Better Things

”YOU can walk my path/ You can wear my shoes/ Let her talk like me/ And be an angel too.’

Bernie takes a test drive on the new bypass

Words we all agree are an inspiration and sum up how things could only get better under Tony’s Blair’s aegis. But for whom did things really improve?

Peter Cunnah, lead singer of D:Ream, the band that gave us that new Labour ditty, earned some nice royalties, and he did donate a cut of the booty to the Labour Party. So look out for D:Ream providing the next Labour off-the-peg anthem.

Richard Desmond and Lakshmi Mittal have also seen things get better since Tony rose to power. But the Independent recalls that before Porngate and Steelgate there was the not-so-small matter of Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s £1 million donation to the cause for improved things.

And, sure enough, things got better. Plans to ban tobacco advertising from European sport got better, and so did the state of the roads around Silverstone (no relation).

According to the Indy, Tony Blair and his former number one lickspittle, Stephen Byers, intervened to enable a bypass to be built near the racetrack in time for this year’s British Grand Prix. So an extra £8 million was found to facilitate an ’emergency pay-out’ to get the job done on time.

And the deal gets bigger when readers hear that the bypass is now closed to enable contractors to finish it, and that the road’s ‘completion’ was hurried up in return for a guarantee that the British Grand Prix would not be scrapped.

So that’s £8 million of additional monies spent to not yet finish a work that people like Sir Richard Mottram, the most senior civil servant in what was Mr Byers’ department, said ‘could breach normal financial criteria’.

For its part, the Government denies allegations of a deal and wishes Euan Blair well in his upcoming battles with Michael Schumacher. ‘

Posted: 26th, July 2002 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink