Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/617/9054
From The Socialist newspaper, 24 March 2010
More parliamentary sleaze
'MPs for hire' scandal
"I'M A bit like a cab for hire," said former Blairite government minister Stephen Byers to an undercover reporter who was posing as a company lobbyist.
Dave Carr
And, claiming to be able to influence government legislation, Byers then offered the 'lobbyist' his political services for "up to £5,000 a day".
But this latest nauseating example of parliamentary sleaze didn't stop with Byers. Two other former Blairite cabinet ministers - Patricia Hewitt (see article below) and Geoff Hoon - were also secretly filmed offering to change government policies to suit the interests of big business, but for only £3,000 a day!
As an illustration of how big business buys political influence, Byers boasted to the reporter that he had concocted a deal with the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, to enable National Express to welch on its rail franchise.
He also claimed to have influenced Lord Mandelson to have watered down government food labelling proposals on behalf of Tesco. Both companies deny any dealings with Byers.
All three MPs have now been suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party. Big deal! They were all due to stand down at the general election, expected this May, anyway. Byers, Hewitt and Hoon should face legal proceedings. After all, paid advocacy when the client is not listed on the MPs' register of interests is a breach of rules.
New Labour
The actions of these former ministers speak volumes about New Labour. It's the equivalent of sticking two fingers up to people and saying: "I didn't enter Westminster to serve the public interest; I entered politics to make loads of money"!
It's as if the 'cash for questions' scandal under the previous John Major Tory government, or the cash for honours scandal under Tony Blair's premiership, or the MPs' expenses scandal, never happened!
Is it any wonder then that disillusioned voters are abandoning the main establishment parties and not bothering to vote or looking instead to vote for minor parties?
Unfortunately, at present, there isn't a mass workers' party that fights for the interests of working class people against the sleazy bosses' parties, and whose elected representatives only accept the average wage of a worker.
This is why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which is fielding candidates in the forthcoming general election, is an important new development; in that it has the potential to be a forerunner of a new workers' party.
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In The Socialist 24 March 2010:
Message of support for striking BA workers from Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins:
Striking British Airways cabin crew pickets speak to The Socialist
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Support trade union and socialist alternative: Workers reject main parties
Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition
Salford: The growth of 'Hazel Must Go!'
Woolwich and Greenwich: For a workers' MP on a worker's wage
Stoke Central: Fighting for the millions not the millionaires
Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition general election launch rally
Parliamentary Sleaze
Hewitt's big business alliance
Anti-racism
Far-right EDL outnumbered in Bolton, police try to even the odds!
EDL attend anti-racist meeting
Nottingham anti-EDL anti-BNP conference
Socialist Students
Sussex: Students gain a victory - but fight must go on!
Cuts to higher education announced: Students fight back
Marxist analysis: history
March 1990 anti-poll tax demonstration
International socialist news and analysis
Massive rejection of Sarkozy's policies presages a 'third round on the streets'
Obama's neutered health bill limps through
Socialist Party news and analysis
Nottingham council targets the vulnerable
Dickens is back: Implications of poverty revealed in London
Barking council: Late developers
Battling against school academies in Hastings
Socialist Party workplace news
HP workers take further action
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