WalesHome.org

Lembit Opik: even handed or deliberately misleading?

Last weekend I blogged on Iris Robinson and my lack of sympathy for her situation. One thing I did not touch on was the financial question mark hanging over her which was expertly pinpointed in both the Spotlight programme from Northern Ireland and also by Panorama. Print and broadcast media have since spent time dissecting the allegation of financial malpractice and lack of transparency. Indeed, it was this aspect, rather than his wife’s sexual conduct, which caused First Minister Peter Robinson to stand down. It’s hardly a hidden angle, just not the one I wished to comment on then.

But it’s a completely different matter to write about the situation of the Robinsons and Northern Ireland in such a way as downplay the reality of the seriousness of the situation Iris Robinson has caused. And, more dangerously, for a person in public office to deny reality is wholly unacceptable.

When I saw Glyn Davies had titled one of his latest blogposts “Just how low can an MP sink?”, I wondered if he was overplaying it. Then I read one of his latest blog posts and realised the substance and the seriousness of the issue. Incumbent Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik, whom Glyn is of course trying to unseat, has a regular column in The Daily Sport. To save any of you having to buy it, plenty of bloggers are prepared to tell you when he’s over stepped the mark. Both Heledd Fychan and Vaughan Roderick are usually generous in this respect. And even Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has made clear her displeasure at Lembit’s choice of literary organ. “It’s not an approach to politics that I find particularly attractive,” she is on record as saying. Quite.

Until now I’ve generally ignored the content of the political column of one of Wales’ best known MPs. But his latest foray is impossible to dismiss if you have any regard for truth, accuracy and moral leadership in public life. To save you buying the offending article, the Liberal Burblings website offers a neat summary of Lembit’s thoughts on the Robinsons. In the Daily Sport column he quite deliberately played down and dismissed the allegations of financial impropriety and, as Burblings recounts, made a series of statements which were are at best naive and at worst seeking to pervert reality.

The following quotes sum it up:

“Poor Peter’s stepped down as boss of the Assembly for the next six weeks while things get sorted out. But is it fair? No! It’s easy – and dopey – to simply ogle an MP’s private life and pretend that it’s about politics.”

“And as for the financial stuff, unless we’re now all expected to grass on each other…”

“If a journalist’s wife was caught having an affair with someone else, would the journo resign? Of course not!”

Iris Robinson’s problems may well have started with her affair, but the real crisis is caused by her financial behaviour. Everyone with a degree of interest in the matter above the salacious will be fully aware of that. Even if Lembit’s entire readership falls into the salacious category, then what are the rest of us to make of it? Because the MP for Montgomeryshire has clearly written some very distorting things.

People look on those in public office to try and convey the truth. These statements are intended to do the exact opposite. At best it is political naivety on a scale that beggers belief. At worst it is the most shocking example of obfuscation I have ever seen from an elected politician. The fact that Lembit Opik comes from Northern Ireland and used to be his party’s Northern Ireland spokesperson simply compounds matters.

In his column, Lembit quite clearly states that he is mounting a defence because of his friendship with the Robinsons. I am fortunate enough to have many good friends in politics and right across the political spectrum. But if I ever wrote anything that so blatantly distorted truth to favour friends as Lembit Opik has done then I would be ashamed of myself. And I would expect my friends, political and otherwise, never to trust a word I wrote ever again.

UPDATE
Valleys Mam reproduces the offending/offensive column in full over on her blog and plays her part in “grassing up” an MP who has gone too far.

She also calls on Nick Clegg to take action. We know what Kirsty thinks of his column. So what does Clegg make of it? Surely a man who took a strong line on expenses and other matters six months ago can’t condone one of his MPs making light of serious financial irregularities?

FURTHER UPDATE
Plaid’s Montgomeryshire candidate Heledd Fychan has also now blogged on the issue, calling on Nick Clegg to take action. Could such a call unite the other candidates in condemning Opik and asking his leader to intervene?

ANOTHER FURTHER UPDATE
The BBC is now reporting that Police in Northern Ireland have launched a criminal investigation into the financial dealings of former DUP Strangford MP Iris Robinson. Can someone tell the MP for Montgomeryshire before he writes his next column?