UK politics

Hoon, Hewitt and Byers walk into parliament…

Corruption, New Labour, Sleaze
Published on

Oi, you’re barred says the bartender chief whip:

Three former cabinet ministers have been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims they were prepared to influence policy for cash.

Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon were secretly filmed as part of an investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

[…]

Mr Byers, a former transport secretary, was filmed saying he was like a “cab for hire” who would work for up to £5,000 a day and claimed to have saved millions of pounds for National Express, which wanted to get out of its East Coast mainline franchise.

[…]

Former Defence Secretary Mr Hoon was filmed saying he wanted to make use of his international knowledge and contacts in a way that “makes money”. He said he charged £3,000 a day.

[…]

Ms Hewitt, a former health secretary, said she “completely rejected” the suggestion she helped obtain a key seat on a government advisory group for a client paying her £3,000 a day.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the three former ministers were not popular among Gordon Brown’s team – not least because Mr Hoon and Ms Hewitt had tried to lead a coup against his leadership in January.

Schadenfreude all around and it’s extremely funny to hear Mandelson call somebody else “altogether rather grubby”. But that’s the difference between these three and Mandy: they’re small time losers grubbing for change, he, like Blair, goes for the big money, where influence peddling is no longer dirty, but expected. You get yourself appointed to boards of directors rather than attempt to freelance — it’s the difference between being a call girl and a street hooker.

Galloway sues David Toube?

Forward March of Decentism, Funny, UK politics, Video
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David Toube, for those of you with the luck not to know or care, is one of the guiding lights behind the “Harry’s Place” blog, best described as the clubhouse for what calls itself the “decent left”, mostly numpties and wingnuts who still have some sentimental attachment to being seen as leftwing, even if their opinions would put them comfortably on the rightwing of the Republican Party. Toube then is a bit of an ass, as also seen in the video above. An inflated ego and an desire to be a latter day Orwell, to take part in a fight againmst modern day fascism has led him to troll other leftie blogs, which has now gotten him into trouble. In particular, he has gotten into trouble for this comment on a Socialist Unity post.

Aaronovitch Watch has more details, with the discussion there focusing on how bizarre it is to sue Toube for a comment he left at the Socialist Unity website, but not Socialist Unity itself. To be fair, even if this is 2010 and everybody should be used to blogs and the internet already, it wouldn’t be the first time a lawyer got confused about these matters, if it actually was a mistake and not deliberate. You could argue that since Toube is the source of this comment, it is no more than right that he gets sued for it…

There’s also some soulsearching about it all, as people balance their loathing of Toube with the reflex antipathy any blogger feels against law suits threatening free speech as well as the loathing many have for Galloway himself. I can understand the dilemma, though do not share the mistrust of Galloway. However, as Aaronovitch Watch itself has shown over and over again, there are quite a few decent leftists who feel free to be bullies, not too careful with the truth and who think calling people nazis or Hamas supporters or whatever is consequence free. Perhaps this might persuade them to be a bit more careful with their accusations…

Did the Tories just threaten the BBC over Ashcroft?

Election Skullduggery, Sleaze, Tories, UK elections
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It certainly seems so, if this is to be believed:

Gove did a decent job fielding Jon Snow’s questions and then beetled over to the BBC to face Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark. Gove’s tactic was to keep repeating that the other main parties were bankrolled by men with equally poor senses of civic duty and ignore Wark’s point that Ashcroft’s role as deputy chairman made his case different. Then, at the end, Gove went on to the attack.

“We’ll be watching, Kirsty,” he said darkly (although it’s not as if he ever sounds like Bagpuss) and then, in a significant tone: “The broader question will be, ‘Is the BBC failing in its duty to hold other parties to account?'”, leaving Wark to wrap up the interview in a fluster ill-concealed by a pretence of being hurried. Maybe she had the director general screaming in her earpiece: “Tell him we’ll get rid of CBeebies if he’ll just leave us alone!”

In completely unrelated news, new polls show that Labour is now level with the Tories in marginal seats, despite the Tories’ strategy of targetting these must-win seats for the next election. The mastermind behind this strategy? Ashcroft…

On an even more unrelated note, did it really take ten years for anybody to notice Ashcroft was still a non-dom, after having promised to start paying taex if only he could be a lord? Realy? And do we think that’s due to incompetence or malice?

The Wit and Wisdom of Martin Bright

Forward March of Decentism, UK politics
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UPDATE: it turns out this is not the real Martin Bright. My apologies.

So David Aaaaronovitch weighted in on that Amnesty International “controversy” and couldn’t resist a pop at George Galloway, calling him a “dangerous idiot”, for um, opposing the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan perhaps? Who should pop up in the comments but Martin “still not too” Bright:

George Galloway, a dangerous idiot?
Certainly dangerous, but not an idiot.
Galloway is one of a handful of high profile egregious
politicians who have defended the enemies of Western values & assiduously

promoted groups which are obviously evil.
The best example is the terrorist group Hamas, which shares many Nazi
values, but cannot call on a Wagner

figure to demonstrate its cultural superiority.

Admittedly Hamas has devised new ways of murdering its political rivals, that

the Nazis would admire.
Otherwise they’re just sub Nazis, who would have never made the grade in the 1930s.
Galloway is a sub politician who has not made the grade
outside his little comfort zone. And we all know the type of people who live in
Tower Hamlets.
Reputedly the most corrupt constituency in the UK.

Bright, one of those wallowing in their “I didn’t leave the left, it left me” complex shows why the left abandoned him. As diverse as it is, there’s indeed little room on the left for somebody who talks about “the type of people who live in Tower Hamlets”. Not quite politically correct. Even apart from that little slip his comment is a showcase of Decentist thinking, a fact free paranoid rant in which George Galloway has to be shown up to not just be wrong, but evil, plotting with “the enemies of Western values”, but who also has to be show up to be a nobody, a loser, only winning elections because of those people who are the most corrupt in the UK, just like Hamas, who are the new Nazis, but not quality nazis like you had back in the 1930s. Throw in a handful of weird asides (Hamas “cannot call on a Wagner figure to demonstrate its cultural superiority”? WTF?), make sure your writing is as awful as possible (the repeat of “made the grade” in two consecutive sentences) and you have your average Decentist newspaper column or blogpost, condensed into one short comment.

Doctors want new inquiry into death of Dr Kelly

UK politics, War on Iraq
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Remember Dr David Kelly, driven to suicide after it was revealed he was the source for the BBC’s allegations about the “sexed-up” Iraq dossier? Remember how his death wasn’t investigated by a coroner, as it should’ve been done but was instead ruled as suicide by the Hutton Inquiry? Well, a group of six doctors, unconvinced by the verdict, have now applied to the attorney general for a proper inquest:

The doctors say the Hutton inquiry was “totally inadequate” as a means of identifying the cause of Dr Kelly’s death and they are seeking to obtain Dr Kelly’s autopsy report.

Their main argument is that the bleeding from Dr Kelly’s ulnar artery in his left wrist is “highly unlikely” to have caused his death. They say a number of studies have shown that it is unusual for a patient to die from a single deep cut to the wrist.

They say the Hutton Inquiry lacked the powers of a full inquest because it did not hear evidence taken under oath, it did not have the power to subpoena witnesses and it did not have the power to summon a jury.

They also say that the proviso which enabled the Hutton Inquiry to replace an inquest has only previously been used for mass deaths, such as the Ladbroke Grove rail crash or the inquiry in the deaths of patients the hands of Dr Harold Shipman.

It’s easy to dismiss these doctors as conspiracy loons, especially since their appeal comes so late, six years after Dr Kelly’s death. But they are right that the circumstances of his death were well dody and have not been investigated properly. But I still wonder why they appealed now and not sooner.