What with restive backbenchers threatening to defy the three-line whip! Nasty editorials in various newspapers! And now, Arturo has pointed out another storm approaching from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) - the second in a millisecond!
He drew my attention to a headline in the Daily Telegraph:
Second Defence Minister faces questions over links with Liam Fox’s best man
A second Conservative minister is facing scrutiny over his involvement with Adam Werritty, Liam Fox’s best man, whose activities cost the Defence Secretary his job. It was written by Jason Lewis, their Investigations Editor.
It's all about that man of mystery 'Pantom' Werrity. If he had been a truly invisible man, then none of the hunting of 'Tally Ho!' Fox would have been necessary in the first place. But like the proverbial bad penny - he just kept turning up! And what turnings up there were - in Sri Lanka several times, the MOD countless times - various Middle Eastern states - not one for the low profile is our 'Phantom' Werrity!
So what, I wondered, can have happened now?
According to Jason Lewis' article:
A Sunday Telegraph investigation has established there are much closer links between Mr Werritty and Lord Astor of Hever, the Under Secretary of State for Defence than had been realised.
Lord Astor was actually a trustee of the charity, Atlantic Bridge, which employed Mr Werritty and paid for him to travel the world alongside Dr Fox.
The peer, it can be revealed, is also closely connected to several of the individuals who funded the charity and with some of those who continued secretly to pay for Mr Werritty’s activities after it was wound up.
Oh No! Not the Under Secretary of State for Defence, this time! We've already had the Secretary of State now it's Lord Astor of Hever!
John Mann, a Labour MP, who was on his toes over the 'Tally Ho' Fox business is now positively jumping up and down with agitation over this next bit of possible juicy scandal. Mr Mann says:
“There is a basic lack of transparency here and the official investigation needs to be broadened to get to the bottom of what was really going on.”
The article states that:
Lord Astor, 65, risked being found in breach of charity law by allowing Atlantic Bridge to operate as a political organisation and failing to keep proper records of how the charity was run.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8843804/Second-Defence-Minister-faces-questions-over-links-with-Liam-Foxs-best-man.html
Earlier this month, there was an article in The First Post (http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/85531,news-comment,news-politics,liam-fox-adam-werritty-the-atlantic-bridge-mystery) In this it gave a brief history of Atlantic Bridge. It said:
Atlantic Bridge, a pro-Atlanticist propaganda organisation set up by Fox with Lady Thatcher as its patron, was dissolved as a charity on September 31 in the light of a critical report from the Charities Commission.
Its advisory board has included George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, all members of Cameron's government, while the PM's communications chief, Gabby Bertin, has been a researcher for Fox on the project.
Big names indeed!!
It went on to say that Mrs Thatcher:
called on the Atlantic Bridge to become a bulwark against the Left.
"This Atlantic Bridge must connect the brightest minds, the soundest ideas, and the boldest young leaders of the future," she declared. "It should serve at once as a memorial to our heritage, as an investment in our prospects, and as a bulwark against the good - and not so good - people on the Left, who always turn out to have such very bad ideas."
SO - that's telling 'em!! Typical Mrs Thatcher. However - the questions over Atlantic Bridge still remain. Jason Lewis of the Daily Telegraph is obviously curious about the role that 'Tall Ho' Fox's 'best man' 'Phantom' Werrity played in Atlantic Bridge:
Mr Werritty had been Atlantic Bridge’s only employee and it paid him more than £90,000 in wages and expenses. The chief executive of its American sister organisation, Atlantic Bridge Inc, Amanda Bowman, has claimed it “did nothing” and was a “shell game” – a confidence trick.
In addition, the Lewis' article continues:
Lord Astor, who is the defence department’s spokesman in the House of Lords, was a trustee of the organisation for at least six years and was legally responsible for all its activities, alongside its chairman, Dr Fox, and two others, Prof Patrick Minford, an economist, and Andrew Dunlop, a lobbyist.
Lord Astor and Dr Fox resigned as trustees after the general election in May 2010.
Nothing daunted, 'Phantom' Werrity went on to establish Pargav. It appears that donors to Pargav thought that their identity would remain confidential.
Thereafter - the plot, as they say, thickens! Murky characters come and go. Some are more fleeting than 'Phantom' Werrity; some are mere shadows. However, all of them played a part in the downfall of 'Tally Ho' Fox and would appear to be doing the same thing for Lord Astor. He will have some explaining to do about former associates including Lord Bell of Bell and Pottinger and Stephen Crouch.
All this is a 'tangled web' to the cognoscenti. However as Oliver Hardy might have said this is: "another nice mess"!
Glad, I'm only a cat for whom another nice mess just means grub!
'Bye'
No comments:
Post a Comment