The Wardman Wire

The Independent this morning, reporting the Mother of all Bailouts on page 7:

The teams: Who’s who

The Government:

Paul Myners: The former Marks & Spencer chairman and ex-director of GLG, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, was a surprise appointment as the Treasury minister responsible for the City. Mr Myners, 60, was appointed to his new job on Friday.

Nick Macpherson: The permanent secretary to the Treasury, aged 49, was appointed in 2005 and is rated very highly by Gordon Brown. He gave £12,700 to Mr Brown’s Labour leadership campaign when Mr Brown was Chancellor.

That caught my eye - a top Civil Servant giving a donation to a leadership campaign in a political party? Doesn’t the Civil Service Code say something here? It does:

You must act in a way which deserves and retains the confidence of Ministers, while at the same time ensuring that you will be able to establish the same relationship with those whom you may be required to serve in some future Government.

But Nick Maxpherson is in the clear, as the person who made the donation to Mr Brown’s campaign was Paul Myners. It was reported nine months ago in the Independent:

Gordon Brown is facing new sleaze allegations, over the appointment to a government post of a businessman who gave 12,700 to his leadership campaign.

The Opposition called for the sacking of Paul Myners, who is heading the Government’s drive to encourage people to save for their retirement, after he attacked the Tories during a television programme.

Mr Brown was accused of misleading the public because the Government said Mr Myners had made no donations to a political party when he was appointed as chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority in July. He is paid 150,000 a year for a two-day week.

Ooops. You just can’t get the fact-checking staff these days.

Wrapping Up

I love the irony - ex-Hedge Fund Boss negotiating part-nationalisation on behalf of a Labour Government with Banks whose demise they have been frantically blaming on people taking too many risks. You couldn’t make it up (or I couldn’t).

I’m off to the Freddie Starr Hamster Rescue Centre this afternoon.