Veteran lawmaker's model behaviour

Between the annual budget speech and sexy swimsuit models, what would Albert Ho Chun-yan choose? The veteran Democratic Party lawmaker and failed chief executive candidate exposed his personal preference in the legislative chamber yesterday. While Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah was reading his speech, Ho was spotted flipping through some 10 juicy pictures of bikini-clad women in a photo album on his tablet computer. Could it have been a hoax e-mail linked to not-safe-for-work websites? We guess not, as he was thus preoccupied for more than 10 minutes. Confronted with the evidence, Ho apologised for being distracted during the speech, but said: "Those were not obscene photos, just pictures of young models from internet albums." He admitted it was "inappropriate" and a "silly mistake", saying it was a "random" act with no particular reason. "I will not do it again and I hope all my colleagues in the Legislative Council will do their jobs properly, especially during Legco sessions, when they should focus their attention 100 per cent on the business at hand," Ho said. Despite Ho's apology, his fellow Democrats are riled. They believe the incident will surely spark more criticism of the party, rocked as it has been since its controversial support of the government's political reform package for the 2012 elections four years ago.

While the chopping attack on former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to yesterday morning triggered swift condemnation from all quarters, Beijing loyalist Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen was perhaps a tad mild in his response. "I regret the attack," the lawmaker and leader of the Business and Professionals Alliance said. "These kind of violent attacks should not happen in Hong Kong." Hours later, his alliance expressed "fury" and "strong condemnation" of the assault.