Interviewer: The recent scandal involving your finance minister has done little to restore public confidence in the government.

Minister: (1) .......... , I think the 'scandal', as you call it, has shown us to be a very moral party. The minister concerned resigned his post and showed great contrition for what he'd done.

Int: (2) __________ , a scandal is a scandal. (3) _________ , a senior minister accepts a large donation on behalf of his party from the entrepreneur Robert Tivwell, then five weeks later, Tivwell's company, which (4)______ just happens to be nearly bankrupt, wins a contract with the government worth millions of pounds.

Min: Well, as I say, the minister has resigned, (5_________) I should point out that there is technically nothing illegal about what he did. Int: Yes, there is, minister. It's called bribery.

Min: Well you can call it that if you want. I prefer to call it 'sharp practice' (6) ______ But it happens, it's always happened, and I'm sure it'll continue to happen. (7) ______ , we will not condone this kind of financial dealing and will continue to stamp down on it.

Int: This is pure double talk!

Min: No that's not true. (8) __________ we take such matters extremely seriously. But we are realistic enough to know that we can't eliminate them altogether. You see, there is nothing to stop people or companies making donations to parties - (9_________) if we didn't have such money, we wouldn't be able to survive. It's just that the timing of such payments can be unfortunate. So each case has to be investigated on its merits. But (10) ____________ , this practice is causing less controversy than it has done under previous governments.