The Spectator’s Notes | 24 March 2007

Sir Alistair Graham is presented as one of the heroes of our age. He is the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which was originally set up by John Major as what he (Mr Major) called ‘an ethical workshop called in to do running repairs’. Now Sir Alistair has lashed out at Tony Blair. ‘The most fundamental thing is that Blair has betrayed himself,’ says Sir Alistair. ‘He set such a high bar for people to judge him and he has fallen well below the standards he set for himself.’ Then he mentions not only cash for honours, but also the Iraq war, postal voting, ‘sofa government’, and ‘undue reliance on spin’. Many would agree with him on these points, but is it right for someone in a publicly funded position to embark on personal political attack? The Committee’s remit explicitly ‘excludes investigation of individual allegations of misconduct’.