Tony Blair’s Word Of Honours
CONSPIRACY?
Why did the Stevens Report into the death of Princess Diana emerge on the same day Tony Blair became the first serving British Prime Minister to be questioned by police conducting a criminal investigation?
The Times leads with both stories, although to find it you’d need a magnifying glass to get past the front-page pictures of a smiling Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Camilla and Prince Philip.
And why are they all smiling? What do they know? Is Diana even dead, or is she, as some have said, living in the fabled Six Floor at the Harvey Nichols department store with a moon-coloured child.
Over in the Telegraph, the cash-for–peerage case is more prominent. Readers learn that Tony has not been arrested. Had that happened, we may have had to wait for the outbreak of World War Three to learn of it. And he was not interviewed under caution. No need, say you, Tony has a trained legal mind and always tells the truth.
And, as the paper says, “at this stage the police do not suspect him of doing anything illegal”. Tony is only helping police with their inquires. It’s just that, as the Times’s Peter Riddell says, the criminal investigation “covers issues in which he was directly involved”.
Riddell says these issues are: firstly, whether under the Honours (Prevention of Abuse) Act of 1925 there was a link between donations, loans and the offer of a peerage. And, secondly, if the Labour Party adhered to the terms of the Political Parties Election and Referendum Act 2000 dealing with the disclosure of non-commercial loans.
This can be condensed into whether or not political parties, such as Tony’s Labour Party, offered titles and seats in the House of Lords in exchange for cash.
The paper then goes on to list other “crucial question” at the centre of the inquiry. None of these mention Princess Diana. Nor do they ask why the date of the meeting between Tony and two offices from the team led by Assistant Commissioner John Yates was decided on by Number 10.
Other do ask? So had Tony planned to meet the police on the day Diana was sure to be big news? Remember Labour spin doctor Jo Moore, she who sent an email immediately after the September 11 attacks saying it was a “good day to bury bad news”?
Says Tony: “Categorically, that was not the case at all,” says Tony. “Categorically, there was no linkage with other events.”
Such is our perception of politicians that we find ourselves reaching for the dictionary and looking up the definition of “categorically”.
You’ll find it right before “collusion” and “conspiracy”…
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Posted: 15th, December 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
