Tories Try To Explain Away Corruption.

While David Cameron hastily announces more money for reserach into dementia to distract attention from the donations scandal, Rupert Murdoch has taken the opportunity to remind the British people that he actually runs the country. He has joined with Labour to call for an independent enquiry into Tory party funding and has lectured us all that it is a matter of "trust." Pot calling the kettle black aside, he has a good point. Meanwhile Cameron is stoutly resisting all demands that his supper guest list should be publicised as Francis Maude denies the story completely. "It is nonsense," he told reporters, "to believe that the PM invites people to supper for money." This is a somewhat strange claim since the Tory website actually publishes the "donation" expected for just such an invitation complete with discount for booking on-line. The Tory party as a whole has been reduced to jumping up and down shouting "Labour get their money from the unions," as if that is some sort of secret that none of us know about and that it is of itself sinister. If there is one thing this latest scandal tells us it is that the Tory party is funded almost wholly by bribes from rich businessmen looking for personal advantage at our expense. It is illegal, or should be, and, in a democracy, is more than just a little sinister. The Tory party is not a political party in the normal sense of the word, it is nothing more or less than a criminal enterprise - a protection racket for the rich and loathsome.