If Keith Vaz was holding a senior management position in the private sector, the rent boy shagging, drug buying MP would not be wandering into work today. He would be suspended on full pay as an enquiry would be underway and concluded within two weeks. Actually following numerous previous episodes Vaz would have been fired years ago had he worked in the productive part of the economy. Luckily for him, Vaz "works" in the public sector, the part of the economy we in the private sector fund. So there is no accountability.
Vaz has been caught on tape so appears to be slam dunk guilty of offering to buy illegal drugs and of paying male prostitutes for sex. Given that the committee he chairs is producing reports on prostitution right now and that he has spoken in debates at sleaze central on drugs he is guilty not only of a crime ( offering to buy illegal drugs) but of what we in the private sector term "an undeclared conflict of interest (COI)"
As a libertarian I would legalise both drugs and prostitution so in my world Vaz would be in the clear but sadly the lawmakers of Westminster, step forward Keith Vaz, do not see it that way. But hypocrisy is not a sacking offence anywhere. Undeclared COIs and breaking the law are, in the private sector at least.
If a senior employee of a firm in the private sector faced such a rap sheet he would, after a fair but quick enquiry, given that the facts here are on tape and clear, be fired. Luckily for Vaz he might step down as a Committee Chair but he will remain an MP and he can make a comeback. Just like he did last time. You see he has form, lots of it.
Back in 2001 Vaz was caught out big time. He lobbied for some very dodgy fellows, the Hinduja brothers, to get British passports. he not only failed to declare that the dodgy Brothers had paid over cash to his wife's firm but blocked enquiries into that matter. Actually that is not the only Vaz scandal. Try googling Eileen Eggington or Sarosh Zaiwalla. Predictably, Vaz was quick to accuse anyone who challenged the sleazy MP of being a racist. The racists they are everywhere in the world of Vaz.
In the private sector the Eggington scandal ( making false accusations to the Police against an innocent woman to hide your own crimes, notably taking more gifts from the Hindujas), the Zaiwalla affair ( more backhanders) and the Hinduja affair would be career ending. We wicked capitalists just cannot take backhanders for favours or go about smearing folkjs to the filth to cover up our crimes and expect to get away with it if caught.
But Vaz got the odd slap on the wrist but no career ending sanction. And that is always the way in the public sector. Baby P, or that kid up in Scotland murdered by his Lesbian parents, die. But are any social workers fired. Mid Staffs happens but who was fired? There is no penalty in the public sector for incompetency and very rarely any penalty for crime.
Malcolm Bradbury had the public sector nailed in his classic book about University Life, the History Man. Our hero, radical marxist sociology lecturer Howard Kirk explains that however useless and corrupt he is, he is almost unsackable. Indeed the only offence for which he can be sacked is "gross moral turpitude" which he defines to a female student of his as "raping large numbers of nuns." Merely taking cash for favours, lying to Parliamentary watchdogs, smearing Policewomen, hiring rent boys, paying for drugs or for that matter allowing Baby P and all those folks in Mid Staffs to get murdered is simply not serious enough to be considered gross moral turpitude and to warrant a sacking the public sector.
With no penalty for anything be it life threatening or just something that results in even more taxpayers' cash being wasted, the public sector meanders on: unaccountable, incompetent and, at its worst, venal and corrupt. Back in the private sector we wicked capitalists live to a higher standard as we slave away to generate the cash needed to fund the Augean Stables run by the State.