In a hole, keep digging…

Maria Miller’s aide sends out a message to Tory MPs. “I believe there is a media witch-hunt on Maria due to Leveson. How do you feel about it? Happy to answer any questions you may have.”

Well, a couple come to mind. why didn’t you co-operate with the commissioner for standards, who thought there was something fishy about your housing arrangements? Why did you say the house was unoccupied when your parents were living in it? How do you explain the commissioner’s judgement that you should pay back £44,000 that you claimed dishonestly?

None of those are the kind of thing that an aide could easily answer. They’re embarrassing mistakes, and she needed to own up to them, and apologise for her conduct. She just couldn’t do it. She had to act arrogant, assume it’s somebody else’s fault, in the hope that she might hang on to power. But, luckily for the rest of us, that turned out not to work.