Harriet Harman Let Off the Hook

Harriet Harman Let Off the Hook

Iain Dale 9:50 AM

I don't know if you're like me, but when I am watching a politician being interviewed and let off the hook, I start shouting at the TV. This morning's interview between Andrew Marr and Harriet Harman was one such occasion. He questioned her at length on Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. Harman rattled on about what a disgrace it was and how the public wouldn't stand for it, and that it didn't matter what the courts said, it was the court of public opinion that mattered. Go on Andrew, I was urging, ask the killer question! But it never came. Instead, she was allowed to bluster on and sound as outraged as the rest of us.

And what was the question which was never asked? If Sir Fred's pension is so outrageous, why was it signed off by Government Ministers, and shouldn't Paul Myners fall on his sword?

She was even allowed to get away with making the assertion that Sir Fred's pension wasn't a pension at all - it was severance pay. Well I'd love to see that one tested in a court of law. The fact remains, that whatever Harman called it, it was agreed to by her own government, to which, she was keen to remind us, she is a very loyal member.