Permanent damage to the political classes
Fraser Nelson 12:13pm
What I love about the Derek Conway’s je ne regrette rien in the Mail on Sunday is the way he gives clues as to where the other bodies are buried. “I know many MPs with family members who have different names registered so that they are not so obviously spotted. Some spouses work under maiden names,” he coos. “We often came across people and we'd say, ‘I didn't realise they were related.”
So why not more scandal? Without a good contact inside the Fees Office it’s hard for journalists to get the lowdown on all this. But there’s enough clues (phone directories, etc) to help expose what is a standard scam. As Conway says, most MPs think they should be on £80k, not £60k. But by paying their wife £45k for a job worth £25k and you make good the difference. It’s all legal, but no MP would volunteer to have his judged the people who pay the money: the British public. Melissa Kite’s superb story about Peter Hain employing his 80-year-old mother is a small example. With 144 MPs admitting hiring family members, there’s plenty more rotten fruit to be shaken out of this tree yet.
Now, to the damage report. Today’s ICM poll shows the Tories down 3 points, but the LibDems picking it up. I go straight to Anthony Wells for interpretation of all polls – link here. All parties need to move the agenda on, and the Tories managed to beat the Conway blues with splash in the Observer and Sunday Telegraph (the Wintertons’ imaginative rental scam leads the Mail on Sunday, but that doesn’t count). The Tories have for some time been planning a law-and-order crackdown, which will dovetail nicely with The Sun’s “Broken Britain” theme. So they may succeed in shifting the news agenda on. But the Conway scandal has, in my view, done permanent damage to the political classes and the extent of this damage has yet to be fully surveyed.
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Comments
John Austin
February 3rd, 2008 2:39pmYou'd need a heart of stone not to laugh, as Oscar Wilde said. Surely MPs - of all parties - do realise the depths of contempt in which they are increasingly held by most normal people outside the Westminster jamboree? They all appear equally rotten.
Simon
February 3rd, 2008 3:47pmFraser When you rightly went to Anthony Wells site for informed comment on the poll did you read what he said? Labour down 3% post Conway and Hain. He even goes on to express surprise that the Tories are not down and speculates why. He predicts a good poll tomorrow from Populus in The Times because they tend to be kind to Labour - a good opportunity for the coffee house boys to dust off the "Dave's in big trouble" post we've all grown so fond of seeing here on a regular basis.
Austin Barry
February 3rd, 2008 4:31pmMy theory, given cumulative credence by each event, is that the populace is seething, resentful and, above all angry but impotent: Bent and patronising MPs, out-of-control immigration, limp-wristed appeasement of "communities"; declining economy. What I don't know, and nor do any of us, is what will be the tipping-point and how will it manifest itself?
Henry Rogers
February 3rd, 2008 5:17pmThe present outcry is probably doing good rather than harm. If the public continue to make a fuss then honest politicians of all hues will have to make sure that those their colleagues who are ripping us off are dealt with. Long may the outcry continue!
Ray
February 3rd, 2008 5:29pmMPs have had this coming for some time. For far too long they have legislated as if the rules that apply to ordinary people do not somehow need to apply to them. Two small, but telling examples of this: why is the House of Commons bar the only place left in the United Kingdom to which the no-smoking legislation does not apply? And why do the obligations that the rest of us have under the Freedom of Information Act not apply to MPs?
TGF UKIP
February 3rd, 2008 9:50pmWith Dave's poll lead at a mere 5% (and probably shrinking) even after Gordon's four months of hell it sure looks like it's all over for the Blue Labour masterplan. Indeed, looking at the magazine this week and the CH posts today, it looks as though Dave and his media cheerleaders have written off the next election and the name of the game now is the blame game. So defeat in 09/10 is going to be nowt to do with Dave or Boy George or Creepy Hilton, it's all going to be Derek Conway's fault.