Liam Fox Is Unbelievable
Scarlett MccGwire can't believe Liam Fox wants to make a return to frontbench politics.
1 Nov 2011, 10:00
Foxy Fox
That does not quite accord with the facts. This was a man who hung on in the face of incontrovertible evidence that he had ridden a coach and horses through the rules and protocol surrounding his job and only walked when the government could take no more.
Then his friends took to the airwaves to complain that a brilliant Minister had been hounded out of office by innuendo and smears. And Fox appears to continue to blame the media rather than himself for his downfall.
No mention was made of Adam Werrity, a man neither employed by the government nor cleared by security, joining him on 18 foreign trips and meeting senior military figures or ignoring warnings from both his private office and his Permanent Secretary.
The day after Fox’s resignation the Daily Mail devoted pages to detailing just why he had to go, as they put it. Not once did they hint that Werrity might have been more than a friend, there was quite enough damning evidence without resorting to innuendo.
Even without the acres of results of painstaking investigation, there was always one killer fact. When Liam Fox was Shadow Health Secretary, AdamWerrity ran a health consultancy, when he moved to Defence so did Werrity’s consultancy. The man was clearly Fox’s shadow.
Perhaps Liam Fox, and all other politicians, should try and see things through the eyes of the voting public. If we had a job that involved the security of our country, we could not take a friend along too. We could not have a friend whose sole income derived from his relationship with us. We could not ask rich contacts, who had their own agenda, to bankroll that friend.
We are told that when David Cameron was agonising about letting Dr Fox go, he would imagine the scenario if it involved a friend of his. Far better to imagine if it had been one of the civil servants of military around the Defence Secretary – they would have been sacked in minutes.
Now Liam Fox wants his job back – and Number 10 are only surprised that he expresses his wish so soon. Just as David Laws, who knowingly broke the rules by giving thousands of pounds to his boyfriend, is waiting for his preferment.
And they wonder why the British have become cynical about politicians.
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Scarlett MccGwire
Scarlett MccGwire is a media trainer and communications consultant.
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Comments (5)
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If you read the interview, Fox makes it quite clear that while he would like to return to the frontbench, he doesn't expect this to happen any time soon.
01/11/2011 10:28a) serious
b) honest
c) capable
d) right-wing
Pick any three out of four. (Although IDS is looking like he may just, possibly, break the mould)
01/11/2011 11:07I can't quite understand the bubble of self-importance and delusion that politicians like Fox inhabit. He engaged in a long-term failure of judgement over Werrity that shows he simply cannot be given any position of responsibility again. Perhaps that is a shame because he appears to have plenty of admirers who think he is a man of ability, but ability ought to be coupled with integrity and he has shown himself to have failed on that.
http://botzarelli.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/oh-for-fox-sake/
01/11/2011 12:11Why anyone expects MPs to be bound by rules is beyond me. They don't.
02/11/2011 09:50"Not once did they hint that Werrity might have been more than a friend, there was quite enough damning evidence without resorting to innuendo."
Clearly even innuendo is too subtle for you then? Care to put forward your "damning evidence"
04/11/2011 16:07