Across the pond

Holly Watt, a young journalist on the Sunday Times, is to be this year’s Laurence Stern Fellow. She impressed the interview panel with the quality of her investigative reporting. She has been shortlisted, along with her colleague, Robert Winnit, for the Press Awards scoop of the year category. The broke the story last year about MP Derek Conway putting his son on his expense account even though he was a full-time student at the time. Follow this link for her latest story on Conway.

She will be flying out on the fourth of July to spend three months working on the Washington Post on the national desk in this election year. The fellowship was set up to honour the memory of Larry Stern, who died young while serving as national editor. He was a formidable investigative journalist himself, as well as a first rate editor and a friend who gave unstintingly of his time to help British journalists struggling to understand US politics.

When it comes to the naughtiness of politicians the difference between US and British politicians is not that great. But what is radically different is the size of the figures. Conway pocketed £160,000 from the sale of his constuency home. The Clintons, who have just released their tax returns, trousered $109 million over the last few years.

Thus far no-one has proved that any of the money earned by the Clintons was earned illegally. And journalists tried for years to prove they had erred in the Whitewater matter, long before the current election campaign started.

And no-one has proved that Derek Conway has broken the law over his expense claims. But the public interest justification for journalists invading the privacy of politicians’ financial affairs does not rest on solely on law-breaking.

Both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair earn vast sums for making speeches. These sums are paid by super rich individuals and big companies. The public should know which people and which companies are doling out the lolly.

Politicians also need to be reminded that there own evaluation of the degree of respect their offices should carry is not always shared by the electorate. The speaker of the House of Commons has been fighting a campaign to try and prevent the Freedom of Information Act being used to publish the detail of MPs’ expenses. He failed as you can see from today’s papers.

The speaker was upset because journalists had exposed him for claiming on his expenses a couple of thousand pounds spent by his wife who uses taxis to do her shopping. The notion that the dignity of the speaker’s office is demeaned by either him, or his wife, using the tube or the buses just shows how out of touch he is with contemporary politics.

A Labour speaker above all should know that Michael Foot continued to travel to the House of Commons on the 24 bus while he was leader of the Labour Party. And he did it without borrowing a Police bullet proof vest of the kind that another Labour cabinet minister wore last week when visiting constituents in Peckham.