"Don't give them an inch. Not one inch. They are a bunch of knaves. They have taken your power, abused it, and now they are after your money. Don't let them. I refer of course to Britain's political parties. They have been caught with their fingers in the till. They have broken the law on the sale of peerages and refuse to admit it or take the consequences. Government ministers have spent two weeks telling lies.
The Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 could not be clearer. The penalty for accepting "any gift" for even "assisting or endeavouring to procure the grant of a title" is two years in the slammer. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is equally clear. Any gift over £5,000 is declarable, including loans at preferential rates. In addition, any "financial connection" to a party, including a loan, must be declared by a prospective peer.
Nor is that the half of it. The response of the parties to being caught would disgrace a con man in the Old Kent Road. They have said that everyone breaks the law, so who cares? They have said that no one is discussing it in the Dog and Duck. They have said that other countries are worse. They have declared it grossly unfair to deny a peerage to a party donor since he might also be a genuine philanthropist or former flatmate of the prime minister (the Falconer defence).
Not content with this hogwash, they now claim to have a wizzo scheme for curing the problem that they say does not exist. It is for taxpayers to give them the money instead. That way they can stop (not) selling membership of the House of Lords. And if anyone is so cynical as to think they ever did, they have another wizzo scheme to stop them from (not) doing so. It is to let them control peerages in other ways, but the same."
Despite all this, does anyone seriously believe that any of the "knaves" will be prosecuted? And they wonder why the people have become cynical about politics...
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