Listening to the Today programme this morning, I heard prominent Tory donor Stuart Wheeler rant about how the new EU Treaty was a disgrace, and how he was presenting a case to the High Court in order to have the Commons debate withheld. One thing to note here is another example of how right-wing lunatics believe they can simply pour money into having the decisions of a democratic legislature overturned (cf. the hunting lobby, in attempting to argue in court that the Hunting Act was illegal, or even Brian Soutar, in pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds into a botched “referendum” on keeping the disgusting and homophobic Section 28, as well as donating huge sums of money to Labour’s opponents).
But back to my point, *Mr* Wheeler (he was at pains to point out DC hadn’t recommended him for a gong) was asked whether he thought disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway should have the whip removed (in light of DC’s refusal to remove it yesterday). Well, Mr Wheeler insisted that if he were responsible, he would remove the whip.
Amazingly (well, about as amazingly as night follows day), DC has now come out and removed the whip from Mr Conway. Which reminded me of this article in The Times.
Makes you wonder who’s really holding the whip…
Nice unsubstantiated smear.
I couldn’t be bothered referencing it all – feel free to question anything and, of course, I shall substantiate.
Just as a point of clarification, all references to “DC” in my blog are indeed to Dave. Recent events have meant many of our regular readers thinking I’ve been referring to Derek, unless of course you are reading the reports of our Washington correspondent, Tom Guise, who will probably be referring to a completely different DC.
^ No need for the clarification ^
Substantiate that DC’s decision was influenced by Wheeler threatening to withdraw funding. I dropped a note to CCO early this afternoon – half an hour late Conway was booted – conspiracy anyone?
Oh come along dear Dominic. I imagine your note to CCO had more impact than I could imagine, but Stuart Wheeler had the 8:10 interview on the Today programme, and despite Ashcroft’s loose change, I cannot imagine Wheeler’s kind contributions are overlooked.
Also, I’m not sure I said DC’s decision was influenced by Wheeler threatening to do anything. I simply presented some facts in a particular way and allowed our esteemed readers to make up their own mind. It’s called rhetoric, old chap. I don’t need to go trawling through your blog archives to show you some worked examples, do I? I’m sure our readers will assimilate my facts, along with the fact that you sent in your note to CCO, and make up their mind as to what influenced DC.
You can call it rhetoric, I’ll stick with the ‘nice unsubstantiated smear’ tag.
Source of donations is hardly a strong suit for Labour. I believe some of your loanations are supposed to be repaid v shortly.