Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The BBC should be less opinionated

Rod Liddle says that the Corporation has no right to adopt a position on an issue such as David Maclean’s private member’s bill, and should stick to reporting the facts

Rod Liddle says that the Corporation has no right to adopt a position on an issue such as David Maclean’s private member’s bill, and should stick to reporting the facts

A BBC foreign correspondent was once sacked by the Corporation for claiming expenses fraudulently. What alerted the BBC accountants to a possible transgression was this chap’s claim for the cost of a lawnmower and the services of a gardener, given the fact that he lived in a fourth-floor apartment. I don’t know what he’s doing now, the journalist. Perhaps he’s your MP.

Maybe he changed his name and is now called David Maclean, the Cumbrian Conservative MP who has attracted much public opprobrium by introducing the private member’s bill which exempted himself and his colleagues from the Freedom of Information Act. Meaning that they won’t be required to disclose the full details of their own expenses claims. It has now transpired that Mr Maclean has claimed, among other things, a £3,300 quad bike on House of Commons expenses, in order to ‘get around my constituency’. I thought this was satire at first, or Mr Maclean having a joke at the impertinent press’s expense — but no, it’s perfectly true. It has been pointed out that Mr Maclean suffers from multiple sclerosis, a singularly unpleasant and terminal illness. I am not sure if this fact is meant to imply that sufferers from MS are more comfortable on quad bikes than any other form of transport, or that sufferers from MS should be allowed expensive fripperies to compensate for the difficulties they endure; quad bike, a few crates of Cristal, night on the tiles with Jessica Alba every so often, etc.

Frankly, the bill itself annoyed me rather more than the quad-bike business.

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