quote:
A furor over secret loans to Tony Blair's Labour party and charges that he sold seats in the House of Lords to party backers is denting public trust in the British prime minister. Blair has denied he handed out nominations to the Lords in exchange for funds for the party, but his deputy refused Sunday to categorically say the allegations were false.A new poll showed that nearly half of Britons believed the charges and more than 70 per cent thought Blair's government was at least as sleazy as that of his predecessor, Prime Minister John Major.
That's a worrying statistic for Blair, who trounced Major in 1997 partly because the Tory had been so badly damaged by a string of embarrassing scandals. Blair promised then that his government would be "whiter than white," words some are now throwing back in his face.
Blair has acknowledged his Labour party took nearly 14 million pounds, or about $28 million Cdn, in loans from supporters ahead of last year's general election. The law requires that gifts to political parties must be made public, but it does not cover loans and the party kept them secret until a newspaper reported their existence last weekend.
Blair nominated to seats in the House of Lords several of those who had lent money to Labour. He says he did nothing wrong and that all the men were well-qualified for the jobs in Parliament's upper house. They have withdrawn their names.
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posted 19 March 2006 09:37 PM
How did this happen?! 
