Let's Not Do The Media's Dirty Work For Them

Two stories from today's newspapers illustrate that the media feeding frenzy about supposed political corruption is getting totally out of hand. The quest on the part of political hackery to imply that all politicians are sleaze-merchants is too easy to pass up. The Sunday Telegraph and the Independent on Sunday tell us that Tony Blair has failed to pay business rates on the one room of his house in Sedgefield which is used as an office, before mentioning as an aside that he would be able to claim back the extra cost on his parliamentary allowance anyway. Big story there, then. Both stories carry an aggressive quote from Conservative Local Government Spokesman Caroline Spelman. We Conservatives should be very careful about doing the media's dirty work for them in stories like this. All that happens is that the reputation of politicians in general is dragged further into the mire. And are we really suggesting that any politician who uses a room in their house as an office should have to pay business rates? Come off it.