From "Robert Henderson"
<philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 6:46 PM
Subject: We have legalised bribery of politicians
Note: The present system effectively legalises bribery of politicians. All a
briber has to do is say they donated money simply because they wanted to and
they expected nothing. Correlation of "donations" and
benefits, contracts or honours, should be treated as evidence of bribery and be
prosecuted.
If this happened in a Third World country it would be called what it is:
corruption. RH
Sunday
Telegraph
Deputy PM's £500m deal for Labour's secret lenders By Andrew Alderson, Patrick
Hennessy and Jasper Copping (Filed: 26/03/2006)
John Prescott gave the go-ahead for a firm of developers to build an enormous
shopping centre months after the owners of the company secretly gave Labour a
£3.3 million loan.
Sir David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld, the "Minerva Two", won the backing of
the Deputy Prime Minister, to build a £500 million retail centre in Croydon,
south London, which will become one of the country's 10 biggest shopping malls.
The 'Minerva Two': Sir David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld.
Mr Prescott, who claims
that he did not know about the series of loans that have plunged Labour into a
crisis about sleaze, ruled last October that a rival retail development should
not go ahead.
The revelations will fuel the "loans for peerages" row engulfing Tony Blair and
his party and increase questions over possible conflicts of interest. Labour has
admitted receiving loans worth £13.95 million to
pay for last year's election campaign, bringing calls for Mr Blair to step down
and the opening of a police investigation.
Four of those providing loans - including Sir David - were nominated for
peerages but have been turned down by the House of Lords Appointments Committee.
The other three are Dr Chai Patel, the owner of Priory Healthcare, Barry
Townsley, a stockbrocker, and Sir Gulam Noon, an entrepreneur.
In the 2005 shopping centre case, Mr Prescott backed Croydon council's decision
not to allow Bishops Court 2, a rival project to the Minerva mall. After he did
so, the council put out an official statement, saying: "Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott has given further backing to Minerva's Park Place retail
development scheme."
The proposed mall in Croydon
Sir David is expected
to undergo a televised grilling this week by MPs on the Commons public accounts
committee over his role in the loans-for-peerages affair.
Last night, Peter Kilfoyle, the former Labour defence minister, said the
Minerva revelations made the Government and the Labour Party look "desperately
seedy".
He said: "There may be an innocent explanation for this but the whole problem is
the inference that people can draw from this case. These loans look so
desperately seedy. There is the perception that there is a link here and people
are very, very suspicious. That is damaging to the Government, the Labour Party
and politics in general."
Last night, a spokesman for Mr Prescott's department said: "Mr Prescott did not
grant planning permission to Minerva. It was done by Croydon council." A
spokesman for Mr Rosenfeld said: "The planning decision was taken by an
independent planning inspector, operating completely in isolation whose job is
to arbitrate over rival schemes." A spokesman for Sir David declined to
comment.
As the new revelations emerged, there were also protests from former staff of
Allders, whose flagship Croydon store was at the centre of Minerva's plans for
its Bluewater-style development. While Sir David was chairman of Minerva,
Allders collapsed, leaving 3,500 staff with an estimated £70 million shortfall
in their pension fund.
Mr Rosenfeld's spokesman said: "The administration of Allders happened at the
end of January 2005 and from that point it was not in Minerva's control."
Sir David, 67, was chairman of Minerva until March last year, when he was
succeeded by Mr Rosenfeld, 43. Sir David personally loaned Labour £2.3 million
before the election. In addition to his £200,000 Labour donation he has made a
£2.5 million donation to Mr Blair's City Academy project. Mr Rosenfeld, who
co-founded Minerva with Sir David in 1990, lent Labour £1 million. His estimated
wealth is £79 million while Sir David's is £105 million.
When Sir David stepped down as chairman, he cashed in shares in the company
worth £37 million, retaining a further £15 million of shares.
Last October, when the planning decision was made, Minerva shares were hovering
below 250p. Since then, they have climbed steadily and this weekend stood at
329p.
It also emerged yesterday that Sir David made a £200,000 donation to Labour in
2003 shortly after lodging a planning application to build the 50-storey Minerva
Tower, the tallest building in the City of London.
The building was referred to Mr Prescott's department for final approval six
months after the loan but the Deputy Prime Minister decided not to "call in" the
application for detailed scrutiny despite widespread opposition.
Another name on Labour's list of secret lenders, Derek Tullett, received a
suspended prison sentence for his significant part in what was described as "a
gigantic system of international tax fraud" it has emerged.
Mr Tullett, 71, who lent Labour £400,000, was also fined £8,500 by a Brussels
court in 1992 over the same offences which related to £700,000 of "secret
commissions" paid to foreign exchange dealers. The money was paid by the Belgian
subsidiary of Tullett & Tokyo, which Mr Tullett helped found.
Meanwhile the chairman
of outsourcing firm Capita resigned because of publicity surrounding his
decision to loan money to the Labour party.
Rod Aldridge said the group's reputation was being questioned because of his
personal decision to lend the money. "There have been suggestions that this
loan has resulted in the group being awarded government contracts," he said in a
statement. "This is entirely spurious." He added: "Whilst anyone who is
associated with the public procurement process would understand that this view
has no credibility I do not want this misconception to continue."
Mr Aldridge had been
named as one of the dozen millionaires who bankrolled Labour's general election
campaign. Capita said Mr Aldridge would now serve as non-executive chairman
until the group's interim results at the end of July, in order to ensure a
smooth transition to a successor. He has led the company since its foundation
in 1984. Capita's chief executive, Paul Pindar, said: "Rod has played a key
role in establishing Capita as the leading service transformation partner to
both public and private organisations across the UK." The news comes a day
after Tony Blair urged opposition parties to try to reach consensus
> with Labour over funding, warning the issue was "difficult for any political
leader". The PM spoke out as the row over secret loans to his party
intensified. On Tuesday Scotland Yard said it was examining complaints that
Labour had breached the honours system by giving them in return for loans or
donations. Controversy over the loans was sparked after the independent
commission which vets nominations for peerages reportedly raised concerns over a
number of people put forward by Mr Blair. The home secretary Charles Clarke
has also questioned the competence of the Labour party's treasurer, Jack Dromey,
who said he and other elected party officials had been kept in the dark about
£14m loans arranged by Mr Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy.