Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told an anti-corruption tribunal on Thursday that a 5,000 pound cheque he paid into his bank account while finance minister in 1994 was "a political donation for my personal use". (Full article here)
Nice in two senses actually: first Mr Ahern is being very frank isn't he? Second, what a surprise! A politician received some money...
I suppose it remains to be seen whether or not he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, that appalling crook Charles Haughey.
There's been quite a few cases lately regarding political "donations" with senior British minister Peter Hain resigning over some little problem of this type with a few others under "clouds" of varying degrees of darkness. Those of you old enough might remember Hain as a firebrand anti-apartheid campaigner who was involved in damaging a cricket pitch during a test match series many years ago. Although I am not a great cricket fan, this put him beyond the pale forever as far as I was concerned.
If any of my readers wish to make a political donation to me (for my own use) I would be delighted to hear from them (the sooner the better).
I suppose it remains to be seen whether or not he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, that appalling crook Charles Haughey.
There's been quite a few cases lately regarding political "donations" with senior British minister Peter Hain resigning over some little problem of this type with a few others under "clouds" of varying degrees of darkness. Those of you old enough might remember Hain as a firebrand anti-apartheid campaigner who was involved in damaging a cricket pitch during a test match series many years ago. Although I am not a great cricket fan, this put him beyond the pale forever as far as I was concerned.
If any of my readers wish to make a political donation to me (for my own use) I would be delighted to hear from them (the sooner the better).
Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Source: hereMind you, it's amazing what the passage of time can do: a good example is Daniel Cohn-Bendit: one-time anarchist, who made his name (Danny the Red) in the French student protests of May 1968. Now he is a prominent MEP representing the German Green Party. He has supported military intervention in Bosnia and in Afghanistan, much to the fury of the left, whilst he has annoyed the right by campaigning in favour of relaxation of laws on soft drugs. He campaigned vigorously in favour of the European Constitution. I have to say that parts of all this (certainly not the last bit!) are rather attractive - independence is extremely rare in politicians today, and a Curate's Egg is, I suppose preferable to a bad egg. It's a pity that were the Greens ever to achieve power, they would probably be even more bossy than the insufferable bores we have to put up with today.
Until the next time
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