Mark Pack

Peter Mandelson vs Norman Baker

By | Sat 14th March 2009 - 11:22 am

From the Daily Mirror:

Lord Mandelson yesterday was at the centre of a secrecy row after refusing to reveal his business interests.

The Business Secretary has placed all his shareholdings in a blind trust – meaning they cannot be seen by the public…

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker said: “He must know what has been put in and we ought to know too or it subverts the announcement.” No10 said: “The point is Lord Mandelson doesn’t even know, therefore it doesn’t affect his decisions.”

The Downing Street ‘rebuttal’ strikes me as particularly weak, because if you’ve put a whole load of investments in a blind trust you (a) know what went in, and (b) know that it’s very likely that most of the trust’s current holdings are the same as (a). Far from not knowing, you’ve actually got a pretty good idea.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

2 Comments

  • Stuart 14th Mar '09 - 11:29am

    Keep up the good work Norman!

  • David Heigham 14th Mar '09 - 12:18pm

    Does he know what assets went into the trust? Does he, as some other Ministers do, see returns from time to time of what is in the trust?

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Caracatus
    All the focus groups highlight town centre regeneration as a key issue, the lib dems have a great policy and for 8 years, they have kept it a secret so not eve...
  • Mick Taylor
    Actually what is really needed is fearless politicians, unafraid to make difficult decisions. What we have seen over many years is vacillation and u-turns. In t...
  • Jonathan Parry
    Good article, Roz. I hope that in your essay you will flesh out what you mean by 'communities'. It's a neat word for Lib Dems to use, but part of the party's ...
  • cim
    @David Allen I think the key - for electoral communications, at least - is to skip the description of the process entirely and go straight to the outcome. Yo...
  • David Warren
    The last sentence sums up it for me. We are getting squeezed out in the majority of constituencies and the beneficiaries of the progressive protest vote are the...