Sunday 3 February 2008

Not so Happy Meal.


So, it appears that former Labour Minister Andy Kerr MSP has become the latest Scottish politician to be implicated in allegations of breaking political rules as regards not declaration of the receipt of hospitality.

"LABOUR WAS involved in a second investigation last night after it emerged former health minister Andy Kerr had also been reported to the Crown Office - over an allegation that he failed to declare a £1000 gift. Holyrood Standards Commissioner Dr Jim Dyer - who has already reported Wendy Alexander to the Crown Office - has also declared Kerr may have broken the law. Now police are to question the former health minister about hospitality he received from fast food giant McDonald's and which he did not include on the official Register of Interests in breach of the MSPs' Code of Conduct … He has already admitted failing to record the gifts and hospitality in the allotted time. MSPs have 30 days to register hospitality and while the other MSPS did so, Kerr only recorded it four days after the deadline."

And all for the sake of declaring a "gift" four days late. But then again what is the point of having rules and then not enforcing them? The article goes on to highlight that Mr Kerr is not the only Labour MSP to have succumbed to the curse of McDonald's hospitaly. Labour MSP Ken McIntosh was also pulled up over breaking the rules in not declaring properly McDonald's hospitality three years ago.

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