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The Daily Telegraph is reporting that "Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of the independent watchdog charged with reforming MPs’ expenses and restoring public trust in Parliament, is a close friend of Alastair Campbell." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6516741/Sir-Ian-Kennedy-the-man-reforming-MPs-expenses-is-Alastair-Campbells-friend.html)
This is the man who, the paper says, "plans to rip up the proposed reforms to the discredited system of Commons allowances put forward earlier this week by Sir Christopher Kelly."
The Telegraph goes on, "So close is Sir Ian, the new head of the Independent Parliament Standards Authority (IPSA), to Mr Campbell that he helped advise him on his appearance before the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly, the government scientist. Mr Campbell still regularly advises Number 10 and is highly likely to be part of the central Labour strategy team aiming for a fourth general election victory."
Visiting the BBC website to see how it's reporting this potentially explosive story, I find that it reports aspects of the Telegraph's coverage - just not this part of the story (as of 9.54am Sat 7 Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8347945.stm. Its focus is solely on the expenses issue: "Proposed reforms of MPs' expenses are in doubt after the head of the body charged with rewriting the rules said he might not implement them all. The Daily Telegraph said Prof Sir Ian Kennedy was unhappy with standards watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly's plans. Sir Ian was quoted as saying he had "no obligation" to accept everything that Sir Christopher suggested."
Surely the BBC isn't deliberately ignoring the one part of the story that might be deeply embarrassing for the Labour Party? Heaven forbid.
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Odd though, isn't it?
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That would be regular BBC guest Alastair Campbell. That would be the same Alastair Campbell who was interviewed by the vile Victoria Derbyshire about Tony Blair and the EU Presidency the other day with not a mention of Alastair Campbell's current position, official or otherwise, at Number 10. No Conservative 'advisor' would go unidentified, but then the normal rules do not seem to apply to the twin Labour spin gurus Mandelson and Campbell.
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