When the charges proved insubstantial, it was revealed that de Villepin had been aware of their falsity, but had allegedly used the affair to taint his rival.
But Labour's strategy is to use the affair to reinforce the notion that posh boys like Cameron, George Osborne and Andrew Mitchell – a well-off scion of Rugby School and Cambridge – don't understand real life and are typical of the coalition's overprivileged cabinet.
But Mandelson said what was significant was not Ashcroft's tax status, but what Cameron had done about it, and he used the affair to question Cameron's modernising credentials.
Yet the quarrelling among politicians has dragged on, to the despair of the Labour Party, not least its leader.Mr Blair is powerless to intervene, but is nonetheless worried that Mr Dewar and his advisers used the affair to pick a fight with John Reid, the Scottish secretary, whose son Kevin was one of the Beattie Media employees ensnared by the Observer.
Belgian socialists in particular used the affair to prove that because Leopold was in his "dotage" and under the control of a "rapacious and ambitious woman", he was unfit to govern.
One Bosnian source says that this could be a means of Mr Vucic using the Kelmendi affair to send some form of warning message to Mr Dodik.
Lucas cautioned against using the Arenas affair to make generalizations about the N.B.A. Gun violence and easy access to firearms are national scourges that often come into focus when high-profile athletes are involved.
The Montenegrins suggest that Serbia is now using the Saric affair to blacken Montenegro's name in Brussels.In this section The sad end of the party Greased up Crooked in Calabria A coalition kaleidoscope Many wives' tales A Balkan imbroglio Zagreb wars The euro's existential worries ReprintsMr Saric has vanished.
One-party states breed corruption; what's more, party rivals who have come off worst in previous clashes with Mr McConnell seem bent on using this affair to undermine the first minister.
Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, showed the government is spoiling for a fight with the federation when he said it was making a mistake to try to use the Mitchell affair to damage the government.
