More Tory sleaze and hypocrisy as Iain Dale defends the not so 'honourable' gentleman...

Another day, another shock revelation in the unfolding scandal of disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway...Thursday's Daily Mail claims it has uncovered secret documents which show that a close friend of one of Mr Conway's sons was also on the MP's payroll - as well as both his sons and his wife.

A couple of days ago when the story first broke, Tory blogger Iain Dale declined to comment on the plight of his friend Derek Conway.

Fair enough. But today, on news that the 'honourable gentleman' is to step down at the next General Election (before he can be deselected), Iain Dale has lambasted 'the baying mob' who attacked Derek Conway.

Iain says:

'Whatever Derek did or did not do he did not deserve some of the comments that have been thrown his way...'

Poppycock.

Let's be clear what Mr Conway did: he wrongly dipped into the public purse to pay his son more than £40,000 in taxpayer's cash.

The new allegations which have emerged regarding thousands of pounds in taxpayers cash handed to his other son, payments to his wife and now cash for a close friend of one of his sons, all warrant further investigation.

(By the way, I totally condemn the Mail's disgraceful fixation on the alleged sexual orientation of any of those involved. It's totally irrelevant to the core issue of misuse of public funds).

For Iain Dale to portray Derek Conway as a victim of a baying mob demonstrates that he is allowing his judgement to be seriously clouded by his friendship.

There's more than a touch of hypocrisy in Iain Dale's whinge about 'the baying mob'.

Only a few days ago, Iain was quite happy to personally lead 'the baying mob' attacking Peter Hain for late reporting of private donations to fund an internal Labour Party election.

MD man missing...

Market Deeping man reported missing.

Giuliani and Edwards to drop out...

CNN reporting:

1. John Edwards about to announce withdrawal from Democrat race. Will he back Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama...?

2. Rudy Giuliani about to drop out of Republican race and back John McCain.

Conway crisis gets deeper and deeper...

More sensational revelations about the public costs of Tory MP Derek Conway and his family from today's Daily Mail, including this helpful illustration...

Tory Leader David Cameron made it clear on Monday that Derek Conway would not be losing the Conservative whip just because he had been caught 'diverting' more than £40,000 of public cash.

Yesterday morning, Tory MP Roger Gale toured the TV and radio studios, stupidly claiming that Derek Conway was the victim of a witch-hunt.

But by lunchtime yesterday, David Cameron was forced to don his familiar flip-flops and do what he said he wouldn't do the night before...

Two things made Cameron's position untenable:

First, the media reaction against the not-so-honourable gentleman - including the Daily Mail describing Mr Conway's behaviour as theft.

Second, the BBC R4 Today programme by multi-millionaire Tory donor Stuart Wheeler that Derek Conway be sacked.

So Cameron was moved by money and media headlines...

Prime Minister's Questions should be even more interesting than usual - today at noon...

Hillary wins hollow victory in Florida: will Giuliani now back McCain...?

Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for Florida - but it's a hollow victory.

None of the main Democrats campaigned in Florida following a national decision to punish the state for having the temerity to hold their primary ahead of next week's Super Tuesday when over 20 states make their choice.

Four states were allowed to break the rules - but not Florida!

Although a bit of a sideshow, the win gave Hillary a chance to make a victory speech on national TV ahead of Super Tuesday.

She campaigned for Florida to get its delegates reinstated to the national convention. If there is no decisive winner coming out of Super Tuesday, a late decision to admit Florida to the party could be crucial for Hillary.

But the big story in Florida is in the Republican camp. With half the precincts reporting, John McCain is on 36 per cent, Mitt Romney on 32, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is trailing a poor third on only 15 per cent.

It appears that Giuliani has spectacularly lost his huge gamble to put all his eggs - and money - into the Florida basket, and stay out of previous contests. It meant he had to win Florida to have any chance of a shot at the nomination.

Will Giuliani go to California in the next 24 hours, withdraw from the contest, but back John McCain, and still be in with a chance of becoming Vice-Presidential candidate on a McCain ticket?

Tory MP who handed his son £40k taxpayers cash faces new enquiry over payments to another son

The shamed Tory MP exposed yesterday for handing his student son more than £40,000 from public funds faces fresh charges that he also paid £32,000 in taxpayers cash to another son.

Conservative Leader David Cameron last night refused to withdraw the whip from Derek Conway MP, after his wrists were slapped by an official House of Commons enquiry for 'diverting' public funds to his son Freddie.

No surprise there, as only last week Mr Cameron said it was OK for parents to lie to get your children into the school of your choice.

But, if David Cameron thought the Derek Conway affair couldn't get any worse, it just did...

The Daily Mail splashes on allegations that Mr Conway faces a second sleaze enquiry over claims that £32,000 in parliamentary allowances was also paid to his other son Henry.

As I posted HERE yesterday, Mr Conway was rewarded with a ten-day holiday from the Commons after an official enquiry found he made payments to his son Freddie which were 'a serious diversion of public funds.'

If payments to his second son are proved to be a further 'diversion', I wonder if he'll have to extend his holiday by another ten days...?

Don't you just love the quaint House of Commons language to describe what an MP's misbehaviour...? Have you ever heard getting caught with a hand in the cash til as 'diverting public funds'.

I can think of a much simpler word for it.

Derek Conway is a senior Tory MP, first elected to Parliament 25 years ago. He was heavily touted as the next Mr Speaker - until yesterday's shameful revelations.

Can someone please explain why an MP who gets caught red-handed siphoning thousands of pounds of OUR money from the public purse is given ten days off work.

I can certainly think of more appropriate 'punishments'.

Mr Conway's treatment by the Standards and Privileges Committee appears to contrast starkly with Peter Hain's dilemma. Only last week, you will recall, Mr Hain lost his job and now faces a police enquiry for late reporting of private donations for an internal Labour Party election.

There was never a hint that Mr Hain had 'diverted' public funds as Mr Conway has done.

Today's Mail story doesn't say how Mr Conway funded Henry and Freddie through Harrow public school.

But isn't it time some searching questions were asked about how he's been spending our money for 25 years?

Ted Kennedy backs Obama, not Osama...

Huge blow to Hillary Clinton's campaign: Teddy Kennedy, once a close friend of the Clinton's, says it's time for Barack Obama.

The backing of the Kennedy clan still carried huge weight across America - and to many, Barack Obama evokes JFK with his stirring speeches of hope, change and a can-do, inclusive USA.

Comparing the man who is trying to become the first black President with his brother JFK, Teddy Kennedy told Washington students 'It is time again for a new generation of leadership'.

He said Obama could rekindle JFK's dream of a United States of America that shared a common purpose...

At least this time, Teddy didn't cock it up by confusing Obama with Osama bin Laden - as he did a couple of years ago.

The u-tube is absolutely genuine. It is not a joke....

A tale of two MPs: one loses his job and faces a police investigation, the other gets a holiday...

A few days ago, a senior Labour MP apologised for late reporting of thousands of pounds in private donations which he received to fund his bid to win an internal Labour Party election. There was no suggestion of fraud or that the money was used illegally or of misuse of public funds.

Peter Hain blamed an administrative error for reporting the donations later than he should have done.

The Electoral Commission decided to call in the police and Peter Hain responded by immediately resigning as a cabinet minister…

Today, a senior Conservative MP apologised for misusing thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.

The House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said Derek Conway was wrong to put his son on the public payroll when he had little or no contact with his father’s office either at Parliament or in his Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency.

The Committee was astonished that young Freddie Conway seemed to have been all but invisible during the period of his employment.

That’s because he was hundreds of miles away studying for his degree at Newcastle University.

The Tory MP generously used public funds to pay his lad way over the going rate, as well as pension payments and lavish bonuses.

Mr Conway, whose previous fame seems to be as John Major's vote fixer in the Commons, is likely to face a ten-day suspension from Parliament.

So, one MP declares private donations late, loses his job and faces a criminal investigation.

The other gets caught misusing public money and gets sent on a 10-day holiday from work.

Is this justice, or am I missing something…?

There's one more very stark difference in these two cases:

Tory Leader David Cameron was first in the queue to put pressure on Peter Hain to resign.

I have yet to hear Mr Cameron announce that Derek Conway will be barred from standing as a Conservative candidate at the next general election...

UPDATE: Spot the difference: Leading Tory blogger Iain Dale was all over the Peter Hain story last week. He has yet to utter the words Derek Conway...! Same old Tories.

Fishermens' tale of seal: it's Serge, not Sammy...

A pair of anglers who competed with a seal for fish on the Nene yesterday are convinced it wasn't 'Sammy'.

I revealed HERE last week that a seal spotted basking on the Nene was not 'Sammy' who made a name for himself (or herself) with entertaining antics last summer.

The Peterborough Evening Telegraph are taking their seal stories rather seriously...and report this gem from one of the hapless anglers:

'He had no markings on him, but I am convinced it was not Sammy. It would be too much of a coincidence for the same seal to make its way up the river...'

They've named the new seal 'Serge'.

I notice that one of the fishermen is called Mr Waterman.

Very fishy...

Clinton concedes defeat in South Carolina: huge win for Obama...

With more than two-thirds of the precincts now declared, Barack Obama heading for a huge victory over Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina primary.

It puts Obama back on level-pegging with Clinton, with each of them winning two states.

But winning by such a huge margin badly hurts Hillary Clinton. It will Barack Obama with the momentum going on to Super Tuesday in nine days time when 22 states make their nomination. And it will be Hillary Clinton who is on the back foot again...

Looks like this race will go down to the wire.

UPDATE: With 95% of precincts now reported, Barack Obama has increased his lead to 28 points over Hillary Clinton...

Cameron's Tories select another Labour reject...!

Remember Tony Lit, the disastrous Tory candidate who flopped in last summer's Ealing Southall by-election...?

This photo of him posing with Tony Blair may jog your memory...it was snapped at a fundraiser for the Labour Party just days before David Cameron personally hand-picked him as the Conservative candidate.

Well, Cameron's Tories have done it again...They've selected another Labour reject for a high-profile seat.

The Mail-on-Sunday reveals that black businesswoman and lawyer Helen Grant, who was selected as Ann Widdecombe's successor in Maidstone earlier this week, is a former paid-up member of the Labour Party.

Having failed to get selected by Labour for a local council seat, she's now turned to Cameron's Tories and been selected in a parliamentary seat with a 14,000 Conservative majority.

At her selection earlier this week, Helen Grant was hailed as one of "Cameron's A-listers" and a statement on the Maidstone Conservatives website claims she is the embodiment of Conservative values

She's already launched her own website, but I can't find any mention on it of her Labour credentials.

Funny that.

Will history be made in South Carolina tonight...? UPDATED

Could history be made tonight in South Carolina...? Or will we have to wait ten days until Super-Dooper Tuesday before we know who's likely to be the next President of the United States.

The smart money is on Vietnam veteran John McCain to win the Republican nomination but I can't see him, or anyone else, stopping the Democrats after eight years of George Dubya Bush.

So it's odds-on that within a year, we'll see either the first black President or the first female President in the White House.

My heart's still with Barack Obama, but my money's on former first Lady
Hillary Clinton.

Tonight, the pressure is on Barack Obama to win the first Democratic primary in a state with a large black population - almost a third.

Race itself appears to have become an issue in the race as reported by Associated Press tonight.

It will be interesting to see how the black vote in SC splits, with many recalling that Hillary's husband Bill was generally supported by black voters. There has been some analysis showing that Clinton has so far fared better in states with secret ballots for the nomination rather than in open caucus events, suggesting that race may still be an issue.

What makes tonight's contest more interesting is that South Carolina is the home state of the very able John Edwards who is currently running third in the race for the Democrat nomination. Edwards needs a strong showing tonight to stay in the race. If he drops out before Super Tuesday, whether he backs Obama or Clinton could be crucial in deciding the eventual winner.

The final polls before voting in SC put Barack Obama eight points ahead of Hillary Clinton, with each of them anxious to talk up their rival's chances and underplay their own expectations.

Voting closes at 7pm local time in SC and CNN are reporting a record turnout in places, which could favour Obama.

I can see it's going to be another long night for anoraks like me...but nothing compared to the long night faced by the frontrunners and their campaign teams.

As the polls close in South Carolina, the race hots up in the 21 Super Tuesday states. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be flying out of South Carolina later tonight to start campaigning elsewhere - even before tonight's results are known.

UPDATE: With voting now closed, exit polls analysed but no actual votes yet counted, CNN are predicting Obama will win South Carolina comfortably.

Boris faces conflict charges as Ken opens poll lead...

Despite this week's disgraceful Dispatches hatchet-job and the never-ending daily bile spat out by the London Standard, Ken Livingstone has opened up a poll lead over Boris Johnson in the campaign to be Mayor of London.

And Saturday's Guardian turns the spotlight on Boris Johnson who faces a conflict of interest charge and interesting revelations about who's paying for his campaign HQ...

The latest YouGov/ITV London poll was taken after the Dispatches programme this week and puts Labour's Ken on 44 per cent, Tory Boris Johnson on 40 per cent and LibDem Brian Paddick on eight per cent.

Good to see Londoners standing up to the barrage of outrageous attacks on their Mayor. Londoners know Ken and trust him to do what's best for London.

It's already the dirtiest campaign ever mounted against Ken Livingstone - and I expect the daily venom against him which oozes from the London Standard to intensify as the campaign hots up.

But Londoners have come to expect outrageous personal and political attacks on Ken's integrity and they see straight through them.

I hope Londoners will go on rejecting the lies and unsubstantiated allegations. If Ken is judged on the real issues such as what he has delivered on transport, crime, affordable housing, the environment and community relations, he'll win hands down on May the First.

* Meanwhile, Boris was on the campaign trail today - but not in London.

The Tory chancer's visit to his constituency in Oxfordshire serves to highlight how close Boris is to London issues.

So close in fact, that he didn't bother to turn up once for the crucial House of Commons on the £16 billion Crossrail line which has been given the go-ahead by the Labour Government.

Larger than Life Cloughie to stand eight-feet tall...

Designs have been unveiled for an eight-foot-high bronze of soccer legend Brian Clough who I'll always remember for his life-long support for ordinary working people...

After the great man died from cancer in 2004, the main A52 which connects Nottingham with Derby was officially and appropriately renamed and re-signed "Brian Clough Way".

Loud-mouth Cloughie brought unprecendented footballing glory to the East Midlands, turning both Nottingham Forest and Derby County from unfashionable second division clubs into international world beaters.

He was arguably the best football manager ever. And he knew it, famously once saying: 'I wouldn't say I'm the best manager in the business, but I'm in the top one...!"

Cloughie was certainly the best manager England never had: He claimed that the Football Association wouldn't give him the job because they were frightened he would take charge. He added that the FA were very perceptive - that's exactly what he would do!

There's already a statue of Cloughie in football kit in the Middlesbrough park near his childhood home. But it's about time he was properly honoured here in his adopted East Midlands, where he'll always be a hero to so many people.

I'm not a huge footie fan, but I'm delighted that the new statue is to be erected in Nottingham City Centre and that he'll stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

Cloughie never forgot his roots. He became my hero during the first ever national provincial journalists strike in the 1970s. Nottingham journalists produced an alternative newspaper to raise funds to support the strikers' families - and Cloughie provided the first splash - the fantastic exclusive that he'd signed Trevor Francis to Forest as the first million pound player in the country.

After the national dispute was finally settled, 28 journalists on the Nottingham Evening Post were disgracefully sacked by a feudal management.

I went back to work at the Lincoln Chronicle and for month after month helped organise weekly trips to Nottingham to support our sacked colleagues and picket the offices of Post owners T. Bailey Foremans.

For more than a year, Cloughie supported the campaign to 'Reinstate the Twenty-eight' and refused to speak to the main evening paper which covered the Reds.

A true legend. Rest in peace Cloughie.

I solve mystery of 'Sammy' the slug-like seal...

I've solved the mystery of the slug-like seal spotted on the river at Peterborough earlier this week: it's definitely not Sammy, as the Evening Telegraph speculated a couple of nights ago.

And the seal spotted on the River Nene in the city last year wasn't Sammy either.

I have it on good authority - the BBC website - that Sammy the Seal was sadly shot some years ago, apparently after getting the blame for raiding salmon farms. The death penalty was said to be the last resort after broke his ASBO (anti-salmon-behaviour-order)and ignored the warnings.

Poor Sammy the Scoffer of Salmon (allegedly) couldn't have been an English-speaking seal or he would have read the signs saying he wasn't supposed to eat the salmon he caught, but throw it back like good sports...

Anyway, compare the photo on the right here, that ET reader Steve Farrell snapped a few days ago in Peterborough with the BBC photo (above) of Scottish Sammy munching on his last supper before meeting his maker: I'm sure you'll conclude, as I have, that there's no real likeness.

However, I did enjoy the comments on my original post from GW about Billy the Cardiff seal who was said to have been caught red-handed in the 1930s trying to board a tram...!

He became so famous, the good people of Wales built a statue to Billy.

Keep 'em coming...