Now Straw's name comes up in the Lords-for-hire scandal

Nicholas

I always suspected that New Labour's Lords reform would result in US-style corporate lobbying scandals. New Labour convince the country of the need for "reform", "change", "equality", "fairness" (pick one) and then indulge in rank cronyism and squeeze.

The fact that Straw is involved is no surprise.

Hypocrites. As always.

Mike, Brighton

"Given Labour's faltering poll position, they'll be worried by any indication - however slight or tangential - that the Government itself is embroiled in this scandal"
Er what about Mittall, Ecclestone, the quite open trading of honours for cash and so on and on and on.....

Chuck Unsworth

They won't cause many headaches at all. Having blundered, Straw is now entirely under the control of Brown. Whereas before....

Mike Kingscott

Ah, come on - if they've got nothing to hide, they've got nothing to fear... ;-)

Ray

The amazing thing is that these are the same MPs and peers who passed into law the Local Government Act 2000, which determines that if a local councillor has accepted any gift or hospitality to a value greater than £25 he or she must declare a 'prejudicial interest' in any matter relating to the donor of the gift and neither speak nor vote during the meeting in which it is discussed. Failure to do so can result in the Local Government Standards Board surcharging the councillor or disqualifying him from office.

And yet these jerks think it's okay to pocket a hundred grand for altering or striking down laws on the whim of their paymasters!

C Powell

Oh God, are we really going to have to put up with this rotten lot for another 15 months? Really??

Tiberius

Mike, Brighton: but that is the essential point.

Only wicked Tories like Neil Hamilton can be guilty of a crime such as this.

I heard Martin Bell was wheeled out to give an opinon on this. What the hell would he know about this particular set of allegations?

Our public opinion has been descending from juvenile to infantile, and I only hope the obliteration of Labour results in its restoration.

John

Jack Straw corrupt? Never!

mitch

Straw is the dodgiest of them all.

DM

Why on earth would someone, outside your family, give you a personal gift of money? Was it at least declared?

Verity

The appointees idea never had a single thing to recommend it, except that the "lords", if I may make so light of the word, would be in Tony Blair's pocket.

For sheer corruption and hunger for iron-fisted control, he has to be measured on the Soviet Scale.

David Cameron will not dump this foul idea - out of personal self-interest. He will not want to bring the hereditaries back for fear of being accused of being one of them. So, another losing point for Cameron.

Can't we just have someone with no baggage, like David Davis, William Hague or John Redwood for Tory Leader?

Or we could declare a state of emergency and draft Prince Harry in. There's someone who can relate to anyone without self-consciousness and who has demonstrated his bravery and his desire to serve his country without secret bungs.

Cameron is going to be as dangerous in his own way, bound by his background, as Brown, Blair and Straw are by their ravenous egos.

John

As implied elsewhere, is there *no* reform or change the New Lab lot have done, that hasn't gone horribly wrong?
Why don't they notice themselves, their reverse midas touch?

Thatcher-right

Upon reading this my immediate reaction is "Which potential post-Brown leadership rival is attempting to smear Jack Straw?"
With the current regime it pays to assume the most devious and underhand motives in the release of information.

Verity

The man's never done a constructive day's work in his life. He's a parasite. What has he ever done in life but feed off others?

The Ranting Penguin

The Slippery Weasel tainted? Surprise, surprise.

Next you'll allege the Pope is catholic!

jules r

i'm sure it will be taken dealt with as seriously as the donation by Energy Ventures for his party at blackburn rovers was by the authorities. i can still remember the labour harpies and the press screaming about tory sleaze in the dying days of major's government - i am not sure whether i want to see labour damned likewise or whether it is nice not to hear the tories open themselves up to future charges of hypocrisy.

Anan

Where oh where is the commentary from the media about the "impact" of this on Brown, his leadership, his control over the party, his perception by the public, and his electability? All these questions would have been asked and answered and affirmed as negative and only detrimental if it was Tory peers' actions affect on Cameron. Where are the snap polls and the 1 hour Newsnight specials?! Where's Adam Boulton!? Where is the two-week long dragging on of this story? It's only been 1 day and it's already third in the news-rung.

Obnoxio The Clown

ONLY Straw?

That *is* a surprise!

TGF UKIP

Anan, you are quite right to draw the comparison on the way this is being covered by the media and by the way "Tory sleaze" was in the nineties.

However, could I suggest that one very huge difference is in the nature of the opposition parties then and now.

TGF UKIP

Anan, you are quite right to draw the comparison on the way this is being covered by the media and the way "Tory sleaze" was in the nineties.

However, could I suggest that one very huge difference is in the nature of the opposition parties then and now.

PS Be a minor miracle if the media didn't also discover (or have discovered for it) at least half a dozen Tory peers up to their armpits in the same or worse.

TGF UKIP

One of the things Taylor was bragging about to the ST hacks was the breadth of his reach to insert influence in government.

Who was he very close to, who shared a Blackburn interest and from whose office would a call have opened any door in government?

I wonder if Crick & Co are now encamped in Blackburn - another Doncaster-like one party fiefdom with an absolutely supine local press.

Fergus Pickering

Oh come on, Verity. Which of your preferred alternatives to dave would 'bringback the hereditaries'. No-one would do that. By the way, I know that the word 'Alternative ' used to refer to one out of two, but in my opinion the word has 'moved on' as they say all too often. A fully elected House of Somethingorother seems the only way to go.

Verity

Fergus P - I think it is a shame that all you people are going to allow Blair's vandalism to stand.

Instead, you should be rebuilding the priceless heritage to which Blair malignantly took an axe.

The HoL worked for generations. It was the best, most disinterested (in a monetary sense) second chamber in the world. Instead, you just want to tidy up the trough that the socialists turned it into and add some bells and whistles.

It's broken. With the will, it can be fixed.

You're giving in. Now is the time to repair the damage and carry on. Carry On Surrendering.