Honour for Donor? Never Heard of Him, Oh I Proposed Him
The recently ennobled Lord Hameed's companies have given £400,000 to the LibDems in the past two years. Lord Tim Clement-Jones is head of spin for DLA Piper’s public affairs and government relations practice as well as the LibDem's party treasurer. (Incidentally, the LibDem's voted to require lobbyists who were LibDem parliamentarians to withdraw from lobbying two years ago. Clement-Jones ignores the party ruling.)When The Times asked Clement-Jones who it was who put Hameed forward for a peerage, he said that he had “no idea” who had proposed Lord Hameed. After The Times said it had evidence that it was him, he said: “I couldn’t remember that. That’s fine. I thought he was a very upstanding member of the Asian community and somebody who would make a very good peer.” An amazingly quick recall of why he proposed him when seconds earlier he couldn't even remember proposing Hameed.
It gets worse, no declaration of the donations was declared to the Lords Appointments Committee. Lord Dholakia, the deputy leader of the LibDems and their representative sitting on the Committee knows Hameed but denies he knew he was the third biggest donor to the party. The party of course denies any link between the cash and putting Hameed forward for an honour. Stinks doesn't it? Maybe Chris Huhne will write another letter to the police about it...
16 comments:
Oh, LORD Hameed. I thought you said LLoyd Hameed!
Well that's a jolly good start to Nick Clegg's reign.
Happy New Year!
To quote the odious LibDem Nicol Stephen- 'This smells of sleaze.' LibDems:-Hypocritical, perverted, bankrupt, and pointless.
Don't hold your breath.
Happy New Year
What quality abounds in the "Asian Community" that makes them so suitable to become Her Britannic Majesty's peers of the realm that cannot be found amongst the indigenous crooks and low-lifes that inhabit our fair isle? Could it be the ability to deliver votes from the dead, missing and intimidated, or is it just the money, stupid?
I suppose we are lucky to have them, and the good fortune occasionally to enjoy the contributions of an able Minister of the Crown such as the uniquely bent and oily Keith Vaz.
Perhaps ZaNuLab feel that there are some role models to be admired and emulated, and hope that the quality of being untouchable might rub off on those who labour under the stigma of less exotic antecedents.
All three parties seem to be taking a lot of donations from "South Asians".
Makes me wonder what they are really getting for the money.
Not my vote thats for sure.
Not Lord Hameed's "companies", or even company, Guido. Read the story again. Or is there a different version published in Ireland?
Selective memory syndrome, along with selective enforcement.
The wonders of a politican's memory recall.... Has this Lord been near any of the Labour amnesiacs?
Inspector Yates is going to be very busy boy this year.
hang the fucking traitors - it is the only way to stop all this bullshit destroying the country.
just when you thought this lot had learnt there lesson , then those preaching the holier than thou of party political funding , get rolled over fingers in honours system.
fantastic start to 2008 , anything from senor clegg yet??
liberal values eh , cant wait for further outlines of policy
Why would a company give a political party nearly half its post tax profit ?
Why not?
You don't think that represents their true profit, do you? Oh dear!
But what about the Divi ?? If I were a shareholder I would be very pissed off with the Board for handing over so much cash to such a bunch of morons. Mind you I suppose those very same morons could be also major shareholders.
Yawn. The sad hacks at The Times have been working on this for six weeks and not a sniff of any law-breaking! No wonder the Sunday Times turned their collective noses up at the story when they got wind of it.
The first question any hack gets asked in conference on donation stories is "have they broken the law?" The answer in this case would appear to be a resounding "no".
My particular favourite line in this sorry excuse for a story is the following:
"The Cabinet Secretary, the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the appointments commission are being urged to look into relationships."
Urged by who exactly, sadly Dominic Kennedy and Rajeev Syal - who are to investigations what Hale and Pace were to comedy - neglect to revelation the source of this exhortation. That'll be themselves then.
Oh, British journalism at its finest. Watergate it ain't.
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