The latest scandal to hit the General Election campaign has been allegations that senior Conservatives including some candidates along with police officers with access to number 10 successfully placed bets on the date of the election. As with other sleaze scandals, other parties have their problems too with one Labour candidate placing a bet against himself.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Secretary finally admitted this week that he had placed bets but back in March and claimed that this was without insider knowledge. I don’t think this completely gets him off the hook. You see, whilst there is an obvious legal seriousness to people using insider knowledge to place bets, the problem goes right deeper and wider.
Alistair Jack may think he is excused because he would not have known the actual date when he placed bets, however as a senior minister, he still had a declared interest in the process. He would have had at least some influence on the final decision. It’s a bit like a footballer placing a bet on the result of a game that they are going to play in.
It does leave one wondering doesn’t it. How has the Prime Minister managed to misstep so calamitously at every turn whether going early in a way that advantaged his rivals and caught his own party on the hop, stepping out into a downpour to make the announcement, leaving the D-Day ceremony early and having Lord Cameron as his stand in or the abject failure to deal with the betting scandal. You wouldn’t be surprised to discover that his advisors had been betting heavily on how badly the Tories could lose!
Meanwhile, for there to be cabinet ministers and senior advisors to the Prime Minister caught up in this will again leaving people questioning his judgement, especially his judgement of character. It doesn’t look good given he himself was recently drawn into a crass discussion about betting on the Rwanda Bill with Piers Morgan.
Most of all, that politicians are busily betting over our future gives the impression that they don’t take public service seriously. It all seems like it’s a game to them.
Faithroots 