Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Are they cuckoo............

The Liberal Democrats certainly managed to brighten up my Autumn and then very kindly brightened up my Christmas as well.

The long sorry saga of the dodgy donation from a guy in Switzerland drags on and on.

In brief. The Lib Dems stated party policy is that they believe donations to political parties should be limited to £250,000. They accepted a donation of £2.4 million. The donation was made by an individual who is not entitled to give money, under the law as it currently exists, to a political party in the UK. However the money was donated from a recently established company registered in the UK. When this companies accounts for the relevant year are published we will see if they were actively trading at the time of donation. If not then the Lib dems will have to pay back the money.

Investigations by the Times newspaper revealed that the donor had a colourful background. In fact he was a "fugitive from justice" according to the Times. It seems he was found guilty of bouncing a series of cheques in the US then left the USA whilststill on bail. The Times claim he bounced a cheque on his lawyer who secured his bail which I thought showed a particular level of bravado.

In similar circumstances the Labour and Tory parties have paid back donations....the Libdems of course cannot afford to do so even if they felt so inclined. They now stand condemned as hypocrites with standards even lower than the Tories or Labour.

In all the arguments about Kennedys leadership no-one has mentioned the dubious donation. Yet Kennedy and his team of advisors were directly involved in obtaining the donation, and free flights etc which they forgot to register etc...are the attacks on kennedy's judgement and leadership a result of the awful publicity they have received about this donation?

As an opponent I hope the Lib Demleadership problems drag on and on however I would have thought they would have enough sense to shut up about it soon. Still lets hope for another installment...

2 Comments:

Blogger Banksy said...

Ah. Now that's much more interactive.

Not that I have any sensible comment to offer on the matter.

No change there then...

8:20 AM  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

I have'nt got anything interesting to say either, but at least there's a facility to do so now.

3:42 AM  

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