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Archive for September, 2010

Gove made me ashamed to be a Conservative says senior Tory councillor as she joins Labour

04/09/2010, 10:01:26 AM

The Deputy leader of the Conservative Group on Sandwell Council has quit the party and joined Labour saying the behaviour of gaffe prone Michael Gove made her “ashamed to be a Conservative.”

When Gove announced the cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme early this year he said he was halving the number of projects – more than 700 schools. But according to the first list published Sandwell was safe.

However the following day discord erupted. Gove had got his facts wrong. The department was very sorry but some of the schools would not be receiving the investment. How many? All of them.

Gove then promised Council Leader Darren Cooper that he would visit Sandwell to meet with parents and apologise for the cock up. The Department for Education later cancelled Mr Gove’s visit to Sandwell citing “diary pressures.”

On resigning from the Conservative Party and joining Labour Cllr Elaine Costigan said:

It is now absolutely clear that the Labour Party is the only party that cares about places like Sandwell. This community has been treated with utter contempt by the government over the slashing of the school building programme and when Michael Gove backed out of his promise to come and apologise to the parents, pupils and staff he had so badly let down, I felt ashamed to be a Conservative.

I am delighted to join the Labour Party, now the only party fighting for the ordinary hardworking people of this community.

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Saturday News Review

04/09/2010, 08:34:40 AM

Coulson & Cameron under pressure

Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said: “These are very serious allegations. If I was prime minister and Andy Coulson was working for me I would demand to know from Andy Coulson the truth. I don’t see how he can stay working in Downing Street unless he clears this up and says whether his former colleagues are telling the truth or not.” The News of the World said: “The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper. We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World.” – The Guardian

Alan Johnson said he had felt “uncomfortable” about the investigation into the News of the World by the Metropolitan Police while serving as Gordon Brown’s home secretary. It has been alleged that the Met deliberately chose not to inform MPs, celebrities and public figures, including senior police officers, that their phones may have been hacked. Mr Johnson said the case could now be taken up by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, which oversees the work of the police. “There may now be a case for the Home Secretary to ask the HMIC to investigate,” he said, adding he would use ex-ministers’ privileges to inspect the files. – The Telegraph

Hackers illegally tapped a mobile phone belonging to Tessa Jowell at least 28 times while she was a serving cabinet minister, it emerged last night. Until now, Ms Jowell, the former Culture Secretary, has not spoken publicly about the phone-tapping scandal. The scale of the hacking of a serving Cabinet minister’s telephone was uncovered by detectives who had been looking into the tapping of Prince Harry’s mobile phone. – The Independent

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Tom Watson’s letter to Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson

03/09/2010, 02:20:04 PM

Sir Paul Stephenson

Commissioner

Metropolitan Police Service

New Scotland Yard

Broadway

London

SW1H 0BG

03 September 2010

Dear Mr Stephenson,

I write as a Member of Parliament, a former cabinet office minister and a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which took evidence last year from Andy Coulson and Les Hinton about the News of the World’s illegal phone hacking operations.

The Metropolitan Police’s historic and continued mishandling of this affair is bringing your force, and hence our democracy, into disrepute.

Former assistant commissioner Brian Paddick has requested a judicial review of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation (or lack of it – we do not know) into his phone being hacked by newspapers while he was a serving officer. This is extraordinary.

Indeed, it would appear that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) may have deliberately withheld from this serving senior officer the information that his phone had been hacked. Please confirm whether this is true.

The phone of a serving Metropolitan Police commissioner was also on a list of numbers intended to be hacked by newspapers. It has been reported that an MPS investigation established that his phone had not been hacked. Please confirm whether this is true.

If it is, please confirm whether the phone of every other name on any list found of numbers intended to be hacked was also investigated.

If not, please confirm who decided, according to what criteria and on what authority which names to investigate and which to ignore.

Today it has emerged that another senior MPS officer, Michael Fuller, was also on Glen Mulcaire’s list. Please confirm how many MPS officers were on lists of names to be illegally hacked, which were investigated and which were notified.

Much anger and concern centres on your force’s failure to inform people that their names had been found on these lists. Please confirm exactly how many names were on Mulcaire’s and any other lists.

Many Members of Parliament were on these lists. The Metropolitan Police has strongly implied that all Members of Parliament so targeted had been informed. This was not true. Please confirm how many Members of Parliament were on the lists.

Please confirm who decided which Members of Parliament to notify, according to what criteria and on what authority.

Please confirm, in all other cases, who selected which victims should be notified, on what criteria, on what authority and who else had any requisite knowledge?

Please confirm who went to seize the materials, where are these materials stored, and what processes do the Met go through when answering letters and enquiries about these materials?

The New York Times allege key evidence was withheld from the Crown Prosecutions Service. Please confirm that all evidence was provided to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Your conduct of this matter is being scrutinised all over the world. So far, it is bringing shame – as has News International – on our country.

I await your early response.

Yours sincerely

Tom Watson

Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East

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Crowdsourcing the mayoral selection: Ken Livingstone

03/09/2010, 11:00:07 AM

Ken Livingstone: Time traveller

Assassination, time travel and giant humans are his weapons. Though there’s very little mention of Oona, Ken’s other opponents are clearly defined; he still bears the scars. There is a great pile of fancy biscuits in one of the rooms that makes up Ken’s campaign offices, proudly proffered by the spin doctor. Amid the phonebank volunteers plenty of Yesweken badges are strewn around. There is even a glass wall of red roses and Labour logos.

A tanned Ken arrives and launches into the questions with a swig of strong, black coffee. He’s friendly in his racontes, but sometimes he looks down and gives a wicked little laugh. Ken talks to Uncut about London politics, buying snakes, being a pharaoh and drops a couple of C-words along the way (one of them Crocs). Settle in; everything with Livingstone is a story.

Q. So, Ken. We ask the questions that people send in…

A. I know. I won’t blame you for the questions.

Q (from Micheal) What are your biggest regrets from your last spell as mayor of London?

A. Not putting out a contract on Veronica Wadley, the editor of the Evening Standard. Because she could have been taken out before that campaign started and I might have been re-elected. But it’s a real risk having your opponents bumped off. If it comes out it’s very embarrassing.

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Friday News Review

03/09/2010, 08:26:07 AM

The odd couple

Mr Miliband looks increasingly likely to appoint Mr Balls as his shadow chancellor if he wins the Labour leadership election. He used a television debate to heap praise on Mr Balls for his work in holding the Coalition to account over the economy. Mr Balls returned the favour yesterday by criticising Mr Miliband’s brother, Ed, who is the other main challenger in the race to succeed Gordon Brown. On the BBC’s Jeremy Vine Show, Mr Balls placed some of the blame on Ed Miliband, who was in charge of writing the party’s election manifesto, for the policies that came out of the No?10 “bunker” in the dying days of the Labour administration. – The Telegraph

Campaign poll

David Miliband took heart from a new YouGov poll which showed he was most likely to woo voters who rejected the party at the general election. The poll was commissioned by his campaign. It found 47% of respondents who had a view believe the shadow foreign secretary is the most effective alternative to Cameron — a 28 point lead over his nearest rival, his brother Ed, who scored 19%. Ed Balls trailed on 13%, with Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham on 11% and 10% respectively. – The Guardian

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Tom Watson on what the New York Times says Andy Coulson knew

02/09/2010, 05:48:51 PM

A fresh investigation by the New York Times has produced evidence about the News International phone hacking scandal which contradicts that given to the culture, media and sport select committee, of which I am a member, last summer.

Andy Coulson – the former editor of the News of the World who is now David Cameron’s director of communications at 10 Downing Street – told the Parliamentary enquiry that he had no knowledge of phone hacking, which was limited to rogue reporters.

Les Hinton, the former chief executive of News International who now runs Dow Jones, assured Parliament that Coulson was telling the truth; and that he himself knew equally little.

The New York Times found otherwise. “The litigation (between victims of phone hacking and News International) again is beginning to expose just how far the hacking went, something that Scotland Yard did not do. In fact, an examination based on police records, court documents and interviews with investigators and reporters shows that Britain’s revered police agency failed to pursue leads suggesting that one of the country’s most powerful newspapers was routinely listening in on its citizens.” (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 2 Comments »

Down the pub with the Labour leadership contenders

02/09/2010, 03:16:46 PM

On Monday the Mirror’s James Lyons had a brilliant interview with the leadership candidates. If you haven’t read it, you should. It’s here. If you are a Labour member, please, please read it before you vote.

We inferred from the attempts at ridiculous clever answers to almost every question that this was a set of questions emailed to the candidates rather than done on the spot. We asked, and it was a mix. See the David Miliband tattoo callback, which only works if you know what the next question is going to be. Very clever. Not very funny.

The answers are absolute gold. And one set of them really stood out. The candidates were asked:

“Which four people, real or fictional, would you most like to go down the pub with?”

This is the Mirror’s more socialist version of the ultimate dinner party question: “which 6 people dead or alive would you have at your dinner party?”

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New Labour: Cheap at half the price, says Steve Dyson

02/09/2010, 12:00:12 PM

Blimey, New Labour don’t half come cheap.

The Guardian yesterday made a great offer for its readers at the end of a multi-page plug for Tony Blair’s memoir.

A colour picture graphic on page six screamed: “To order Tony Blair: A Journey for £18.75 (RRP £25) with free UK p&p from the Guardian Bookshop call 03303 336846″.

Not bad, a £6.25 saving on day one of sales.

But hold on a minute, in the same paper, four pages earlier on page two, there was a half page advert from Waterstones that read: “His story. His words. Half price.”

This equalled a whopping £12.50 off the recommended retail price.

Quite apart from how annoyed Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger might have been at Blair’s duplicitous pricing, the discounts triggered another thought. (more…)

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Dan Hodges backs a Blairite for the leadership

02/09/2010, 10:00:10 AM

And so it ends. By this week-end, three quarters of the votes in the 2010 Labour leadership election will have been cast. The contest will effectively be over.

We’ve learnt a lot. That a lengthy campaign, far from creating a platform for intensive debate, only deadens it. That a large field of candidates, rather than introducing diversity, allows only a superficial assessment of their merits, (The ‘Newsnight’ hustings would have shamed a secondary school debating class). Most crucially, we know that the last thing a political party should do after being dumped out of office is launch straight into electing itself a new leader.

Over the past months we have been assailed by a conformity of originality. Diane Abbott promised the “turn the page election from the turn the page candidate”. Ed Balls was building a “consensus for change”. Andy Burnham pledged to move the party beyond a “London-centric elite”.

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Thursday News Review

02/09/2010, 09:35:31 AM

The Blair effect

One of the candidates, Andy Burnham, said that he was saddened that Mr Blair had chosen the day voting in the contest opens to reignite his battle with Mr Brown, through his memoirs. Mr Burnham said that he had ?huge respect? for Mr Blair and everything that he had achieved for the Labour Party. ?But I am saddened that he has chosen this day of all days to publish his book,? he said. ?Labour should be looking to the future. Labour needs to leave all this behind. Members are fed up with it. Most are not Blairites or Brownites, Old or New Labour. They are just Labour. – The Herald

The contenders for the Labour leadership have gone head to head on Channel 4 News with all five attempting to distance themselves from Tony Blair’s legacy on the day the former prime minister’s memoirs went on sale. The five hopefuls were united at least by their squabble over Tony Blair’s book, with David Miliband – widely dubbed the “heir to Blair” – calling for unity as the debate became heated. – Channel Four

The condemnation came as voting began to elect a new leader, months after Labour was ousted following 13 years in power, with former foreign secretary David Miliband tipped to succeed Gordon Brown over his brother Ed Miliband. One by one the five leadership candidates used the publication of former prime minister Mr Blair’s explosive memoirs to argue that it was time to leave the past, and particularly Mr Blair and Mr Brown, behind. In what the Brownites called ?Blair’s final revenge? he attacked his successor’s record, accused him of blackmail, asserted he had ?zero emotional intelligence? and was not ?psychologically wired? for the rigours of office. – The Australian

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