Britain's 'cash for peerages' mess

Given the traditional values of Britain’s Labor Party, you might expect them to be busy working to abolish the privilege ridden House of Lords. There was a time when Tony Blair did have the power to bring this about.
But observers will not that under a Prime Minister who obsequiously courts George W Bush, New Labor is only a shadow of its traditional roots.
The fact is, rather than an anachronism and an insult to ordinary Britons, the House of Lords is a repository of influence and cash.
It is the milking of this cash cow – the selling of the peerages which entitle its members – which keeps Blair’s election coffers topped up.
There are many aspects to the steady decline of Blair’s once rosy fortunes. The cash for peerages is simply the latest. But it is one which should send shivers through Labor ranks.

The lack of a viable alternative government ensured Blair, cashed up or not, survived the last election. A ‘new’, younger and more dynamic Conservative party has been emerging over the past weeks, since the election of a new leader in David Cameron.
Good government requires a strong opposition and the Conservatives have not been providing that stabilizing factor. So regardless of partisan outlook, a strong Conservative Party is good for Britain’s future.
But all that promise, all that energy waiting to be unleashed, and the Conservative Party treasurer, Jonathan Marland, suddenly has a crazy fit of ‘foot in mouth’.
In a nonsensical and hubristic aside, Marland said “We are not in this mess,” he said. “…because we are not in power.”
This is all about perceptions. Marland should have been able to claim they were not in this mess because their money raising efforts were transparent and beyond reproach. He couldn’t claim that, but he probably could have kept his mouth shut.
In the event, his comments have exposed the Conservatives to their own shortcomings in the fundraising area.

You can bet London to a brick that Labor will tease this crack wide open, if only to take the heat off themselves for a while. The hapless Cameron has inherited a predictable mess with his new leadership. He will have to answer for what has gone before and he will have to rein in undisciplined party hacks.
In the meantime the Brits are left with the certain knowledge that self serving politicians and crooked businesspeople are likely to be the only benefactors for some time to come.