The disgraceful case of Elizabeth Filkin

Peter Oborne, The Triumph of the Political Class,The name Elizabeth Filkin will mean little to most people, but it should, especially now with the current allowance scandals surfacing in Westminster. The way that she was treated is the best indicator of the huge gulf that now exists between the general populace and our ruling elite. What were once isolated, individual cases of political corruption seem to have become endemic throughout the Political Class.

 

Elizabeth Filkin was appointed Parliamentary Commissioner for standards in 1999. She appears to have taken a conscientious approach to her job, exposing a "shocking pattern of arrogance, corruption, greed bullying and deception among ministers, ordinary MPs and leading figures from the Conservative opposition"1. Peter Oborne devotes several pages to her removal from her position, in his 2007 book, The Triumph of the Political Class.

 

1 Peter Oborne, The Triumph of the Political Class, Simon & Schuster 2007, page 215


As Peter Oborne says:

 

The readiness of ministers to sit idly by while Mrs Filkin was pilloried and driven from her job is one of the most morally disgusting episodes I have witnessed as a journalist and as a human being. I tried to expose it at the time, but no one wanted to listen. It has lingered in my mind ever since, and every so often I have learned fresh and ever more disquieting facts about it. It is essentially the story of how MPs destroyed the reputation of a woman emphatically not because she had done anything wrong, but because she was too assiduous in doing her duty. The revolting spectacle of how three main political parties colluded in the use of Parliament to destroy the reputation of a decent woman was my main spur for writing this book.

 

The Chapter on Elizabeth Filkin is available at The Daily Mail. See - Hounding of a decent woman: Labour's brutal campaign to destroy ethics watchdog Elizabeth Filkin

 

See also:

 

The Independent: Elizabeth Filkin: A woman scorned

The Guardian: Six who fell foul of Elizabeth Filkin

The BBC: Elizabeth Filkin interview: Full transcript

The Independent: Elizabeth Filkin: the 'Witch' puts away her broomstick. This article, written in 2002, closed with these words:

 

Mrs Filkin could so easily have been remembered as the woman whose sleazebusting investigations precipitated the demise of Mr Mandelson - twice; millionaire Labour donor, Mr Robinson; and Britain's first Asian minister, Mr Vaz. But her premature departure from office probably precludes that. Instead the attention she has drawn to the failure of the system of scrutiny in general might well spawn the stronger, fairer system which could be her legacy. It is one, I suspect, she would prefer.

 

How wrong they proved to be

 

(Elizabeth Filkin, took up her post in November, in the advertising industry taking responsibility for the rules that control TV and radio commercials, heading the Advertising Advisory Committee)

Posted on 11 Mar, 2009 by alfred

Filed under UK Parliament


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Comments


'I am becoming increasingly concerned at the erosion of basic freedoms, the transfer of almost all meaningful political power to the EU Government and a UK Government that is increasingly representative in name only. The individual is no longer important to the governing elite'

I totally agree and believe me you are not on your own.I have been fighting myself about a few things in which we are losing our freedom. I am not going to keep my dog on a lead, I should be able to smoke in a pub - look whats happened there - our history gone down the plug hole. It will be a mistake to give councils power, they have no clue and rush through 'Rules' for which I have no respect for. Law is what I respect. Councils dont have proper debates but say they have had a debate and all the people have agreed on this.

No we have not.

Keep on with your good work, they are trying to make us lose our voice by conquer and divide but you are not alone far from it.
  Julie Kennedy // 06 Apr, 2009 / 07:22:30
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Thanks Julie. It is a little ironic that you are writing this on the day that the Westminster government implements the requirement that all ISPs to retain all details of web sites visited. The stupidity of this is demonstrated by the emergence of sites like http://www.torproject.org/ whereby the requirement is bypassed.
  ethelred // 06 Apr, 2009 / 08:24:43
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