Glob-a-log

In England it is often said that you can tell to which party a politician belongs by the kind of scandal he gets involved in.

When money is involved, common wisdom has it, it must a Labour MP or minister involved – the reason being that people coming through the Labour ranks didn’t have enough of it when they grew up.

In the same way, when it’s some kind of lurid sex thing, it must be a Conservative politician, because most of them went to the kind of schools, where years of spanking, buggery and all other sorts of humiliations warped their tiny, pustule-popping minds.

Of course, times have changed a bit, so while all of the above still holds true in quite a number of grubby incidents, the sins of the fathers don’t always equal those of their sons.

Speaking of which – fathers and sons, that is:

The MP Derek Conway faces a possible police investigation and de-selection as a Tory Parliamentary candidate over £260,000 of taxpayer-funded payments he made to his two sons and wife, it has emerged.

Amid growing concern over the secret employment of family members by MPs, the backbencher was on Tuesday suspended from the Conservative Party by David Cameron.

It emerged that Derek Conway had also employed his eldest son, Henry, as a researcher while he attended Cambridge

The Daily Telegraph has established that at least 38 other MPs are currently employing members of their immediate families.

Back to mister Derek Conway though – and his eldest son, Henry, who was the first to go on his daddy’s pay-list.

And a nicer guy to blow the taxpayers’ money on you’ll never find:

In the biographical note promoting his book ‘Knit Couture’ we are informed that Conway “has had other success sprinkling magic across London’s nightlife”.

One of his most recent and undoubtedly magical events was a party in a Chelsea nightclub entitled “Fuck Off I’m Rich”. Everything about that sounds tempting, does it not?”

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 04:14 and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.