Come on, Iain – we don’t censor here!

March 30, 2009 4:03 pm

From LabourList

Ian Dale has accused us of censorship. But he’s wrong, and we’ve just emailed him to direct him to a few things.

Hopefully he’ll issue a correction shortly.

Iain, I know you pride yourself on being accurate, so take a look at the following:

This is the LabourList daily email which goes out to thousands of people everyday at lunchtime.

It is a key plank of what we do, and is becoming increasingly popular among Labour activists.

You will see we highlight the Guardian leader on Jacqui Smith and you will also note our Zero of the Day as “All those MPs who think it’s OK to exploit the expenses system”.

I also draw your attention to our daily quote which says:

Sleaze is eating away what’s left of Labour’s authority. Increasingly, voters feel MPs are only in it for themselves, and every new horror threatens another Labour seat. Of course, the Tories are as bad. But Labour supporters expect better of the people’s party, and to be seen as sleazy as the Cons is cold comfort.

We then link to today’s Daily Mirror, and the headline “Jacqui Smith’s fury at her husband’s porn viewing on expenses”.

All weekend, there’s been ample space for our readers to debate the wider issue beneath this post, prompted by the questions:

Should MPs of all parties be subject to stricter and clearer rules on housing and travel allowances and should there be reform to ensure less ambiguity in this area so that no one can exploit the system?

If reform is needed, what do people feel is a fair amount to pay MPs?

What about cabinet ministers?

And last week, one of our best writers, Laurie Penny, asked of Tony McNulty “how dare he, how dare he?” in this piece.

None of our posters or readers have posted anything today on the subject or on the specifics of the jacqui smith case, if they we’d have had no hesitation in publishing them.

I guess they think there are more important things going on.

You owe us a correction, mate…

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