Eideard

Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Coyne
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The poet, peace campaigner and president of Galway United football club Michael D Higgins is poised to become Ireland’s next president after rivals conceded defeat in the most fractious campaign in the country’s history.

The Irish Labour party candidate was on course to win at least 40% of the first preference vote. Of the first eight constituencies to declare, Higgins was leading in seven of them.

The 70-year-old enjoyed a late surge of support, putting him well ahead of the former frontrunner Seán Gallagher. Martin McGuinness, whose candidacy turned the spotlight on his past as the IRA’s chief of staff and his role in many prominent atrocities during the Troubles, was almost certain to come third.

Leaders of other parties and rival candidates conceded on Friday afternoon that Higgins was on course to win the presidential contest. Micheál Martin, the leader of the main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, congratulated Higgins on his performance “which will see him elected the ninth president of Ireland”…

Sinn Féin appeared to acknowledge the damage that his IRA legacy had inflicted on McGuinness’s bid. He had hoped to achieve about 20% but may only get around 15% – the same as the party polled in February’s general election…

The main party in the current government, Fine Gael, had a disastrous election. In Roscommon, the early morning tallies reported that in some ballot boxes there were only four votes for its candidate, the Euro MEP Gay Mitchell. The party also appeared likely to suffer another loss in the Dublin West byelection, caused by the death of Ireland’s former finance minister Brian Lenihan. The Irish Labour party appeared poised to win the seat.

Bravo. In a land with many political currents represented in a democratic election, Higgins’ victory is significant in size and breadth.

Johnson and wife in better days

Alan Johnson’s former police bodyguard is facing disciplinary proceedings over allegations that he had an affair with the former shadow chancellor’s wife.

Mr Johnson announced his resignation after less than four months in the job, saying he was finding it “difficult to cope” with his personal crisis while carrying out his front bench duties…

Scotland Yard has confirmed that a police protection officer has been suspended and the case has been referred to its Directorate of Professional Standards over the allegations…

The officer is understood to be Paul Rice, a bodyguard that had protected Mr Johnson and his wife Laura…

Announcing his decision, Mr Johnson wrote to Mr Miliband saying: “I have decided to resign from the shadow cabinet for personal reasons to do with my family…

Scotland Yard reportedly began disciplinary proceedings yesterday after learning of the alleged affair with Mr Rice, a detective constable who had been the MP’s protection officer when he was Home Secretary.

Oops. Pretty heavy redefinition of the word “bodyguard”.

Daylife/Getty Images

At a meeting late last year at the House of Lords, Thomas Taylor, a peer and stalwart of the governing Labour Party, told visitors who introduced themselves as representatives of a Hong Kong businessman seeking tax relief on an investment in Britain that “you’ve got to whet my appetite to get me on board.” He added that some companies he had worked with paid him the equivalent of about $140,000.

“That’s cheap for what I do for them,” he said.

In reality, the visitors to the Lords’ guest room overlooking the Thames were reporters for The Sunday Times, one of Britain’s most widely circulated newspapers. Their front-page account last weekend of their meetings with Taylor and three other Labour Party peers who were said to have agreed to accept payments for lobbying on behalf of the fictitious businessman have sent shock waves through British politics.

All four of the men named by the newspaper have denied any wrongdoing, and senior Labour officials have accused the paper of entrapment. The House of Lords has begun an inquiry, including a review of creaky, hard-to-carry-out procedures that require an act of Parliament to oust miscreants in the chamber…

The Sunday Times said it had assigned reporters posing as lobbyists to approach 10 peers. It said that four of five Labour members it approached showed a willingness to take payments to help amend a pending bill in ways that would lower taxes for the fictitious businessman in a plan to open 30 shops.

The paper named the four peers: Taylor, 79; Lord Peter Truscott, 49, an Oxford-educated former energy minister in Tony Blair’s Labour government; Lord Peter Snape, 66, a former railroad man and Labour whip in the Commons; and Lord Lewis Moonie, 61, a psychiatrist and former junior defense minister. It said three Conservative peers had not answered the reporters’ calls, and two members of smaller opposition parties had rejected offers of payment, one of them saying angrily that the offer was contrary to basic concepts of integrity.

Abolish the fraking House of Lords altogether. Aren’t there existing regs on corruption which might be used on the political hacks in question?