Lee Jasper to face no charges

The police have decided that Ken Livingstone's suspended race advisor Lee Jasper hasn't committed a criminal offence. The politically motivated campaign against Jasper and Livingstone by Associated Newspapers and the London Evening Standard has been brutal. Trawling thisislondon and dailymail.co.uk I see no mention of this. So far this "scandal" has only been written about by BBC, The Guardian and a couple of local papers.

I'm sure there will be a response from Gilligan and the Standard but as yet, they haven't published one. Not that surprising really when one considers this is hardly the news they will have wanted and likely to be exactly the news Livingstone expected when he asked the police to investigate.

There is a bit more buzz on the blogosphere. Laughably the "Battle for Britain" now claims the police are corrupt for convicting Nick Griffin on "lesser charges" than Jasper. Author Philip Bryant does describbe himself as a "nationalist nutter" though. Some more balanced and journalistic reoprting is found on Mayor Watch, while Lib Dem Voice thinks that Livingstone was possibly wrong to ask th epolice to investigate in the first place if there was nothing to answer for. I think that is a little naive considering the mealstrom that built up.

Next up for Jasper, complaints that despite his job being politically restricted, that he told The voice newspaper that he was backing Ken for Mayor. Does that count as campaigning? It shouldn't really surprise anyone that he would say this when he owes his position to his boss, Ken.

Looks like fraud to me

Fraud was my first thought on reading that Tory MP Derek Conway had paid his two sons to work for him while students. The full facts need to be established, but weith the Standards Committee having already found no evidence of the work of one, this looks incredibly fishy. I don't think suspension from the Commons is sufficient. Most people caught stealing from their employers would be sacked and prosecuted. Conway deserves the same and I'm expecting the police to investigate fully.