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Buying a Peerage- Scandal!

Quantum

10:27 / 13.07.06

Police arrested Blair's chief party fundraiser (and tennis partner) Lord Levy yesterday in an investigation into claims honours had been given in return for cash.
"The row has engulfed Blair's government, leading to calls for his resignation and damaging his poll ratings amid allegations party donors can buy titles."

Will Blair be helping the police with their enquiries? Can you become a Lord by donating to the Labour party?

14:25 / 13.07.06

Um... Excuse my ignrunt 'murkan ass, but haven't people been able to buy titles for years? Are these ones stolen then?

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:02 / 13.07.06

Hmmm... it's tricky. You can buy land which has a title attached, although they don't come up too often. You can get a title being rich and for putting some of that wealth into good causes. Civil servants are often given titles in exchange for abjuring the bigger money they could have gotten in the private sector, which is buying of a sort.

This, though, is a political party specifically giving titles in exchange for money , which is a bit more unconventional...

15:44 / 13.07.06

Huh. I guess someone was scamming m-my friend, then. Who knew? *burns certificate acknowledging the bearer the Marquis/Marquess of Plopshire-on-Towd*

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Kit-Cat Club

20:54 / 13.07.06

Gah, the problem with this isn't so much the titles, it's the stupid stupid second house thingy. If New Labour would just follow through with reform, and make it an elected chamber, this titles thing wouldn't be a problem. But, duh, they don't want an elected chamber (i.e. one with any legitimacy) because it might challenge the power of the Commons (and hence of the executive, given how the executive currently dominates the legislature). So instead we have this lunatic eighteenth-century system of placemen appointed by the government to act as a check on its bills! Argh! And I am sure that no one is at all surprised that allegations of corruption have emerged - corruption must be endemic in such a closed system.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

04:23 / 14.07.06

Well, personally I’m inclined to think that buying titles via secret donations/loans to a political party would still be an issue, even if such a title did not accord one a place in the second chamber, as this would still be a pretty slimy disreputable practice and would still be a troubling sign of how our political parties are more beholden to the favoured rich than to the people. However I do agree that it would be far less of a concern if these disreputable individuals wealth wasn’t buying them a say in the passing of laws.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:11 / 14.07.06

I would just like to point out he went to Colindale Police Station on wednesday lunchtime to be interviewed, soon after he left the building site next door to the police station caught fire and took almost twelve hours to be put out. Are these two things related? Probably not, but I'm going to keep mentioning it until some lazy Guardian journalist writes about it...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:33 / 14.07.06

I'm also interested in the motives for the arrest. According to Levy's statement (though, being the guy who was arrested, it's not gonna be the most impartial) there was no need to arrest him to gain access to the documents they wanted.

Now, is this true? If so, why was he arrested? I'm not saying he shouldn't have been- certainly, were I in a similar position I imagine I'd have been arrested, and I don't see why he should be any different- but I can think of three options IF we're to assume that an arrest wasn't necessary.

1) the most favourable one- the cops were sending a message that nobody is abovce the law.

2) the more complex one- this is some sort of pissy power game between the cops and New Labour. Not quite sure if this one floats.

3) well... if you could, it'd be bloody hard to resist the temptation, wouldn't it?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:32 / 15.07.06

Acting petulent about it is probably one of the stupidest tacks to take, especially as I think I'm right in saying Levy refused to appeared at the Government select committee over this. Pr-wise it simply screams "I'm Lord Levy! I'm up to my eyes in all sorts of illegal shit I don't want anyone to know about!" when the police themselves said the next day they'd arrested more Tories over this.

Tryphena Absent

21:58 / 15.07.06

Well, personally I’m inclined to think that buying titles via secret donations/loans to a political party would still be an issue

A title means nothing if you gain no power from it. The problem is that if people give money to the party and are appointed into the second chamber they have paid for major political influence in the UK and create a potential power bloc for government proposals in both chambers. That's far more corrupt than the alternative.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

23:00 / 15.07.06

Well, i'm still inclined to think that any secret donations to the party in governement are significient, regardless of what one officially gets for it. Of course the Lords vote is a very serious issue indeed, and probably the main issue, but I'm still inclined to think that if people are making large, secret donations, then they are almost certainly purchasing some political influence, even if a seat in the Lords is not involved, although of course such influence will be of a more temporary nature.

Tryphena Absent

01:35 / 16.07.06

Secret donations aren't great and the system should be completely transparent but this specifically is a problem because people were potentially buying political power and not simply supporting a political party (any of us could make a donation to a political party or influence it by joining but could not buy a place in the chamber).

wicker woman

09:35 / 27.07.06

Didn't this same sort of thing happen about 15(?) years or so ago? I recall reading a Doonesbury collection that had a plotline with Zonker selling off a painting of his so he could become a Duke, and Trudeau isn't normally one for pulling his story ideas out of nowhere.

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