The Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger still tries to defend his personal friend Tessa Jowell. From today’s Guardian Leader:
“Ms Jowell has been acquitted by a questionable procedure. That does not make her guilty; a less questionable procedure would very likely acquit her too.”
Oh yes. A genuinely independent judge would have no difficulty believing that her husband did not tell her for four years that he received a $600,000 gift, or that she saw nothing to indicate the mortgage had been paid off. Or that when she then remortgaged the same house again – twice – it did not occur to her that this would not be a problem if, as she claims, she believed the first mortgage had not been paid off.
Let me rephrase my “Does anyone believe her?” question. Does anyone believe her except Alan Rusbridger and Michael White? We all wait for Polly Toynbee’s article entitled “Money laundering is OK if you have a peg on your nose.”
(I suppose I ought to explain that. At the last general election, Polly Toynbee’s Guardian column urged voters to vote New Labour but to show their disapproval of the illegal war on Iraq by wearing a peg on their nose while they did it.)
Craig