Stink Tanks
It's quite remarkable how many people have been squealing about the police investigation into the sale of honours. Prominent among them in recent days are Neil 'Lord' Kinnock (who ought to know better) and David 'Lord' Puttnam (who, as an inner circle friend of New Labour, is incapable of knowing better). What else do we find linking these people:
...
Trustees
...
Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty
...
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate
What else do we find on that list?
source
Fancy that! Two Lords a-leaping who don't like the way Inspector Yates goes about things, and one loaned-a-lot-money-to-Lord-Levy-got-nominated-for-peerage-by-Tony-but-had-it-blocked commoner, all in the same well-connected New Labour think tank.
Actually, looking at that list of trustees, not having a peerage rather marks you out as unusual. I wonder how many of them came from a stroke of the Dear Leader's pen?
In other peerage news, Martin Kettle has an article in the Grauniad, or rather a thinly veiled attack on Yates of the Yard, using the same language as, er, the Sun yesterday. How remarkable. It's also complete bollocks - you can't attack the police for taking a long time over an investigation and simultaneously warn portentously that they should be very careful when investigating something as sensitive as the elected government. You can be quick or careful, but not both. In traditional Kettle fashion, he sets out to defend Blair, but ends up mired in the contradictions and evasions that have marked the entire third New Labour term. Comparing Yates to Kenneth Starr and then disagreeing with himself is particularly piquant. One senses that his heart's not quite in it, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. In years to come people will read it and laugh, but you can get ahead of the game and read it today. And laugh and laugh.
Blair's in a new film.
Blair's in a new film.
Just to let you know that
Just to let you know that the very members of the Public whom the General Medical Council (GMC) fervently claims to be protecting - are currently rejecting the GMC 'en masse' at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/AbolishGMC/.
Another related article on the matter appears here . . . and it also seems that a UK Political Party (with a profound Human Rights ethic)has also publicly endorsed the petition here !
Is Martin Kettle married?
Is Martin Kettle married? Does his partner know what he does for a living? What are his incall and outcall rates?
Elected, e.l.e.c.t.e.d.?,
Elected, e.l.e.c.t.e.d.?, /ELECTED/!!! Since when did that frigging ever have to do with being *above the law*? After all, if writing the law in the first place doesn't put them at such an awsome advantage, why give any extra slack? Do they think that we prefer our politicians to be corrupt, or what?
And by the way, what was the money for...? Oh, it was to fight an election campaign, was it? Maybe if they didn't obtain that 16 million quid, they would have lost, and therefore not be *elected*, and therefore obtaining it would have been wrong. Political logic is so sweet.
It's about power. The police have to be very careful when investigating someone who is very powerful. Very true indeed.
Elected! By whom??? 22% of
Elected! By whom??? 22% of the population?
I know what I would like to "elect" them for... a slow roasting!
It's unsurprising that so
It's unsurprising that so many in the corporate media and elsewhere are leaping to Blairs defence. After all, he's performed a stirling service on behalf of the rich and his corporate sponsors: cuts in Capital Gains and Corporation Tax, record profits, privitization, weakening of business regulation, vast subsidies to the Arms trade and other measures of socialism for the rich. Corrupt? Criminal? Mendacious? So what. It's trebles all round for Price Waterhouse and BP.
It's unsurprising that so
It's unsurprising that so many in the corporate media and elsewhere are leaping to Blairs defence. After all, he's performed a stirling service on behalf of the rich and his corporate sponsors: cuts in Capital Gains and Corporation Tax, record profits, privitization, weakening of business regulation, vast subsidies to the Arms trade and other measures of socialism for the rich. Corrupt? Criminal? Mendacious? So what. It's trebles all round for Price Waterhouse and BP.