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Newsnight – 10.30pm

June 19th, 2009 Posted in UK Politics by

Michael Crick returns to the expenses issue on Newsnight tonight. I’m just off to do a pre-record for the programme.

Update 6pm: Cancelled owing to the breaking news on the police investigation.

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3 Responses to “Newsnight – 10.30pm”

  1. MikeScotland Says:

    The most important story on Newsnight is the suggestion that the Lib Dems are to be investigated for “money laundering” of the £2.4m from Michael Brown. They may be prosecuted under the Proceeds of Crime legislation. Why has Nick Clegg who was challenged on this subject on the Politics Show about a month ago not sorted this? Recently on other issues Nick has done well but his failure not to have ensured the Michael Brown money was returned will do tremendous damage to the Party.


  2. Simon Says:

    I was reading a bit about this money laundering. Apparently under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 it is illegal to handle, transfer or arrange assets derived from criminal conduct. By doing so you may be in violation of sections 327 (Concealing etc), 328 (Arrangements) and 329 (Acquisition, Use and Possesion) of criminal property.

    It looks like another New Labour law designed to criminalise anyone whether they knew or not about the money or goods they were handling. Seems to get used against one man bands etc who unwittingly take dodgy credit card payments. It’s poetic justice in a way as thousands of similar laws have gone through without anyone mounting any real opposition or making a fuss as long as it was us, and not the politicians getting clobbered with all the fines and penalties.

    I hope the Police find other ways to enforce some of these spiteful and repressive laws against the corrupt politicians. It’s about time they got a dose of their own medicine.


  3. MikeScotland Says:

    Simon I understand most of the money already recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act has came from crooks especially drug barons. The reason why the police are looking at this is because there is a legitimate complaint against the Lib Dems from people de-frauded by Michael Brown. In the final analysis I expect the Lib Dems will pay up but the Party will be damaged meantime. A number of Lib Dems recognise that the checks made by the Party when it took the money were totally inasdequate and I imagine this will soon become public knowledge.