+++ Labour MP Arrested +++

Rob Marris, MP for Wolverhampton South West, has been arrested on charges of criminal damage. More from local paper.

£1,000 Offered for Jacqui Smith's Fingerprints

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Guido previously offered dinner as a reward and now the good people at NO2ID and Privacy International are offering £1,000. Unlike them Guido won't ask you to donate the reward to charity. There are sommeliers waiting...

Speaker Chooses Three MPs to Investigate MP Expenses

It beggars belief that as popular disgust with MPs is now near universal they decide to appoint three of their own to investigate themselves. When you find out which three MPs the Speaker has chosen to do the investigating you can only laugh or else you will cry. Guess what the result will be?

Monkey #1, Nick Harvey, a LibDem MP and former spinner for lobbyists Citigate Dewe Rogerson who still keeps his hand in as a consultant to parliamentary lobbyists Trimedia. Clearly the perfect choice to assess the shadowy influence of lobbyists given the tens of thousands he makes from the industry whilst a serving MP.

Monkey #2, David Maclean, the Conservative MP who tried to stop the Freedom of Information Act applying to MPs by using some very shifty parliamentary tactics. This provoked uproar and disgust leading to defeat after a few underhand shenanigans. Just the person to investigate calls for more transparency.

Monkey #3, Sir Stuart Bell, a Labour MP who hired his son Malcolm as a researcher. But unlike Derek Conway's sons, Malcolm definitely used to turn up at Parliament. In fact, it was while working in Portcullis House that Malcolm broke into George Galloway's office, stole his chequebook and made off with £2,000 from Galloway's bank acocunt. Which must have been the first time Galloway was the victim of a fraud. Young Malcolm Bell got 60 days in a young offender's institute. So his father is just the person to look into whether MPs hiring members of their family can lead to fraud.

They must be laughing at us in the subsidised bars of parliament. Gunpowder is too good for 'em.

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...

Dave : "Nationalise Democracy"

Peter Oborne in his brilliant book The Triumph of the Political Class anatomised the ruling elite. Cameron, Osborne, Miliband and Clegg are interchangeable. Political insiders since leaving Oxbridge, all they have done since is some media wonkery with little which now differentiates them politically apart from the colour of their rosettes. They are all in favour of living off the taxpayer.

Today Dave tells us he won't be able to spend money on glossy ads and billboards unless he gets his hand on the taxpayer's earnings.

Come off it Dave, try raising some money from your own supporters, don't tax an unwilling public to pay for your party's unwanted propaganda. It is bad for democracy to have state funding, it actually increases the distance between political parties and voters, it is not in any way necessary to have well funded parties to have a functioning democracy. Having to raise money from your supporters means you have to listen to them, getting the dole from the public purse makes politicians even less accountable than they are already.

Politicians don't enjoy raising money from their supporters, but that is no reason to make ordinary workers forgo their justly earned income just to save them the trouble of working hard.

Total Politics, Totally Disconnected

Peter Oborne's The Triumph of the Political Class anatomises a cross-party, tax-parasitical ruling class. The class is personified in the next generation of most likely leaders of the major political parties; Clegg, Miliband and Cameron.

With views that are essentially interchangeably metropolitan liberal, all that differentiates them besides the colour of their rosettes is a bit of proportional representation, some income redistribution and a little Euro-scepticism. They are crowded ideologically onto that marginal - voter - friendly, focus-grouped, centre - ground. All went to Oxbridge, all had politico-media-wonkish mini-careers before climbing the political greasy pole.

They are increasingly disconnected from voters, electoral apathy at the lack of choice results in falling voter turn-outs. The financing of election campaigns is increasingly a problem as the membership of political parties collapses. When you have unattractive, undifferentiated products it is hard to sell. In the market-place you have to give the consumers what they want or you go bust. Listen to your customers, give them what they want and you will prosper.

Today we will hear a lot of cant about democracy, Gordon will bemoan the "funding of democracy", by which he means politicians. He will do what he does best, take money from the taxpayer to coercively fund what the people are unwilling to fund voluntarily.

Guido has a simple suggestion for all politicians; raise money from your supporters, it will force you to listen to them, it will be good for politics, it will be good for politicians, it will strengthen democracy. Raise the money centrally from taxation and you will further divorce your parties from your supporters. You will concentrate on the few hundred thousand swing voters who allegedly decide the electoral outcome. This is just lazy.

Yesterday, Ron Paul, a little known anti-War Republican running for President shocked the U.S. political establishment by raising over $4 million online - in one day. Not for nothing is his campaign song "Google Ron Paul". He comes from the libertarian wing of the Republicans, yet despite his anti-War stance he is the single biggest recipient candidate of donations from military veterans. He talks about ideals, he is principled, he raises money from the grassroots. If Guido could legally give Ron Paul money, he would.

In contrast, today in Westminster we will see the next step on the road to totally tax-funded political parties. It will be a bad day for our democracy and good only for our lazy, unprincipled politicians.

How to Tell If Tony Wright Has Been Nobbled

Today is the first hearing of the Public Administration Select Committee into "Propriety and Honours: Lessons Learned". At 3.00 pm oral evidence will be taken from: AC John Yates, Metropolitan Police, Carmen Dowd, Head of Special Crime Division, CPS and David Perry QC.

This is only the first hearing, we are told there will be others.

Tony Wright chairs the committee and is being criticised for selecting the terms of reference to avoid investigating the actual allegations. He no doubt would argue that was the job of the police.

However, if at a subsequent hearing he does not call Lord Levy to answer questions, you can safely assume he has been nobbled. Arguably Blair and Ruth Turner should also be called to explain themselves.

Guido has also seen a copy of a letter sent to Tony Wright by a witness making specific allegations about being offered honours in return for donations to the Labour party. The letter specifies who made the offer, the figures discussed, as well as naming the Labour party operators involved when they were introduced to Tony Blair. The witness states in the letter that they are bemused at the lack of a prosecution. The witness also states in their letter to Tony Wright (copied to all members of the Committee) that they are willing to testify to the Committee. If that witness is not called Tony Wright has been nobbled.

To the hundreds who have pledged publicly (and privately) to financially support a private prosecution and have been wondering what has been going on, rest assured preparations have been made, legal soundings have been taken and we are waiting to see what comes out of these hearings.

You will also remember that after the dropping by the CPS of the case, the briefings in the papers by "friends" of Levy and Ruth Turner that they would be taking legal action against those who made the accusations. Nobody has received a writ. They have gone very quiet.

LibDems: "Corruption is a Crime"

“We can cut crime” – that’s the message from the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference in Harrogate, they even launched two new websites last night: a special blog to keep tabs on the multiple failures at the Home Office (www.homeofficewatch.com) and an online petition calling for a full inquiry into corruption allegations.

Excellent news. Perhaps they will now repay the defrauded £2.4m they got from their crooked backer who languishes in jail? Strangely nowhere on www.corruptionisacrime.com is Michael Brown mentioned...

Dirty Money

Graphic Credit : Beau Bo D'Or

Iain Dale has followed up on Michael Brown, the LibDem's biggest donor of election campaign funds. Who, Guido believes he is correct in saying, is still in jail on remand. It is possible that LibDem members could be jointly and severally liable to HSBC for the contested money - some thirty quid a head? It makes grim reading...

Is there any wonder why our ever so noisy politicians are silent on their dirty money problems? State funding of parties will be even worse and a reward for their crooked ways. Levy arrested, Michael Brown in jail, if the police nick a Tory we will have a full crooked set.

Will anyone, or any party stand against state funding of these crooks? Or must it be gunpowder?