The Hain saga

TGF UKIP

James, you're obviously now back in Blighty, so can I first say a big thank you for your posts from Iowa and NH. They gave a perspective and a feeling of immediacy which was quite lacking in conventional press reporting and a comprehensive coverage completely missing from the Clintons' licence payer funded UK broadcasting arm. A big thanks too to the Speccie for depatching you. So far as Hain is concerned, Guido is being at his terrier like best, exposing again today another unreported large donation from another business which had been the recipient of a fulsome Hain ministerial endorsement. The big question again though is where are the Tories. Imagine twelve years ago if Hain had been a Tory minister the Labour pack would have torn him to pieces by now. Cameron persistently polls as being seen to be weak. Well here's his chance - his six questions next Wednesday should be about Hain and the integrity of a governing party which keeps him, Harman and Alexander in position. DD has claimed far more difficult scalps than Hain's.

Anan

It is pretty ridiculous that because, if one of them leaves all the other dominoes will fall, they all decide to stay. What nerve they have, these incompetent fools.

And there is no pressure from the media (as would have occurred if it was Tory government and they were taking money illegaly, stealthily from illegal donors, and from businessmen who stood to gain lucrative government contracts from Secretaries of State) to make them leave.

At least the so-called "right wing" press should focus on one of these clowns in the circus act that is the Labour government and pile on the pressure!

Jessica, Merseyside

What on earth does a Labour cabinet member have to do to get the sack?? The media are also a disgrace because if this was the Tories they'd be screaming blue murder about Tory sleaze.

Austin Barry

Brown just has to hang tough and let Hain, Alexander and Harman twist in the wind until the press rancour abates which it will. He has two years to left to live out his fulfilled fantasy to be the PM, but I suspect that he is unaware just how nasty things are likely to become on almost every front before, as the shrinks put it, he will burst into reality.

Rajesh

What this shows is a basic problem with Labour. They assailed the Tories under Major for 'ethical lapses' & then passed laws on party funding and other such matters. we are now seeing the simple fact that these laws are impossible in practice to follow. Unfortunately repealing these laws will be impossible as a storm of cries of allowing sleaze will follow if a government suggests it. Any government should think carefully before passing these type of laws in the future.

Jennifer

I am confused. I understood that undisclosed donations meant breaking the law, but when a Labour spokesman tries to justify not only Peter Hain's problems, but also previous donation scandals, they become a breaking of the rules. There is surely a distinction between breaking the law (a criminal offence), and breaking the rules, which presumably is disciplinary.

Nicholas Millman

Rajesh, New Labour is obsessed with legislation and think that the passing of new laws is the answer to everything. They do not understand common law or common sense. They won't repeal these laws but instead will create new ones, even more convoluted and full of loopholes, for the CPS to decide that "there is no possibility of a conviction" and to drop prosecution following lengthy investigations at the taxpayers expense. They are inept in government and corrupt in behaviour. Their responses to these shocking revelations, to wriggle around with newspeak, to point the finger at the Tories, to continue in shameful stubbornness amidst the clamour of demands for resignations, are typical of New Labour and should be obvious to any right thinking person.
Jennifer, spot on. New Labour and the BBC have repeatedly referred to "rules" when they mean "law" in order to play down the issue. And what of the actual moneys involved? Where are they now? And who is benefitting from the huge interest payments? The Electoral Commission are tight lipped on this matter, pleading "no comment" in the face of a supposed police investigation which appears to be going nowhere. Unless there is far more of an outcry from opposition parties and the public this dirty business is going to get buried, as Labour have successfully done to much of the bad news about their rotten government!