More trouble for Peter Hain?

On Tuesday a Special Adviser in the Department of Work and Pensions, sent out a press release from his Department of Work and Pensions e-address. There is nothing unusual in this. Special Advisers, jobs for the boys appointments paid for the by the tax-payer, have mushroomed over the past 10 years, and they probably send e-mails in great quantity.

This one was different. It was headed, "TORIES AIM TO DESTROY FINAL PENSION SCHEMES."

Taking as a starting point David Cameron's comment that the very overgenerous pension scheme which MPs have voted for themselves, a scheme which he would seek to make less generous, the writer went on to proclaim, "The Conservative Party plans to get rid of public sector final salary pensions..." This, he claimed would send signals to employers and their employees that Conservatives "don't care about them and are prepared to reduce their income in retirement." So, "if you are in a final salary pension scheme don't ever vote Tory or they would destroy it."

There then continues analysis which hints that many workers in the private sector are in final salary schemes, despite the Thatcher Government running them down (- no mention of pension raids by a certain Mr. Brown).

The whole analysis is partisan and biased, not to say dishonest, and the special adviser concerned is acting more like a mouthpiece for the Labour Party election campaign than an expert adviser.

Worse still, he is breaking the terms of his contract and Code of Conduct which stipulates that Special Advisers must not "use official resources for party political purposes" and must "act in a way which upholds the political impartiality of civil servants". "Briefing on purely party political matters must be handled by the Party machine."

Of course, Peter Hain will be unaware of this, as he seems unaware of everything else that is happening around him.

(This is of course not the only subverting of public funds to Labour Party purposes. We already know of even Cabinet Ministers using their annual £10,000 communication allowance to campaign for the party and for their own re-election.)