UK politics – Page 67

A Little Light Link Gardening

Published on March 7, 20073 Comments

The spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where them boidies is…

Today I shall be mostly desperately trying to catch up with the explosion of thought-provoking posts on the aftermath and implications of the Scooter Libby guilty verdict, but not for too long becuse I’ve spent so much time recently sitting reading blogs. Now I have a sore spot, somewhere very uncivil indeed.

With that in mind I feel it prudent that I should do a lot of standing up today, so when I’ve finished this post I’ll go and get some chickenwire to block off the fence and stop the neighbourhood cats shitting in the back of the shady border and some hellebores to stop it becoming a permanent cat toilet.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for serious commentary there’s Simon Jenkins’ stinging article on the innate corruption of tonight’s House of Lords reform vote for you to read, or Digby’s “Where’s Rove?” or for a really in depth meaty read there’s TPM Muckraker‘s coverage of the growing scandal and congrssional hearings over Bushco’s attempted purge of koolaid-non-compliant federal lawyers.

Then, weather permitting, there’s some manure to dig in and some to remove and some shrubs to be shifted around (I love the way that makes our 50sq m courtyard garden sound like Kew) and some climbing roses, honeysuckle and anemone corms to be planted and lavender cuttings to be taken, all this inbetween ministering to Martin, who’s home sick, and cursing our own bloody cats for tracking mud in and out.

After that I shall mostly be knackered.

Dark Roasted Blend asks: “If the world was made out of rubber, and would stretch according to the certain parameters…” and features these incredible maps of economic and other imbalances from the Worldmapper project. Here’s the world mapped according to house prices:

For a little light relief from the all meltdown, all the time transatlantic political coverage, and heaven knows we all need it, you could do worse try that hybrid offspring of Glamour and Roll Call, Capitol Hill Barbie. :

Spring Has Not Yet Sprung – Face Forward

Just in time for my daily daydream about what it will be like when Mayor Fenty actually clears the streets of the ice, the 18 tons of rock salt currently on the ground stop crusting over my Delman flats washes away and the sun makes more than a guest starring appearance in my day…

Kiehl’s has announced that they have created a tinted moisturizer!

Yay, governments are crumbling, let’s shop!

Last but not least, the natural world -if you’re at all scared of the sea or worried about melting glaciers and inundations of ocean, don’t look now….

Imagine one those nibbling on your toes…

By the way, did you know we’ve been banned in China? That makes me very proud.We must be doing something right.

Oh and I nearly forgot: Michael Savage for Prez!

Cash For Honours: Injunction Lifted

Published on March 6, 2007

The BBC now has permission to reveal the fuill content of their injuncted report after a lunchtime hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice lifted the injunction on the grounds that one outlet should not be injuncted to the exclusion of others.

The Guardian already printed a rival story this morning which the courts declined to injunct last night as the presses were already rolling.

It seems Lord Levy may have asked Ruth Turner to change her evidence. Oops. Methinks the whoever leaked to the Guardian may have been attempting to preempt todays lifting of the BBC injunction and get ~~a different story~~ a more positive spin out first.

More soon.

UPDATE:

Lending a bit of credence to my above theory Guido Fawkes posts this:

Sleazy Levy Complains of “Trial by Media”

Levy’s lawyers have just released a statement complaining, wait for it, of “trial by media”.

Well perhaps he should stop ringing up political editors and briefing them in that case? All those unnamed “friends” quoted in the press are him, briefing…

UPDATE : 13:30 The Metropolitan Police have released a statement effectively accusing the Guardian of underming their case.

Heh.

… Like A Circle In A Spiral, Like A Wheel Within A Wheel…

Published on March 5, 2007

That bibulous former Young Conservative and pain in the side of Westminster, Guido Fawkes, has a theory about why No 10’s probably behind the leak of crucial evidence to the Beeb last week, prompting Goldsmith’s desperate injunction:

[…]

When news of arrests and interviews has come out, it has more often than not been from the politicians themselves. Given that the Beeb didn’t buy this story, who profits from revealing crucial police evidence? Not the investigators, which is why the police sought to suppress the story, because defence lawyers could make much mischief, and probably will, with the “trial by media” line.

To quote the most famous detective of all, “If you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, even if improbable, must be true.” Those under investigation, now that they believe it no longer possible to “fix” the CPS because of the evidence known to have been discovered, have the most to benefit from bringing the evidence into the public domain. The desperadoes of Downing Street would not be above leaking against themselves, tactically it would also allow them to portray themselves as victims of media savvy police investigators. They already brief that the police are “theatrical” and whine that they are unable to publicly defend themselves from the “trial by media”.

These are dangerous times for Downing Street’s toughest street fighters. The gloves are definitely off, which is why Guido thinks this leak has Downing Street’s fingerprints on it.

It appears that No 10 appears to be using one of the Scooter Libby perjury trial’s defence strategies – only where Libby’s supporters tried to engineer a mistrial during the hearing by using their media access, New Labour have been trying to stop it before it even comes to indictments, let alone trial. But they were stymied by the Met’s request for an injunction.

This puts what I’d initially assumed about Lord Goldsmith’s motives in a different light – though having to apply for the injunction when he quite probably would really rather have been doing his master’s political bidding and quietly whispering to selected media figures must’ve been irritating in the extreme.

I bet Blair is kicking himself too that he didn’t introduce some kind of Prime Ministerial pardon system when he had the chance.

UPDATE:

BBC 1 O’clock news is reporting that Downing St denies absolutely that it could’ve been the source of the leak, because ‘details of the emails mentioned in the press prove it couldn’t have been them’.

Uh-huh.

Ooooh, look at the airborne piggies!

DOUBLE UPDATE:

BBC Radio 4 is reporting that the emails were between Ruth Turner and Johnathan Powell and concerning Blair crony Lord Levy. ‘Unnamed sources’ in the government are now blaming the police for the leak. Oh, this is fun. More soon.

“It Was Downing St. What Done It….”

Published on March 5, 20072 Comments

…seems to be what certain MP’s are alleging about the leaking of the secret email that led to the cash for honours injunction this past weekend:

Downing St blamed for cash for honours leak

David Hencke and Vikram Dodd
Monday March 5, 2007
The Guardian

The MP who triggered the cash for peerages criminal inquiry last night accused Downing Street of leaking vital evidence in the case to the media.

The allegation by Angus MacNeil followed a frenzied weekend of speculation after the BBC was banned by a judge from reporting a leaked email between Downing Street aides about the scandal..

Angus Macneil is the public spirited SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar who with Plaid Cymru MPs made the orginal complaint to the police.

[…]

All news organisations are covered by the gag, but cannot learn terms of what they can and cannot report because the judge who granted the injunction insisted on its terms being secret between the BBC, Scotland Yard, and the attorney general. A spokesman for Lord Goldsmith said the injunction was gained to stop a broadcast which police feared could impede their inquiries, and added: “The terms of the injunction are confidential.”

Yesterday the News of the World quoted the Crown Prosecution Service as saying: “We believe the leaks are coming from government sources, who are trying to disrupt the inquiry.”

[,,,]

Whole story

One of the things that non UKian-politics-wonks may not quite have got their heads around is the dual role of the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith– politically appointed, but able to exercise legal powers over prosecutions even where they affect his political patrons and despite the obvious conflict of interest that causes. The current AG, Lord Goldsmith, refused to recuse himself from acting in in regard to his fellow cabinet members despite his being a member of the government himself. You can see why people are a bit angry, including the LIb Dems (though they weren’t that bothered before) who’re now attempting to co-opt SNP and Plaid Cymru’s initiative:

Liberal Democrats are drawing up plans to force the Attorney General to undergo US-style confirmation hearings and make the post subject to parliamentary approval to reduce any perceived conflict of interest.

Ed Davey, chief of staff to the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, said he supported the injunction after the police warned the story could impede their inquiry. But he said the case highlighted long-standing claims that the Attorney General’s position as a senior cabinet minister could conflictwith his role as the Government’s senior law officer. He said he was “damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t”.

Well, that’s one way of putting it. Personally I think that Goldsmith is so hopelessly compromised he must resign. Just call me a cock-eyed optimist.

But he won’t go and certainly not on a point of actual principle. Goldsmith is Blair’s last real ace-in-the-hole as the CPS gets closer, he won’t give him up in a hurry.

Blair is planning to stay until at least June 16th, if reports of his diary engagements are any guide, and he’s still going to need a pet AG – Labour doesn’t have any money left to fight with so the lawyer in ultimate charge of the prosecution in his pocket is a handy thing to have.

With a moral coward like Goldsmith, he’s got exactly what he needs.

More Cash For Honours: Yes, It Was The Emails

Published on March 4, 2007

The Independent reports:

Email led to BBC legal gag in cash for honours probe
Document at centre of injunction led to change of police tactics, as detectives prepare to send their final files to the CPS By Francis Elliott, Whitehall Editor
Published: 04 March 2007

Detectives in charge of the cash-for-honours investigation gagged the BBC because it was about to reveal details of a significant email, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The existence of the email is thought to explain why police switched their attention from the alleged sale of honours to claims that there had been a subsequent cover-up.

Senior BBC sources last night indicated that it would not be seeking to overturn an injunction imposed on Friday night after an application by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who said releasing details of the communication, believed to be known by the BBC political editor Nick Robinson, would harm the inquiry.

The injunction suggests the police are about to send their final files – together with a recommendation about whether to prosecute – to the Crown Prosecution Service.

This newspaper has been told that Tony Blair expects the year-long investigation to come to an end this week. A long-awaited independent report on party funding, delayed until the conclusion of the police probe, is pencilled in for next week.

Detectives are thought to have uncovered the email last year. It was one of the “major developments” alluded to by John Yates, the police chief in charge of the investigation, in a letter to MPs on 16 November.

Since that letter, the Prime Minister’s chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, has been arrested and questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Ruth Turner, No 10’s director of government relations, has also been arrested. Ms Turner has been questioned on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, not, as in Lord Levy’s case, of conspiracy to do so.

Whole story

[My emphasis]