And rank and file members of political parties need to call it out – irrespective of which political party does it.
The BBC News article by Simon Read is here. See also Channel 4 news here.
The report by the National Audit Office, both the full report and the executive summary, can be found here. Not surprisingly, it’s getting comment from people far outside the Westminster bubble – such as TV legend & former Cambridge student Carol Vorderman.
Given what we’re all going through, and with the crisis in local government, it’s astonishing that vast sums are being handed over in this way.
The NAO stated:
This is something that the Good Law Project is taking legal action over. And that action has already shown results, including this shocking case.
The above case was raised by the Leader of the Opposition at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Accordingly, it also made it to the front pages of the broadsheets.
It now moves over to the Public Accounts Committee and other parliamentary select committees to cross-examine ministers and senior civil servants in detail about this scandal.
But in the grand scheme of things, in normal times the responsible ministers would have resigned over such a damning conclusion from the National Audit Office. It speaks volumes again that no minister is taking responsibility for this state of affairs. Rank and file party members need to call this out, because otherwise the integrity of public service delivery and the integrity of our institutions of state are gravely undermined. And for what?
The Cambridge Town Owl 