Conway the Conman?

It is being claimed by some Tory MPs today that Derek Conway is facing a “witch hunt”. It’s not so much fun when the boot is on the other foot is it? If these allegations turn out to be true (and right now they really are looking like they are) then this is some serious stuff. It is right up there with anything Peter Hain has done and probably even exceeds that. Let’s look at the allegations:

Forty grand?! What was he doing?

It is being claimed that Derek Conway paid his son, Frederick, more than £40,000 between 2004 and 2007 when he was an undergraduate at Newcastle University. £40,000! The Daily Mail reported that his other son, Henry, was paid more than £32,000 when he was an undergraduate between 2001 and 2004. To make things even worse, Frederick’s pay packet included £10,000 in bonuses! He must be very good if he can work only part-time, is only a student and yet can still be in line for a ten grand bonus! If this is all true and that his sons were not actually doing any of this work – and there is no evidence that they were so far – then Conway has used £72,000 of public money to give to his children for doing absolutely nothing. That is, in my book, stealing.

Cameron must act fast and ruthlessly

The calls from the Conservative party for Hain to quit were extremely vocal before he had a chance to prove his innocence (I suspect he won’t, but time will tell!) and if they have any credibility, then David Cameron will act fast. The Commons will vote on Thursday whether to suspend him or not. If they decide that he should be, then it is at that point that Cameron should withdraw the Whip on Conway. The last thing the Tories need right now is to be seen as dithering and soft on corruption.

The evidence against Conway is pretty damning. The Commons standards and privileges committee had this to say after their investigations:

“FC [Frederick Conway] seems to have been all but invisible during the period of his employment… He had little or no contact with his father’s office, either in the House or the constituency. No record exists of the work that he is supposed to have carried out, or the hours kept. The only evidence available to us of work carried out was that provided by FC and his family. This arrangement was, at the least, an improper use of parliamentary allowances: at worst, it was a serious diversion of public funds.”

Cameron – act fast and if necessary ruthlessly, or never be in a position to hold Labour accountable for its financial misdemeanours ever again.

The Simple Solution

It is time that all payments to MP’s staff were taken out of the MP’s hands all together. There is no need for them to be in charge. It should be done by an administrative body in Parliament who would need to have proof of employment and that the money was being paid appropriately. While there are very few MPs who are slipping a few thousand quid in to the back pockets of friends and family, the system is so open for corruption it is no surprise that it does happen every now and then. It is simple to set up and will give back the confidence to the electorate that its public servants aren’t taking them for a ride. It is a measure that the party leaders should support too – it will stop embarrassments like this threatening the public support of their party.

EU Legal Challenge

Stuart Wheeler, the Tory party super donor, has reacted to the Conway story by saying it gave a ‘bad impression of politics’. Well, I agree and that is not the only thing that gives a bad impression of politics. Government’s promising to do one thing in their election manifesto and then breaking that promise when they get in to power. Rather like the Labour manifesto that promised us a vote in to the EU Constitution Referendum. Well, Stuart Wheeler is now considering a legal challenge to force one.

Spot on Mr. Hague

While it is unlikely that any legal challenge will come to much in the way of forcing a referendum, it will probably hold up the ratification process. Anything that causes trouble for the government on this one is good by my book. Let’s hope Mr Wheeler can cause as big a headache for the Government on this matter as possible. As William Hague summed up, this whole affair “could not be a more cynical approach to the conduct of government policy, deeply lacking in openness, transparency or honesty.”

Polls not good reading for Tories

And so to the opinion polls – and they don’t make good reading for the Tories. The ComRes poll has shown the Tories down 3 points, while the Labour party is up 3 points. It is the same picture for the other pollsters (YouGov and ICM) the Conservatives down, Labour up a little, a slight rise in the Lib Dem ratings. The ICM poll shows only a 2% lead for the Tories. All this at a time when Northern Rock and the economy is really biting and Peter Hain has resigned in a quagmire of shame. So why are the Tories dropping in support?

Even Ken is alright

It gets worse. Livingstone, despite dropping one percentage point is now four points ahead of Boris, who is down four points. Paddick is up one point – not surprisingly as he is the only one actually fighting a dignified campaign. It seems that the Dispatches programme about the Mayor has not had much of an effect on the voters at all.

The picture is clear – Labour are stuck in a rut, but the Tories are doing very little to capitalise on it. If they can’t be pulling ahead in to a massive lead at times like this, will they ever?

Garbo - read more at: http://thepoliblogs.blogspot.com/