Charles on… anything that comes along

There have been some calls by beleaguered MPs looking for an out for “an independent investigation into MPs’ expenses”.

Seems to me that this is already going - the Daily Telegraph has had 25 people going at it for weeks.

So here are five reasons why, and one reason why not, the Daily Telegraph is better than an “independent investigation” into expenses.

1. It has a professional team which has access to all of the data
2. It is publishing the results of the investigation concurrently with its findings
3. It is answerable in the courts if it gets it wrong on any item
4. It has not been appointed through any political manoeuvring
5. It is giving those suspected of wrongdoing the chance to reply

There is however one reason why it’s not as good as an independent investigation:

1. The actual investigation isn’t being done in public; we see the results, not the working.

On balance, I think we’re better off with the Telegraph doing it. As I write this, the Telegraph is publishing more - Ian Gibson. Who is offering an explanation about his second home flat which he sold to his daughter at, allegedly, half its market price.

Can you imagine what an “independent” investigation of all this would look like? They would vanish into a room forever. MPs would come and go. There would be little murmurings. There might be “salmon letters” (which come from an inquiry when a person may be criticised in the final report) flitting back and forth. And then, don’t doubt, a great big nothing.

No, I think we’re better off with the press doing this sort of stuff. Perhaps we could try it with some other evidence where we aren’t quite certain we’re getting the true story. Any chance that the full papers from the Deepcut inquiry (inquiries?) could find their way to the Guardian?

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Ken Livingstone not exactly going gentle into, well, anything (14 July 2008; score: 27.04%)
• How the House of Commons made it harder to work out how much MPs have cost: by using PDFs (21 October 2004; score: 26.95%)
• Steve Jobs piece in The Independent magazine (29 October 2005; score: 26.47%)