Guido Fawkes, the
seasonsed anti corruption and political blogger is running a campaign to ensure
that none of the overpaid SpAd’s (Special Advisors) that ministers like to use
to do their thinking for them, involve themselves at taxpayer expense in the leadership elections or the
upcoming local elections.
It is essential
that Government and Party are kept separate, especially to ensure that no
taxpayers money is used for party campaigning.
The following extract
is from Guido’s blog, which you can get to by either clicking on the No If’s No
But's banner on the right, or use the link here.
As the Labour
party's leadership campaign gets underway it is important to remind the bag
carrying, greasy pole climbers about the Code of Conduct for Special
Advisers.
It can be found on the Propriety
and Ethics section of the Cabinet Office website – not something that most
of them will be familiar with. The code is clear, they can't assist in any way
in a leadership campaign unless they are on leave.
Catch a SpAd
organising a campaign meeting on the office phone, via the office Blackberry or
merely pinning on a “my boss for deputy leader” badge during
office hours and they are in breach.
So if you spot a
SpAd in the Portcullis coffee shop making the case for votes for their boss,
you know what to do.
Call
the national Shop-a-SpAd hotline on 0709 284 0531 or fax evidence to 0709 201
2337.
If you want to assist Guido, you can place his campaign banner in your
sidebar, like the one on the right, by using the following HTML code.
<a
href=”http://5thnovember.blogspot.com/2007/02/guido-is-out-to-catch-spad-cheats.html”>
<img
src=”http://bp3.blogger.com/_EQc_hLHXONE/ReYH9V4ifpI/AAAAAAAAAKc/0MTcKmQ4HdA/s320/targeting+spads.png”
width=”227px”
height=”320px” alt=”Call the national Shop-a-SpAd hotline on
0709 284 0531 or fax evidence to 0709 201 2337.” /></a>
UPDATE: Guido has apparently
already identified the first SpAd to breach the code. See
here.
