Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

The Labour Party's Loans fiasco

There is no other word for it.  It stinks of sleaze, and it sounds no better than what the last government was thrown out for.  The loans scandal with the Labour party should be investigated by the fraud squad as far as I am concerned.  I make this statement on the grounds that I will outline in this letter.

It has been alleged that the Labour party received as much as £14,000,000 in loans from various benefactors for their election campaign, but they didn't declare it until the media broke the story.  The story went on to say that the Treasurer, the Deputy Prime Minister and many other party members knew nothing about these loans if that is to be believed.

The fact is that the Labour Party is the government of this country and they don't produce any goods so that they could pay these loans off.  On what assets were these loans given and who signed the dotted line for these loans?  Most importantly, how were they supposed too be paid back.

It has been stated that some of the people who gave these loans too the Labour party were given peerages so that they could sit in the House of Lords and influence government policy for their efforts while others were given honours through the honours system.  They then tell us that they have done nothing illegal.

Well, if the treasurer knew nothing about this money, the books listing the parties accounts must wrong and should be looked into by someone above party politics.  When they got in to parliament they stated that they would be whiter than white.  Yet there is a black cloud hanging over the whole of the Labour party while this dubious practice continues to be investigated.

I was voted in as a PMC - Presiding Master of Ceremonies - of the OR's mess in the 1970's, along with the treasurer and other committee members.  All were essential too make sure that the mess was run properly and every penny was accounted for.  Our books were independently checked by an accountant too make sure that no one was committing fraud. And that is the way that most clubs, organisations and other groups operate including political party clubs.

What I see with these loans to the Labour party is, if the treasurer and the Deputy Prime Minister knew nothing about it, is it a party within a party, and if it is, that can't be good for any democracy.

The questions that we should be asking are:  Who's bank account did this money go into, and what was put up to secure these loans?  Because you must have something to cover the value of these loans.  The Labour Party has its offices and other assets, but there is no mention of these being used too secure these loans.  If they were the treasurer would have known about them.  Were these interest free loans, or were they loans that were going to be written off at a later date so that they could be forgotten about once the favours had been granted?

Of course political parties have to be funded, and that used to come through donations in the past.  The last government were dealing with so many dubious characters and getting so much money from various other people that they received the name as the sleaziest party ever to hit British politics.  And that's why they were voted out.  People don't forget the scandal of the past, but what they don't expect is the new government too do the same.

The government can try and kid us on that there is nothing wrong with taking on loans and that there is nothing illegal in it to fund their election campaigns.

Maybe not, but again, if the Treasurer, Deputy Prime Minister and top party members knew nothing about this money.  Where did it go?  What bank account did it sit in, and why did it not show up in the Labour Party's books.

All questions that need to be asked and answered honestly.

This while people have seen their Council Tax, utilities bills rise, nurses being paid off and hospitals in crisis.  Pensioners are being told too tighten their belts - and I'm quite sure a lot of people in this country who can't get a loan because they have no assets - men of straw comes too mind.

Men of straw are people who have no assets, and are highly unlikely to get a loan even they begged on their hands and knees.  And if they did get a loan you can guarantee that they would have too pay back every penny to the company who gave them that loan otherwise they would be chased to the ends of the earth until that money is paid back with very high interest rates.

So how can the Labour Party take on such loans which didn't show up until the media found out the truth of what's been going on within our government?  There must be a paper trail that can be traced, and it might be time for an independent body too have a look at the whole affair, such as the fraud squad.

The Labour Party and other members of parliament might think that this is something that will blow over and the electorate will forget about it, but I doubt that this will be the case.

The whiter than white Labour Party has been found out, and they have proved to the electorate they are no better than any other party when it comes too sleaze.  I didn't like the Conservative party very much, but we already knew that they were sleazy and they were normally caught out on everything that they did because of the media.

Now we've found out that the party that claims to represent the working man, the working class or the underdog is no better than the Conservative party when it come to money and being sanctimonious on so many issues that they claim to have done for the poor of this country.

This is something that must be investigated properly by an independent body and it needs to be cleared up soon for anyone to have any confident in our political system.

Written by Andrew Murphy 21 March 2006

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