Cash For Honours

The net appears to be closing in on Tony Blair.

At the moment, no one really knows if Lordships, Knighthoods, &c. were sold to Labour Party donors. I doubt anyone will ever really be able to say for certain whether they were or not. The connection between the police investigation and the media has certainly been intriguing if not bizarre.

For weeks at a time, we hear nothing of the investigation, before the newspapers, political analysts, and twenty-four hour news channels start shouting about one arrest or another which happened a number of days ago. The newspapers especially must be following this story really closely -- after all, this could be the British equivalent of Watergate. So why didn't at least one paper have this as an exclusive? Severe censorship? Possibly, but again, we'll probably never know that for sure. It is my understanding that it was the police who asked Downing Street to keep quiet about one of last week's arrests, and not the other way around.

For reasons legal as well as political, Tony Blair has tried to say as little as possible to the media, the House of Commons and his own party about the affair. This is why I was so surprised on Friday morning when I woke up at 06:00 to hear Sarah Montague promising a live interview with the Prime Minister in Sedgefield. With John Humphries asking the questions, as well! I never thought I'd see those two gladiators clash!

Whatever the police investigation reports, the entire cash for honours affair has been at the best mildly damaging to the Blair premiership. At the worst, it could destroy him, even though he gave my family economic stability, he gave me the minimum wage and he gave me a fair and decent education. And we're not even scratching the surface.

Yours, wherever you may be,
Daniel C. Wright