Pigs, trolls and other stories
Okay, so I was hoping to bring out my third book in THE TROLL series of novellas on a slow news day. Just goes to show you can’t plan these things… In a way, though, it’s apt, with the whole of twitter trolling our very own Prime Minister. It’s certainly bringing out some inventive puns. But, honestly, I do wonder if we’re missing the point, slightly.
I mean, I don’t care about the drugs allegations, particularly. ‘Young man parties hard at University’ is hardly news. And, if it is true, then Cameron has at least avoided lying to us about it. He even campaigned for an end to the futile War on Drugs earlier in his political career. As for the allegations involving the pig… /pauses /giggles /takes a big deep breath
It’s funny but, on a serious note, the story behind this does have some more disturbing aspects. No, honestly. I really think so. /stifles giggle
The two things that strike me as actually important (rather than just funny) are Ashcroft’s motivation for telling the story, and his claims that Cameron knew about his non dom tax status back in 2009. The latter, if true, is simply outrageous and would mean that we were mislead by the response to this in the run up to the 2010 election.
The former tells us a lot about how power and privilege work in certain parts of Broken Britain. According to the Guardian, Ashcroft writes about being offered a junior whip position: “After putting my neck on the line for nearly 10 years – both as party treasurer under William Hague and as deputy chairman – and after ploughing some £8m into the party, I regarded this as a declinable offer. It would have been better had Cameron offered me nothing at all.”
I’m left wondering what, exactly, Mr Ashcroft feels his £8m should have bought him, and if he believes that he should have been able to guarantee high office and influence by handing over all that cash.
nicola monaghan 