Nu Labour

Blunkett resigns, again

Labour sleaze, Nu Labour
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Something of habit with him:

David Blunkett has said he is “deeply sorry” for the embarrassment he has caused Tony Blair, after
he resigned as work and pensions secretary.

He said he was guilty of making a mistake on three occasions and was now “paying the price for it”.

Tony Blair has paid tribute to Mr describing him as a “decent and honourable man”.

Gag me with a spoon. It’s Bush that has the reputation of not wanting to let go of his fuckup “friends”
but Blair’s just as bad, isn’t he? Blunkett, Mandelson, even Estelle Morris all resigned in disgrace only
to return to the fold not that much later.

In the Commons, Mr Blair told MPs that none of the allegations against Mr Blunkett warranted his
dismissal under the ministerial code, saying: “I could discover no impropriety or wrongdoing.”

The mistakes arose out of an “honest misunderstanding”, he said, and Mr Blunkett had left office “with
no stain of impropriety against him whatsoever”.

When did we hear that before? Oh yes, the previous time Blunkett resigned “with his integrity intact”. Not very many secretaries can resign from office twice and say that!

Most politicians who had to resign in shame stay resigned, but not Blunkett. He has now joined Mandelson in that short list of politicians who had to resign twice; one wonders if a fatcat job in Europe can be far behind…

The way in which this happened is typical of Blunkett: arrogant and stupid. I can’ help but think a lot of this has to do with his background. He is so used for fighting for what he wants and winning, to succeed in spite of the odds that I think he has
started to think that he can do anything, that rules are for lesser men. How else to explain that he thought he could get away with taking up a directorship of DNA Bioscience, purchasing shares in it, taking these shares into a family trust when he became a secretary again, without telling the advisory committee on business appointments about it and with the company having an active interest in the business of his department!

Reactions to Labour’s treatment of the heckler

Autoritarianism, Nu Labour
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The BBC have, as is their wont, been collecting responses to the treatment of that 82 year old heckler at Jack Straw’s speech at the Labour Conference. Some interesting points were made and much of the usual know-nothing rightwing blather was absent. Sure, there are some confused souls who think political speeches are like sermons and it’s impolite to heckle, but the overwhelming majority is both angry and scared at the treatment of this man, especially his subsequent arrest under the prevention of terrorism act.

The following response I thought hit the nail on the head:

The key issue here is that laws promoted as defending us from murderous fanatics are already being used to suppress anti-Government opinion. To look at this issue as being about anything else – the quality of stewarding, the rights and wrongs of heckling etc – is to dangerously miss the point.
Chandra, England

All in all, even with the swift almost-apology issued by Tony Blair, it seems Labour has shot itself firmly in the foot with this incident, awaking a lot of people to the dangers of this government which preaches a lot about democracy and respect, but does not practise either.

Handling criticism with dignity: the Labour way

Autoritarianism, Nu Labour, War on Iraq
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At the Labour conference today, an eighty-two year old man was dragged from the conference, his conference card taken away and arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, all for heckling Jack “boots” Straw during his speech on Iraq. Another man underwent the same treatment after protesting this spectacle:

security thugs removed an 82 year old man after he heckled Straw

Jack Straw was heckled today as he told the Labour party conference Britain was in Iraq “for one reason only: to help the elected Iraqi government build a secure, democratic and stable nation”.

A delegate, who was 82 years old and has been a Labour party member for 60 years, was bundled out by security guards after he shouted, “That’s a lie,” during the foreign secretary’s keynote conference address.

The outburst came during one of the few mentions of Iraq in the conference hall this week.

A second delegate was expelled for complaining at the treatment of the first heckler.

Fascistic, petty and arrogant this action was, it is also an unmistakable symptom of Labour’s weakinging grasp on reality and power. A confident party does not need to be this heavy handed. As unpleasant as it was for the persons involved –the main victim actually came to the UK from nazi Germany in 1937– I can’t help but gloat over this…

Labour caught redhanded?

Nu Labour, UK politics
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I think Dead Men Left is right when he suspects the “student Benjamin Virgo, 34” in this story:

Elsewhere in Bethnal Green, student Benjamin Virgo, 34, explained what had happened to him on Tuesday night. ‘On the way out to the corner shop to buy milk and bread I passed a couple of young guys. After I’d crossed the road they threw a bottle at me. They became more aggressive, so I reached for my mobile and started to call the police. They followed me into the shop and announced to the other customers and staff that I was a racist. Then, fists in my face, they ordered me to stop my call, reminded me that they knew where I lived and threatened to burn my house down. The police never came. George Galloway is now my MP.’

Is the same as the “Ben Virgo, 34” who is “studying classics at UCL” in this story:

Meet the Virgos from Bethnal Green. Ben, 34, used to work in the City, but he gave it up to become a
drugs counsellor, and now he’s studying classics at UCL. His wife Rachel teaches part time at a local
primary school. They have three lovely children, Gilbert, five, Theo, three and Albany, one. They seem,
by all outward appearances, a rather ordinary domestic collective, but last week the media dubbed them “Labour’s rent-a-crowd” when they were pictured standing behind the prime minister and the chancellor at a poster launch. Elements of the so-called Virgo family, it transpired, had also appeared at a previous Labour launch. They were there, according to one commentator, as part of a “human shield of party activists” designed to protect Blair from journalists. The Daily Mail went so far as to described the atmosphere of the event as “redolent of the old Soviet Union”.

The smoking gun turns up in the middle of the article:

[…]It all began with a letter to their local MP, in their case Oona King, asking her to help them in their quest for a larger council flat.

Coincidence? I think not

Oona King uses pensioner in smear campaign against Respect

Labour sleaze, Nu Labour
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Oona King shamefully using an attacked pensioner to smear Respect

Over at the pro-war left’s hiding holes the usual suspects have been lapping up a story about an alleged attack on a pensioner by Respect supporters leafletting for George Galloway. Unfortunately for them, this story seems to have been made up out of whole cloth by Oona King’s campaign team or some other interested party, as none of the details of the attack ring true.


The claim:

Mr Les Dobrovolski, 69, was approached by a group of young men handing out George Galloway’s Respect/ SWP literature, last Thursday 21 April, near Spitalfield Market in East London.

After refusing to take a leaflet and telling the men he would never vote for George Galloway, Mr
Dobrovolski says he was followed by one of the men and pushed to the floor. The man then stamped on his hand before dropping a Respect leaflet on him and running off.

Mr Dobrovolski was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where he was x-rayed and given stitches.
He is scheduled to return to hospital next week for surgery to straighten his broken nose. The police
were informed of the attack and are currently investigating.

Now the facts, courtesy of Lenin’s Tomb

On Thursday 21st April, Les Dobrovolski told the police that he had been attacked, but there was no
mention of him having been assaulted by Respect supporters or of any leaflet. The first time such a
claim appeared anywhere was in the Labour Party’s press-release. The police have confirmed, categorically, that no such claims were made to the police when Mr Dobrovolski was interviewed, and that they are not investigating the Respect party in connection with this. They issued it as a general statement to the press, which is why most papers did not touch it.

The claim that Mr Dobrovolski encountered Respect supporters canvassing for George Galloway in Poplar is highly improbable, to say the least, since Poplar is not in the constituency being contested by
George Galloway. There were no canvassers out there. The leaflet that was allegedly dropped on Mr
Dobrovolski following the attack was still in the printers on the day of the attack, and was sent out
as a postal drop – ie, sent by the printers directly to Royal Mail, and not to Respect leaders or
canvassers. The earliest the leaflet could have been sent out was on Saturday’s post.

Do keep in mind Oona King already had to settle out of court once for a libel action George Galloway brought against her, only to repeat the libel almost immediately afterwards. Since the start of campaigning she has been trying to make the race as nasty as possible, constantly smearing Respect and Galloway; this fits in perfectly.

The smear itself is bad enough, but to use a bystander, a pensioner in a dirty war against Respect is
quite something else.