When I want a peerage, I shall buy it like an honest man. [Lord Northcliffe, 1974] Perhaps I’m thick. Perhaps I don’t understand politics. I can’t see, for the life of me, what Blair has done so wrong that every PM before him hasn’t done. Far be it for this blog to defend Tony Blair but what’s with this arrest and charging business? As United Press said:
The entire affair turns on accusations that Blair and his team "sold" honors such as peerages and knighthoods in return for political loans and donations to the Labour Party. The reality is that every British government in history has rewarded its most generous and devoted supporters with the title of Sir this or Lord that. In the old days, Kings handed out such enoblements in return for loyalty in battle, or for acquiescence in the presence of an attractive wife or daughter in the royal bedchamber. These days, the reward is more usually for political and financial loyalty.
Then there is the affair of Jeffrey Archer. The darling of the Tories, suddenly he was in prison and what did he do any more than any other politician? Your answer, in both cases, might be a simple one: “They were caught.” Seems to me the party politics is far outweighing any actual wrongdoing. Ditto in the United States.