The honourable solution

Danus Skene says the leaked memo is “not the kind of thing that would have been done by Jo Grimond”. He’s being too charitable.

In the general election of October 1974 Jo’s proxies put it about that the Labour candidate (me) was “living on social security”.

I was not and I produced evidence to prove it but I lost my deposit and learned a lesson – that Liberals, charming as they may be, can fight as dirtily as any other party.

To be more serious, I’m very sorry Alistair Carmichael has got himself into this fix. We all make mistakes and ‘things’ do indeed happen during elections, but telling a fib about it is much more serious than the original dirty trick.

Alistair has apologised and says he would resign if he were still a minister.

But surely the standard of probity for a minister is exactly the same as for an MP?

The honourable solution, as far as I can see, is for him to resign his seat and fight a by-election.

If he wins, that will demonstrate that he does enjoy sufficient confidence among the electorate to continue representing us in Westminster for the next five years.

The job is too important for a discredited lame duck.

Cllr. Jonathan Wills
Bressay