The judge has ruled that three former Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield from the Home for the Bewildered, cannot claim parliamentary privilege to stop them being prosecuted over claims they abused their expenses.
Excellent.
The four all deny charges of false accounting over their expenses, brought under the terms of the Theft Act. In a desperate attempt to get away with it, the Sticky-fingers Gang had their lawyers argue that only Parliament could decide any action against them.
Judge says – “No chance.”
Good.
Now get on with the trial, find them guilty and send them to jail without the possibility of soap on a rope.
Or
As a trade off for this ruling – go through the motions, find them guilty, invent some mitigating bollocks, admonish them and send them on their way with a skelp on the arse. As a warning to others no doubt.
