Hello again. Here we are, less than a week out til polling day – isn’t that exciting? Can you feel the winds of change in the air? Hear the buzz of optimism as it sweeps through the land? Same, same.
This week Labour suspended corporate lobbyist-cum-election candidate Kevin Craig after learning that he’s being investigated by the Gambling Commission for betting against himself in the election – news that had Dark Arts feeling like the Joker (Heath Ledger version, not Joaquin).
Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like the real scandal here is Craig giving Labour £100,000, securing major access to frontbench Labour politicians for his lobby firm’s clients and then being ‘selected’ completely unopposed to contest a seat for the party – not that he later had a flutter against himself for what I’d, ahem, wager was probably a pretty insignificant amount of money. I did have a great time watching the rest of the political media slowly catch on that Craig is not just a candidate but also a significant donor, and for the large part failing to ask the next, obvious question. Perhaps this farce will cast a little more light on the issue of lobbyists in Labour among the wider media, though I won’t hold my breath.
