Have the Tories lost the moral high ground?

This Derek Conway expenses scam is one of the most outrageous I’ve heard in some time. He bunged his son £1,000-a-month of taxpayers’ money on the basis that he was doing research. And as the Standards and Privileges Committee said, there was zero independent evidence of any work done – or any commissioned. A total of £40,000 of our money beefed up the Conway family finances as young Freddie Conway studied full-time at Newcastle University doing his “research”. His stash included “four one-off bonuses” (wonderful oxymoron) totalling £10,000 and he’s been ordered to repay £13,200. Now, this isn’t the same as £103,000 of Peter Hain’s undeclared donations. But something tells me the general public will conclude that that all MPs are on the take. Conway’s punishment will likely be a 10-day suspension, but the Tory Party’s punishment is that they’ll find it very hard to take the moral high ground while criticising Labour.