Transparent Honesty

As I am sure we all know by now, Daveybloke the Cuddly Conservative is a pretty straight sort of bloke. When he gives a cast-iron guarantee, you can be virtually certain that it is not altogether out of the question that, circumstances permitting, it will turn out to be worth nearly as much as a written pledge by a Liberal Democrat, or the Venerable Tony's exegesis of an intelligence report. Nevertheless, certain unsocietal elements have criticised Daveybloke for, of all things, evasion, just because Daveybloke's Cuddly Conservatives promised they would do something and then did not do it.

The Government has said it will publish a quarterly social diary of whatever meetings ministers hold with their chums in the private sector; Daveybloke, having been in office since May, has yet to give any account of some cosy chats he had with some of Rupert Murdoch's minions at News Corporation. Since George the Progressively Regressive is going to fine the BBC three hundred and forty million pounds for not being Rupert Murdoch's property, an uncharitable observer might be tempted towards some unfortunate conclusions. Vince Cable, widely renowned for his straight talk in shrugging off election promises, has been "honest and straightforward" about a telephone conversation he had with Murdoch's son James; but Daveybloke is presumably waiting for Willem den Haag, his special nuncio to Belize, to make up his mind whether all those jet-setting trips with the party leader, Lord Ashcroft, were for political meetings or profiteering ones. Surely, by this time, somebody must have managed to explain the difference to one of them.