American Politics Journal

The View From Europe
Axis of Enron?
by Nicola Mitchell

Feb. 5, 2002 -- LONDON (APJP) -- The news story that has lately dominated the UK papers has been the treatment of Al Qaeda prisoners currently being held in "Camp X-Ray", Cuba. The press have been going wild for the story and have voiced outrage at the conditions they claim the prisoners are being held in.

But a new story is now beginning to overshadow the treatment of Cuba's newest residents: Enron. It appears that Bush and his band of cronies are not the only ones who've been "naughty little boys", and a number of British MP's have also been serving themselves up a large slice of Enron pie. It seems that the Enron scandal is now threatening to spread over to Whitehall and engulf the British government.

Ever since the story of the energy giant's connections to the White House broke, there have been murmurs of similar links between the corporation and members of parliament from two British political parties.

As yet the press have not yet decided whether Labour and the Conservatives are facing a full blown 'cash for access' scandal, or whether the roots of the affair purely lay with a company donating money to the government in the hope of successfully lobbying them.

At this time the vultures are circling around the Labour party's links to the whole affair, but after a number of very public outcries expressing horror at the very suggestion the government would be linked with such a scandal, the Conservatives were forced to admit that they themselves had taken £25,000 from Enron during their time in power. Furthermore Lord Wakeham, former aide to Margaret Thatcher and chairman of the press complaints commission, has become deeply embroiled in the scandal.

Meanwhile, Blair's government is on the line for a measly £36,000 in sponsorship donated by Enron, which on its own arouses no suspicion at all. The problem for the government however, is that according to Enron's former European boss, cash was paid for "access".

Since the initial story broke the scandal has further escalated, somewhat fuelled by Downing Street's emphatic denials that nothing untoward had taken place -- but also strangely that Blair had never personally met any Enron representatives, when it emerged that Blair had allegedly, personally intervened a decision that involved Enron's interests.

Other so called 'benefits' the company received was the passing of its £1.5bn acquisition of Wessex Water, Britain's biggest water operator, followed by successful lobbying for the lifting of a moratorium on gas-fired power stations. Whether these decisions were bought remains to be seen, but the government's reliance on Enron's accountants, Arthur Andersen, is also coming under close scrutiny.

But whatever the government's involvement, it is nowhere near the magnitude of the scandal still facing the White House.

Bush seemed to have bought a few days' grace from the headlines with his State of the Union address, but the carrion eaters descended shortly thereafter despite the White House's insistence that the matter is corporate and not political. Over here, Bush's address met mixed reviews, with many feeling the "Axis of Evil" statement only served to shore up support for the NMD system.

In the name of good will between Britain and America I have a suggestion for Mr Bush. The guy must be under a lot of pressure at the minute, what with threats of lawsuits against half his administration and, of course, his single-handedly attempting to solve the world's problems. So I think he and his family should come over to Britain for a bit of a break. After all, he's got his old pal Tony here to look after him, and I have a sneaking suspicion that his daughters would get on well with Tony's son Ewan (as they both have a penchant for underage drinking in the public eye). For that matter, Bush could also take his niece Noelle 'round to visit Prince Harry, whose experiments with drugs were outed by a British tabloid only last week.

Then again, on second thoughts, maybe they should just stay at home.