Hain faces sleaze probe…
WESTMINSTER’s sleaze watchdog has launched an investigation into our beloved former Secretary of State, Peter Hain, for failing to declare donations of more than £100,000 made to his campaign for the Labour deputy leadership. It’s hard to see how Hain can continue in office if found to be in breach of the rules, and ironically, his best chance of getting off the hook is to convince the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner his campaign office was such a disastrous mess he couldn’t have done this intentionally. Not exactly what the qualities you’d want in a prime minister’s deputy, but he was good enough for us(!)
It does appear increasingly that Hain is dead in the water. The first indicator for me today was the lunchtime news that Downing Street had delivered the ritual kiss of death by issuing a statement expressing “full confidence” in him.
The second was just a few moments ago on BBCRadio 4′s Question Time when one of the panellist’s “a close colleague in the and personal friend” of Hain (oe so he said) damned him, not with faint, but with overwhelmingly gushing praise.
As far as Mr Hain goes I fear it really will soon be “And it’s goodnight from him” time. No doubt our much loved former Secretary of State will be much missed by all his many adoring fans in Northern Ireland.
This man once had the effrontery to tell me that it was time “to tighten our belts” when we confronted him on a Belfast Street during a Civil Service pay dispute. I think the fact we mentioned he was practicing “apartheid” as we were the lowest paid public sector workers in the UK threw him a bit.
Then he turns out to be a tea leaf? What did the train robbers get, about 30 years? That’s what he needs.