Straight To The Point

Labour are starting to look like the Tories did when they lost power in 1997 - quagmired in sleaze. It seems to happen if you are in power for too long. This time it's money for peerages. The measures now being taken are too little too late, and no mention is made of looking into previous donations. But why bother? To quote Ms Hewitt:

"...it would also be wrong and frankly absurd to rule out somebody who had given financial support to their particular political party"

Oh yes, completely absurd! Why should we want to do this? It's not like the system would ever be abused, and if it was, I'm sure the fact the person gave money just before he got his peerage is pure co-incidence.

Here's a few choice quotes from the article:-

• The Labour Party has received a total of £13,950,000 in commercial loans from individuals
• ..the practice had been "banned" under previous general secretaries David Triesman and Margaret McDonagh. There were "various theories" as to why the ban had been lifted ahead of the last election.
• Ms Hewitt: "no evidence at all for this outrageous suggestion that people have been buying peerages". What does she expect to find? An invoice??
• On Thursday, Tony Blair admitted he had not told the Lords appointment committee three of his candidates for working peerages had given the party loans.

So only now, after they've been rumbled, has Mr Blair "pledged changes to party funding, ministers' private interests and the honours system"