Perceptions

In public life, the point often made is that it is not enough to abide by the appropriate standards, but one also has to be seen to abide by those standards; it is not enough not to commit any misdemeanours, one must also avoid the perception that one might have committed a misdemeanour. Regardless of what may be the outcome of Councillor Glaholm’s recent arrest, that perception of the highest standards being maintained has gone. (Some might say it went when he was arrested whilst mayor in 1994.) To have such a person chairing Swindon Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee, especially when the council has only recently changed its constitution to allow him to do so, looks distinctly tawdry.