Another Sunday, another bit of "Cash for Peerages" appears. This morning, the Sunday Times is reporting that there was a secret meeting held last summer by "all the Prime Minister's men".It's alleged that the purpose of the meeting was for Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff, John McTernan, director of political relations, Ruth Turner, director of government relations, and Lord Levy, to formulate their "reaction" to the cash for peerages investigation.
In other news, the main name from Watergate, Howard Hunt died 10 days ago. It's the little coincidences in life that make stories all the more interesting sometimes.
2 comments:
I can see Michael Levy carrying the can for this. Blair will squirm out of it. No doubt followed by a further escalation in anti-semitic attacks.
It would be amazing if there was not such a meeting: it's the instinctive gut-reaction of a policy-wonk or a political apparatik: what's the line.
The first question is: did they discuss the investigation itself or only how No 10 would react publically to the investigation.
Now it's perfectly possible to argue that given the people supposedly attending the alleged meeting were the very people involved in the investigation that it would be impossible for themn to discuss one without the other. But let's leave that aside.
The questions that really follow from the first question are: 1) can the police prove they discuss how to handle the substance of the investigation; 2) if the meeting is proven to have taken place, can No 10 find any way to convince the media and the electorate that they did not either attempt to pervert the course of justice (or if no charges are brought, successfully do so).
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