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Con-way Parallels: More Like Old School Tory Felony
Iain Dale covers the announcement by his bessie mate Derek Conway MP that he will not be contesting the next election. We can only hope that he'll still be in jail then and there will be a by-election before too long in Bexley Heath and Sidcup.
In justifying his decision not to "diss on" (sic) his friend Iain suggests that none of Wendy Alexander or Peter Hain's friends were calling for them to resign. But I'd say that at least some of their blogging friends were covering the case.
There is absolutely no equivalence whatsoever between Derek Conway's behaviour - carrying echoes of old school Tory feloniousness, you know Archer, Aitken, Hamiltons - and the cases of Wendy Alexander or as far as we know Peter Hain.
Wendy Alexander and her team did not pick up that a donor of £950 was not permissible. Even when it came to sending a thank you form letter.
In fact as we all know Cameron's own constituency did the same to the tune of 700% of the value.
Unfortunate, but hardly the same as directing £50,000 to one son and who knows what to his elder brother and not being able to account for a stroke of work done in return.
Peter Hain has a strange but as far as we know legal company vehicle for some donations and loans and he was a few months late declaring a six figure total of 17 plus donations. But in fact he was around four times quicker than George Osborne in getting things registered.
Whatever CCHQ may say there are almost £500,000 of donations to George Osborne's activities that haven't been reported by GOO to either EC or RMI.
The fact that CCHQ have reported them to the EC simply is not good enough. It doesn't do the job of showing transparently just which Hedgies and Toffs are backing GOO's bid to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The electorate and the media should be able to see these links clearly on EC and HoP websites.
And that celebrated but laughable email from the commissioner does not get anyone off the hook in the slightest.
There is an assumption in the commissioner's answer that the money is already declared to the RMI. The question answered is whether it needs to be reported to the EC as well. Not the other way round. No sign the Tory Whip's Office enquiry was even linked to GOO's iffy situation.
6 comments:
Dale seems to have slightly misunderstood what hypocrisy means. What Peter Hain's friends said or didn't say is irrelevant to whether he is a hypocrite is not - it is what he has said in the past about the actions of friends of Labour people experiencing similar difficulties. I seem to remember a particularly nice piece that was critical of David Putnam for supporting Ruth Turner.
Also worth pointing out that there are 3 donations reported in Cameron's RMI entries for 2005 that have still to be reported to the Commission - and they were reported in Section 4 of the RMI which has the same £1000 threshold for reporting as the Electoral Commission.
Snicker
Derek Conway - the Tory MP leading demands for a standards probe into the affair - says claims made by Ms Temple she had been transported in official cars after liaisons should also be investigated.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4960254.stm
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,,2248814,00.html
I think there is somnething in your description if the styles of misdemeanour although the cash for honours car boot is what this is really about and involving Brown( who after all did know ..if he`s not incompetent )
I think you have to look at regulating less allowing interest and paying MPs better. WE have turned Parliamnt into a high profile church with a vile atmosphere of sneak and tell tale divorced entirely from the real world and its largely a waste of time . I`d like far more cash getting into the workings from backers and a much more colouful dramatic US style process....well ok its a bit formless as an idea but this miserable trivialising puritanical liturgy is becoming irrelevant to normal people .
A proper career path for an MP is essential as well.
Conservative MP Sir George Young, chairman of the Commons standards and privileges committee, stated today that he will not be reporting Conway's actions to the police.
Why? Is this not a prima facie case of fraud? If this isn't a criminal matter then what is?
Not sure about Simon Hughes very strange suggestion either. The Lib Dems want a "spot check" on randomly selected MPs finances??
Why not just go for total transparency.
I didn't know that a House of Commons committee had to report theft to the Police before they investigate - eevn if the father is covered by Parlimentary privelege, does teh same apply to the son(s)??
Labour of Bollocks appears to have suffered a similar crie de conscience of the Iain Dale variety regarding Miranda Grell and Lee Jasper.
Grasper is now under investigation by the Met. Will the Bollocks urge his arrest and incarceration.
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