Nicola Blackwood: It isn’t what you know, it’s who you know that counts.

It’s hard to tell what’s worse about this:

The fact that Nicola Blackwood, rejected by the voters of Oxford West and Abingdon, has been given a free peerage so she can return to the government?

The fact that she has been given this despite (due to?) a Commons record that includes voting against gay marriage (why does she think she should have a right to meddle in other people’s affairs?) and supporting fox hunting (does she enjoy cruelty to animals?) among her support for other abhorrent Tory policies?

The fact that the tax-paying public is having to fork out an extra £300 for every day she spends in this occupation?

Or the fact that she has spent the time between being voted out of the Commons and nominated into the Lords, working for New Labour grandee Peter Mandelson?

Some might say he can employ anybody he wants, and political leanings should not get in the way of professional suitability.

But it looks like more evidence that New Labour was too similar to the Conservative Party, by far.

You see, if one is willing to employ a person because of their political views, it doesn’t seem logical to belong to an opposing political party.

It isn’t an age since a Labour cabinet minister described the Conservatives as “lower than vermin” yet we find another, former, Labour cabinet minister giving one a job.

We should thank our lucky stars the Party of the People has gone back to its roots.

The government has used a loophole to make unelected Nicola Blackwood a health minister.

Blackwood was the Tory MP for Oxford West and Abdingdon before being defeated by Liberal Democrat Layla Moran in the 2017 general election.

As an MP, she was criticised for voting against gay marriage and supporting fox hunting.

After losing her election, she went to Peter Mandelson’s lobbying agency Global Counsel, advising its clients on political risks.

Now the government is giving her a peerage so that she can re-join the government as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health.

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