Integrity - period ended 10.1.2006

Integrity/Politics and Economics/Social Justice/Joseph Rowntree Trust/UK Police Arrest Labour Supporter Evans in Loans Inquiry/Bloomberg/New York/NY/USA/21-Sep-06//... Since 1997, everyone who has donated more than 1 million pounds to Labour has been made either a knight or a member of the House of Lords, according to the Power Inquiry, a probe into changes in U.K. democracy funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, a Quaker charity campaigning for social justice. The report was published in February.

While parties are free to put anyone up for the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament, they are obliged to declare whether they have a financial relationship with them to the Appointments Commission, which reviews nominees. Labour didn't mention the loans when the party made its nominations last year. ...

Quaker History/Integrity/Politics and Economics/Nixon, Richard/Sept. 23, 1952: Nixon unleashes 'Checkers Speech'/Pocono Record/Mt. Pocono/PA/USA/17-Sep-06//... The controversy began when the liberal New York Post ran a story "exposing" this fund under the banner headline "SECRET RICH MAN'S FUND KEEPS NIXON IN STYLE FAR BEYOND HIS SALARY." This ignored the fact that Nixon had previously been very open to reporters about the fund, which he honestly believed was legitimate and people wonder why Nixon hated the media. Ironically, one reason the fund was set up was because Nixon, raised a Quaker, was too straight-laced to engage in any of the common at the time political salary-padding practices, such as putting one's wife in a job that drew a government paycheck. ...