Case rates are falling, booster rates are sky-rocketing and Westminster is consumed by the Owen Paterson affair: what more signs are needed that normal life is resuming? And more proof, if needed, was provided by this week’s release of the updated Members’ Register of Interest, in which under-fire MPs revealed that jet-setting junkets have now resumed.
Some 16 Labour and Conservative MPs were last month flown to Qatar as part of the British-Qatari All Party Parliamentary Group, at a cool cost of some £120,000, paid for by the country’s embassy. According to their entries, the MPs were there for discussions on the country’s ‘humanitarian and political response to the Afghanistan crisis, preparations for the World Cup, workers’ rights reform and bilateral relations.’ Still, one or two appeared to find time to top up their tans, judging from their appearances in the Commons chamber.
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