Expense accounts and ethics. Click and read my Newsday column on Gordon Brown's problems.

Labour’s chances of a fourth term of government in the UK took a major blow in the last ten days. It had nothing to do with the UK economy, severe job losses (highest since 1997) or the huge debt that taxpayers have taken on: it has to do with a story on MPs expense claims carried in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

As that story made the rounds in the UK, a fast rising Canadian MP was before a Parliamentary Committee to answer allegations of enslavement made by two former nannies employed to work with her relatives. Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (1984 to 1993) was also answering questions relating to his financial dealings with a private contractor, before a Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Governor General. Integrity, transparency and accountability are the common threads running through those events.

So far one thing is certain. The way forward is to put more muscle behind the broad issues of integrity, accountability and transparency.

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