The Guardian View on Tory Sleaze: Buying Access, Baubles and Influence

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: Boris Johnson’s reluctance to come clean about donors that get to meet him may be explained by the contents of the Pandora papers

Boris Johnson. ‘The perception will be that there is one rule for this government and its friends and another for the rest of us’. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty
Boris Johnson’s government has displayed a penchant for ignoring standards of openness, attacking key democratic institutions and subverting governance norms. Mr Johnson revels in thumbing his nose at convention. Last December he outrageously used his privilege as prime minister to ennoble a Conservative party donor who had been rejected by the Lords appointments commission. But repeat offending raises questions over whether such insouciance is meant to distract from allegations of sleaze.

This new model of party business seems to have coincided with the arrival of Ben Elliot as co-chair of the Conservative party. He raised a record £37m for the Tories’ 2019 general election campaign. The party is now refusing to publish the membership of secretive clubs for donors giving up to £250,000 a year that hold regular meetings with Mr Johnson and his chancellor. That reluctance may be explained by this week’s revelations in the Pandora papers. The documents shed new light on the use by some donors of offshore finance and how it lubricates capitalism in hydrocarbon-rich autocracies. Mr Johnson’s claim that donations were vetted “in the normal way” suggests the Conservatives aren’t that bothered about where their money comes from. » | Editorial | Friday, October 8, 2021

David Cameron Publicly Denies Lord Ashcroft Allegation for First Time

David Cameron: 'Everyone can see why the book was written
and everyone can see straight through it.'

THE GUARDIAN: Prime minister confirms he is disputing specific claim in Call Me Dave book that he put private part of his anatomy in dead pig’s mouth

David Cameron has for the first time publicly denied allegations made in a biography written by the former Tory donor Lord Ashcroft that he was involved in a bizarre university club ritual with a dead pig’s head.

The prime minister said everybody could see straight through the book published by Ashcroft, and confirmed he was disputing the specific allegation that he put a private part of his anatomy in a dead pig’s mouth at an event of the Piers Gaveston Society when he was a student.

The book, co-written with the journalist Isabel Oakeshott and serialised in the Daily Mail, has made international headlines with its allegations about Cameron’s lifestyle, including stories about him smoking cannabis with friends at Oxford University and cocaine allegedly being in circulation at a party hosted by the Camerons. » | Rowena Mason Political correspondent | Sunday, September 27, 2015

My comment:

Is this what they taught you at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, Mr. Cameron? – © Mark

Sleazy Cameron Thinks More of Himself Than He Should!
MAIL ONLINE: David Cameron is offering rich businessmen the chance to dine with him – if they give £50,000 a year to the Conservative Party.

Donors can enjoy exclusive lunches after Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, or meet the Premier at drinks receptions and campaign launches.

They can also mingle with other senior Cabinet members in what critics call a clear case of ‘cash for access’ – with the wealthy buying the chance to put their case directly to the Prime Minister.

It comes just months after Mr Cameron made a major speech attacking the murky world of ‘secret corporate lobbying’.

The donor clubs began when Mr Cameron was Leader of the Opposition, but the Tories admitted yesterday that the Leader’s Group, which allows businessmen to rub shoulders with the Premier, still exists.

According to the party’s website, for an annual payment of £50,000 ‘members are invited to join David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches’.

The group’s chairman is merchant 
banker Howard Leigh. £50k to dine with Dave: Wealthy Tory donors buy access to PM >>> Daniel Martin | Friday, August 27, 2010

This is not the way to conduct oneself as a prime minister. Such behaviour brings the honorable office into disrepute. Cameron is behaving like a second-hand car salesman; further, he has no understanding of the meaning of the word ‘democracy’. Democracy means government for the people, by the people, not for and by the select, rich few. Britain is neither an oligarchy nor an aristocracy. If this is the way Cameron is going to conduct the affairs of state, then we, the electorate, have been truly CONNED by this Conservative, by this sleaze merchant! – © Mark

No Respect, No Morals, No Trust - Welcome to Modern Britain
THE TELEGRAPH: Our political leaders are falling short as we sink under a tide of vulgarity and sleaze, says Jeff Randall.

Earlier this year, the BBC broadcast a two-part documentary called The Death of Respect. It went out late and would have been missed by many. For those who did not see it, there was compelling evidence this week that the social decomposition chronicled in John Ware's programme is very real, when film of a Sheffield student relieving himself on a war memorial was shown in the same news bulletins that covered the murder of five British soldiers in Helmand.

It's hard to think of a more offensive image than booze-fuelled urine flowing over poppies, on a day when courageous servicemen are being slaughtered in order, the Government claims, to keep the rest of us safe. Hard, but not impossible. The front-page story from my local newspaper, the Brentwood Gazette, came close: thieves stole the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal collection box from St Thomas's church in the town centre. In the week of Remembrance Sunday, low-lifers had plumbed new depths.

Do not tell me that these are isolated incidents. Anxiety over the collapse of respect in modern Britain is not, as some liberal sociologists would have us believe, the creation of news-hungry tabloids and suburban reactionaries. Examples of guttersnipery are all around: from unpleasant vulgarity (spitting and swearing) to the contempt with which a sleazy political class treats its electorate. We are, one fears, in danger of becoming inured to disrespect.

On the way to the train station each day, I trudge past a trail of sweet wrappers, sandwich boxes and drink cans, discarded on the grass verge by children walking to school. Every morning they litter the streets, seemingly unaware of the mess piling up, while eating breakfast on the hoof. I once challenged a twerp who was poking an empty crisp bag into a neighbour's hedge. He seemed shocked that anyone would care.

Litter is annoying, but in the grand scheme of a society that has traded personal responsibility for blame transfer, it is little more than a pointer to a deeper malaise: the corrosion of deference in our schools, the abandonment of manners on our streets and, yes, the death of respect for civility and integrity. We are close to the point where ethical behaviour is regarded as an affliction to be pitied, a loser's burden. >>> Jeff Randall | Thursday, November 05, 2009

This Sleazy Government!
THE TELEGRAPH: Shahid Malik has admitted that the taxpayer had met the costs of office space in his constituency house and his designated second home in London simultaneously.

Mr Malik said he needed the extra office space because the constituency office he inherited was not big enough. Photo courtesy of The Telgraph
The Communities Minister claimed the maximum second home allowance for his London property while the office on the ground floor of his constituency house was funded through a separate parliamentary “office” expenses system.

The disclosure threatens to undermine the Prime Minister who only returned Mr Malik to government earlier this week after receiving assurances that his financial affairs were in order.

It now appears that Downing Street failed to scrutinise Mr Malik’s expense claims thoroughly before allowing him to hold ministerial office again. MPs' Expenses: Shahid Malik Admits Charging Taxpayer for Two Houses >>> By Robert Winnett, James Kirkup and Holly Watt | Wednesday, June 10, 2009