From a blogpost on EUreferendum.blogspot.com
At last, elements of the Vector story are emerging, drowned in the torrent of stories on MPs' expenses, even though we are seeing the waste of £100 million – roughly the sum paid to all 648 MPs in a year – the unnecessary deaths of at least five men and many more very badly injured.
...
Thus, while [Liam] Fox so casually lays the blame – all blame – at the feet of government, he too shares the blame, with his parliamentary colleagues. They all had the opportunities and power to bring the MoD to book, and failed to do so. In our constitution, the buck stops with Parliament. In this case – and in so many – the institution failed to do its job.
And this really is the nub of the issue, which takes us beyond the child-like tendency to load all our ills on "government". Parliament must accept responsibility for its own mistakes and then it must improve its performance. Otherwise, there is no point in having it at all – at any price.
Defective regulators as far as the eye can see. The FSA let bankers run riot. Parliament has allowed the Government to do the same. Squeaker Martin has allowed, nay encouraged by example, Parliamentarians to twiddle their thumbs and fiddle their expenses. In this particular example Liam Fox himself as the shadow Defence Secretary, the Defence Select Committee and other interested MPs have not used their authority to help the MOD do a good job.
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