Knickers in a twist
The Tories have their knickers in a twist over tax and has his nose deeper in the public trough than is perhaps seemly.
So plus ca change in British politics, you might say -- and you would be right.
But there is one intriguing variation: a Labour MP has been caught having a ) in his Commons office with a naked brunette, not his wife.
So far Labour has been largely rocked by financial sleaze -- if it is now going to be buffeted by good old-fashioned Tory-style sexual sleaze as well, recreating the , then politics will be even more interesting that they already are.
The centre round their long-standing promise to cut and their new plan to go along with Labour's plan to increase the top rate of income tax to 45% for those earning over £150,000.
It was only a matter of time before went off the reservation and he has done so in fine style, saying the inheritance tax cut was only an aspiration, not a pledge, forcing the Tory establishment to take to airwaves to say it was indeed a pledge that would be in the next manifesto.
Mr Clarke has since said he's in favour of that, though how he squares that with his remarks yesterday is a mystery.
The Cameron-Osborne support for a new top rate of tax is even more tricky for the Tories. Many Tory party supporters will point out that 45% will bring in peanuts compared to the billions in debt that will have to be repaid and send all the wrong signals at time when Britain will have to re-energise its enterprise instincts.
But the Tories have a problem: the inheritance tax cuts plus no to 45% would largely benefit the affluent at a time when it is ordinary folk who are feeling particularly hard done by.
On the other hand, if the Tories are going to mimic Labour tax and spend (promising the same levels of income tax and only marginally tighter spending controls), then and what's the point of voting Tory?
I expect the row over inheritance tax to die down because Mr Clarke has been pretty firmly slapped down. But rumbling among the Tory think tanks and rank and file about the leadership's support for 45% will continue to cause the party bosses internal problems.
But perhaps not as much as to take a second home allowance totaling £60,000 for what turns out to be his mum and dad's pad -- and only 11 miles from his other two homes in central London -- will cause Labour.
At this point we're all encouraged to point out that he hasn't broken -- but that is only likely to provoke a massive outcry: the rules should be changed, and pronto!! Even the minister seems to accept that he's gone against the spirit of the rules, if not the letter.
This sort of revelation is damaging to a government which has been in power for so long -- giving its ministers the sense of being a nomenclatura (as the Soviets called it) distant from the people -- and I suspect there will now be a move to overhaul MPs expenses. But these things don't happen quickly -- and not before the next election. Labour is bracing itself for even more revelations.
This blog is free. But let me say this: the premature is obviously a tragedy for her family and friends but there is something quite sickening about all those who used to condemn her now rushing out statements of condolences and admiration.
And was it really necessary for the and the Leader of the Opposition to say anything at all? Haven't they got better things to do?
Or are they just desperate to be associated with popular culture, even its most dubious parts, where you can be talent-free and simply famous for being famous.
I only point out one thing: have just returned from Afghanistan -- unremarked by anybody in public.
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