Darling's Budget - The biggest Labour lie to date?

Wednesday will show us just how low Gordon Brown and his puppet Chancellor, Alistair Darling, are willing to stoop. If Darling really wants to save the economy, he has no choice but to cut spending and/or introduce major tax increases.

Alistair has already leaked to the press (leaks are OK when they're doing the leaking) that he is going to cut £15bn from Whitehall spending. Wow £15bn, sounds a lot doesn't it? It is, but unfortunately it is just a drop in the ocean compared to the likely to be announced borrowing figure of £160bn. Not only that, but these cuts are planned in for 2010-2012 (i.e. after the general election). Obviously this means that Brown and Darling are in fact cutting absolutely, positively nothing. They won't make cuts before an election and they most definitely will not raise taxes. They will put their jobs before economy and country, all for a few more years feeding at the trough.

I think it's pretty obvious that if this were to be the first budget of a new term in office, then any Chancellor worth their salt would be both cutting spending and raising taxes. They are betting that they can just hang on to power if they don't make the real cuts needed - or raise taxes sufficiently. It's a win-win situation: If their do nothing (before the election) policy works, then they get a few more years in power, but if they lose the general election, all the debt is David Cameron's problem. It's the last throw of the dice, and Labour are willing to gamble with our lives.

What I want to know is: if Whitehall is inefficient to the tune of £15bn, why can't these cuts be made now? And perhaps more importantly - why have they been allowed to become so massively inefficient? Why has nothing been done before now? I think you know why.

Maybe Labour's cheerleader J.K. Rowling has been helping write the budget: Alistair Darling and the budget of imaginary cuts.

Tom Harris - At last, an honest Labour MP (Smeargate).

Over the last twenty four hours, I've listened to what can only be described as some real lying scumbags trying to defend the indefensible.

Damian McBride still spinning and smearing at the death:

"Derek and I decided in the end that this website was the wrong thing to do, and that Derek should not take his online efforts down to the level of Guido Fawkes and his Tory backers. I have already apologised for the inappropriate and juvenile content of my emails, and the offence they have caused, but I did not want these stories in the public domain - it is because Paul Staines has put them there, and I am sickened that he has done so."

What a lying shitbag! The emails make it clear that they intended to publish their poison on the RED RAG blog. Guido does not have Tory Backers and McLyer knows this very well. However I am sure that he is sickened that the emails were made public - sickened that his disgusting tactics have been exposed.

And as for Derek "I wasn't lying on purpose" Draper, I never want to see the scruffy twisting shit on my TV ever again:

"It turns out somebody's hacked into my emails and now it's all over the newspapers. We're talking about a small piece of silliness - not a great big smear campaign."

"Not a great big smear campaign" - I think I'll let the contents of the emails speak for themselves Derek. And by all accounts these emails were given to Guido - not hacked. Is the real reason that you are so scruffy looking is that you can face yourself in the mirror without feeling the same disgust we do?

Then we have Liam Byrne MP:

"one private e-mail exchange between a couple of friends who were knocking backwards and forwards ideas. "Mr McBride, having scribbled this stuff, decided that the right place for it was the waste basket."

This was not "a couple of friends who were knocking backwards and forwards ideas", this was the Prime Ministers head of strategy and planning setting up a online smear campaign with an ex Labour spin doctor. Just out of interest, Derek Drapers Labourlist website was launched at Labour HQ.

And finally we have a breath of fresh air - Tom Harris MP:

So, yes, I can understand why the Tories would have preferred McBride to remain in post. But what on earth was Draper thinking when he told various media outlets yesterday that he didn’t think McBride should have had to resign?

But this isn’t about positioning or spinning or misdirection or whatever. This is about standards of political activity, standards which have fallen far, far below what is remotely acceptable, especially for someone working at the very heart of government.

We screwed up, big time. We have no-one — absolutely no-one at all — to blame for this but ourselves. The damage the Labour Party and the government have sustained this last 24 hours has been entirely self-inflicted.

And the people behind this sordid little mess owe everyone named in these emails a very public apology.

Well said Tom. Maybe there is some hope for the Labour party of the future.

McBride and Draper - We Tories owe you a big thank you.

With the General election growing ever closer and the polls pretty stagnant, what we Tories need is a bit of a boost (maybe a bit of good old Labour sleaze). So I would like to thank Messrs McBride and Draper - let's hear it for the chuckle brothers hip hip.... Cheers boys we owe you one.

The only chance Labour had of staying in power was to mount just the kind of campaign that has come to light. There is no doubt that Labour intended to carry out a dirty campaign by attacking leading Conservative figures, but thanks to Draper and McBride (and possibly Tom Watson) that is going to be a lot more difficult. Labour strategists will have been hoping that the disastrous "Tory Toff" attack will have been forgotten - not now - they have been caught playing dirty twice and the public won't forgive if it happens again. Labour's election campaign has just become a hell of lot more challenging.

I think it's possible that this failed smear plot could have just handed David Cameron victory at the General Election.

Cheers Derek, and a big thanks to you Damian!

And BZ to Guido of course!

The McBride & Draper smear campaign - as it unfolds.

I'm enjoying my day off work and I'm following the downfall of Damian McBride and Derek Draper. There's a hell of a lot going on so I'm going to provide an updated series of links to stories as they appear.

Downing Street are trying to play this down as two lads mucking around. How can that be true when the man sending out these emails (on a secure Downing Street connection) is the man in charge of strategic planning?

Here we go:

15:45 Iain Dale - Draper admits lies.

15:50 BBC - listen to the audio clip.

15:51 Guido - Damian McBride sacked?

16:18 LabourHome - Draper & McBride please just go.

16:36 Labourlist - Draper's pathetic excuses.

16:57 Nadine Dorries - The Demise of McBride - she is mentioned in the emails - not happy

16:59 Damian McBride has resigned!!!

17:22 Draper making a right arse of himself live on BBC.

17:27 Guido has just called Draper a liar on the BBC and Dragged Tom Watson into it.

17:43 Chris Grayling - "If this is symptomatic of the culture of Downing Street under Gordon Brown's leadership it is a disgrace. "What on earth are Gordon Brown's team doing indulging in the politics of the gutter when they should be sorting out the very real problems of the country.
"We need an urgent explanation from the Prime Minister about what has happened and what he is going to do about it."

17:49 Fraser Nelson - News of the World to publish emails.

18:00 Iain Dale - One down two to go

18:30 Coffee House - How resigned is McBride?

18:39 BBC - McBride's resignation statement. - Still spinning at the death

19:01 John Redwood - Resignation and the power of the blogs.

19:29 Fraser Nelson - Some of those smears.

19:36 Telegraph - Iain Dale explains all.

20:15 The Mirror - Woman mauled by bear!

21:51 Political Betting - Labourlist removed from blogroll.

Dale, Guido, Draper & McBride. The good, the bad, the dirty and the smeary.

As Guido says: "He who lives by the smear...."

This could well turn out to be the political story of the year - and we've had some crackers already (TV porn, secret documents, dodgy expenses etc...). It's a good day to be an opposition blogger. I've got a lovely warm feeling inside and I'm wearing a permanent little smile. We in the blogosphere have known for a good while that Labour are a dirty party. The Tory Toff campaign was just the tip of an iceberg, and it looks like that iceberg is finally rising out of the water to show its large grimy bulk.

You can read all about this unfolding nightmare for Labour over at Guido's and Iain Dale's. I can't imagine Damian McBride keeping his job after this further embarrassment to Brown, and I think it may be the last we see of the dastardly Draper - oh dear, how sad, never mind... I would just like to say THANKS DEREK!!! what a cheese! Don't you just love Karma?

I'm going to enjoy watching this snowball today, and I can't wait for the details to be published in tomorrow's papers. Apparently there are some truly nasty smears contained in those emails passed between McBride and Draper. Downing Street are of course denying all knowledge - wouldn't it be embarrassing if that turned out to be yet another Labour lie?

Happy days.

Gordon Brown - Financial system morality - Cheeky sod.

I cannot believe that Gordon (the economy destroyer) Brown has got the bare faced cheek to call for 'morality' in financial system. It's like the Devil offering to re-write the Ten Commandments. Just how stupid does he think we are? He allowed the financial system to become Immoral in the first place. He knew about 125% mortgages, he knew about lending four or five times someones income, he knew about mortgages being offered over 40 to 50 years, he knew about the massive abuse of self certification, but most of all he must have known (like anyone with half a brain) that the bubble would have to burst when these mortgages inevitably stopped being paid. He knew and he did nothing.

He knew. For years the toothless FSA have warned about dodgy and outright fraudulent financial practices. The FSA did nothing but right reports and give advice and Gordon Brown did nothing at all. Brown knew that British banks were buying into sub-prime mortgages in a very risky way and he did nothing about it. He knew that the solid foundations of our financial system were being replaced with swampy toxic debt and he did nothing. The ditherer hung on and hung on, hoping that the whole mess would somehow sort itself out. He could see this problem coming from a mile away and he dodged it. And now he has the the sheer neck to claim that he can sort it out.

How anyone can vote Labour at the next general election I have no idea, Gordon Brown's lazy incompetence as brought this country to it's knees. But not to worry, Brown will retire a very rich man. This is what he told Labour activists in Scotland yesterday:

"Only government can make the markets work in the public interest and not their own interest. "We believe that markets need not just money-men but morals, that being fair matters far more than being laissez faire and that banks must always serve the public, not just serve themselves."

Can you believe he has the front to come out with this sort of rhetoric? It's a pity he didn't practice over the last eleven years what he is preaching now.

Downing Street Website Spoof from The Crown.

Great spoof from The Crown Blog: Click to enlarge

Vote, Damian Green's arrest, Who knew? part 2.

From Iain Martin of the "Three line whip":

Various ministers have been emphatic in saying that they did not know in advance about the arrest of Damian Green. Jacqui Smith says she didn't and the PM says he didn't either and neither did any other minister in his government (as far as he is aware). Smith was more specific in the Commons today, saying that no Cabinet Office minister knew.

However, the strong rumour is that one minister with good police contacts did know and has remained well under the radar since the row erupted last week, for understandable reasons. One thought: if that person was aware of what was going on, when it backfired would they actually 'fess up to the cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, the PM or the media or just stay uncharacteristically quiet until the row blows over?

The 'who knew what and when' end of this business is far from resolved.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to try and pin the tail on this donkey:

Who is the mystery minister?
	Jack Straw?
	Vernon Coaker?
	Alan Campbell?
	My favorite: Lord West of Spithead?
	David Hanson?
	Michael Wills?
	Chris Bryant?
	Bridget Prentice?
	Lord Bach?
	Shahid Malik?
	Maria Eagle?
pollcode.com free polls

Jacqui Smith must love Bird Flu.

Just as Jacqui Smith stood at the dispatch box to explain herself for what looks like a cover-up of the fact that she knew in July that up to 5,000 illegal immigrants have been cleared to work in the security industry, Bird Flu came to the rescue. What a coincidence! DEFRA announced that the Bird Flu outbreak on a Suffolk farm was indeed the deadly H5N1 strain at almost the exact moment Jacqui stood up.

Wow what a stroke of luck for Jacqui. After the Bird Flu announcement Jacqui doesn't even make the front page of the BBC News Website.

Do some people make their own luck?

UPDATE: The Guardian are saying that Jacqui denied a cover-up, saying she did not inform MPs or the public, because the scale of the problem was not clear at that point. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown - whose car was at one point guarded by an illegal worker - was not initially told of the problem, she revealed.

Is she seriously trying to tell us that Gordon was not informed that an illegal worker was guarding his car? B*ll*x.

For her next trick - Jacqui Smith will spin 5,000 illegal security workers.

This Afternoon at 15:30 Jacqui Smith will make a statement in which she will try to explain (spin) why it was not announced back in July that 5,000 illegal immigrants have been wrongly cleared to work in security. Apparently leaked papers show the home secretary knew about this in July, and David Cameron is claiming that it appears that this has been kept quiet because it was: "going to look bad for the government". You know, he could just be on to something there.

This, if true, shows a complete lack of competence, followed by a complete lack of honesty when the security of our country was at risk. These people have been working for the Metropolitan Police, airports and ports. I'm looking forward to Jacqui's explanation. It's going to have to be a beauty to convince me that the public has not been put in serious danger after an unbelievable cock-up.

According to the BBC, a subsequent Home Office report on 20 August admitted that neither the department nor SIA knew the extent of the problem. The report went on to say that the Home Office press office continued to "recommend strongly" that no public statement be made, and that any announcement "would not be presented by the media as a positive story".

So are we looking at a cock-up cover-up? Let's see what Jacqui Smith has to say at 15:30.......