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Mr. McConnells cheap shot |
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Tue 11 Jan 2005
The Scotsman
IN THE past few days, both the First Minister and Kirsty Wark have angrily rejected accusations that there was any breach of parliamentary, ministerial or BBC guidelines regarding Mr McConnell?s undeclared stay with Ms Wark at her Spanish villa. Mr McConnell has gone further and accused his media critics of "professional jealousy" and of using the affair to "attack devolution and Scotland as a whole".
Samuel Johnson famously said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. While we would never call Mr McConnell a scoundrel, it is surely a cheap shot to damn anyone daring to question his judgment as being anti-Scottish. The primary purpose of devolution was to cast a democratic light on the inner workings of Scottish government rather than to give any First Minister carte blanche to cloak his failings in the Saltire.
As for disquiet about Mr McConnell?s conduct, far from this being got up by jealous rivals of Ms Wark, no less a figure than Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, who chaired the inquiry into the cost of the Scottish Parliament, has been critical. At the weekend, he put on record his worries that the close relationship between the First Minister and Ms Wark may have prevented Mr McConnell from supporting a parliamentary motion forcing the BBC to hand over crucial tapes to the inquiry. Lord Fraser said: "I have to say at the time I had understood Jack McConnell genuinely was using his best endeavours to get the tapes. I am bound to question that now."
Far from this affair being blown out of proportion by the press, or being a Trojan horse to undermine devolution, there are very serious issues involved. Mr McConnell is charged with specific infringements of the official rules governing the conduct of ministers and of MSPs.
Ministers are directed not to accept gifts or hospitality that might be interpreted as putting them "under an obligation". Ms Wark and her private company have been in receipt of monies for work she has undertaken for the Executive and various Executive-funded agencies. If Mr McConnell had accepted a free holiday from a businessman who was in receipt of Executive contracts, say PFI contracts for building schools, the outrage would be palpable. Had a Tory Secretary of State done so before 1997, Labour would have cried "sleaze".
The point of the ministerial code is to ensure that ministers do not place themselves in potentially compromising positions. There is a reasonable case for Mr McConnell to answer in that he did just that.
Separately, Mr McConnell also failed (twice) to register his hospitality at Ms Wark?s Spanish villa, in the MSPs? register of interests. He has claimed two contradictory (and inadequate) lines of defence. First, that this was not a gift, though the accommodation was free. Second, that the value was too small to apply - less than ?250. This is both specious and beside the point. The ?250 limit is a device to reduce MSPs? paperwork by ignoring trivial gifts. By no stretch of the imagination could two free Spanish holidays at the behest of a leading journalist be called trivial.
The next set of questions concerns Ms Wark?s prima facie breach of the BBC?s producers? guidelines. These state categorically that "accurate, robust, independent, and impartial, journalism is the DNA of the BBC". The test of such impartiality is that "audiences should always feel they can trust our words and our deeds". Surely it is a reasonable question to ask whether the viewing public can feel such complete trust if a leading presenter maintains a close personal relationship with a leading politician whose conduct is subject to investigation and reporting by the programme that that presenter is fronting.
The BBC guidelines also specify that "those known to the public primarily as presenters of, or reporters on, BBC news programmes or programmes about current affairs, must be seen to be impartial. It is important that no off-air activity ... leads to any doubt about their objectivity on-air". Can Ms Wark really put her hand on her heart and say she is fulfilling the letter and spirit of this injunction?
This is not just a story of a politician and a journalist maintaining friendly relations in a small country, as some argue. Ms Wark and her private company have been in receipt of large sums of money from Executive sources. No-one begrudges Mr McConnell and Ms Wark their long-standing friendship. But that cannot be combined with a commercial relationship or maintaining the spirit of the BBC?s rules of impartiality. To say so is neither partisan nor unpatriotic. It is what devolution is about. |
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