Cabinet Ministers rally round Brown my arse!!!

Don't you just love the BBC? Not at all biased are they? Definitely not under the government's thumb?

How the hell can they have the cheek to have this as their No1 story: Cabinet Ministers rally round Brown.

They say: Both Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Justice Secretary Jack Straw defended the prime minister's leadership, at the end of a tough week for the government.

Hardly rallying round is it? There are Twenty four Cabinet Ministers. Johnson was put on the spot on the Andrew Marr show, so it looks like only Jack Straw went out of his way to support Brown.

The BBC must do better if they want to look even slightly impartial.

This is your pilot Gordon Brown speaking (re-post).

I posted this back in May when John Prescott came up with a strange analogy to defend Gordon Brown's sullen demeanour on the Andrew Marr show: "When you get on an aeroplane, do you go and look in the cockpit to see if the pilot is smiling". Now Jack Straw has come out with this:

"The question for the country is who is better to take us through this turbulent period? "Is it an experienced pilot and co-pilot in Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, who have had the experience… or is it two people in David Cameron and George Osborne, who have had no experience of flying a large plane whatsoever?"

So imagine the situation:

Hullo, this is the pilot speaking. We have been informed that our arrival in New York has been delayed. This nothing to do with us, this kind of delay is happening around the world and I'm afraid it's out of my hands. Now, normally this is the point where I would say that there's no need for concern.... but, you see, ah - now how shall I put this? You know that we normally carry enough fuel in reserve for occasions like this? Well erm, we haven't today. Not my fault, you see - we've run out of money. Those fancy new seats you're sitting on cost an absolute fortune and I'm still paying for them. Yes I know they are uncomfortable and the recline function doesn't work, but hey, you've got to admit they look good - at least you'll die in style.

Now here's the rub: we haven't enough fuel to make for another airport, so there is a choice to be made. Do we crash on land or into the sea? I can't decide, I've never been very good at making important decisions. I know that is not an ideal quality when you're looking for a pilot, but I've been pushing to be one for ages and no one else turned up for the interview. So this is what we are going to do. We're going to hold a review. The co-pilot will hand out a questionnaire and we will all vote whether we want to die on the land or in the sea. I can't guarantee we will follow the review's advice, as I believe that on most occasions, I know better. And please note, this is not a referendum - I don't do them.

Please believe me when I say that even though this is all my fault, I believe I'm the best qualified person on this plane to crash it. If you do by some wild chance survive this flight, please understand that I have been listening and learning and I hope you will fly with us again.

Good luck.

William Hill - Gordon Brown odds on to get the boot.

Gordon Brown is now "odds on" not to lead Labour into the next General Election. Also Jack Straw has replaced David Miliband as favourite to take over from Brown.

From William Hill:

Following the shock defeat in the Glasgow by-election, bookmakers William Hill have slashed the price of Gordon Brown losing the top job in politics and he is now 4/6 NOT to lead the Labour Party into the next Election. As a result so called steady hand Jack Straw has leapt to the front of the betting for who will be the next Labour leader and his odds have been cut from 8/1 to 4/1 with David Miliband out from 2/1 to 9/2. Gordon Brown is now 5/6 to be gone by the end of the year and 10/1 to lose his seat at the next General Election.

All this is good news for the Conservative Party who are now 1/4 favourites to win the next Election, the shortest price since Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997. With the disastrous defeat Hills are now 9/4 that the Conservative Party win 375 or more at the next General Election.

"This has to be the final nail in the Labour coffin and the odds suggest that Gordon Brown is living on borrowed time," said Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams,

William Hill Latest Political Odds:

NEXT PERMANENT LABOUR LEADER: 4/1 J STRAW, 9/2 D MILIBAND, 5/1 A JOHNSON, 6/1 H HARMAN, 9/1 E BALLS, 12 G HOON, 16/1 J PARNELL, 33 D ALEXANDER

Andrew Marr Show - Jack Straw, Ffion Hague, Edward Timpson.

The Andrew Marr Show has a great line-up this morning:

Jack Straw
Michael Gove
Ffion Hague
Sir Ian McKellen

Newspapers reviewed Baroness Helena Kennedy, Daniel Johnson and Edward Timpson.

This could be one of the best shows Andrew has presented for a good while. I wonder if Andrew brings up Alex Hilton's call on GMTV this morning for Gordon Brown to sort his act out in the next two weeks or go. Tipped has one of Brown's possible replacements, what will Jack Straw say? Either way the show should be enjoyable with such a great group of guests.

Watch it by clicking HERE.

Jack Straw - Are the government rigging prison strikes?

I would not want be in Jack Straw shoes this morning as he faces the POA (Prison Officers' Association) at their annual conference. Not only are they angry over this year's 2.2% pay deal - they are also worried that the government are trying to induce industrial action. That sounds a little strange doesn't it? - Why would the government want Prison Officers to strike? Well the POA believe that a recent dispute at HMP Lindholme involving the suspension of some of their staff, could have been engineered to validate the reintroduction of anti-trade union legislation. The following is taken from a POA press release:

The leaders of the POA are concerned that the Government, Ministry of Justice and Prison Service have engineered this dispute [HMP Lindholme] in an attempt to justify the reintroduction of Section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 through the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill along with and the recent amendment which was placed before the House of Lords on 30th April 2008. It is morally wrong that individuals should be used as scapegoats to justify the Governments actions in reintroducing anti-trade union legislation.

The 300 Delegates attending the conference voted on Tuesday to work to rule, including turning up to work at the exact start of a shift rather than earlier to change into uniforms. The work to rule will take affect by the end of the week.

Could this be true? Could the government really be devious enough to deliberately cause Prison Officers to strike? I'll leave that to your own judgement. Personally I don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility.

Labour can win fourth election - yeah - right.

Apparently Jack Straw is going around telling anyone who will listen that Labour can win a fourth election. It's not impossible, but it is improbable. Jack, and many other Labour ministers believe it was the 10p tax that "did them in." When that is sorted they are hoping all will be well and the nation will once again love Gordon and Labour. Not a chance. Do these politicians live in a different world to us? Do they really believe that we have such short memories? Labours' problems go much deeper than the 10p tax debacle, and so does public contempt for them.

I'm just a blogger; I'm not a journalist or a politician. I'm just your average working man. I live in the real world and not the political one where everyone has the memory of a goldfish. And I know why I and many other former Labour supporters despise this government so:

There are many who are angered about Gordon Brown's undemocratic refusal to allow us a vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

I'm angry about my local hospital closing.

I'm angry about my local police station being shut at night.

I'm angry about Labour MPs campaigning to keep post offices open in their constituencies - only to vote to close them in parliament.

I'm angry about paying more and more tax, only to see our public services decline.

I'm angry that I had to worry about my wife catching a fatal disease while in hospital giving birth to my son recently.

I'm angry that I'm paying more and more council tax while my bin is full of maggots and stinking.

I'm angry that car tax is going through the roof when I know for a fact that the money raised will not be used to fix the roads, reduce congestion, improve public transport, "save the planet" - or some other crap.

I'm angry when I'm told that the price of food and fuel is so high because of a global economic downturn. If that is true why are petroleum companies and supermarkets publishing record profits?

I'm angry about having to stand outside to smoke in a shelter with no sides. What is the bloody point of that when non-smokers never go in there?

I'm angry with the nanny state.

I'm angry with the surveillance state.

I'm tired of being laughed at for working and paying taxes by scum who believe it is their right to never work while knocking out as many kids as they like. I don't mind working hard and paying taxes, but I do expect to see that money well spent.

The list goes on and on. Ten years of Labour government and this country is the laughing stock of Europe. It is no wonder that millions are deciding to leave for a better life elsewhere. It's not just the 10p tax Jack. You can do what you like: Get rid of Gordon, have a Cabinet reshuffle, design a new party logo and rename yourselves the new listening and leading Labour party - it will not matter one iota.

You’re gone. We really have had enough of you and your socialist crap.

Gordon Brown also talks with a forked tongue. 10p tax.

Gordon Brown apparently has admitted to making a mistake over the abolition of the 10p tax rate. He said that he: "didn't cover as well as we should have" those who lost out, and that he was "learning".

Let us be perfectly clear on this; he made no mistake - he knew exactly what he was doing. And the only "learning" that Brown is doing, is to learn that he has gone too far this time. He's a man who believes that he has the power to do anything, and sod the little people. Like Jack Straw's apology, this one from Brown is an outright lie. This is the truth, either: he is so incompetent that he can't set tax levels without realising he is putting the less well off in an even worse situation (not likely), or he knew exactly what he was doing and thought he would get away with it (more likely).

What a git.

Jack Straw talks with forked tongue. 10p tax.

In a radio five live interview (*that Gordon Brown should have attended) Jack Straw apologised for the 10p tax debacle. He said:

"Sometimes even with the best brains available to government there are inadvertent consequences of changes. "We put our hands up to that, we should have known more about the impact of the abolition of the 10p rate."

I say: What a complete and utter lie. There is no way on God's earth that those "best brains" did not know what the consequences of scrapping the 10p tax rate would be for over five million of our most needy. I believe they underestimated how the public and their own back bench MPs would react to this slap in the face. They have got so used to riding rough shod over the public, that they thought it would pass with hardly a whimper. How very wrong they were.

Producing the understatement of the year, Jack went on to say: "Government is not perfect." You will note he couldn't go so far as to say "this government".

* Cameron and Clegg turned up - Gordon bottled it.

Jack Straw's bug inquiry is late, are you surprised?

The report into the bugging of Labour MP Sadiq Khan and his constituent - terror suspect Babar Ahmad, is late. Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose was to carry out an investigation and he hoped to report his findings to the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary within two weeks of the 4th of February. Jack Straw told the House:

The chief surveillance commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, has agreed to conduct an inquiry with the following terms of reference:

To investigate the circumstances relating to the visits to Babar Ahmad at HMP Woodhill by Sadiq Khan MP in May 2005 and June 2006, to establish whether the visits were subject to any form of surveillance and if so by whose authority and with whose knowledge, and to report his findings to the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and to me as “the Justice Secretary.

The inquiry will of its nature be fact-finding. Sir Christopher has told me that his aim is to conduct the inquiry as quickly as possible, but consistent with the thoroughness required. He says that he will do his best to complete his task within two weeks. A further statement will be made to the House once we have received and have been able to consider his findings.

Two weeks have passed and there's no sign of the report. Obviously it's possible that Sir Christopher may need more time. However it's also possible that the report is complete and Jack, Jacqui and Gordon are waiting for a suitable hole to bury it in. A hole just like the Northern Rock hole that the draft WMD dossier was dropped into, days before it was officially due to be released. Or am I just being cynical?

Jack Straw - We're going to rob more Tory policies.

Apparently Jack Straw has said that Tory policies are resonating with the public and that Labour must adapt to survive. Translation: "We're going to rob more Tory policies." Labour ministers are probably hoping that the public will have forgotten where the ideas originated. Labour have been totally devoid of ideas since Gordon Brown took over and the few policies they have put forward were stolen from the Conservative conference. It's not easy to be in opposition to a government that steals your ideas accumulated from nearly a year's worth of policy review. I've said quite a few times over the last year that Labour ministers know no shame and I think this will be proved again over the next month.

What can the Tories do? Well for one thing, every shadow minister needs to shout loud and clear at every opportunity that Labour are stealing their policies, that Labour have no ideas of their own and that no matter how good the ideas they have stolen may be, they have shown time and again that they have a complete lack of competence to implement policy. Labour will come out of the Christmas period hoping to start the New Year with a bang. David Cameron needs to be ready to stand toe to toe and he must have some knock out counter punches ready.

The first thing David needs to hit Brown with is the disgusting way he has dropped the amendment to pensions Bill which was to give women the chance to make up the shortfall in their National Insurance contributions by making lump sum payments. This amendment was dropped in the most sneaky and underhanded way possible and Gordon Brown needs to be dragged over the coals for it.

Three months of misery and cock-ups for Gordon Brown. Continued.

Click on the dates to read the story.

25/09/07
D'oh! - Greatest threat since WW2 - The sun publish an excellent graphic depicting Gordon Brown giving the British people the two fingered salute over the EU Treaty.

28/09/07
D'oh! - The number of prisoners in England and Wales has reached a record high.
Official figures suggest there were 81,135 people locked up in jails and in police stations.

06/10/07
D'oh! - According to Nick Robinson the BBC's political editor, Gordon Brown is to announce very shortly that he WILL NOT be calling an Autumn Election.

07/10/07
D'oh! - Gordon Brown's week is just not getting any better. It turns out that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Robert Mugabe is entitled to attend a Europe-Africa summit.

09/10/07
D'oh! - European Scrutiny Committee report that they are not confident that Gordon Brown's EU Treaty red lines cannot be eroded over time.

09/10/07
D'oh! - Alistair Darling's Pre Budget Report receives massive criticism for stealing Tory policies.

22/10/07
D'oh! - Labour (who were not that serious about an autumn election) are allegedly facing a bill of £1 million for their election that "never was" campaign.

29/10/07
D'oh! - Independent ComRes poll shows the Conservatives 8 points clear of Labour.

04/11/07
D'oh! - Ruth Kelly apologises for breaking rules on using public money for party political material. She spent some of her £10,000-a-year communications allowance on a newsletter which repeatedly referred to "Labour".

07/11/07
D'oh! - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said "The answer is I don't know" when she was asked on BBC Radio 4 just how long the proposed detention limit should be.

13/11/07
D'oh! - Jacqui Smith makes a statement in which she tries to explain (spin) why it was not announced back in July that 5,000 illegal immigrants have been wrongly cleared to work in security.

20/11/07
D'oh! - 25m sets of personal details get lost in the post. Bank account numbers, sort codes, names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers.

23/11/07
D'oh! - Lords debate that saw five ex-chiefs of staff attack Gordon Brown for inadequate MoD funding levels and the appointment of "two hats" Des Browne.

26/11/07
D'oh! - Labour party's General Secretary Peter Watt resigns over dodgy donations.

26/11/07
D'oh! - ComRes poll commissioned by the Independent shows the Tories 13 points ahead of Labour.

28/11/07
D'oh! - Vince Cable brings the house down by pointing out the Brown had transformed from Stalin to Mr bean over the last few weeks.

29/11/07
D'oh! - The electoral commission call in the police to investigate the dodgy donations received by the Labour party.

30/11/07
D'oh! - Harriet Harman admits that she took out an unreported £40,000 extension to her and her husband's mortgage with the Halifax to fund the campaign.

3/12/07
D'oh! - Cabinet minister Peter Hain has said more donations to his Labour deputy leadership campaign "were not registered as they should have been". That's on top of the £5,000 donation that he forgot last week.

6/12/07
D'oh! - A leaked letter from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, to the Chancellor Alistair Darling has got the police gnawing on their truncheons. It seems Jacqui is not keen to bide by the judgement of the Arbitration for the latest police pay award.

6/12/07
D'oh! - Jan Berry, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, says: If the government want a fight, they have got a fight. We are actively pursuing a legal challenge and have requested an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary who must be held to account for her scandalous decision."

7/12/07
D'oh! - Ben Brogan writes: Senior figures have been holding secret talks to decide a response to the drastic turnaround in Mr Brown's fortunes after a disastrous two months.

11/12/07
D'oh! - Frank Field requested a report from the Statistics Commission after the DWP gave him a dodgy estimation on the number of foreign workers in the UK. The report states that 80% of jobs created since 1997 have gone to foreign workers.

12/12/07
D'oh! - At PMQs Vince Cable said: "Given his (Gordon's) own position, the prime minister might not be wise to speculate on leadership elections".

13/12/07
D'oh! - Gordon Brown turns up late to sign the EU Treaty - to much criticism.

13/12/07
D'oh! - Jacqui Smith announces in a Commons statement that a least 6,653 (possibly 11,100) illegal immigrants are working security jobs in the UK.

13/12/07
D'oh! - At an emergency meeting about the police pay crisis, the staff associations representing the UK's 170,000 police officers have called for Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to resign.

14/12/07
D'oh! - Scientists at the IAH blame the government for failing to stop the foot and mouth outbreak from spreading. The scientist say that Defra were wrong to give the all clear, and this led to the second outbreak a month later.

And the hits just keep on coming!

The truth about political party donations. (Waendel Journal).

Tony Sharp over at the Waendel Journal has an excellent post which puts a lie to the Labour party's continual whining about Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft. It is also worth noting that Labour are refusing to declare the tax status of their large donors. They've got a bloody cheek.

Mobile phones in prison. Jack Straw pull your finger out.

Why the hell are inmates using mobile phones to conduct criminal activity from the comfort of their bloody cells? According to a written parliamentary answer, over 400 mobile phones have been confiscated each month since October 2006. Security in our prisons is now an absolute joke. What is most depressing is that drug usage and mobile phone crime is now seen as the norm. Most of the drugs and phones apparently come over the prison fence, and there's not a great deal you can do about that. However, there are measures that can be taken to stop them being used once they are on prison grounds.

Brian Caton, the head of the Prison Officers Association (POA) is calling for greater use of mobile phone jammers in prisons. Brian said: "Many prisoners, we know, run criminal activities, serious criminal activities, from inside prisons by the use of mobile phones "I'm very, very afraid that eventually it's going to get beyond that point and prisoners are going to be able to arrange for prison officers and prison staff to be attacked through using mobile phones from inside the cells. "With the exception probably of firearms, explosives and probably drugs, it's probably the worst thing that can happen in a prison is to have mobile phones on sale to prisoners or prisoners having them".

So I've got one simple question: If we have a serious problem with mobile phones in prisons, and the POA are asking for Jamming equipment to cure this problem: then why in the name of all that is holy are Jammers not being fitted with utmost alacrity? I've looked into this and it seems that this technology is not that expensive (if you compare it to vast amounts this government wastes). You can buy a mobile phone Jammer that will block phone signals within a 300 meter radius for about £,2000. I'm sure that the cost to fit Jammers to every prison will be excellent value for money if it cuts crime, and especially if it protects prison officers and their families.

Jack Straw - Pull your bloody finger out.