Res Ipsa Loquitur: The thing speaks for itself.
David Cameron
was plunged into a double crisis on Saturday after one of his ministers
resigned over a sex scandal and another MP defected to Ukip.
On the eve of
the Conservative Party’s final conference before next year’s election, Brooks
Newmark quit as Minister for Civil Society after he was caught sending an
explicit photograph of himself over the internet.
Sources told The
Telegraph that Mr Newmark had sent the pictures to someone he believed was a
woman using a social networking website, as part of a tabloid newspaper sting
operation.
In a statement,
Mr Newmark said: "I have decided to resign as Minister for Civil Society
having been notified of a story to be published in a Sunday newspaper.
“I would like to
appeal for the privacy of my family to be respected at this time. I remain a
loyal supporter of this Government as its long term economic plan continues to
deliver for the British people."
The married
father of five, added that he was "so sorry”, after the scandal came to
light.
Chiu had
repeatedly offered to step down after the tainted oil case surfaced last month,
and his resignation was finally approved by Premier Jiang Yi-huah late Friday
(Oct 3), a cabinet statement said. He is the third minister to have stepped
down in recent months. Economic affairs minister Chang Chia-juch resigned over
fatal gas blasts in August, while education minister Chiang Wei-ling quit in
July after he was implicated in an academic scandal.
Chiu's resignation came as prosecutors on Friday
indicted Yeh Wen-hsiang, chairman of Chang Guann Co., on 235 accounts of fraud
and food safety violations for selling hundreds of tonnes of "gutter
oil" to food companies, bakeries and restaurants. Three people, including
the manager of an unlicensed factory that supplied the firm, were indicted for
the same offences while four others were charged with violating waste disposal
law, prosecutors said.
South Korea's prime minister announced his resignation
Sunday morning, taking responsibility for the slow initial reaction to a
ferry's sinking that has left nearly 200 dead and scores more still missing.
Prime Minister
Chung Hong-won explained his decision on national television. He apologized
"on behalf of the government for the many problems that arose during the
first response and the subsequent rescue operation," in addition to
"problems that existed before the accident."
"During the
search process, the government took inadequate measures and disappointed the
public," Chung said. "I should take responsibility for everything as
the prime minister, but the government can assume no more. So I will resign as
prime minister."
Chung urged
South Koreans to stand united, rather than divided.
"This is
not the time for blaming each other but for finishing the rescue operation and
dealing with the accident," he said. "In order to get over these
difficult times, I ask the citizens for help."
Chung becomes the
highest-profile public figure to fall after the April 16 capsizing of the Sewol
ferry that carried more than 300 South Korean high school students. Many in the
country have lambasted the government's response to the disaster.
The Forest of Dean MP
made the decision after being told the cleaner for his London
flat did not have indefinite leave to remain in the UK .
He admitted he
"should have checked more thoroughly" that the documents provided to
him when he took her on in 2007 were genuine - a copy of her passport and a
Home Office letter which said she was allowed to stay.
Mr Harper
decided against checking her status twice after that - when he was appointed a
Cabinet Office minister in 2010 and after being named immigration minister two
years ago.
The former
minister said he thought it was "prudent" to check her status again
last year as the Immigration Bill was going through Parliament.
The legislation
doubles the fines for employers who take on illegal immigrants without proper
checks.
Prime Minister
Daniel Ona Ondo "acknowledges the resignation of the Minister of Education
and Technical Education, Leon Nzouba," said government spokeswoman Denise
Mekamne.
Nzouba is the
first Gabonese minister to step down from office in almost 20 years.
He was heavily
criticised for his handling of a dispute involving 900 students who were deemed
to have failed their high-school exams but who challenged their grades.
The students
claim to have been penalised by recent reforms meaning their marks obtained
during previous years no longer count towards the final exam result.
Nzouba initially
awarded the students with the qualification following protests, before changing
his mind.
The former
minister was pictured in August on his knees in front of protesting students,
an image that made the rounds on social media and sparked public ridicule for
Nzouba.
Latvian Prime
Minister Valdis Dombrovskis abruptly resigned Wednesday, saying he was taking
“political responsibility” for a supermarket collapse that killed more than 50
people last week and caused outrage in the small Baltic nation.
Dombrovskis, who
took office at the height of the European economic crisis in 2009, told
reporters that the country needs a new, broad-based government that will have
the support of Parliament.
"I wish to
thank Latvia 's
society for support during the trying period when the country was battling the
economic and financial crisis to return to the path of growth,” Dombrovskis was quoted
as saying by the Latvian news agency LETA. “I also apologize for all
that we have failed to achieve."
At least 54
people, including three firefighters, were killed and dozens injured in the
Nov. 21 collapse at a Maxima supermarket in the Zolitude neighborhood
of the capital, Riga .
First, part of the roof caved in, then a wall came crashing down as rescue
teams worked at the scene.
According to
local news reports, it was the largest loss of life since Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Three ministers
from the autonomous Greenland of Denmark resigned on Wednesday amid a
misconduct scandal surrounding the island's government leader, Prime Minister
Aleqa Hammond.
The Industry and
Mineral Resources Minister Jens-Erik Kirkegaard and the Education and Culture
Minister Nick Nielsen, both from Hammond 's
social democratic Siumut party, announced their resignations while the prime
minister is investigated for allegedly misusing 106,363 kroner of public funds
for private use.
The liberal
Atassut party, without which the government lacks a parliamentary majority,
said it would also leave the coalition and called for fresh elections.
The party's
health and infrastructure minister, Steen Lynge, announced his resignation
earlier on Wednesday.
A report from
the Greenlandic parliament's audit committee on Friday said the prime minister
had used public fund to pay for airline tickets for herself and hotel costs for
her family.
The socialist
deputy was only appointed less than a fortnight ago in a reshuffle after a
revolt over austerity measures threw the French government into crisis.
A government
source told AFP that he stepped down after admitting he had a "problem
about the declaration of his taxes... he has not resigned because of any
political disagreement".
The resignation
has uncomfortable echoes of the so-called Cahuzac affair, when Hollande's budget minister Jérôme
Cahuzac was sacked in March 2013 after he was accused of evading tax using
non-declared Swiss bank accounts.
Mr Jero Wacik
resigned as minister for energy and natural mineral resources after officials
accused him of raking in almost 10 billion rupiah (S$1.1 million) for his
ministry's budget through illegal means.
Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) officials named Mr Wacik a suspect on Wednesday,
saying he had collected kickbacks and claimed money for arranging fictitious
meetings. They accused him of extorting state funds and abuse of power.
"The letter
of resignation was received by the President this morning. Perhaps he will
appoint someone to fill in as an interim energy minister," presidential
spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told reporters. Mr Wacik has neither admitted nor
denied the accusations, saying only that he would respect the legal process.
Haderthauer, a
Christian Social Union (CSU) state minister, is under investigation after a
business partner accused her of cheating him out of tens of thousands of euros
and has been facing down calls to resign for weeks.
Although the
case didn't oblige her to resign, she said at a hastily-called press conference
in Munich “that
my office and the political themes that go with it would be totally overwhelmed
after my experience with all the public press coverage in recent weeks”.
Haderthauer and
her husband Hubert were partners with Frenchman Roger Ponton in Sapor Model
Engineering. The company sold model cars built in prison by criminals under
treatment by psychiatrists, including a man, Roland S., convicted of three sex
murders.
Just a week
after NSW Premier Kristina Keneally put her MPs on notice about bad behaviour,
Ports and Waterways Minister Paul McLeay has resigned over a sex and gambling
internet scandal.
Mr McLeay was
forced to quit the frontbench on Wednesday after admitting to using a
parliamentary computer to access gambling and adult websites - making him the
fourth Keneally minister to leave cabinet this year.
"Some people may
choose to undertake similar activities in their personal lives, but I cannot
condone the use of parliamentary resources by a minister in this way." - Keneally
In an
uncomfortable, 11-minute media conference outside Parliament House, the married
father of two admitted being humiliated and embarrassed by the revelations.
He apologised to
his colleagues for further denting their chances at the March 2011 state
election, saying his behaviour was not of the standard expected of cabinet
ministers.
Breton was
already in hot water over his alleged intimidation of government employees. But
on Wednesday it came to light that he had $8,000 in unpaid rent, had been
convicted of employment insurance cheating and had speeding violations, one
which saw him clocked at 275 km.hr.
Some of Breton’s
infractions dated back 25 years, but whether they should factor into how he’d
perform now as a cabinet minister has become academic. Breton has resigned from
cabinet.
Given that
resignation, the fact the Charbonneau inquiry was able to learn this week just
how many politicians were having lunch with how many construction bosses at
Club 357 and the fact nobody can do anything without its being tweeted seconds
afterward, a question needs to be asked:
Are we in the
process of witnessing a transformation of the political landscape? One where
the theory of being a model of virtue and probity is now being brutally turned
into practice?
Simply put, are
we witnessing a raising of the bar for political conduct? And if so, how can
the political establishment react?
Yes, I'm looking at you, Jamaica.
Claudia
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