A couple of weeks ago I hypothesised that Liebour were intentionally bringing disrepute to Westminster over party funding to make state-funding appear to be the only option left to stop the corruption.
Derek Conway, a Conswervative MP, has just been given a bollocking for paying over £45k to his son from his parliamentary expenses over four years whilst employing him as a part time research assistant. This was whilst he was studying full time at university. It now transpires that he has paid similar amounts to his wife and other son.
He has been ordered to repay part of the money, suspended from Parliament for 10 sitting days and been expelled from the Conswervative Party. Contrast this with the Liebour MPs and MSP that have admitted taking illegal donations and failing to declare loans and donations. Only Peter Hain has resigned and as far as I know, only he and Wendy Alexander MSP are being investigated by the police. Both are still in the Liebour Party.
Up until now, only Liebour have been found to have taken illegal donations so it would have been difficult to gloss over the fact that they are the single cause of the problem to justify such a major change to the political system as state funding of political parties. However, now a Tory MP is being investigated by the police over improper use of public money, this gives them the “evidence” they needed to bring in measures that encompass the whole political system and not just their own rotten party.
The timing couldn’t be better, I predict an announcement on state funding of political parties within the next fortnight.
Technorati Tags: Sleaze, Corruption, Liebour, Conservatives
He’s not been suspended from the Commons – MPs will vote tomorrow on whether he should be – nor has he been expelled from the Conservative Party; he’s had the whip withdrawn.
Is it so hard to get the basic facts of a story right? Oh, you’re a blogger; of course it is.
IMO, suspending an MP from the commons should be like fining hospitals, police authorities, and other such public services; impossible. As far as I’m aware (please correct me if I’m mistaken), he doesn’t lose any pay as a result, and so it’s only his constituents who are punished through lack of democratic representation.