American Cop Bill Bratton to replace Sir Iain Blair as Police Commissioner?

From William Hill:

WILLIAM HILL have slashed the odds about American 'zero-tolerance' top cop Bill Bratton being made the shock successor to Sir Iain Blair, from 66/1 to 33/1.

'The LA Chief of Police has been tipped for the job, and his odds have tumbled rapidly, even though it would seem to be a bold move even for Boris to bring in an American to police the capital' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

WILLIAM HILL make Sir Paul Stephenson 1/2 favourite to become the permanent successor to Iain Blair and also offer 5/1 Sir Hugh Orde; 10/1 Sir Ronald Flanagan; Michael Fuller; Sir Paul Scot-Lee; John Yates; Bernard Hogan-Howe; 16/1 Peter Neyroud; 20/1 Tim Brain; Sir Norman Bettison; Ken Jones; 25/1 Mike Bowron.

Tony Blair - Judas Caesar, the first Emperor of Europe.

I had hoped that I was wrong when, back in October, I wrote the post "Jobs for the boys". The Mail today dashed those hopes by announcing that Tony Blair has held talks with Gordon Brown after he was urged to begin a formal campaign to become the president of the European Council. I truly believed that Blair and his cronies, when it actually came down to it, just couldn't be that cynical - could they? Well the answer is yes they bloody well could. First Blair, and then Brown broke Labour's manifesto promise to give the people a referendum, and they did it for their personal gain.

It is well documented that Blair and Brown are not what you would call "bosom buddies", yet Brown looks set to give Blair his blessing. And it stinks. It has the stench of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. I think we can stop the speculation and be sure that when Blair signed us up to the EU Treaty while he was still Prime Minister, he had his sights set on the Presidency. What does Brown get out of it - or has he already had it - did Tony step aside for Brown on the condition that he backed him for his rise to President? And will Blair have a nice little earner waiting for Brown when the British public have done with him?

We need to go all out to stop this Treaty being ratified. It is now clear we have been sold down the river by two greedy and power hungry men. We can only hope that the rest of the nation become aware of the treacherous way they are being treated. I want to put something straight - like a lot of Conservatives I'm not anti-Europe, but I am against selling our sovereignty for the vanity of Blair and Brown. Men who dream of super states and the power they can bring have lost touch with reality. All they see of such a future is themselves swanning around in limousines and making grand gestures to the flash of cameras.

We must stop them now. If we don't, we little people will become invisible and barely audible to our masters of the European super state.

Vote: Should the state funding of political parties be raised to £25m/year?

In March this year Sir Hayden Phillips produced his review of political party funding requested by Tony Blair in 2005.

The review points to two main areas of contention that need to be addressed before an agreement can be made:

1. Labour are likely to be against any cap on individual donations that could spoil it’s relationship with the trade unions

2. The Tories, who are known for pouring money into local elections to win marginal seats, are likely to oppose spending limits at local constituency level.

Sir Hayden said: "Reaching agreement will, however, depend on the willingness of the parties to engage constructively with each other in order to find a common outcome, That will take some determination, and some compromise on all sides."

State funding for the opposition parties currently stands at about £6m/year. This funding is allocated to counterbalance the ruling party’s access to governmental resources, such as the Civil Service. Sir Hayden's review recommends party funding to be increased to £25m/year?

Q. Taking into account the recent fiasco centred around "Donorgate": Should the state funding of political parties be raised to £25m/year?

Click: HERE to vote.

(The results are archived by the British Library)

Is LibDem mayoral hopeful Brian Paddick a victim of gun crime?

LibDem mayoral hopeful Brian Paddick has not been very complimentary of his former boss Sir Ian Blair. In a Daily Telegraph interview, the former deputy assistant police commissioner claimed that commissioner Blair is far too palsy-walsy with Gordon Brown's government. Brian is not pulling his punches, saying: "If there's a perception that their chief is aligned to a political party that undermines the rank and file officers. "His position is unsustainable. I think he should resign." Wow, Sir Ian should have taken notice of the famous quote by Jimmy Durante: "Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down."

Brian also believes that Blair is wrong to support Labour's proposals for ID cards and increasing the 28-day detention period. He claims that he felt pressured into backing Tony Blair's failed attempt to introduce a 90-day detention limit: "His [Sir Ian Blair's] office said 'you are a deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police and as such you will support 90 days'. It felt as if I had a gun to my head."

So much for an independent, non-political police force then? The only problem is that if Blair is righteously given the boot, we will probably see another one of Brown's mates step into his vacant size 10s. This really should be the final nail in Sir Ian's police career. If former senior police officers who worked under Blair are accusing him of being political biased, then he should hang up his truncheon.

Tony Blair caught out by a kid in Sunderland.

Tony Blair paid a secret visit to Sunderland last night and gave a speech at the Customs House. There was one question that the press had been briefed not to ask, and they didn't, but a young schoolgirl put Blair on the spot by asking it for them. The girl asked: Do you think Gordon Brown has done a good job as Prime Minister?

"Erm, yes" he floundered. "That's all I'm saying otherwise I might get into trouble."

Don't you just love kids?

The sensible money is on Blair to go, and Clegg to win.

I came across two interesting press releases from William Hills:


YOU BET BLAIR IS ON BRINK......Top cop Sir Ian Blair has been backed from 5/1 to 6/4 with William Hill to step down from office before the end of the year. Hills make him 1/2 still to be in charge at the end of 2007.


CLEGG TO CLAIM LIB DEM LEADERSHIP?.......William Hill believe that Nick Clegg is likely to beat his rival for the Lib Dem leadership, Chris Huhne.
Hills make Clegg 2/7 favourite to win the two horse race, with Huhne at 5/2, and say that almost all of the serious cash has been for Clegg, 'We have taken a series of three and four figure bets for Nick Clegg - the largest so far is £2700 from a London based internet client - while the biggest for Huhne is a £600 bet.' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.


I hope the first one is right. The second one doesn't matter much either way.

Climate Change Part 17 (UK renewable energy targets).

When will Gordon Brown's luck turn? It seems that documents have been leaked which detail how Gordon Brown will be told that the 20% target for renewable energy by 2020 faces "severe practical difficulties". This obviously translates to "it's not going to happen". The environmentally friendly Labour party have managed to put in place a massive (wait for it) 2% of our energy from renewable sources. If that is not bad enough, what little they have managed put in place is about as much use as an ejector seat on a channel tunnel train.

The government has blown (excuse the pun) half a billion pounds subsidising the wind turbine industry. It is alleged that energy companies are receiving subsidies for wind farms that will never make any money, because they have exaggerated the potential of sites with not enough wind. For a wind farm to be viable it must have a load factor of 30 per cent. But Jim Oswald, an engineering consultant, found that the average across the country was 28 per cent. Michael Jefferson, policies chairman of the World Renewable Energy Network believes that the subsidies are encouraging energy companies to exaggerate the amount of potential wind energy a farm can supply. Mr Jefferson said: "We should be putting our money where the wind is and that is quite often not where the development pressure is." In a previous post about nuclear power’s life-cycle emissions it turned out that the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions for nuclear plants are lower than that of wind farms.

The real clincher from the leaked document is the advice to Brown to work with governments like Poland who are sceptical about climate change to: "help persuade" Merkel and other leaders to set lower renewable targets.

What a shambles.

The EU Treaty - Jobs for the boys (President Tony Blair).

I've had quite a few friends and relatives who know that I'm into politics, asking me why Gordon Brown's Labour so keen to sign the EU Treaty against public opinion. And you know, I find it very difficult to answer them. The only answer I can come up with is that they are creating jobs for the boys. Today, Tony Blair is once again being touted as the first EU President by French President Nicolas Sarkazy. Of course Brown says that the selection of the new EU President has not been discussed and it won't be until after the Treaty has been ratified. There's a very good reason that Tony Blair's appointment won't be announced until after the ratification, and that's because the British public would smell one very large and very dirty rat if it was announced beforehand.

The EU is an excellent money making opportunity for an MP, allegedly the Kinnocks pull in millions from their pensions for their short service to Europe. Let's see how many ex-Labour MPs find their way into well paid and cushy EU jobs if this Treaty is ratified. Gordon and Tony's mates will be laughing all the way to the bank. If Tony Blair takes the position of EU President, he should be named Judas Caesar the first Emperor of Europe.

Today William Hague told Brown's puppet Andrew Marr: "If the Liberal Democrat MPs also break their solemn election commitment, as well as Labour MPs, then of course that makes it difficult for us to win a vote in the House of Commons." I think Marr did well not to break out into a cheesy smile at the thought of how happy that would make the puppet master. Hague went on to say: "Although those in marginal seats will have to remember that their breach of that promise is something we will remind their constituents about in some detail at the next general election." I Hope that is true and I hope that those who have sold this country out lose their seats. However there's a damn good chance that they won't care, because they may well walk straight into a EU jobs.

Britain is not the only country to be denied their democratic right to vote on their nation's future. A survey carried out by The Financial Times/Harris, showed: 76 pct of Germans, 75 pct of Britons, 72 pct of Italians, 65 pct of Spaniards and 63 pct of French wanted a referendum on the treaty. The entire population of Europe is being sold down the river by their own politicians.

If the Treaty is ratified, I will be asking my MP to put forward a motion for a vote of no confidence. If I can, I will, and I hope others will do the same. We cannot be lead by a Government that acts against the wishes of its people. They were voted in to represent us, not to betray us.

Gordon Brown is to face attack from Blairites.

Three Labour MPs, Charles Clarke, Stephen Byers and Alan Milburn are to start an attack on Gordon Brown. The story which will run in the Sunday newspapers will be the first step in a campaign by the Blairite MPs. The attack will be in the form of speeches and media interviews which will point to Browns failures since the Labour party conference.

Charlie Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, today in an article for the Sunday Times online section warns: "Making clear our vision is the challenge for the Labour party now. Because if we rely on experience and our ability to handle crises and do not set out... our vision for the future of the UK, a vision which represents the progressive view of politics, then we will be offering drift not leadership, and the past not the future."

Can things get any worse for Brown? In what has got to be one of the biggest turnarounds in political history, Gordon is very likely to be fighting for his position as leader of the Labour party.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Gordon Bottler Brown knows no shame. The Andrew Marr Interview.

Gordon Brown left the threat of a General Election hanging over the Conservative conference in an attempt to throw it into disarray. Then in a move of cynical spin unmatched in modern times he used and abused our soldiers for his political maneuverings. Luckily his "Troop Trick" stunt backfired on him in the press. Following the Tory conference and some very unfavourable poll results for Labour, he bottled it and announced that he would not call an election.

To top it all he told his pet reporter Andrew Marr that he was going to steal the best (most popular) policy to come out of the Conservative conference. The man without a shadow of a doubt knows no shame. If you can stomach it, you can watch Brown waffle and dodge during his interview with Marr by clicking HERE. In my opinion (and I'm not alone on this) Andrew Marr gave Brown a very easy ride.

George Osborne hit the nail on the head saying: "The Labour Party promised us at the last election that Tony Blair would serve the full term and then there would be an election. Well, Tony Blair's gone, the new guy's in charge, he's been there for a while now. He's deliberately stoked up speculation about an election and now he's gone and bottled it."

Tony Blair's reaction to Brown bottling the election.

A picture paints a thousand words. I can't help thinking Tony Blair will be just a little pleased with this news.

David Miliband, you say it best when you say nothing at all.

In his speech yesterday, David Miliband referred to Tony Blairs foreign policy saying: "The lesson is that it's not good enough to have good intentions." The gist of little David's speech was to "move on" from Blair's poor foreign policy (the one he and most other labour MPs supported) and implement a "second wave" .

Now I would like to tell you what this second wave entails, but seeing as David did not tell the conference, I can't tell you. He reiterated the importance of our relationship with the US, while offering nothing new in the way of policy towards Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gordon Brown muddied the waters further by declaring that any future decisions to go to war would have to go before parliament. This is the worst form of spin from Gordon Brown yet! There was a parliamentary vote to go to war with Iraq. In 2003 a motion supporting the use of UK forces in Iraq was passed in parliament by a massive majority of 412 to 149. Gordon's new party are trying to tell us that all of Britain's problems are down to Tony Blair. Well they were in cabinet, they were advising, they were voting and if you asked them at the time they fully supported Tony's foreign policy.

Miliband voted for the Iraq war but is now trying to deflect the blame by saying that he initially had reservations about it. If you look at Miliband's voting record on the They work for you website, you will see what a pack of lies this man is trying to push on the voters. He voted very strongly for the Iraq war and he voted strongly against investigating the Iraq war. Oh, and just so you know who you are dealing with, David Miliband has never voted on a transparent Parliament.

Tony Blair's legacy? - Gordon Brown's scapegoat.

The TUC vote in favour of an EU Treaty Referendum.

UPDATE: The Unions have voted in favour of a call for a referendum on the EU treaty.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is not looking good for Gordon is it?. You've got to admire Tony Blair's political savvy, he knew the exact moment when the kitchen was getting a little too hot. One person who does not posses Blair's foresight is the Minger (Ming Campbell) who has said he will not back calls for a referendum. How much notice the LibDems will take of the meaningless one I don't know, but if I was a guessing man, I would say - not much.

Tony Blair was lucky enough to be Prime Minister when the people of this country seemed to be in a slumber. Gordon Brown is going to get our full attention.

We want a bloody referendum on the EU Treaty!

Labour, Tough On Crime - Tough On Manipulating The Statistics Of Crime

Hat Tip:Views From The Asylum

Leaked Cabinet Minutes (Well, Sort Of).

Tuesday morning Cabinet meeting in the Council Chamber.

Gordon: “Good morning my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to start today's meeting in the usual way with a prayer - Oh Lord protect us, the minorities of this land, from the English. Let them remain ignorant to our purpose and let our spin forever fog their minds. Amen and Ock aye the noo.”

Cabinet: “Amen and Ock aye the noo.” (various whispers of "Sassenach filth" and “chav scum” )

Gordon: “Now now, remember the secretary is taking minutes and we still need to find a way to sneak that Freedom of Information Exemption Bill through.”

Cabinet: (mutterings of “expenses are a bloody perk” and “bugger the unwashed masses”)

Gordon: “Yes, well, moving on to the apologies. It seems that the entire Cabinet have managed to attend. Well done everyone.”

Cabinet: Here! Here!

Gordon: “We have however, had one apology. It’s from he who must not be named. He says ‘sorry’.”

Darling: “I don’t understand, why is Ton… er… I mean, he who must not be named, apologising for missing the meeting? I thought we had got rid of him.”

Gordon: “He’s not apologising for missing the meeting Darling, he’s just apologising!”

Miliband: “Tee hee, good one boss.”

Gordon: “You are a lovely boy David. Who says I can’t do witty? Eh? Eh?”

Darling: “Not me Gordon, I think you are ever so frightfully funny!”

Gordon: “Stop snivelling Darling.”

Darling: “Me snivelling? What about Dave ‘the wonder boy’ Miliband?”

Gordon: “Leave David out of this Darling - he’s special. (Gordon’s eyes mist over for a few seconds) Ahem, now where was I? oh yes, has anybody got anything interesting going on in their ministries?”

Cabinet: (Non-committal mutterings).

Gordon: “Come now, someone must have something going on. Hilary, don’t you have something you would like to share with the group?

Hilary Benn: “Weeeell, there is that tiresome little outbreak of foot and mouth that could just possibly be from that lab we cut the funds to last year. But if you’ve seen BBC News 24 you know as much as I do.”

Gordon: “Right, here is what we are going to do in this period of national crisis: Hilary you are to continue watching BBC News 24 and keep the rest of us up to speed on any developments they report. Ok?”

Hilary Benn: “Yes boss, you can count on me boss, it’s all under control, I‘m your man boss.”

Gordon: “Hilary, don’t call me boss, it’s Gordon or PM. Got it?”

Hilary Benn: “But Miliband gets to call you boss, boss.”

Gordon: “For God’s sake! For the last time, David is special! Bugger, I’ve got one of my heads coming on now. Right that’s it, this meeting is over. Miss Jones I’m going to take my daily exercise to see if I can work this head off. Please see that I’m not disturbed.”

Secretary: “Yes Prime Minister, sir.”

Gordon: “I’ll see you later David.” (The spirit of a smile forms briefly on Gordon’s lips).

Gordon leaves the meeting and no more than a minute later, a strange, rhythmic creaking is heard coming from the room above the Council Chamber and the faint, strangled cries of “giddy-up Dobbin, giddy-up Dobbin,” drift down upon the puzzled gathering.

Vote: Should we extend the 28 day limit on holding terrorism suspects before charge?

A joint committee on human rights, made up of MPs and Peers, has been formed to look into the need to extend the 28 day limit on holding terrorism suspects before charge. The committee have found that there is not enough evidence to support the extension.

The government have tried to extend the limit before, they wanted to be able to hold terror suspects for 90 days without charge, this move was rejected and led to Tony Blair's first Commons defeat as PM. In a compromise, the 14-day limit was extended to 28 days.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "There is certainly information that recent alleged plots are more complex, contain more products - whether or not they are phones or computers or witness statements or house searches - than was the case when Parliament considered this previously. And what we know about international connections and the experience of investigating up to this point all give us at least a strong view that the time is now right to reconsider whether or not, and how, it might be necessary to allow longer than 28 days for pre-charge questioning."

Arguing for more flexibility on the limit, Ken Jones, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said: "We are not arguing for some kind of Guantanamo nonsense for the UK. It needs to be as long as is proportionate and necessary, subjected to sufficient judicial checks and balances. We do not want internment. That would be crazy." In response, Shami Chakrabarti, of campaign group Liberty said: "We elect politicians to determine legislation and we expect chief constables to uphold the rule of law, not campaign for internment."

Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis said: "All the evidence shows that when the police tried to claim the need for 90-day detention without charge they were wrong and Parliament's decision on 28 days was right. Since the 28-day limit was introduced neither the police or security services have produced one shred of evidence to demonstrate the need for extension, either in public or in confidential briefings."

Condemning an extension, Liberal Democrat MP, Evan Harris said: "The police have not provided evidence from their experience of recent investigations that the current 28-day limit - already one of the longest for a democracy - is not sufficient to collect evidence to bring charges."

Q. Should we extend the 28 day limit on holding terrorism suspects before charge?

Click: HERE to vote.

(The results are archived by the British Library)

Tony Blair Steps Down as Prime Minister Poem

Ten years gone and it started so well

Is there a legacy? only time will tell

He gave hope and money to the poor masses

Too many stayed at home, sat on their asses

With words and smiles he beat the Tories

And then took us to war on intelligence stories

In Baghdad our troops were welcomed with cheers and songs

Before too long they were dodging bullets and bombs

Hospitals got dirty and the prisons were brimming

The bright lights of labour were steadily dimming

Boys on our streets with asbos and tags

Teenage girls with full stomachs taking drags on their fags

They taxed for this and they taxed for that

Where was the tax from the city fat cat?

Gold should have been sold when the price hit the ceiling

It was sold at rock bottom and we were left reeling

Tony steps down to be replaced by his ex-mate

Gordon the man with no vote or mandate

Who will shed tears? only a few

Tony will be back, as president of the EU

The Big Red Book of New Labour Sleaze

The Big Red Book of New Labour Sleaze will be available from the 27/06/07. However you can pre-order it by clicking on the graphic above at a reduced price of £8.49 ( Normally £9.99).

The first edition of this book was one of the first ever written by a collection of internet bloggers. Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes run two of Britain's most read political blogs and they invited their fellow bloggers and blog readers to contribute to the book, which details more than 140 instances of New Labour sleaze since 1997 - cronyism, nepotism, sex, money, drugs - you name it, New Labour have been at it.

Charting the fall of New Labour, from the heights of the 1997 election victory to the depths of John Prescott's diary secretary, the book has now been fully updated to include even more sleaze:

- Peter Mandelson's Mortgages
- Ron Davies's 'Moment of Madness'
- David Blunkett and Nannygate
- Bernie Ecclestone's Donation
- Loans for Lordships
- John Prescott's Cocktail Sausage
- Lord Irvine's Wallpaper
- Margaret Beckett's Air Miles
- Cherie Blair's Freebie Holidays
- Tessa Jowell's Mortgages
- The Dodgy Dossier
- Stephen Byers
- Jo Moore Burying Bad News
- Derek Draper and Lobbygate
- Badger Watching with Ron Davies
- Cherie Blair Signing the Hutton Report
- Gordon Brown and the Smith Institute
- Cherie Blair's 'lecture' tours
- Gordon Brown’s Spinning Addiction

And many more...

VOTE: Should we have a national referendum on the EU Treaty?

Bertie Ahern the Irish premier has promised his country a referendum on the new EU Treaty. Mr Ahern believes that the Treaty contains 90% of the original constitution, and that signing up to the Treaty should be the peoples decision.

In the last election campaign Tony Blair said: “We don’t know what is going to happen in France, but we will have a referendum on the Constitution in any event — and that is a Government promise.”

Now Mr Blair is saying: “There was no tradition of holding votes on treaties. If it's not a constitutional treaty, so that it alters the basic relationship between Europe and the member states, then there isn't the same case for a referendum."

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "What he (Mr Blair) is saying now sounds suspiciously like an attempt to introduce elements of it (EU Constitution) by the back door, despite its decisive rejection by the voters of France and Holland. This would go against the government's previous assurances and be totally unacceptable to the people of Britain."

Q. Should we have a national referendum on the EU Treaty?

Click: HERE to view the results.

(The results are archived by the British Library)

EU Treaty - A short guide by Cranmer

For a short guide to the proposed EU Treaty and what Blair wants to give away, please read Cranmer's excellent post HERE.