The best story of the day has to be the news that Baroness Scotland, who worked on leglisation to crack down on the employment of illegal immigrants, has fallen foul of the very law she helped introduce.
I can’t remember the last time a minister was caught by their own legislation. Her draconian drafting to fine those hoodwinked by illegal immigrants with seemingly all the right paperwork up to £10,000 – apparently discarding the old adage that it’s not a crime to be deceived – has rebounded brilliantly.
So will she be fined? Or is their some unwritten rule that the law shouldn’t apply to ministers? Would a member of the public in the same position escape application of the law in a similar way?
Her spokesman said she had “never knowingly employed an illegal immigrant”. Doesn’t matter. And that “She hired Ms Tapui in good faith and saw documents which led her to believe that Ms Tapui was entitled to work in this country.” Whatever. In addition:
“At no stage prior to the matter being raised did Baroness Scotland believe there was any question over Ms Tapui’s entitlement to work. Ms Tapui has now been dismissed with immediate effect.”
Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that one before. Now, where do we serve the papers? Oh, you’re the minister, are you…?
September 22, 2009 at 6:27 pm
[...] doesn’t get tough on Scotland September 22, 2009 — simonashall Further to this, this, from Tim Dodds’s excellent blog. I don’t think I can put it any [...]