What we really learnt from Piggate

Whatever the Prime Minister did during his university days, there is a positive aspect to the whole affair.

It is welcoming that a party benefactor who seemed to prefer to pay tax elsewhere does not automatically qualify for a significant government job. The wisdom of making someone a peer based, it would appear, on the size of cheques sent to the political party is something William Hague might like to answer but it is important that our politicians are 
elected. While David Cameron might at the next G8 summit have to endure voices at the back going “oink oink”, the real victims of this are Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott.

Ashcroft, having turned down a junior whip post (sort of equivalent of being a matron at public school for boys) as being below his station, has obviously festered with bitterness for five years. He has burnt his political boats.

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Ms Oakeshott, who was also involved in the Vicky Pryce and Chris Huhne debacle, has lost any credibility as a serious journalist.

To include the meeting of Mr Cameron and the pig based only on a single source, and a source which is not publicly identified, is poor journalism.

Most editors (and their legal team) would not pass that item for publication. If she and Ashcroft wished to use this item then further 
research was required.

If it did happen then surely there was more than one witness. If the single source is so sure of the facts then why are they not revealed? If Mr Cameron was present then he would know who else was there and would probably now have a pretty good idea about who is the source.

No doubt the more salacious items in the book are going to circulate on social media for some time but the lasting effect is of a bitter man reduced in stature by incompetent revenge.

Bruce D Skivington

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross