Nobody could quibble with the fulsomeness of Douglas Ross’s apology.
The Scottish Tory leader said he is “very sorry” for the “extremely bad error” he made when he failed to declare £30,000 in outside earnings.
He has referred himself to the sleaze watchdog and, in a video apology he posted on Saturday, he said he was his own harshest critic.
It has since emerged that he was also late to declare a further 26 payments that he earned from his role as an assistant referee.
I have no reason to doubt Mr Ross’s assertion that these repeated late filings were genuine errors and not an attempt at evasion.
As bad as it looks, if it had been uncovered a few weeks ago, I suspect it wouldn’t have made the front pages.
Tory sleaze and second jobs
But the Tory sleaze scandal seems to be reaching a tipping point.
If Boris Johnson hadn’t tried to save the rule-breaking Owen Paterson, Douglas Ross wouldn’t now be the latest poster boy for Tory wrongdoing.
It would be a lot easier to offer Douglas Ross the benefit of the doubt if his party weren’t so brutal in their commitment to denying it to other people.
Mistakes happen. Life sometimes gets in the way.
It’s not implausible that Douglas Ross forgot to fill in the forms on time, though that might be an argument for MPs only having one job, and not the three that Mr Ross currently has.
But for ordinary people, these mistakes can have devastating consequences.
The Conservative party has presided over an inhumane dismantling of the social security system.”
If you are somebody who has ever had to rely on the threadbare safety net of social security, you’ll be all too aware that there is no margin for error.
You’re not allowed to miss an appointment or forget to send in a form that the DWP or local council have requested from you.
Doing so would set off a series of immediate consequences.
It’s been a good few years since I last had to navigate those shark-infested waters but the memory doesn’t leave you.
You’re terrified of inadvertently making a mistake.
I remember attending an appointment at the local job centre, where a very stern woman interrogated me about whether I had really separated from my daughter’s father.
Do they not feel shame?
I’d filled in all the forms, made all the legally-binding declarations and ticked the box underneath the threats about what horrors would befall me if I was being untruthful.
The meeting just to double-check that I wasn’t pulling off a scam, punishable by imprisonment, to get a few extra quid from the government that I could splurge on the electricity meter.
The Conservative party has presided over an inhumane dismantling of the social security system.
The process for dishing out the money is unforgiving and punitive.
For those with the least, there’s no such thing as a grace period. There’s no room for common sense or compassion.”
The Tories have managed to convince the millions of voters that put them in power that a total withdrawal of income for the poorest in our society is an appropriate punishment for genuine errors, similar to those that MPs are so readily forgiven for.
I wonder if those Tories who have made the headlines for rule-breaking – both inadvertent and not – have found time to mull over the injustice of that in recent weeks.
As they ask for forgiveness and understanding for themselves, as they tell us that they’re only human, do they not feel shame?
Do they think of those souls lost to the cruelty of the system that they designed?
Those like Errol Graham, who starved to death after having his benefits stopped.
Or Philippa Day, who died by suicide, aged 27, after months of battling with the DWP to have her benefits reinstated.
Or the thousands of others who have been left without food and heating as a result of minor administrative infractions and a total lack of empathy from officials.
Maybe a politician’s own experience of work and life chases away any doubts they might have about their own exceptionalness.
Their mistakes are subject to reason and review.
But for those with the least, there’s no such thing as a grace period.
There’s no room for common sense or compassion.
If a single mum on benefits breaks the rules, she knows that it will have an immediate impact on her ability to afford basic necessities.
If the MPs who designed the system break the rules, nothing in their life changes in the short term.
There are endless buffers and breaks to the consequences of their actions.
The reason I am even writing about Douglas Ross and his ‘oversights’ is because Owen Paterson broke the rules on paid lobbying.
After a lengthy investigation, a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons was recommended.
His financial situation would have remained unchanged. He would have probably kept his job. There was no question of the lights going off or having to skip meals.
But that measly punishment was still deemed too harsh.
Boris Johnson intervened to game the system for his colleague.
It truly is one rule for them and another for everybody else.
I’d have more sympathy for Douglas Ross and his “extremely bad error” if his party had ever shown even the slightest willingness to extend the same to others.
