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After Conway, heed Coulson

Wednesday, 30th January 2008

The Spectator on the Derek Conway scandal

Here are some brute facts: the Conservative party still has fewer seats than Michael Foot won in the 1983 general election. To win an overall majority in the House of Commons, David Cameron requires a national swing of 7.1 per cent (compared to the 5.3 per cent achieved by Margaret Thatcher in 1979). For all Gordon Brown’s travails, the most recent opinion polls suggest that the Tory lead is soft: a ComRes survey in Tuesday’s Independent put the Conservative party on 38 points, eight points ahead of Labour, but well short of the 45 point threshold at which an opposition can start to feel quietly confident.

It is in this context that the Derek Conway scandal must be seen by all who long for a change of government. True, the misuse of public funds by MPs to feather the domestic nest is scarcely a practice confined to the Tory party. Labour (tellingly muted about Mr Conway’s conduct) fears that whole families of subsidised skeletons may emerge from the cupboards of its own MPs in the days ahead — rightly so.

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madasafish

January 31st, 2008 4:12pm

Well said and very true. I see no sign that the Conservative Party's older members have learned anything from over a decade in Opposition. Frankly the way MPs of all parties use the FIO to stop invetsigation of expenses says it all: no smoke etc. In the day of the internet, MPs work as if the quill pen has just been invented.

Ben Philips

February 1st, 2008 1:50pm

While I accept that Mr Conway's actions were utterly reprehensible, please don't 'talk' the Conservative prospects down unduly. I do believe we've turned a corner and people can finally see that Emperor Brown has no clothes. They're desperate for an alternative and the Tories have everything to play for...

Morvan

February 2nd, 2008 10:15am

What is needed is for Conway to be prosecuted for embezzlement and to spill the beans in his defence. There are few honourable exceptions to the cult of 'snout in trough' at the Palace of Westminster. The only difference is a matter of degree. It is time for a complete overhaul of system. A fixed term for a parliament (4 years), a fixed salary for MP's, audited expenses backed by receipts as for everyone else, and no hiding place from the FoIA. I would also like to see members of the lower house elected by constituencies, but fewer of them with roughly equal electorates, and the upper by counties with two members per county. Hopefully this would protect us from the dictatorship of the majority; the fatal flaw of democracy.

angela king

February 2nd, 2008 7:26pm

I am absolutelu furious at the way Derek Conway has behaved, and he should be more severely punished. After all Mr. Cameron's hard work, Mr. Conway is a huge blot on an immaculate score sheet. He has let the side down in an appalling manner and the pictures of his sons carousing at the expense of the tax payer just make it worse. Can't they keep out of the nightclubs for a few weeks and have the decency to avoid more political backlash? They are probably too brainless to consider this. I am struggling to express how angry I am, but I do agree with Ben Philips that the Conservative Party has turned a corner. Mr. Cameron dealt firmly with the situation - to wait a day was not wrong - you must have to weigh these things up, but Mr. Conway should now be investigated by the police, as anyone who had behaved in the same way elsewhere would be. If this practice is rife, they need to stamp it out pretty sharply to restore faith in politicians in general. Mr. Conway, SHAME ON YOU.