Tory money scandals are rich and timely reminders

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

It seems the media has sated its appetite for condemning the Labour government, at least for the time being. Now the focus is on the Conservatives, with a couple of high-profile stories this past week focusing on flagrant abuses of power and privilege at the taxpayers’ expense.

First we heard about the leader of the Conservative Party’s Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) resigning from the position after admitting he broke expenses rules. Giles Chichester paid thousands of pounds in staff allowances to a firm of which he is a paid director. Remarkably, Chichester intends to stay on as an MEP and has described his supposed error as a “whoops-a-daisy” moment.

And now comes the news that Tory chairman Caroline Spelman has admitted she used her MP’s allowance to pay her nanny, Tina Haines, for secretarial work.

Spelman is not reported anywhere as saying whoops-a-daisy, oh crumbs, or jolly bad show.We can be grateful for that, at least.

The party’s chief whip in Brussels, MEP Den Dover, has also been replaced after he denied breaking any rules in paying his wife and daughter a reported £750,000 for work over nine years. The Tories say the move is unrelated to the issue of expenses and was normal after a change of leader.

But let me tell you something about Den Dover. The man was MP for my home town of Chorley in Lancashire throughout the Thatcher and Major years in government, and I clashed with him in writing over his attitude towards gay rights. Mr Dover saw all gay men (he had little publicly to say about lesbians) as near-enough paedophiles, and actively campaigned against gay rights including the equalisation of the age of consent. Apparently, all adult gay men were just waiting, drooling, for the law to be changed so we could set to on ravaging the bottoms of the nation’s tender teens. Of course, this was never going to happen but Dover considered it a real possibility that the sodomites were on the verge of taking over the universe.

I still have the correspondence filed away somewhere. I had no idea under what rock he had crawled under since losing the seat, and did not care to know, but it seems that, once again, the European Parliament is the place failed MPs get sent after being rejected by their constituents.

I can tell you another story about Den Dover. When it was proposed in my home town that a care home for people with special needs—that is to say, disabilities both mental and physical—be built close to where Mr Dover and his family lived, he vehemently opposed the plan. The classic ‘anywhere but here’ sentiment was at work, along with ‘not on my doorstep’. He produced many gaffs throughout his time as MP for Chorley, including advocacy of all those deemed troublesome in one way or another being stuck together on sink estates away from all the nice people.

How did this ghetto-loving, queer-hating man ever end up as the Tory Chief Whip in Europe? It’s incredible.

So, for those of you thinking the Tories have changed, it may well be the case that they have new blood eager to take the party forward and make it more progressive and suited to today’s world. I don’t doubt it, and kudos to them. But the old guard are still around, still scheming, and—most importantly—still powerful, both here and in the EU.

Therefore, stories of money being diverted here, there, and everywhere, really shouldn’t come as surprising to anyone who remembers the sleazy scandals of the early 1990s. The old gang are still active.

Okay, the equation is simple: Tory = right-wing = traditionalist = homophobic = mostly white = mostly male = mostly well-off = privileged…. It goes on.

Yes, there are exceptions. But these are the foundation stones of Conservatism. Remove every element and you wouldn’t have the Tories at all. Mix new ideas with the old, and you have a confusing, inconsistent, and often hypocritical mess (as today). Yes, we support gay rights; yes, we want to give a financial incentive to married heterosexual couples. Yes, we need to help the poor; yes, we won’t increase taxes for those who can afford to pay, to divert the funds to those who need them.

If David Cameron were truly transforming the Conservatives, he would excise the cancerous old guard completely from all levels of the party. But of course he can’t do that. They would rise up like dinosaurs and eat all the soft and tender, bright, young, paler blue careerists for breakfast. He has somehow persuaded the royal blues to shut their mouths until after he wins office. And then we will be back to the same old, same old. Have no doubt. That is both the fear and the reality.

What we see today is what the Conservatives want us to see, most of the time; the current spate of news stories, however, should help open a few eyes and give some power to the reformers within that party. They clearly need all the help they can get.

categories: in the news