Any Government minister's improper action resulting in a £5,000 fine would usually be such a serious offence, there would be no debate about whether to resign or not - they would just get the bullet.
But our Attorney-General, Patricia Scotland, has survived in post because this huge fine is not tied to a criminal offence. Her minor misdemenour/appalling behaviour was to employ a cleaner for a few hours a week and not to photocopy her documentation.
When the Daily Mail uncovered the cleaner, Ms Tapui, was an illegal with a false passport, this oversight became a front-page story. Tories and Lib-Dems made miserable attempts to claim her untenability but when Nick Clegg was asked if it were possible he had employed an illegal himself, he just said, "of course." He rather shot his own fox with that remark.
It is only such a significant story because of this massive fine. The reason it is so ludicrously disproportionate to the 'offence' is Labour ministers' pandering to pressure from papers like the Daily Mail to be insanely tough on rules surrounding all migration.
Pat Scotland is a first rate AG, her decision to appeal against several judge's lenient sentences has really riled the old men in wigs. Her political antennae are not so acute; she may have been technically correct in saying the "administrative penalty was like the congestion charge, " in illustrating its legal difference to a criminal fine. But it allowed the same papers to portray her as aloof and unapolagetic.
Brown was quite right not to force her out, although it is rather disheartening to think his best decision recently is not to sack a highly competent minister.
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