Some Thoughts On Conway

The media will no doubt inundate us tomorrow with their analysis of this scandal just as they did with Peter Hain the other day, however, I thought I would point out a few things that others seem to be missing or not highlighting.

Now, this is not a new story. In fact The Times covered Derek Conway’s abuse of Parliamentary expenses back in May last year – therefore why has it taken so long for the Conservatives or the media to call him to account?

Well, obviously there is the fact that quite a few MPs have recently been caught breaking their own party funding rules or having their snouts shoved in the trough – so this is perhaps just another story to keep the bandwagon rolling. Yet, I also see on ConservativeHome that Tim Montgomerie is calling for Derek Conway to stand down at the next election, which he has now just done as I write this post.

What Tim Montgomerie says on ConservativeHome can sometimes provide a good insight into what higher echelons of the Conservative party are thinking. I suspect therefore that a number of higher ranking Conservative MPs are behind the scenes probably calling for Derek Conway’s resignation. Couple this with a recent increase in discussion on how to remove bed-blocking MPs from their seats and you begin to see that there may be something more to this than it would first appear.

No doubt some new, modern, liberal Cameron-clone Conservative was or is being lined up to take over Mr Conway’s nice safe seat. The latest media furore has no doubt given the party hierarchy an opportunity to achieve that aim.

Non-Event Alert

And the winner of this week’s non-event goes to the resignation of the Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who is almost certain to be replaced by someone equally useless and incompetent.

Most people should have realised by now that many of our right honourable members are prone to corruption and breaking the laws they themselves created, especially with regard to party funding.

I explained back in December why this is really not as important an issue as it will be made out to be. Yet, unfortunately and without really surprising anyone, the British mainstream media will be on full alert tomorrow, ready to cram their papers full of pointless discussion and analysis on this non-event until everyone is completely sick and tired of the whole issue.

This will undoubtedly be at the expense of highlighting far more important issues such as a certain EU Constitution making its way through Parliament at the moment – though having said that, the British media were unlikely to have discussed that anyway - but there is even less chance of it happening now.

Foot And Mouth Spreads

Despite the Government’s supposedly swift action in the summer to curb the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease which originated from its own laboratories at Pirbright, the disease has continued to spread.

While Foot and Mouth is apparently among the most contagious forms of viral infection for cattle, and therefore it comes as little surprise that it does have a tendency to rapidly spread, the British farming industry continues to suffer greatly due once again to Government incompetence.

As Gordon Brown enjoys the fawning attention of the media in rainy Bournemouth, and speculation reaches fever pitch about whether or not he will call an early election (not that anything meaningful would actually change, except perhaps a few new faces crying ‘me too!’) the crisis in British farming continues unabated.

Farmers in this country have had a raw deal for years, and it very much looks like little will change under Gordon Brown. In fact, I wonder whether Labour will be discussing Foot and Mouth and British farming at their annual conference at all? I would guess probably not.

Where Art Thou Madeleine?

Despite initially claiming that they would remain in Portugal to clear their names, it’s being reported that the parents of Madeleine McCann are now flying back home to Britain.

It is worth noting, I think, that the McCann’s have effectively been on an extended holiday without work (no doubt on full pay,) for the past one hundred and twenty nine days since their daughter mysteriously disappeared from their holiday hotel room in the Algarve..

Public media criticism of the McCann’s has often been muted and condemned by others. Being both NHS Doctors, the many see the family as beyond criticism because they must automatically be good people if they work for the National Health Employment Bureaucracy.

However, for example, if one of your children had just been snatched from your hotel room, would you then keep a constant eye on your other children or would you place them in a local Portuguese day-care centre with a bunch of complete strangers while you searched for your ‘missing’ daughter? Needless to say the McCann’s chose the latter.

If it does eventually turn out that Gerry and Kate McCann in some way killed or contributed to the death of their daughter, then there are going to be a lot of very angry people throughout Europe. As it stands, it would be unprecedented if Madeleine were found alive and well, and it appears increasingly likely that she has been murdered – though I thought that right from day one, because unfortunately they usually are in these cases.

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