Corruption in High Places
The Guardian reports that "A Labour peer has admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases".
Apparently, it is not illegal for Michael Wood to pay an undisclosed sum of money to Lord Hoyle, previously Doug Hoyle, an ex-government whip and former Labour MP for Warrington, for an introduction to Lord Drayson, the defence minister in charge of billions of pounds of military procurement.
Although Michael Wood appears to be a freelance consultant who has been known to work for BAE Systems, it is clear that he is not a research assistant, and yet he holds a parliamentary pass as a "research assistant" to the corrupt Aldershot Conservative MP Gerald Howarth.
Not only should "cash for access" be unlawful, but also the practice of giving research passes to people who clearly are not research assistants. I wonder how much Gerald Howarth was paid to provide a pass for an improper purpose?
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
BAE systems is the company just down the road from me in the place which doesn't exist. It has a hairdressers shop where if you ring it up and don't give the correct code pass, the tart on the other end of the line says:
ReplyDelete"I'm sorry but we are all booked up till april 2008."
Yeah,, duuuuuhhhhh........