THE Morning Star had an oft-used headline to describe the Tories. The party of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. This is now another piece of old Tory clothing which fits comfortably on the body of New Labour. The revelations that the party regularly trades peerages for donations will come as no surprise to those who have followed the fortunes (sic) of this party since coming to power. This is a party which has received millions of pounds from its rich, big-business friends and which in turn has rewarded these same friends to an extent which would have embarrassed the previous government.
This coming days after the revelation that Tessa Jowell's millionaire husband had received huge sums in alleged bribes from Berlusconi. Whatever, Tessa Jowell's role in all this, it is a timely example of the circle New Labour now moves in. Is there even one member of the cabinet who isn't a millionaire or married to one?
It is not only in London that this is happening. Scottish New Labour are not slow in recognising where their interests lie.
And this from the party which has been scrutinising the SSP accounts hoping, in vain, to find examples of wrongdoing.
The real difference between the last government and this one was that the Tories knew that what they were involved with was sleaze and tried to cover it up. This government genuinely doesn't think it is doing anything wrong and that its partnership with big business and the wealthy is the natural order of things.
To go back to the Morning Star. It believed that the Tories were the natural enemy of working people and should be opposed on that basis. The same can be said of New Labour and the sooner they are swept from power the better.
William Bonnar, 129 Ardmory Avenue, Glasgow.
I HAVE just sent my mortgage to Tessa Jowell in the hope she will pay it off over breakfast without noticing. I have, of course, asked her to send it on to her estranged husband to remortgage the property and place the cash in a tax haven. I then plan to give an undeclared loan to the Labour Party and confidently expect to be in the House of Lords drawing my GBP400 a day expenses. Yours expectantly, "Lord Kerr of Kilmarnock".
Hugh Kerr, 31 Melville Street, Kilmarnock.
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