Mr Hyde the wicked MP at night.
But I'm not sure that it convinces. The ministerial code does not make such a distinction and in fact appears to apply to ALL of a minister's conduct.
Perhaps the funniest moment at the Lobby briefing today, however, came when the spokesman was next quizzed on Nigel Griffiths' sex romp in the Commons.
"Nigel Griffiths is not a member of the Government so I'm afraid the previous answer applies in this case."
Heads I win, tails you lose. If someone is a member of the Government, we can't comment on their conduct as an MP. If someone is NOT a member of the Government, we can't comment because they are merely an MP. Alastair Campbell would be proud."
Paul Waugh seems to think this sort of evasion by the Labour government is in some way amusing, it is of course not in the slightest amusing; it is duplicitous, anti-democratic and vile - just like the labour government.
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