The Peter and Wendy show...

In March 2007 the Association of Chief Police Officers for Scotland and the Electoral Commission agreed a Concordat covering, inter alia, procedures should potential violations of the rules on Parliamentary candidates’ spending and donations be uncovered. Appendix E, point 7, of that concordat states the following:

“In cases where the Electoral Commission has…information that indicates that criminal offences may have been committed…and the Commission has considered that the breaches are of sufficient severity that they believe prosecution action to be necessary…” these will be reported to the police.

The key words are, of course, “…sufficient severity…” - this presumably being in the opinion of the Electoral Commission, notwithstanding any advice it may receive. RRR finds it somewhat strange that crime (and the law of the land) is to be enforced subject to what is, essentially, a de minimis test to be applied by a quango. But whether we approve or not, this process might well determine the fate of Wendy’s political career.