Good News !! Prescott beats the rap! Tracey scoops £1/4 Mn.

"Ministers of the Crown are expected to behave according to the highest standards of constitutional and personal conduct in the performance of their duties."... the first sentence of the Ministerial Code.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott won't face a criminal investigation over a complaint from a Glaswegian ex-policeman Alastair Watson ,that he had abused public office by having an affair with his secretary, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates of Scotland Yard said today.

Watson referred to the case of a former Greater Manchester constable who was sentenced to 200 hours of community service last year for misconduct of public office after having sex with a woman at her home three times while on duty.

"A distinction has to be drawn between action that could potentially discredit an office holder and those actions that constitute criminality."

"Accordingly I have decided not to embark upon a criminal investigation. To do so would not I believe be a proportionate response or an appropriate use of police resources." said Yates.

The Manchester Evening News today has a report about 16 year old Sorrell Walsh who dropped a lolly stick and when a council warden refused her offer to put the 4in wooden stick in a bin he handed her a fixed penalty notice for £75.