No surprises here IMO.
.....and there's certainly no surprise as tory supporters feign 'outrage' at a sitting PM merely being interviewed by the Police (something they
were just beforehand calling for) and then after the interview calling for him to just go.
I can see this being dropped eventually; I would bet the house (hell, I'd even give you odds on top of that!) on there never being a Ministerial or
Prime Ministerial conviction on this matter.
It's absurd, the whole British 'honours system' is one based upon patronage and favour - and it always has been
(Maggie Thatcher's tory party donors too, funnily enough, ended by as a hugely disproportionate number of those given various honours etc).
There's also the whole business regarding 'political appointments' - something that some have chosen to ignore entirely in this matter.
The fact is that the British 'honours system' has specifically party political appointments as a perfectly normal and public part of the
'system'.
It simply isn't all just about 'public service', party political service is expressedly catered for
(political appointments have been a feature of the British system for decades if not over a century).
This is all purely a part of the domestic political machinations, nothing more IMO.
The cops are making a meal of it so as not be be accused of favouring the sitting Gov - just as the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) might very well
chicken out of taking the correct decision to throw this out and thus leave it for the Attorney General (a quasi legal/political figure here) to take
the political flak if he throws it out.
By all means do away with this 'system' if you like (one does wonder what or by whom it might be replaced with) but let's not pretend that
'service to the country' is all the honours system is about
or ignore the fact that 'political service' is and has always been a perfectly normal feature of the honours system; it is not
'corruption'.
Mr Blair's spokesman said: "The prime minister explained why he nominated each of the individuals and he did so as party leader in respect of
the peerages reserved for party supporters as other party leaders do.
"
The honours were not, therefore, for public service but expressly party peerages given for party service.
"In these circumstances that fact that they had supported the party financially could not conceivably be a barrier to their nomination," he
said.
- So, with this statement of the facts surrounding appointments the whole issue is, IMO, clearly exposed for what it is, a total waste of Police
resources arising purely from an exercise in political mischief-making.
The truth is that if we're seriously going to call the right and proper business of public political appointments 'corruption' then perhaps we need
either to face the truth that, no matter how much people wish to claim otherwise, that this is not corruption...... or else we need a new definition
for 'corruption'!
When they haul people over the coals and force a resignation for people for hiding the fact that they have personally been taking money or expensive
and exorbitant favours (as happened to one tory Minister in the last tory Gov), or arrest, charge, put on trial and secure convictions for lying in
court under oath (as happened to two other tory Ministers in the last tory Gov) that is one thing
but this business of publicly funding a political party and maybe (publicly) getting a gong of some kind is nothing like the same thing.
[edit on 14-12-2006 by sminkeypinkey]
