SO an elected Scottish Tory MP is dropped from the Scotland Office, to be replaced by a failed Tory Holyrood candidate who has been giving hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Tories.
As a reward, he is now not only a Scotland Office minister, for which he will be well paid, but also now a member of the House of Lords, with attendance allowance of £300+ per day, plus expenses and a number of other perks. Not a bad return on his investment!
Cash for honours is not only alive and well but flourishing amongst Tory pals, while the low-paid, unemployed and homeless lose part of their less-than-subsistence-level welfare payment.
L McGregor
Falkirk
READ MORE: Douglas Ross insists Tory donor Malcolm Offord didn't buy his life peerage
THE price of being a Lord – donate to the Tory party and then get a job in the Scotland Office. Why bother with elections and the hard slog of working for your constituents and performing the duties of MP or MSP when you can just buy your way in?
And donating to the Tory party appears to me to be the way to get/buy lucrative contracts from this sleazy Tory government, who have no shame and no morality at all but manage to break and bend every rule to allow them to carve up this country for their own interests and profiteering ambition.
Test and Trace is a prime example – the Tories thought they knew better than National Health teams all over this country and sadly we have all suffered because of their arrogance and stupidity and been left with a test and trace system costing millions that has never worked properly. The monies wasted could have enhanced this public service and made it even better – instead Boris has “spaffed” (his word) money away to his pals and friends of friends.
READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: House of Lords will not leap at the chance to reform itself
Meanwhile Labour is spending time working out “process” to prepare for government. Can someone tell them they are at present the opposition and they are AWOL? Boris should be on his knees – one disaster after another and Labour are nowhere to be seen or heard.
About 75 minutes into Starmer’s speech and he remembers Scotland – must get a dig in – so he tries hard: “two bad governments”. And what about the big one, the constitution? “We are the party of the Union”, ie democracy does not matter, what the people of Scotland want does not matter, the fact they were lied to by the Tories and Labour in 2014 does not matter. The Vow – what happened to that? A Federal
country – what happened to that? So Brown will appear again to save the Union. Being like Boris he will promise anything, lie, try to ignore, give us another vow, promising things he cannot deliver. Once bitten, twice shy.
Can anyone explain what Starmer (quoting Brown) was talking about on blood donations? If my memory serves me right it was the yoons who threatened the people of Scotland about transplants if we left the Union. Fear tactics have been tried and have failed; we will not be duped again.
The stench from Westminster is now overwhelming – we have to get out before it poisons all of us.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
ABBI Garton-Crosbie’s article, “Scotland Office’s unelected minister donated £2.5k to Gove” (Oct 2) to me highlights what should be construed as bribery.
Did Malcolm Offord’s “promotion” to the House of Lords require Royal Assent? If so, why was it given? The people in Scotland are entitled to an answer.
READ MORE: Next Scotland Office minister Malcolm Offord donated £2500 to Michael Gove
It must be remembered that as recently as May 2021, Malcolm Offord was rejected by the Scottish electorate. In addition he was the Conservative Party’s fifth choice in their candidates for a List seat. It would appear that he is not even popular within his own party.
What has become evident is that given one has enough money, “elevation” to the House of Lords is achievable.
Is this what the Conservative Party under the leadership of the PM Boris Johnson consider to be democracy?
Thomas L Inglis
Fintry
IT was striking to note that a life peerage and ministerial position costs just under £150,000. I of course refer to the “donation” made by Malcolm Offord, who has been appointed a life peer and Scotland Office minister.
Putting aside the fact that Prime Minister Johnson did not find any suitable candidates in the ranks of Scottish Tory MPs to appoint, it should be noted that Mr Offord was rejected at the ballot box in this year’s Scottish Parliamentary elections. This is yet a further example, if any were needed, of cronyism and a continued contempt for democracy.
Westminster is, however, no stranger to such “cash for honours” scandals in the 20th century, rewarding those with deep pockets. They dogged the premierships of David Cameron and Tony Blair. Even before this, there was Harold Wilson’s infamous “Lavender
List”, which listed businessmen Mr Wilson had chosen to honour his 1976 resignation.
READ MORE: Mike Small: Tories putting their own donor into power is an affront to democracy
David Lloyd George, the Liberal PM, found himself embroiled in a major “cash for patronage” scandal over his resignation honours list in 1922.
Mr Lloyd George was accused of raising funds for his party through the sale of peerages. These were arranged through political fixer Maundy Gregory, who sold peerages “ranging from £10,000 (more than £400,000 today) for a knighthood up to £40,000 for a baronetcy”, according to The Guardian The scandal led to the passing of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act in 1925, and Gregory would eventually become the only person to be convicted under the Act.
Given the cost of a peerage under Lloyd George, Mr Offord’s £150,000 “donation” seems a rather paltry sum.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
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