On the subject of the leaked FCO SpAd document (if that is what it is), Guido makes the following point:

"… a document produced by a civil servant, in office hours at the taxpayer’s expense should by rights not be the property of the Labour Party."

A similar issue came up back in Sarajevo back in 1997, when I was having an argument about corruption with President Izetbegovic’s team over the untransparent and significant overlap there between the Bosnian state institutions and Izetbegovic’s party (eg why were state VIP protocol officials presiding at his party congress gatherings?). I told them that in an honest country every penny of taxpayers’ money should be properly acccounted for, including eg the electricity supply being used to make the lights work in the office we were sitting in. As British money was pouring into Bosnia via the EU to help keep Izetbegovic’s government afloat, we expected a strong honest performance from the Bosnian leadership.

Blank Bosnian looks.

My robustness in standing up strongly on this subject was much praised and encouraged by Robin Cook. In fact, on the very day he arrived in Sarajevo for his first high-profile visit there as Foreign Minister, the local newspapers were reporting demands from some quarters that I be PNG’d from Bosnia for briefing the UK media to raise the corruption question. 

I survived. And the principle holds.

Party materials should be printed using Party-funded paper and Party-funded electricity by Party-funded people. Unless clear exceptions are made. And explained. And upheld.

Scrupulously.