Ben Elliot's friends and relations

This is a little embarrassing for Liberal England.

Ben Elliot, co-chairman of the Conservative Party and creator of a club that gives large donors privileged access to the prime minister and chancellor, has been in the newspapers - and not in a good way.

The Times suggests his company arranged for its clients to buy coronavirus tests for hundreds of pounds while the NHS was struggling to increase its testing capacity.

And the Daily Mail reports that 

Prince Charles was dragged into a 'cash for access' row yesterday after the Tory party's co-chairman was accused of arranging a private dinner between the heir to the throne and a wealthy businessman.

Elliot has told the Mail that the dinner took place solely because the businessman wanted to support the Prince's charities.

But then Elliot finds it easier than most to gain access to Prince Charles than most as he is the nephew of Camilla Parker Bowles.

More importantly, he is married to Mary-Clare Winwood, one of the daughters of this blog's musical hero Steve Winwood.

As today would have been the 77th birthday of Winwood's great friend and bandmate Jim Capaldi, let's end on a happier note with some Traffic that features Capaldi's singing.