INFLUENCE PEDDLING

The video revelations that foreign businessmen (or, indeed, anyone else) can get "face time" access to Prime Minister David Cameron over dinner in return for a £200,000 contribution to his Conservative Party don't look good. True, the party treasurer and video star has resigned his post, and Mr. Cameron has said that that is not the way things work in his party. But as a lady famously said in the 1960's, he would say that, wouldn't he? Accepting Mr. Cameron's position means accepting that the said treasurer has formal meetings with potential donors, at which he mouths complete nonsense. That is just not credible.

British politicians of all parties have got themselves into a mess over expenses and party funding. Remember Tony Blair and the payments from Formula 1? Nothing seems to have changed in the intervening 15 years.

The basic problem in my view - and this is not going to be a popular one - is that British politicians are badly paid. And because they are badly paid, they look for extra cash on the side. The decline set in under Mrs. Thatcher, who wanted to set an example of pay restraint. However, having forced everyone to be miserly, MP's are now hoist with their own petard. It will take a brave one to do something serious about it.

Walter Blotscher