British Conservative financial scandal

This is a music video from Britain of Margaret Thatcher – Tramp the dirt down – By Elvis Costello.

From British daily The Guardian:

Tories‘ Brussels enforcer quits over £½m expenses

Chichester had been told by Cameron to ensure MEPs were following rules

* Ian Traynor in Brussels

* Friday June 6 2008

The Tories last night moved to head off damaging allegations of sleaze when the leader of the party in the European Parliament was forced to resign his post after admitting breaking the rules on expenses to the tune of almost £500,000.

Giles Chichester, who three months ago was charged by David Cameron with the role of ensuring that Tory MEPs were behaving scrupulously, stood down in Brussels after being found, over the past 12 years, to have transferred the funds, which came from MEP’s allowances, to a company of which he was a director.

Chichester, the MEP for the south-west and Gibraltar and son of the celebrated yachtsman, Sir Francis, had previously tried to shrug off criticism about his handling of the expenses, but came under mounting pressure from a party leader eager to keep the matter from snowballing into a bigger scandal.

Tory sleaze update 7 June 2008: here.

10 June 2008: here.