Tory Turmoil Over Tax

Tory turmoil over tax is one of the reasons why David Cameron fails what a Right-wing mate – and yes, I do have a few – calls the £10 test.

My rich Thatcherite associate judges politicians on whether he’d trust them to look after a tenner.

Gordon Brown’s personal probity’s beyond reproach, the PM able to lecture Caesar’s wife on the value of being above suspicion.

The Tory friend’s no fan of Labour but he reckons Brown’s honest and would return the £10.

Nick Clegg’s a nice-guy-next-door kind of Lib Dem who’d push the paper through the letter box when you’re on holiday so burglars wouldn’t spot the house is empty.

The wealthy Tory thinks Clegg would also remember to give back the £10 note, possibly ironed to look smart.

But get him on the subject of Cameron and he erupts, a human Krakatoa, absolutely venomous about the Tory leader’s shortcomings.

He rants that Cameron would either forget or couldn’t be bothered to give him his tenner.

The smiley PR man spinning his way towards Downing Street’s denounced as politically soulless by the instinctive Tory.

I beg to differ and believe Cameron’s a Son of Thatcher who relishes slashing and burning public services.

Yet the widespread suspicion of the Tory leader will be ruthlessly exploited by Labour in the election.

A key player in Labour’s election campaign muttered all the party’s polling finds voters remain uneasy about Cameron. He’s superficially attractive until people stop and think.

Once they do, voters worry Cameron’s not what he seems, the image reappearing of the camera-happy cyclist secretly followed by a chauffeur with the shoes.

Frantic Tory backpedalling on tax cuts is the wobbly policy back wheel of Cameron’s buckling personal appeal.

What was presented as a £4.9bn easy ride for married couples has turned into a Penny Farthing promise not worth the hot breath.

If Britain was half as broken as the chief Con asserts, if Brown was anywhere near as useless a leader as Cameron insists, the Tory toff would be round the corner and out of sight.

But opinion polls hint at a hung Parliament, a result Labour would hail as a victory when the party was written off as fit only for the political knacker’s yard.

After all that’s happened – a global financial crisis, the 10p tax fiasco, the ridiculous Labour plots – I too am sometimes surprised Cameron’s not sealed the deal.

Then I remember the £10 test and the Cameroon scepticism of my Tory mate.

Huge Debts Of-Tory Candidate Leave Voters With Prospect Of Disqualified MP

"HOW CAN YOU TRUST THE TORIES TO RUN THE COUNTRY WHEN THEY CANT GET THEIR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER"

One of the Tories’ star PPCs has been reported as having defaulted on ‘debts’ of nearly £325,000. The Mirror reveals that Bristol East candidate Adeela Shafi, who was hand picked by Cameron to open for him at Conservative conference in 2008, has ”has had three county court judgments against her since 2007″.

The Insolvency Act 1986 and Enterprise Act 2002 outlaw undischarged bankrupts from standing for Westminster and provide for bankrupt MPs to be turfed out. Application for a bankruptcy petition by creditors (her husband was declared insolvent in 2000) could leave the Tories without a candidate or, should Shafi pull off a shock win in Bristol East, a Member of Parliament. Scrapbook doubts this is the kind of gamble voters will plump for on May 6.

The bombshell leaves Shafi open to allegations of recklessness from fellow Tories and recalls the recent case of the SNP’s original candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election, who was forced to stand down within five days of selection after failing to declare serious financial problems.

This is the kind of campaign development that party staffers dread and the stuff of absolute nightmares for election agents. What’s that sound?

The wheels coming off one of the Tories’ most visible campaigns.