Real Zorro: Hugo Swire - a joke in bad taste

Zorro is staggered at the attitude of local incumbent MP, Hugo Swire’s, incredible skills at auctioneering and fund raising for the Conservative Party. He clearly has no concerns about deriding others whilst squeezing money out of wealthy Conservative Party supporters as demonstrated at the recent Conservative Party Black and white fundraising Ball in the lavish Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair last month.

Mayfair's Grosvenor House hotel. A good place to raise Conservative Party funds

Conservative party Black & White Ball. David Cameron helping his party to fund raise

Zorro blogged about the fundraising Ball on 12 February particularly highlighting how Hugo Swire, acting as the auctioneer and fund raiser in chief that evening managed so easily to insult the Greek people as he sought to increase the bidding for a holiday to the Greek island of Santorini – “Hugo Swire raises funds for Conservatives by insulting Greece”

http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/hugo-swire-raises-funds-for.html.

At the time Zorro argued that it was inappropriate for someone who should act as a political role model in his position as an MP to make such inappropriate and demeaning comments about another European country and its people. You would expect it from UKIP. However as Hugo Swire is alos a Minister in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, it was even more inappropriate for him to joke at Greece’s expense, particularly as his “joke” came at a critical point where Greece and the Eurozone Finance Ministers were trying to reach agreement over Greece’s debt repayment arrangements.

Zorro called for Hugo Swire to apologise. Somewhat unsurprisingly he has not apologised, but then did anyone really expect him to?

Hugo Swire MP. He jokes in bad taste at everyone else's expense, literally

Thanks to last night’s Channel 4’s Despatches programme which followed a “would be” political party donor we now have seen filmed footage of Hugo Swire in action as the auctioneer at the Conservative Party fundraising Ball. What we now know is that Hugo is not averse to making “jokes” at the expense of others in this country who are in less fortunate positions as he is.

In trying to increase a bid he poked fun at people in the UK who are on benefits and jokes about how until the MPs expenses were reigned in recently they could afford expensive top of the range cars. Hugo Swire said “It’s quite naff to have Bentleys and Rolls Royce’s and Ferraris because anyone could afford them” and he went on to say “In the good old days of MP’s expenses we could have them too. But not any more”.

At one point, the filmed footage showed Hugo Swire attempting to encourage a bid by saying “£60,000 … Ian, persuade him … He’s not on benefits is he? Well if he is, then he can afford it … £55,000?”.

The link to the filmed footage of Hugo Swire’s “joke” is here – http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-minister-mocks-poor-jokes-5387934#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Hugo’s “jokes” in which he denigrates the Greek people and those in this country on benefits says much about his moral compass. It also says a great deal about his values.

Hugo Swire clearly is happy to raise funds for the Conservative Party and to do so by making fun of those whose lives are far less fortunate than his. It shows how out of touch Hugo is with the rest of society. The funds that Hugo Swire helped to raise at the fundraising Ball will, in part, have gone to fund his re-election campaign. All funded through bad taste and inappropriate jibes at those less fortunate (in so many ways) than Hugo.

If the electors of East Devon needed any more reasons why there has to be a change in East Devon. This is why Zorro is supporting Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ to be East Devon’s next and independent MP.

Claire Wright is not reliant upon the fund raising antics of the Conservative Party. Claire Wright doesn’t rely upon funding from wealthy supporters. Claire Wright doesn’t denigrate others to squeeze a few more pounds to fund her campaign.

If you want to ensure that Hugo Swire isn’t re-elected and if you want to ensure that Claire Wright is successful in her bid to become the next and Independent MP for East Devon, then you can easily donate to her campaign fund – https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscrcmd=_flow&SESSION=baovl_PM9Rl4qrMBc38QI3kpABD7I1PH9MMd8N11TfeKplZs_Zc0WRtL6RC&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8da8649a435e198e44a05ba053bc68d12e.

Hat tip to Zorro’s friends at East Devon Watch http://eastdevonwatch.org/ who have managed to identify a number of publications who have reported on Hugo Swire’s “joke” –

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sirajdatoo/watch-a-tory-mp-joke-about-people-on-benefits-at-the-partys

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3007029/Leaders-drawn-fundraising-row.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tory-minister-jokes-benefits-claimants-can-afford-55000-donation-to-party-at-fundraising-ball-10128991.html

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/23/tory-minister-benefits-claimants-joke-channel-4-dispatches-hugo-swire