Cameron was accused of cronyism this week when a list nominating 48 political allies, aides and donors for honors was leaked. Those on the list include his wife Samantha\u2019s stylist and two of his former drivers.<\/p>\n
Steve Hilton, who was Cameron\u2019s director of strategy from 2010-12, says recognition for Cameron\u2019s \u201ccronies\u201d<\/em> was \u201cweird and somewhat undignified,\u201d<\/em> but not corrupt.<\/p>\n But he says the presence of Tory and pro-EU donors showed \u201chonors – and even places in our legislature – can be purchased for political donations\u201d and was a symptom of a wider problem, a \u201ccorrupt and decaying democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe corruption comes when the honors system starts to clash with democratic principles. The most obvious way this happens is when people who are not elected make the laws which we live under,\u201d<\/em> Hilton said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just fought and won a referendum campaign on the principle that unelected bureaucrats in the EU should not have the power to impose laws on us.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not clear why this principle applies to unelected foreigners but not to home-grown appointees. The decision to leave the EU was a victory for people power. But that\u2019s just the start – until we have a fully elected legislature, we cannot call ourselves a true democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Hilton says there needs to be a \u201cradical reform of the whole rotten system,\u201d<\/em> including an annual cap of \u00a31,000 (US$1,300) on individuals\u2019 political donations to \u201cforce parties to democratize their fundraising.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt is simply undeniable that big donations buy influence. It may not be as obvious a quid pro quo in the UK as it is in the US but there\u2019s no question that raising money forces politicians to listen disproportionately to the concerns of those they are raising money from.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n One donor, Ian Taylor, has withdrawn his name from consideration after being put forward for a knighthood.<\/p>\n The chief executive of Vitol Oil has donated more than \u00a31.6 million to the Tories in recent years and a further \u00a3350,000 to the Remain campaign.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s deputy leader, Tom Watson, called for the system to be boycotted and urged Remain campaigner Will Straw and civil rights activist Shami Chakrabarti to withdraw their names in protest.<\/p>\n Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said: \u201cThe honors system is becoming a joke. Either people don\u2019t want them or they are being handed out to those with little merit. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe whole process has been devalued and leaves the public in dismay \u2026 That individuals are opting not to be a part of it only perpetuates this feeling.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Prime Minister David Cameron\u2019s rewarding of Tory donors in his resignation honors list symbolizes a \u201cserious type of very British corruption,\u201d a former 10 Downing Street adviser says. Cameron was accused of cronyism this week when a list nominating 48 political allies, aides and donors for honors was leaked. Those on the list include […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-259925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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