13.04.1995

Another one bites the dust

JONATHAN Aitken’s performance at Monday’s press conference, when he attempted to defend himself against allegations of corruption, epitomised the Tories’ difficulties. Woodenly reading his melodramatic script from the autocue like a third rate ham actor, he promised to start a fight to “cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play”.

The treasury secretary’s tirade against The Guardian, which had that morning published further details of his business links with Saudi princes, including gifts of a Jaguar XJ6 car and paid hotel bills, was in fact aimed at preventing that evening’s broadcast of the World in Action programme. It failed. The programme went ahead, merely incorporating clips of the press conference alongside further allegations of his private dealings - dubious even by the corrupt standards of capitalism.

Curiously - you may think - the next day he did not go off guns ablazing to the libel courts. He was carefully considering the contents of the programme. And there was me thinking it was all lies, damn lies.

The fact that Aitken apparently had the full backing of Conservative Central Office for his dismal attempts at self-defence only serves to further discredit the government as a whole. But the Tories were desperate to halt the allegations of sleaze directed against them.

Just the day before, parliamentary private secretary Richard Spring became the 16th member of John Major’s administration to be forced out of office. Eight of them, including Spring, resigned or were sacked following allegations of sexual ‘impropriety’. Another PPS, Stephen Milligan, died during the course of a solo sex act.

We believe that individuals’ sexual lives are their own affairs. But the fact that these hurried exits took place under a government which espoused back-to-basics ‘family values’ exposes the Tories’ bankruptcy. They have now swung over to a directly contradictory position. John Townend, chairman of the Conservative backbench finance committee, commented that Lloyd George was “bedding women on the floor of Downing Street” and still helped win World War I.

Lord Archer, former deputy chairman of the party, thought that it was absurd that the conduct of one’s private life should lead to resignation. But he added: “If an MP takes bribes or commissions or hospitality, then it’s a grey area of corruption - that’s a totally different question” (our italics).

The Tories seem to have lost all sense of even bourgeois morality. Short of a miracle, they will get no eleventh hour reprieve.

Alan Fox