Harold Evans in the Guardian this morning defends Hain on the grounds that “everyone does it”. The “it” being late declaration or non-declaration of donations. Tell that to a judge.There was an absolutely nauseating revision of history by Hain himself in the Guardian immediately after the decision not to prosecute was announced. In it he made the preposterous claim that

“… when, to my horror, I discovered the problem, I went straight to the commission, and also told the media. There was no exposure by tabloid or political opponents. It was me who outed me …”

Hold on a second Peter, didn’t you tell the press last April:

“I have felt since February last year and throughout the course of my deputy leadership campaign and its aftermath that I was increasingly the victim of scapegoating and dirty tricks. Someone has persistently been sending material designed to discredit me to the right wing Guido Fawkes website. Some of the material has also been sent to the Western Mail…. There has been a concerted attempt to get the Guido Fawkes website to run damaging stories about the campaign.”

Printing the truth is such a “dirty trick” isn’t it?

Guido knew his accounts were fishy as early as May 2007 and revealed on the morning of Dec 3, 2007 details of an undeclared donation, Guido contacted Hain’s SpAd Joe Carberry with the details, later that afternoon Hain went to the Electoral Commission.

So when Hain says there was no exposure by opponents and he outed himself he is not only being untruthful, he is contradicting himself. If Guido and the Guardian’s own David Hencke, hadn’t been digging relentlessly I very much doubt Hain would have come clean.

Peter is very keen to rehabilitate himself and to that end is peddling another myth: that he was cleared. He wasn’t cleared, he just was not prosecuted. Not proven guilty is not the same as innocent.

David Hencke expressed surprise yesterday that no one could be held responsible for undeclared donations totalling £100,000, half of which came from the mysterious Progressive Policies Forum.

Phil Taylor, the former Hain SpAd who quit working for Hain after Guido exposed him working on the leadership campaign at the taxpayer’s expense, had a revealing Facebook exchange last week which deserves wider circulation:Sleazy lobbyist Steve Morgan is desperately trying to put the blame on Phil Taylor for unreported donations that arrived after he had quit the campign. If Hain couldn’t be charged as the regulated donee, surely Steve Morgan, who took over as campaign manager after Phil Taylor resigned, should be held responsible. His office collected the cheques and he was the campaign manager.

Hain is already trying to portray himself as an innocent victim of his underlings incompetence, despite legally the buck stopping with him. He clearly needs someone he can trust and rely on in his personal office. Just as well he “employs” his 80 year-old mother at the taxpayer’s expense to look after his interests, such a shame she never actually visits his office…