Money talks...


March saw a victory for open government. The parliamentary ombudsman forced Blair to reveal details of his meetings with commercial lobbyists. Downing Street has resisted this demand for a long time but the ombudsman found it guilty of unjustifiably keeping secret contacts between ministers and commercial companies who are seeking to influence them. This was due to pressure by the liberal democrats and the Guardian newspaper.

As a result, No 10 was forced to admit some strange coincidences. For example, Dr Paul Drayson donated £100,000 to Labour and Blair awarded his company (without any tender) a £32m contract to produce smallpox vaccine. Downing Street never mentioned that Drayson was one of a select group of businessmen invited by Blair to a private Downing Street breakfast on December 6th, 2001. At the time, the government was deciding which company should be awarded the contract, and within weeks, decided that there should be no tender.

Other businessmen who breakfasted with Blair include the chief executive of Business Post Group who wants Blair to open up the mail market as his company and the chief executive of oil and gas company BG Group wants the liberalisation of energy markets.

This is truly a listening government, if you are the right sort of person.

 


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