UK: ‘cash for peerages’ ended Lloyd George’s career, and now Blair’s?

The cartoon on Blair here alludes to Alfred Tennyson‘s poem, The Lady of Shalott.

The cartoon is based on this painting about the poem.

By Anindya Bhattacharyya:

As prime minister Tony Blair finds himself mired in the ‘cash for honours’ scandal, Anindya Bhattacharyya looks at the downfall of one of his predecessors in a similar case<

It seems that each week sees Tony Blair and his New Labour government sink further into the mud of the “cash for honours” row.

Downing Street was forced to admit last week that Blair had been interviewed again by police investigating whether peerages were being exchanged for secret loans to the Labour Party.

The news only emerged after a six-day media blackout.

Such discretion was not afforded to Blair’s fixer Lord Levy.

He was arrested for a second time on Tuesday of last week, this time on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. …

The “cash for honours” scandal is a symbol of much deeper corruption in a system where business and politics increasingly mesh.

New Labour’s privatisation plans for public services and schemes like academy schools mean that there are more opportunities for these kind of scandals to develop. …

A previous British government was poleaxed by a “cash for honours” scandal.

The police are investigating whether Labour’s financial affairs contravene the the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act of 1925 – passed by parliament in the wake of a scandal that fatally weakened the government of David Lloyd George./blockquote>

Lloyd George in 1909: here.

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