Wrong to ‘hide’ Parish actions

Sir, – I read with dismay Mr Inglis’ letter (No place for loyalty in politics today, May 7). Where to start?

In his view the action of watching the ‘Tractor show’, whilst being at work should have been raised directly with MP Neil Parish himself in the first instance, but it wasn’t. With this statement, Mr Inglis attempts to shift blame from Parish to the unintended (possibly intended) viewer(s), by not doing so.

Would these work colleagues that witnessed the event have been women? Just another merry jape in Westminster’s Boys’ Club.

The next point was that the incident could have been raised with the Conservative Whips’ office, but again this was not undertaken, further seemingly to blame the lack of reporting on the unintended viewer(s).

Their are reports that women and staff in the ‘Hot House of Commons’ are reluctant to report incidents like this which have been going on for years. The whips’ job is to keep backbenchers in line, and if a committee chair (Parish) needs protection they will.

The complainant gets squeezed and encouraged to let it go…no harm done, you’re a big girl/boy, you know the ropes, what life all about. The Fourth Estate gets past the party whips’ machine, and in this instance, provides a useful public service. It is not always so.

With this things are changing for the better.

The next four questions posed all seek to minimise these actions of the ex-MP Parish. The overall premise and thrust of his letter is that this whole incident should have been kept within the party, presumably to prevent Joe Public from finding out.

When I hear this, why does Jimmy Savile come to mind? I am not suggesting that Parish is in the same league as monster Savile, but keeping it quite “inside the bubble” is exactly why and how Savile was able to continue his activities for so many years.

It is the exceptionalism that allowed the behaviour of partygate to develop.

Many rules for us and no rules for them. Exceptional, isn’t it?

Alistair Ballantyne. Birkhill, Angus.

TRANSPARENCY: Complaints about unacceptable behaviour in the House of Commons should not be made in private, says one letter writer.