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Posts Tagged ‘Tom Watson’

What would JFK have made of the Tories’ duplicitous weakness on 28 days detention?

19/01/2011, 10:30:27 AM

by Tom Watson

Tomorrow marks 50 years since John F Kennedy’s inaugural presidential address. When David Cameron attends the Nordic conference on behalf of the nation later in the week, his handlers will no doubt try to mark the anniversary by enveloping him in Kennedy stardust. My hunch is that he will want to talk tough, as JFK sometimes did: “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill”.

Cameron is still looking for international recognition equivalent to that of Blair and Brown and Thatcher. Those television images of statesmen shaking hands in exotic places are the particles of political legacies that politicians crave. In all of Cameron’s grasping hunt for glory, he can only dream of a legacy as enduring as JFK’s. Yet there is a grim reality for our prime minister, one that is only now beginning to reveal itself to him. If you want to leave a positive political legacy in the age of the internet, you probably have to be shot or spend 30 years in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.

And if you don’t believe me, think about the nearest thing the Labour party has to JFK, Tony Blair. That man used to walk on water. The day after tomorrow he will be at the Chilcot enquiry for the second time, wading through misery, as the detail of his decision to take us into Iraq is surgically examined. It wasn’t meant to be this way.

It’s probably an understatement to say that I’ve had disagreements with Mr Blair, but his humiliating second appearance before the committee in some way seems an unworthy way to treat a former prime minister. (more…)

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A snap election promises Cameron the glory he craves

12/01/2011, 07:00:05 AM

by Tom Watson

The Conservatives are preparing for a general election in May. That is what a devilishly well-placed conservative insider told me in response to my “Operation Detach” column last week.

My source has been spot on in the past. He also told me that the working assumption for Andy Coulson’s departure announcement was now 25th January. He told me this to help justify his argument that an election in May was a strong possibility. Clearing the decks and all that.

I immediately dismissed the idea of an early election, but it has gnawed at me since. And the more I think about it, the more I think the logic is impeccable. It was Peter Oborne’s brilliantly incisive new year’s eve column that firmed up my thinking.

Here’s the rationale within the Cameron camp: (more…)

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The week Uncut

08/01/2011, 02:30:23 PM

In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:

David Cameron forgets his candidates name in Oldham East & Saddleworth

Tom Watson reveals details of the secret Lib Dem “Operation Detach”

Sally Bercow says Dave’s bottle-out on fox hunting is a broken pledge to cheer

New evidence brings new questions for the director of public prosecutions

David Seymour asks: where is the left when the country needs it?

Lib Dem candidate would have unsuccessfully lobbied himself on tuition fees

Dan Hodges brings us a personal tale of unrequited love

Kevin Meagher reckons Cameron’s a class act & it’s high time we took him out

Atul Hatwal thinks BAME Labour is a waste of everyone’s time

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New hacking evidence: Tom Watson’s letter to the director of public prosecutions

07/01/2011, 07:12:33 AM

Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions

Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge
London,SE1 9HS

6 January 2011

As you know, News International has suspended a senior executive in light of ongoing allegations about the News of the World’s illegal phone hacking activities.

A Parliamentary enquiry has found News Corp guilty of “collective amnesia” when it comes to phone hacking. It also found it “inconceivable” that others were not involved in the practice.

News Corp’s response to this was to say that that phone hacking involved a single “rogue reporter”.

Their own actions now prove beyond reasonable doubt that this was not true.

Only court disclosures of the Mulcaire evidence file have led them to act. They otherwise had no intention. They ascribed all the illegal activity to a single rogue reporter.

On December 10 last year, when announcing that Scotland Yard’s most recent hacking inquiry had found no evidence of crime, you said that you would consider setting up panel of police and prosecutors if new evidence came to light.

On December 15 last year, when yet more new evidence came to light – as it has done pretty much every week for several years now (on this occasion, the Sienna Miller case) – Nick Davies of the Guardian asked your office (privately) for some points of clarification:

1. At the time of the original police investigation, in 2006, did Scotland Yard provide the CPS with material which they seized from Glenn Mulcaire which related to his investigations of Sienna Miller, Jude Law and their associates?

2. At the time of the original police investigation, in 2006, did Scotland Yard provide the CPS with a document which they seized from Glenn Mulcaire in which he agreed to engage in ‘electronic intelligence and eavesdropping’ and to supply the News of the World with daily transcripts of the messages of a list of named targets from ‘political, royal and showbiz/entertainment?

3. Will the evidence referred to by Sienna Miller’s lawyers be assessed by the panel of police officers and prosecutors referred to in the DPP’s statement of December 10 2010 with a view to deciding whether a new investigation should take place?

In the intervening three weeks, you have not answered – indeed you have not addressed – any of the questions.

As MPs and victims of these crimes, we now ask you publicly: please would you answer these simple questions of fact?

As the edifice of lies which has been allowed to shield these sordid events for so long begins truly to crumble, there will be as few places for the complicit to hide as for the criminal. Now is the time for you to establish the panel and set up a real investigation that you promised to consider.

That way, there is the slight possibility that the non-metropolitan police and the judicial system may be able to emerge from the ruins of this democratic disaster with at least a scintilla of credibility.

Yours sincerely

Tom Watson

Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East

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Secret Lib Dem “Operation Detach” is a council of despair

05/01/2011, 07:00:29 AM

by Tom Watson

David Laws is keeping himself useful by masterminding the Lib Dems’ 2015 general election campaign. Every month, he meets Nick Clegg to discuss the latest market research and share results of message-testing. Back in the summer, they jokingly called the meetings “Operation Detach”. The phrase has stuck and is used by special advisers to impress their friends that they are in the know.

“Operation Detach” is about the Lib Dems trying to carve out a distinct identity in time for 2015. Back in the balmy days of the coalition’s summer, “Detach” meetings were jovial, good natured and full of enthusiasm. But it’s been the longest winter for Nick Clegg. Laws is apparently toning down the results of the research, so as not to further depress his leader. These days, Clegg’s responses are monosyllabic as Laws delivers him the not-as-bleak-as-he-knows news.

Laws’ research confirms what the whole nation thinks: the Liberal Democrats have been brutalised by the Conservatives inside the government. The internal polls show Lib Dem supporters in despair as they complain that Nick Clegg has lain down and been trampled by the Tories. (more…)

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Memoirs of a geezer: self-justification in the age of bad manners

29/12/2010, 08:00:19 AM

by Tom Watson

Anthony Seldon has published a biography of Gordon Brown. I broke a golden rule and agreed to be interviewed, because I admire him and he charmed me into it. My father in law raves about his books. So I relented and talked to him for over an hour in July. It was a mistake.

After a quick skim-read of the pages on which I’m quoted or mentioned, the results do not appear disastrous. But I still feel sullied. And though I hope I’ve not hurt the feelings of the subject, I’m not sure if I’ve contributed to a greater understanding of the times.

Nevertheless, I’m told that Mr Seldon gives a good account of Gordon’s time in Number 10 – as told to him by the great leader’s friends and foes. Yet reading many of the books chronicling contemporary political times is a poor way to understand the period covered. (more…)

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Neck deep in News Corp: damning letter to Sir Gus O’Donnell

23/12/2010, 02:17:31 PM

Sir Gus O’Donnell

Cabinet Secretary

Cabinet Office

70 Whitehall

London

SW1A 2AS

23 December 2010

Dear Gus,

I have written to you several times in the past few weeks about matters of propriety and the ethics of government. I am now writing to ask about such matters again, this time in relation to the behaviour and statements of Vince Cable and Jeremy Hunt regarding News Corp.

1. Vince Cable

Vince Cable was revealed, in a tape recording which the nation has heard, to have been explicitly intending to abuse his position in the most extraordinary way. He was planning, while pretending quasi-judicial impartiality, to make an entirely political ruling without regard to the facts or to Ofcom advice.

How does removing him from this particular decision alter his unsuitability for office? How can he be considered a fit and proper person to take decisions about the rest of the nation’s business, industry and higher education?

I would be grateful to know whether and what advice you gave the Prime Minister about Vince Cable’s suitability to remain in office in light of his intention to pervert the proper processes of government.

2. Jeremy Hunt

It has been revealed today that a DCMS official confirmed Jeremy Hunt met James Murdoch on 28 June – shortly after News Corp made its takeover bid to buy the remaining 61 per cent of BSkyB. The spokesperson said: “I can confirm that this was an informal first meeting between Jeremy Hunt as secretary of state and James Murdoch, and there was no written agenda or briefing. Officials did not sit in on the meeting”.

The official also stated that a second meeting took place between Mr Hunt and Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB’s chief executive, on 21 July where no minutes were taken either; and that an unnamed civil servant had warned Mr Hunt that Mr Darroch was likely to ask about changes to media regulation.

And yet, in a written Parliamentary answer on this matter, I was told that no formal meetings had taken place with either James Murdoch or other representatives of News International (17852). (more…)

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Tom Watson: Michael Moore has broken the ministerial code

23/12/2010, 07:00:04 AM

If you can’t see the letter in the document viewer below, the plain text version is here.

TW_dc22

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Tom Watson: Michael Moore has broken the ministerial code

23/12/2010, 06:59:23 AM

Mr David Cameron MP

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

22 December 2010

Dear Mr Cameron,

BREACH OF THE MINISTERIAL CODE

I enclose a copy of a press statement circulated today by Matthew Harvey of the Scotland Office, and the Scotland Office’s Press Office, in which Secretary of State Michael Moore MP gives his reaction to the Daily Telegraph story “Liberal Democrat ministers condemn scrapping of child benefit”. (more…)

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Ignorant, hypocritical buffoon. And worse. Cable must go.

22/12/2010, 10:44:15 AM

by Tom Watson

I like the guy. I held out hope he might end up being the axle of progressive politics in Britain. Yet it’s hard to resist the urge to slap Vince Cable around the chops.

Six months into the Conservative-led government, he’s left himself looking like, and let’s not mince words, he looks like a cock. What a total ignoramus. What a self-indulgent buffoon. What a hypocrite. For the protection of his own dignity, he should resign.

There are two winners out of this episode: David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch.

Here’s what Jeremy Hunt recently said in Broadcast magazine about Rupert Murdoch:

“Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person because of his huge investment in setting up Sky TV which, at one point, was losing several million pounds a day.

We would be the poorer and wouldn’t be saying that British TV is the envy of the world if it hadn’t been for him being prepared to take that commercial risk. We need to encourage that kind of investment”.

Here’s what independent media analyst, Clair Enders recently said:

“Somewhere between 2015 and 2020, News International, Sky will control 50% of the newspaper and television markets respectively…..They will have a force de frappe which none of their competitors can match, while the BBC’s income will be negotiated downwards, and ITV simply lives with the ebb and flow of the advertising market”.

So, the company that hacked the phones of the royal princes will own half the newspaper and television market in Britain. If this was Zimbabwe, we’d be sending resolutions to the United Nations about it. It’s not though, and Jeremy Hunt, easily the most ambitious member of the cabinet, will make the decision.

That’s why Cable has to go. He can’t do his job. We trusted that he would do the right thing. Faced with the indisputable truth about media plurality in Britain we were counting on him to face down all opposition and for the first time in decades, stand up to Rupert Murdoch. And now he can’t.

Do you think that Jeremy Hunt, having said what he said about Rupert Murdoch, is going to go against his instincts and turn down News Corp’s bid for complete control of Sky? No. Neither do I.

Like Clare Short in Tony Blair’s administration after the resignation of Robin Cook, Cable’s days are numbered. I can’t understand how he can allow the public humiliation to last longer than today. But ministerial office does that to some people. They can’t let it go.

In choosing a slow lingering death, Cable has further weakened Clegg and the coaltion partners, though they appear too frightened and stupid to know this.

It’s inevitable. He’s broken one of the rules of being a minister. It’s probably the third rule concerning standards in public life. The one that says:?

“In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.”

We’ll no doubt be arguing about this for days to come, but we already know that Cable has broken the even bigger rule of ministerial life: don’t believe the hype. His own ego has destroyed him.

The Cable incident is another unforced error from a ragged government. Paradoxically, it helps Cameron as he strengthens his grip on a coalition government that has been shown to be paralysed by disagreement and personal loathing between ministers.

My God, what a mess though. And we’re only six months in.

Tom Watson is Labour MP for West Bromwich East

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