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Blunkett wades in with a whopper!

UPDATE (23 March) – Bloody hell! Blunkett is even more shouty-crackers in today’s Sun! He starts off with a ‘this is the way it’s always been done’ pre-amble, then gets up a full head of steam for this:

There are some people who blame Tony Blair for the latest ruckus. Come off it! Of course he takes responsibility. But does anyone REALLY think that in the middle of an 18-hour-a-day election campaign he has the time to ask about every contribution “Is this a loan or a gift?” You might just have thought that this was the job of the party treasurer, Jack Dromey, who suddenly became aware of it and went into quite a tizzy.

The Independent points out the following this morning: Can the loans be converted into donations at a later date? Yes. There is nothing to stop the loans quietly being turned into donations when the dust has settled. Some of the lenders, such as Chai Patel, actually offered donations but were told to make them loans.

I’m going to ask you to think about that for a moment… these people came offering donations, but were instead asked for loans. Were it not for this scandal, how many of them do you think would be prepared to simply write off the loan after a suitable period? You get ten points if you answered correctly; All. Of. Them.

Oh dear. Accidental money. What a shame. Boy, it’s a good thing that all of the paperwork is above board.

How in the hell did Labour Downing Street expect to pay the money back? Short answer; they didn’t.

(Phew. That was a close one. For a while there, I though Tony Blair might be a radical rapturist; determined to forcibly bring about the conditions required for the return of Jesus to Earth and caring not a jot about what the bank might want a few months from now.)

Now compare this to the behaviour of Capita (whose executive chairman Rod Aldridge played the above ‘loan’ game for as long as he thought he could get away with it), where they typically go in with the lowest bid then go well over budget… but still keep getting contract after contract from this government!

Oh dear. Accidental money. What a shame. Boy, it’s a good thing that all of the paperwork is above board.

PS – I found this dated but useful report on Capita contracts during my travels, but it would be much, much more useful to have some proper access to past issues of Private Eye.

Oh dear…

26 January 2006

Written answers:

Norman Baker (Lewes, LDem):

To ask the Prime Minister whether he plans to (a) review and (b) reform the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.

Tony Blair (Prime Minister):

No.

Oh *dear*….

22 March 2006

Independent – Police probe ‘loans for peerages’ in blow to Blair: Tony Blair’s attempt to draw a line under the “loans for peerages” scandal was scuppered when Scotland Yard launched an investigation into the alleged sale of honours by Labour. Hours after Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) agreed to close ranks to limit the damage from the affair, the Metropolitan Police said its specialist crime directorate was looking into three complaints about alleged breaches of a 1925 law passed following the sale of peerages by David Lloyd George when he was Prime Minister. Two of the complaints were made by the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru, and Labour officials hope the move will be seen as a political stunt. There has been only one prosecution under the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act.

CuriousHamster – Time’s Up: Two views of Blair. One conclusion. Parris, an ex-Tory MP writing in the Times, gets Blair exactly right. The Guardian’s rather generous suggestion that “Mr Blair risks becoming a leader without purpose beyond power” is consistent with a newspaper which, despite the criticisms it does air, has backed Blair pretty consistently over the years.

I’d like to add to that, if I may.

Most of Blair’s crimes normally get the following treatment in the Sun:

A. No mention whatsoever and/or heavy focus on a largely invented story designed to divert our attention.
B. A cursory mention on Page 2, but no editorial.
C. Heavy focus with a sympathetic angle and/or editorial.
D. All of the above in sequence if the story fails to go away.

Today, this story manages to stay off the front page (the Sun and the Express are the only major newspapers not to feature in on the front page today) and is placed on Page 2, but just take a look at the focus of it…

The Scum – PM pal’s contract bonanza: The millionaire boss of a firm that runs public-sector contracts worth billions secretly loaned the Labour party 1million. Rod Aldridge, boss of systems giant Capita, appeared on a list – released by party officials – of 12 tycoons who gave a total of 14million. It is the latest in a series of “loans for favours” scandals to hit the Government. Capita has secured a range of highly lucrative contracts under Labour, including setting up the Criminal Records Bureau (worth 400MILLION), running London’s congestion charge scheme (250MILLION over five years) and TV licence fee collection (500MILLION over ten years). It also sends out council tax bills and administers teachers’ pensions. Capita recently revealed its profits leapt 19 per cent to 177million last year. Mr Aldridge said at the time: “The two top markets for us would be the life and pensions market and central Government.” About 46 per cent of Capita’s contracts are with the public sector but it has a dubious track record. Its CRB arm was fined £2million for hindering schools checking criminal records of would-be teachers. And London Mayor Ken Livingstone dubbed Capita “hopeless” over its handling of the congestion charge. Mr Aldridge, 57, one of Britain’s 300 richest men, earned £2.2million last year. The dozen money men made their loans to Labour before the 2005 election – helping Mr Blair to his third victory. In a bid to head off the row last night, Mr Aldridge said he wanted his loan paid back by October – with interest. Meanwhile, snooty Lord Falconer last night arrogantly joked that being Tony Blair’s old FLATMATE got him his peerage. He told guests at a Commons event: “I did not pay for my peerage – sharing a flat with Tony Blair was perfectly adequate.” He and Mr Blair had a flat together when both were young lawyers. The other businessmen on yesterday’s list of Labour financiers were: Richard Caring, rag trade king and owner of London’s Ivy restaurant (2m); property magnate Sir David Garrard (2.3m); biosciences Prof Sir Christopher Evans (1m); software entrepreneur Gordon Crawford (500,000); finance chief Nigel Morris (1m); food tycoon Sir Gulam Noon (250,000); Priory Clinic founder Dr Chai Patel (1.5m); property bigwig Andrew Rosenfeld (1m); Science Minister Lord David Sainsbury (2m); financial services boss Barry Townsley (1m); City financier Derek Tullett (400,000). HALF of voters believe Tony Blair should step down as PM within a year, a Newsnight poll reveals today – with almost a third saying he should go NOW.

As CuriousHamster and Nosemonkey point out, our public broadcaster and the broadsheets even now remain reluctant to give the Crapita/Blair relationship the long-overdue attention it deserves. Doesn’t it feel just a little bit odd to see it in the Downing Street Echo?

And check out this editorial…

The Scum – A bad smell: John Prescott predictably tries to divert the sleaze spotlight from Labour to Tories. It won’t wash. The Tories made no secret of the loans they’ve raised. Nor are they in power. Labour has been in office for nine years, and has turned gongs-for-gifts into a growth industry. Now it emerges Capita boss Rod Aldridge, who gave 1million to Labour, has boosted profits on the back of public sector deals. The tendering process was almost certainly above reproach. And Mr Aldridge is not on the present list of would-be peers. But the honours system is now an open sewer – and the more we learn, the worse it stinks.

You may also note the leading editorial that begins; “The Home Secretary is willing to insult the bereaved dad of a 7/7 bomb victim, but he won’t lift a politically-correct finger to protect us against killers.”

I can’t find the related article… could they actually be referring to this?

It looks to me as if Murdoch is ready to cut and run and continue his glorious war on evil with a new subordinate.

Add to this that even people like Johann Hari admitting he was wrong about Iraq and the usual defence measures start to look more than a little futile.

And this week, we even have the timely return of Alan B’Stard to enjoy.

Are we finally there? Have we reached that point where the holding wall will collapse and all of the dirty secrets buried behind it will come spilling out?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been suffering from expectation fatigue for too long to dare to hold any great hope… but I will take the time to engage in some voodoo today and scan the news for that magical word ‘Capita’ tomorrow.

UPDATE – Financial Times – Aldridge loan puts spotlight on Capita contracts

UPDATE – Ahahahahahahahaha! Now this is more like what we’re used to from Team Blair… Alastair must be back at his desk:

BBC – Clarke targets Labour treasurer: Charles Clarke says he has “serious questions about Jack Dromey’s capacity” as Labour treasurer after the row over the 14m of secret loans to the party. The home secretary told a Westminster lunch the fact Mr Dromey did not know about the loans meant “you have to wonder how well he was doing his work”. He said any competent treasurer, even honorary ones, looked at the finances of organisations they were involved in.

Check the spin on that. That’s quality, that is.

UPDATE – CuriousHamster – Contempt All Round: In other news, a professional criminal, finally caught after a long and fruitful crime spree, has complained that the police’s continual failure to catch him raised serious questions about their capacity to do their jobs.

UPDATE – TalkPolitics – Unbe-fucking-lievable: But, of course, Clarke may his own, rather more selfish reasons for trying to smear Dromey – after all the company, Capita, headed up by one of the donors who bunced the party a cool million before the election, Rod Aldridge, is not only making a nice living out of outsourced government contracts but is also one of the 160 companies to have registered an interest in bidding for contracts for the ID cards system, should that ever break free from the current Commons/Lords games of legisilative ping-pong.

Guardian – Unhappy Prescott defends PM as poll ratings dive
Blood & Treasure – Tony the time waster
Beau Bo Blog – Loans for honours
CuriousHamster – Totally Above Board
BlairWatch – David Mills For Party Treasurer!
Nick Robinson – Question of the day

You know, as interesting as it is to see the putrid contents spilling on the floor following this forced autopsy – and as entertaining as it is to see Tony Blair take control of the fundraising issue (which is surely the issue here) with immediate and bold action that’s almost a decade overdue – the thing that really sticks with me is this:

What. That. Money. Was. Spent. On.

The answer is incredibly simple, and easy to spin in that infuriatingly earnest way that Blair has; this money was spent on ‘real people’…

Quite early on in this ‘game’ with new rules, Blair assured Parliament that he would be held accountable by the electorate (rather than, say, history or God) if he was wrong about Iraq… so of course it was vitally important that – during his 2005 election campaign – the issue only ever came up in tightly controlled conditions. We wouldn’t want the electorate getting carried away, now would we?

And so it was that Tony Blair found himself in a magical fantasy land where everyone he met was far more interested in his vision of the future than his crimes of the past..

Independent – ‘Rent-a-crowds’ ensure nothing is left to chance on campaign trail (mirror)
Dead Men Left – Like a Virgo
Guardian – ‘We only work for croissants’
Guardian – How Labour used its election troops to fake popular support

Admittedly, these ‘real people’ were so thin on the ground that they had to be rationed carefully and shipped with great care…. however, sometimes Tony also needed a ‘real setting’ in which to meet ‘real people’, and here the costs were higher… especially so in this election. (In 2001, shutting down entire cafes for staged meetings with the ‘public’ was the norm (an interesting article that touches on this can be read here). In 2005, they actually *built* outdoor cafes so Blair could have a ‘spontaneous’ chats in them.)

There was also the much larger army of agenda-setters… and thanks to people like Zack Exley, the ‘genuine letter from a concerned constituent’ technique was given a 21st-century upgrade. Blogs, discussion groups and feedback boards were chock-full of ‘real people’ trying to:

1. Keep us ‘on-message’ (“Schools! Hospitals! Free ice-cream!”) and plea with us to shut up about Iraq.
2. Warn us of the ‘certainty’ that the Tories would win should we dare to deliver a protest vote over Iraq.
3. Paint any attempt to force accountability over Iraq via the ballot box as a mindless/personal attack on Tony Blair.
4. Defend Blair over Iraq and the war on terror in ways that he and his ministers would never dare. (“You know, sometimes it’s right to torture people. Why, if there were a ticking time bomb…”)

‘Honest’ John Prescott was wheeled out over the weekend to assure us that campaigns needed to be well-funded for the good of the people. He said; “If you want an informed democracy, you’ve got to have campaigning.”

Ah, yes… an informed democracy. Nothing quite like it, is there?