Telling it like it is

The marvellous Betty Boothroyd thinks:

Tony Blair's government has become arrogant and does not take fighting sleaze seriously enough

According to the BBC Online. Let us remember that Baroness Boothroyd was a former Labour MP so is not in a party-war here.

She backed standards watchdog Sir Alistair Graham for saying Mr Blair saw standards as a "minor issue".

She told BBC News 24's Straight Talk programme: "It was absolutely right for a man in that position to speak out as he has done and I hope that 10 Downing Street have taken note of that."

Some hope, Betty. She goes on to remind us that

The prime minister came to power promising to be "whiter than white".

(At this point, the Gorse Fox can hear the strains of The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" playing at the back of his mind... but then remember that he wasn't fooled then, nor at the two subsequent elections.

[File under: Sleaze]