Tory leadership election - the North Korea connection
Who’d have thought there was a North Korean angle to the Tory leadership contest (a contest described by someone I spoke to at the weekend as the best political betting opportunity for years)? Well, the unstoppable Lenin (for it is he) had a good post on Monday on just that topic.
So it turns out, according to a Channel Four programme aired on Monday that British American Tobacco has a secret factory in North Korea where it produces Craven A’s and other bang-up-to-date cigarette brands, presumably for the hip young P’yongyang crowd. Of course the connection to the current leadership election is that Ken Clarke (former Tory chancellor) works for BAT as a deputy chairman receiving a handsome amount of money for his troubles. The connection has dogged him before with allegations over BAT’s factories in Burma and alleged support for cigarette smuggling operations.
Ken got knocked out of the leadership race yesterday - did this revelation have anything to do with it? Not sure really, since the Tories have an unerring ability to choose the leader least likely to win them the next election (Ken Clarke was the most popular among the public). As George Galloway pointed out on More4’s silly talk show The Last Word last night, Gordon Brown will make mincemeat of the likely winner, David Cameron when it comes to contesting the next general election in a few years’ time. And the poor Tories won’t even be able to blame Kim Jong-il.
