Dodgy Git Of The Day

From now until...er...whenever we forget (probably tomorrow) we're going to have a new daily feature here on the blog. Once 5pm comes round, we'll take a look back over the day's news and decide on who has shown themselves to be the Dodgiest Git of the Day. Entrants will be expected to show extreme deviousness in the pursuit of personal gain, outstanding chicanery in escaping the blame or just good old-fashioned all-round dodginess; so you can rest assured that this section of the blog is going to become the place to look if you want some hot tips on which politicians are in with a good chance of ending up as leader of their party.

With the expenses details freshly published on the Parliament website - so fresh, in fact, that if you leave your browser on the page for more than a few minutes you'll see that the gallons and gallons of redaction ink is not yet dry and will drip off the page, eventually surrounding you and your computer in a big, black puddle - Grade A Dodgy Gits are easier to find than John Prescott in an room full of catwalk models right now but one man has risen above all others. Alistair Darling, the MP who serves as Chancellor of the Exchequer despite the fact that he was tragically born part badger, has shown himself to be possessed of nothing but true Dodgy professionalism by requesting his accountants to alter the wording on an invoice for tax advice before he submitted it as part of an expenses claim. Under Commons rules, MPs are not elegible to claim for personal tax advice. But that didn't stop the little Darling, oh no! He simply got accountancy firm Chiene Tait to revise the document so that it now stated that it was for advice "in connection with your duties as a Member of Parliament." What a star!

He looks absolutely delighted, doesn't he? Acid Rabbi seeks only to bring joy.
Image adapted from one at Wikipedia. Original by Antonio Cruz. Used in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil license.

Mr. Darling, you're our first Dodgy Git of The Day, and may we have the pleasure of saying that no matter how many people we give the award to in the future, you will undoubtedly always be one of the dodgiest of them all!