Anyone watching Question Time last night could not be left with any other impression than the public had turned on the Fox.
He has spent days trying to hide the truth from the public; ignoring the innuendo about whether he was gay or not (and I dont think he was by the way) the key fact remains he allowed a man, a friend even, way too much personal access to his position, which is highly sensitive and susceptible given its prominence.
Whilst our boys fight in Afghanistan and across the world it seems our Defence Secretary and his buddy were happy to wine and dine in some of the most exclusive hotels.
It stank of Tory sleaze.
And it isnt over; what this saga does highlight is that senior Conservative Cabinet members sit on the boards of shadowy organisations whose interests are those of their financial backers and not the public. Many of those 'Atlantic Bridge' hedge fund owners profited from the economic downturn and engaged in highly selective practices; so much for morality Cameron.
Adam Werrity was paid via a not-for-profit limited company which presumably kept him off the upper-rate tax band of 50 or 40%. This is all speculation but there are benefits of working for small limited companies...
Atlantic Bridge if it is believed goes all the way to Number 10 and includes a huge number of prominent cabinet members to boot. Have they all been dining off the largese of wealthy corporate donations... I suspect we will find out soon enough.
The replacement for Fox is none other than Philip Hammond MP who has done quite well of late on the media circuit; seen as a safe pair of hands and gray as grey, he could be a Chancellor figure in a few years, if he keeps his powder-keg dry that is.
The promotion of Justine Greening MP to the Transport post is a good one and shows Cameron is ready to kick the right-wing of his party into touch by promoting a moderate. There will be no referendum on Europe, no loony libertarianism and no bonkers Brussel bashing in his government. Good on ya Cameron; stick it to the bonkers brigade.
I have spent that last hour trying to source the position of Justine Greening MP on the Boris Island Airport and there is good news and bad. The good news is she has not expressed any opinion to support it and she opposed the third-runway at Heathrow and increasing development in Gatwick. The bad news is also that she opposed the third-runway at Heathrow and Gatwick expansion and is a London MP; whose caucus in the Conservative Party tends to favour Estuary expansion.
Local MPs need to get in a question to her as soon as possible to get assurances that under her watch we will see no proposal for an airport in North Kent.
