The 1948 Belcher Affair and Lynskey Tribunal

Although the Belcher affair was one of the biggest cases ofpolitical corruption in twentieth-century Britain, the scandaland resultant judicial inquiry have received little attentionin political histories of the 1940s due to their lack of electoralimpact. This outcome was not apparent to contemporary politicalcommentators. The allegations were serious and elements of theConservative Party were willing to use them to smear the Labourgovernment. The government successfully defused the scandalby appointing a judicial inquiry to investigate the allegations.They hoped this would dispel rumours of widespread corruption.However, it had the unintended effect of scotching public debate.The allegations became sub judice, hindering the activitiesof the scandalmongers. Tedious press coverage of the tribunalhearings bored many voters, who interpreted the scandal in linewith their existing beliefs.     

Visible and Invisible Cultures of Parliamentary Ethics: The 'Sports Rorts' Affair Revisited

A growing body of research has examined the ethical cultures of liberal democratic legislatures via interview studies of parliamentarians. Mancuso's recent study of British parliamentarians distinguishes between four ethical types-Puritans, Entrepreneurs, Servants and Muddlers. Such studies, while valuable, appear to have two shortcomings when applied to Australia. First, they underestimate the centrality of political parties in most parliamentarians' ethical perspectives. A fifth ethical type, the Party Servant, is needed to remedy this deficiency. Second, the studies risk overestimating the diversity of ethical views effectively operating in parliaments because of their methodological focus on individual interview responses. Parliamentarians' individual responses form invisible cultures of legislative ethics. The visible cultures found in the everyday discourse of legislatures contain considerably less ethical variety. Here parliamentarians generally appear limited to Puritan and Party Servant perspectives. These arguments are explored through a systematic investigation of parliamentary discourse on the 'sports rorts' affair.