The Baroness and the housekeeper.

This week, we have been faced with the almost unbelievable farce surrounding the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland.

For those of you who haven't been following the case, the Baroness was instrumental in framing and guiding into law, regulations to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. The law was framed so as to require employers to show that they had satisfied themselves that their employee has the right to work in the UK. It is a strict requirement that copies of passports and visas must be taken and retained, failing which the employer is liable for heavy fines. There is no room for inadvertent mistakes.

It was amazing therefore to read in the press that the Baroness had employed a Tongan lady whose visa had expired. When the news broke, the poor housekeeper was fired, and the Baroness has now been fined £5,000, a considerable sum.

You would think that the country's most senior law officer who had herself only recently enacted a draconian piece of legislation would not have been caught out in this way. You would also think that having been caught out that her position in the Government would be untenable and she, as a matter of honour, would have resigned immediately. No! The baroness tells us that the offence was a technicality equivalent to failing to pay the congestion charge .(and be subject to a £5,000 fine?... Do me a favour!!!)

What is even more amazing is that the Prime Minister does not consider an offence of this magnitude to be a resigning matter. It makes me wonder, just what does it take for someone to be unfit for office? I wonder what the Prime Minister, and indeed the Attorney General would have said and done if the culprit had been a member of another political party, or had been an ordinary member of the public?

The Government is rotten. It's time we had a change. In Edinburgh West we will have a change, lets make sure that change returns a Conservative to Westminster once again.