The Times has exacerbated the cash-for-access scandal this morning with the news that two former Ministers, Richard Caborn and Adam Ingram, have offered themselves out for hire to commercial clients for up to £2,500 a day.There seems to be mixed messages coming from Adam Ingram in particular as his solicitor is reported as saying that the former Armed Forces Minister considers it wrong for ex-Minsters to sell their contacts and influence but that doesn't tally with the following Times quotes:
When asked if he still had good contacts with civil servants from his time as a minister, he responded “oh yeah”. The reporter asked: “So you would be able to help us develop our relationship with the ministers and civil servants?” and Ingram replied: “I’d do that, I could work at that, yeah.”
Has Michael McCann's job of winning East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow for Labour just got a little bit harder?
I think there can be a level of public hypocrisy at play here though. Once the curtain has fallen on a career at Westminster there is an argument that the big, bad world of Capitalism is fair game for individuals to operate in and, yes, exploit as best they can. To go from being an MP to being a lobbyist is fine as long as the new generation of MPs have enough integrity and fairness to write laws that are for the public's good as a priority and not for private companies.
But it's not infeasible that the interests of private companies on many issues are the same as those of the public and it takes a bit of lobbying to spell out any detailed inefficiences in a proposed Bill (or what have you).
If corporate lobbying is what you believe in then stand up for it and argue in favour of it, don't, as Adam Ingram appears to have done, claim to be against selling access when you seem to have been caught red-handed offering your services.
UPDATE:
A bad day all round for West coast Labour actually:
Tommy McAvoy's links to Labour donor Wille Haughey come under the Sunday Times spotlight
More questions surrounding Steven Purcell, City Building and Labour donors at the Sunday Herald
9 comments:
What's quite astonishing and really just confirms the 'monkey with a red rossette' slur is that these story's appear to have caused zero detrimental impact on voting intentions for Labour.
One wonders what it would take for large sections of central belt population to change their allegiance.
An illegal war or two hasn't done it.
Raising the basic rate by 100% didn't do it.
Ripping the backside out of pensions hasn't done it.
The ongoing saga of sleaze at all levels of Labour hierarchical Government isn't doing it.
We are left with the simple fact that many consider New Labour still to be an 'ideology' and like their football team and local town, they will always vote for it.
Only £2,500 per day? That really is the bottom end of the market.
As a former minister at the Ministry of Defence, Adam Ingram was a strong supporter of nuclear weapons and an advocate of the decision to spend £97 billion on replacing Trident with new nuclear weapons.
If his judgment is that that poor I'm not sure I'd spend 25p on his services, let alone £2,500 :-)
If I was a Minister in the Govt, or a senior Civil Servant, I would want corporate lobbying banned, as in the public eye it will always suggest that Ministers can be unduly influenced via the power of cash.
There are plenty of other ways to make a case over what you may think is flawed legislation rather than through paid lobbyists, especially if they are ex Ministers themselves.
I don't know how you would go about that right enough, but it's just more evidence that Labour Ministers seem to be in it for themselves - led by the ex Prime Minister Tony Blair of course.
It just further erodes people's faith in politics.
The Purcell intrigue grows more interesting.
What have been the outcomes? Willie Haughey has stated he is taking on no more public sector work. Arms length companies have undertaken to make no more political donations. Most astonishingly of all GCC have completely reversed their policies re: arms length companies, have cancelled the most recent proposal, and are looking at ways of bringing the arms length companies back in, although there are financial impediments to doing that.
If audit Scotland had done an investigation and made recommendations then those are the ones I would have expected them to make. Although I don't think even they could have banned Haughey from tendering for public contracts.
They've done all this of course without any admission of guilt.
Labour in Glasgow are not as stupid as some people take them for.
Yes, the nuclear industries lobbying reach is huge, I dare say half of the cabinet will probably have taken donations from the various companies involved.
Isn't about time for a Mandelson scandal?
The dark lord is very quiet.
Not the Messiah@11.19, sadly this appears to be true.
A week or so ago on Guido Fawkes someone wrote that The Labour Party could nuke Glasgow and the survivors would still vote Labour.
The "my party right or wrong" attitude is going to be a hard nut to crack.
To be honest, the relentless voting of Labour isn't difficult to understand.
For all Labour's many shortcomings, to most Scots they are still vastly preferable to a Tory Government so they get the vote. I can understand this, I'm relaxed about another Labour term but a Tory one spells bad news. If I wasn't interested in politics and had a fairly myopic view of the UK situation, I'd vote Labour barely thinking about it.
To argue that an SNP candidate could change things is, let's be honest, a tough sell when at the end of the day there's only two possible Governments.
That's the harsh reality and the genuine alternative to alternating Labour/Tory Governments is an independent Scotland, rather than more SNP MPs.
I'm not saying I like it, but it's at least logical.
But don't forget that the would be MP for EK,S&L is not averse to a bit of skulduggery when it comes to donations from local developers in exchange for the local authority purchasing from the developers parts of their land banks to keep the developers solvent?
Post a Comment