Keith Vaz

foxie Vaz is the hypocrite! He himself professed to be worried that Eastern European immigrants could be drawn into prostituion. And then he goes and hires some himself.

Has he gone yet btw?

Good posts, as usual, POGS.

Thank you Kitty, appreciated.

Quoting ab. "Surely someone who knows reasons why some use the services of prostitutes and knows prostitutes has a better understanding than those who condemn prostitution with no knowledge of the trade or the need some have for use of the trade"

I think we all know the why!

POGS, did you mean beyond reproach not beyond approach? If so you expect MP's to live in ivory towers surely?

ab do you know personally, every kind of wayside fallen human specimens known to man? And do you give succour to them all?

Are you making a bid for canonisation?

You may have knowledge why people pay for sex Jingle, I don't , I know why some do but no way can I claim as you do - i think we all know

I agree with Iam64, Jalima and POGS.

No-one expects MPs to be without sin - they are human after all!

However MPs are expected to have higher standards of conduct the the rest of us. They have to abide by a code of conduct based on principles set out by The Committee for Standards in Public Life. See HC (House of Commons) publication 1076 on the UK Parliament website.

Whilst this Code of Conduct is not intended to apply to them in their private life, it is naive to imagine that people's view of an MP will be unaffected by "scandal" in their private life.

Unfortunately, if we lose respect for those representing us in Parliament, there is a danger that we will lose respect/faith in our parliamentary system and fewer people will vote. That is bad for democracy.

Therefore MPs should take more care than the rest of us to conduct themselves in a way that does not bring them or their role into disrepute or lower our trust in them.

In my opinion, there is a clear conflict of interest in Vaz's role as Chair of this Select Committee and he should resign as Chair. Whether he should resign as an MP at the next election is a matter for his constituency Labour Party.

Anniebach

Thank you for pointing out my error.

I think most people would accept I typed the wrong word. It would be beyond ridiculous to say an MP would be beyond 'approach'. I hope most posters understood the context of my post and realised my mistake.

No idea Jingle, doubt it, I don't know slave dealers, I have close friends who are homosexual, I know drug addicts, smoked cannabis myself but not addicted, knew a lovely very elderly lady who was addicted to magic mushrooms , she had no idea bless her.

I meet many people .

I agree with jingl. Always do.

POGS, I was not pointing out your error, didn't want to comment unless I was sure what you meant

(That was in response to the "I agree with..." post just there.)

Anniebach

Please don't read my post to you as sarcasm. I was in fact happy to have my error pointed out. It wasn't just a spelling mistake after all.

I haven't actually read any of these reports - is it actually proven the report is true or is it just a newspaper story out to get another politician?

I have not used the services of people who sell their bodies for money, nor have I sold my own body for money. I have worked with people who have done these things. Some people see prostitution as a free and often positive choice of employment. That isn't borne out by my experience.

If nothing else, Vaz left himself vulnerable to blackmail, including presumably, to pressure to vote in a particular way. The suggestion that Cyril Smith got away with his behaviour because it suited the security services / powers that be, to have something to use when they saw it as necessary.

Apologies POGS, I did think I had annoyed you

Vaz has resigned as chairman

Good good good.

POGS you are setting yourself up as judge and jury at the risk of being accused of being a sanctimonious hypocrite
I think that would refer to Keith Vaz more than to POGS.

In fact sanctimonious hypocrite is more or less how I described him in a previous post.

As far as I am aware, POGS is not Chairman of any Parliamentary Committee (I could be wrong) or any public body and his/her standards are between her/him and her/his family.

I wonder if he will remain an MP?

That is up to his constituents , unless he chooses to resign as an MP

I don't care what Vaz did in private. His position on the Home Affairs Committee was untenable, so I'm glad he's gone. I don't think much of him anyway and think he's been lucky to survive politically so far.

I don't think you can separate the public from private when it comes to the lives of MPs. Vaz had to go, he makes truly disturbing moral choices whilst taking all the privileges and powers (way more than most people can imagine) that go with his rarified job. We're all human and make mistakes but that's not what happened here. He can resign as MP and disappear into whatever lifestyle he wants, I certainly wouldn't judge him. But he's still trying to justify his actions and I do not want people with no moral compass running the country.
I would guess there's other revelations to come, though if he 'goes quietly' they'll likely be suppressed.