WHILE pondering the news this week I could not stop thinking about the 1960s Tory Government which loitered on through Macmillan and Douglas-Home but was basically scuppered by the Profumo affair.

This was an unprecedented event triggered by the Tory Minister of Defence telling lies to his political boss and to Parliament. Once this was uncovered, Profumo had to go.
He took the honourable route and resigned. Even so, this was the major contributory factor to the defeat to Harold Wilson’s Labour Party in October 1964.

Apologies for this history lesson but I draw a comparison with the current situation when Tory Ministers are caught in a number of embarrassing positions, yet resignations take an age. Tory standards of morality have transformed since then.
We have witnessed a Tory Chancellor and party chairman who had to settle an outstanding disputed tax bill, including penalty, of a reported £5 million while in charge of yours and my tax affairs.

In addition to which, Nadim Zahawi and his associates threatened an investigative journalist from Tax Policy Associates who wanted to go public with the facts which would have exposed him.
Zahawi even attempted to take the public and colleagues for fools by maintaining he was unaware of any investigation into his tax affairs, despite being summoned to a meeting with HMRC in June 2021.
Questions remain about how much PM Sunak knew and when, with newspapers being briefed that he was provided an ‘informal’ warning before appointing Zahawi.
We also learnt recently that the tentacles of Boris Johnson continue to ensnare the unwary. It has come to light that Johnson’s choice for BBC chairman was not only an old chum of his but was a facilitator in putting Johnson in touch with a remote cousin who secured an £800,000 loan – to keep him and his new family in the manner to which they were accustomed. You really could not make this up!

Do not forget this is the ‘unruly left-dominated’ BBC which Tory back-benchers are always spitting blood at. Kept in tow by a Tory-subscribing Boris chum!
While the list of Tory sleaze merchants gets ever longer there is a more serious point to be made here. A point about trust.
All the while this weak and vacillating premier who promised a government of ‘integrity, accountability and professionalism’ allows these matters to rattle on, so the credibility of the Tory Party continues to plummet.
The Profumo Affair of the 1960s was bemoaned by Macmillan as ‘events’. With this current Conservative lot, it is a saga of immorality that never seems to end.