THE ruthlessness of those at the top of the Conservative Party never ceases to amaze. As with a certain other institution known for its no-nonsense approach to personnel, you cross the line, you get whacked. It is the code of The Sopranos, enforced by those who grew up listening to an Eton choir.

Take David Cameron, former Prime Minister and now Tory pariah. There is a lot a person could get upset about when it comes to old hoodie hugging Dave. Cooking up the idea of an EU referendum to stop the haemorrhage of Tory support to UKIP. Decades of austerity that hit the poorest and weakest hardest. Bringing Nick Clegg and the rest of them into government. The political charge sheet is a mile long.

Yet Mr Cameron finds himself cast into the cold, and made the subject of a “review” ordered by Downing Street, because he has embarrassed the party he used to lead. His lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital, a financial services company owned by Australian banker Lex Greensill, showed a breathtaking level of brass-necked shamelessness. He texted the Chancellor on his private number; he contacted other Ministers and officials to plead Greensill’s case for taxpayer-backed loans and government contracts. Drinks in London, tea in the desert with a disgraced Saudi prince, nothing was too much trouble.

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Now Greensill has collapsed, placing 55,000 jobs, 5000 in the UK, in jeopardy, and the lid has blown on Mr Cameron’s activities as a lobbyist. Were there other clients, other meetings with Ministers and officials, who else worked for the firm? The search is on. It has emerged that a senior civil servant involved in procurement was working for Greensill and the government at the same time, with the agreement of the Cabinet Office. Extraordinary.

The row is not confined to Westminster. Courtesy of a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Mail, we know that in 2017 Fergus Ewing, Rural Economy Secretary, had dinner with Mr Greensill and the steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, whose firm has received millions from the Scottish Government. What we do not know is what was discussed, because there were no officials there to take notes.

Ian Murray, Shadow Scottish Secretary, has accused the SNP Government of being “embroiled in its own complex web of connections between senior Scottish Ministers, Sanjeev Gupta, and his financial backer, Lex Greensill”. He wants to know who else in the Scottish Government had meetings with Mr Greensill.

The SNP say the Ewing meeting was properly recorded as required.

Labour in Scotland are not going to let this one lie, nor is the party’s UK leader. Accused of being lacklustre, Keir Starmer has looked in the past week like a politician reborn.

He senses much capital to be made from Mr Cameron’s adventures in lobbying, and cronyism and the chumocracy in general. Sleaze, of the Tory variety, has done well for Labour in the past. Could it do the same again?

Mr Starmer thought so at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Calling for a cross party parliamentary inquiry into Greensill and the lobbying industry, one that would have the power to question witnesses in public, Mr Starmer heralded “the return of Tory sleaze”. He was more chipper than he has been in months, even throwing mention of the BBC police corruption drama, Line of Duty, into the mix. That will make the news.

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We have to bear in mind that it is election season across the UK, the time when many an accusation is hurled into the air, never to be heard about again. Much depends on whether the subject cuts through to a public that has spent the past year trying to stay alive and in good mental health. Who cares about dinner in a Glasgow restaurant when Covid has been stalking the streets?

It is assumed the public’s eyes automatically glaze over at the mention of rules and regulations, lobbyists and loans. Yet people know only too well what cronyism is when they see it, and how the chumocracy operates. Powerful and privileged people helping each other with jobs, contracts and other perks. Easy when you know how.

They know, too, that it is not just the Tories that have questions to answer on lobbying.

How many former Labour Ministers have earned a crust on the back of who they know in government? Tony Blair, a former Prime Minister like David Cameron, did extremely well for himself as a consultant for hire.

People accept there is a place for lobbying in a democracy. It is not just business that wants its voice to be heard. Charities are among the most formidable lobbyists, and who would deny them a chance to plead the case of those they represent?

At its best, lobbying cuts through the din and raises matters that might otherwise go unnoticed. At its worst it skews debate and leads to bad decisions and the waste of public money.

In Scotland we like to pride ourselves, in this and other matters, on doing things differently. While Mr Starmer can condemn lobbying rules at Westminster as not fit for purpose, Scotland can point to its Lobbying Register, on which the details of meetings with MSPS, Ministers, the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government, and others, must be recorded.

But you need to know that a meeting has taken place before you can ask about it. Hence why it took a Freedom of Information request to find out about the Ewing dinner. As we know from events of the past couple of years, it is not always the norm for notes to be taken or records kept.

Scotland does not have the same problems with lobbying as Westminster, if only because it is compact enough for everyone to keep an eye on everyone else.

But it would be wrong to believe there is no cronyism or chumocracy here. It is just less obvious. It comes in the form of the right contacts made at the right school and the right university, joining the right club, speaking the right way, knowing the right people. So the world has always turned.

In lobbying, what matters most is that it should be done in the open. Who once said sunlight was the best disinfectant? Oh yes, David Cameron. Maybe he should have printed it on his business cards.