Friday 14 October 2011

a close (un)official advisor

As the time goes by we get more and more information about the Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, and his suspicious relationship with his unofficial advisor, Adam Werritty. but do we actually know more? Hopefully, the official inquiry being conducted by the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell will help us to understand this situation… One thing is obvious, Dr Fox has breached the ministerial code of conduct, which states that it is up to individual ministers to "avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict" and that they must "scrupulously avoid any danger of an actual or perceived conflict of interest". Fox's statement on Monday said : "My frequent contacts with him, may have given an impression of wrongdoing, and may also have given third parties the misleading impression that Mr Werritty was an official adviser rather than simply a friend."



Should the Prime Minister act quickly and fire Liam Fox? As the shadow minister of defence, Mr Jones, said: "[David Cameron's] either got to support Dr Fox, and admit he supports this very shady set-up, or he's got to go." On the other hand, the Prime Minister told the Commons on the Wednesay’s question time: "I ask people to have a little patience and wait for the facts to be established." I agree with that, even though, in my opinion, the Defense Minister made mistakes and should meet the consequences of his actions. The important decisions of David Cameron, such as firing the defense minister, have to be made after getting to know all the details of these cases. We have to wait for facts, not speculations of the media. 




That’s what I think,

MANU



1 comment: