The resignation by the chief Tory fundraiser and party co-treasurer, Peter Cruddas, late on Saturday gave one more glimpse into the corruption that lies in the heart of British bourgeois democracy.
Cruddas resigned as a result of a sting carried out by Sunday Times journalists posing as executives from a ‘wealth fund’ seeking to gain access to the highest levels of government from the prime minister right through to Tory cabinet ministers.
Cruddas did not disappoint, promising them not just private meetings with Cameron and Osborne but also that their views would be ‘fed in’ to the Downing Street policy unit.
Such an ability to help dictate government policy for the benefit of their company did not come cheap.
To join the ‘premier league’ of Tory party donors, those with immediate access to the highest levels of government and able to influence government policy required the company to shell out £250,000 a year at least to the Tory Party.
Cruddas and the Tories were not interested in dealing with people ‘scratching around’ with donations of just £10,000. Presumably such a small amount is insulting to a party that can only be bought for much larger sums.
In return, the reporters were told, ‘It will be awesome for your business,’ and that ‘things will open up’ for anyone prepared to stump up the cash.
The fact that, according to the Sunday Times, Cruddas had been led to believe that the company he was dealing with was based in the tax avoidance haven of Liechtenstein didn’t bother him at all.
Under the electoral reform act of 2000 it is illegal for foreign companies and individuals to donate or lend money to UK political parties – every donor has to be registered as a voter in the UK.
What was discussed with Cruddas at this meeting was circumventing this law by setting up a British subsidiary of this company and having its employees make the donations.
This is also illegal under the act which specifically prohibits setting up front companies to be used to channel money in this way.
Cruddas naturally explained away his cavalier disregard for the law and his willingness to sell government policy to the highest bidders as just ‘bluster’ – he didn’t really mean it!
This line was echoed by a Tory spokesman who grandly announced that donations did not ‘buy party or government policy’.
In fact, the entire policies of the government are dictated by the bosses and the bankers who are demanding that bankrupt British capitalism be shored up at the expense of the working class – all Cruddas was doing as far as they are concerned is begging for a bit of money to keep the Tories solvent so they can continue this war against the unemployed, low paid and pensioners.
What this event does illustrate is just how rotten and corrupt the bourgeois political system really is.
It also raises another issue and that is the role of the Sunday Times in this exposure.
In the past this paper, flagship of the Murdoch empire, has conducted similar stings aimed at individual MPs claiming to be able to provide ‘influence’ in return for cash.
This time the sting directly implicates the Tory leadership of David Cameron rather than ex-Labour ministers or insignificant Tory backbenchers.
Clearly, there is a section of the bourgeois class that has had enough of Cameron, that sees him as incapable of leading the all-out war against the working class and its unions that the crisis is demanding.
For the working class there can be only one answer to this scandal and that is to sweep the whole corrupt system away through the socialist revolution.