Friday, March 17, 2006

This isn't Brown making his move, but it should prompt Blair to make his


So has Blair done enough with the reforms he suggested yesterday? Ending the prime minister's role in granting honours and creating an independent adviser on ministerial conflicts of interests will help. As for state funding, he should take up the clever recommendation of the Power inquiry to let every voter nominate £3 of public funds to go to the party of their choice. It was cowardice or indifference over constitutional issues that let Blair break his "purer than pure" promise by scrounging from unsavoury millionaires. He had the chance back in 1997 to make a clean break, instead of finding new secret loopholes in his own new transparency rules. Other parties, all up to precisely the same sleaze, can hardly now oppose reform - though they all tremble at voters' well-known loathing for party politics. But whatever he does, Blair still has to answer the embarrassing question - did he offer peerages for cash?

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