Harriet Harman gets monstered by Stephen Nolan on Radio 5

I've just listened to Radio 5's Stephen Nolan interviewing Harriet Harman - he absolutely monstered her. I've heard some demolition jobs in my time, but this is by far the best. I think Harriet may have gone for a stiff drink and a long lie down after this:

Click on the pic below to listen to the interview: 1hr 46mins in.

Harriet Harman gets £350 fine and cheats the law?

Why is it still one law for us and another law for them? Harriet Harman has got away with a £350 fine and 3 points for driving without due care and attention. What happened to the charges of leaving the scene, or driving whilst on the phone? Could it have anything to do with the points she would have received? Failing to give particulars or to report an accident within 24 hours gets you 5-10 points. Driving without due care and attention gets you 3-9 points. Using a mobile phone gets 3 points. Don't forget she has already been caught speeding three times. She was caught doing 99mph (not 100 - how lucky can you get?) en route to Bristol in 2003, and clocked up another three points on her license in both 2007 and 2008.

From the Guardian: The court heard that she already has six penalty points on her licence after being caught twice speeding in a 30mph zone. The first speeding incident happened in April 2007 and the second in April 2008. Motorists who accumulate 12 points on their licence face a ban. Harman now has a total of nine.

Lets face it, if it were you or me we would have been looking at a ban.

Harriet Harman - Crashed her car whilst talking on her mobile?

Harriet Harman - Crashed her car whilst talking on her mobile? You couldn't make it up could you? Apparently the investigation was delayed to allow her to attend the party conference.

From the Mail

:Harriet Harman is being investigated by police after allegedly leaving the scene of an accident in which she drove into a parked car while talking on her mobile phone.

Ms Harman, Labour's deputy leader, is said to have stopped briefly after the crash, but witnesses say she drove off without leaving her insurance or registration details – an offence carrying a possible six-month jail term.

When a witness approached her car, the MP is said to have wound down her window and said simply: 'I'm Harriet Harman - you know where you can get hold of me.'

According to police sources, Ms Harman is being investigated for driving without due care and attention, driving while illegally using a mobile phone and failing to stop after an accident, the most serious of the three offences.

I'm sorry, but I can't help finding this very very funny. Full story HERE.

Harriet Harman wants to ban boobs in the workplace.

From The Sun:

TOPLESS calendars - and Page 3 photos - will be banned from workplaces under potty laws drawn up by Harriet Harman. Labour's deputy leader - dubbed Hattie Har-person by critics - claims it is harassment to put up saucy pics at work.

The small print of the Government's flagship Equalities Bill declares: "An employer who displayed any material of a sexual nature, such as a topless calendar, may be harassing employees where this makes the workplace an offensive place to work."

Critics fear a witch-hunt against workers. Tory MP Philip Davies fumed: "This is crazy - the nanny state running riot.

This story is a couple of days old now but I thought it was relevent following her comments to conference this morning about The Sun. She told the Bruvvers and sisters:

"Something the Sun knows absolutely nothing about - equality. Let's face it, the nearest their political analysis gets to women's rights is Page 3's news in briefs."

That's Harriet - attack your core vote.

Harriet Harman - Please stop this pay gap crap.

Nothing makes my blood boil more than the made up pay gap crap coming out of Harriet Harman.

For the year 2007 to 2008, the gap between women's median hourly pay and men’s was 12.8 per cent. Not bad when you consider breaks for pregnancy and the fact that many more women (than men) work in the low paid retail sector. Men in general, do not take career breaks and therefore tend to occupy more senior positions than women. If Harriet Harman was to publish figures that showed a wide gap between men and women who occupy the same positions, then I would take her more seriously.

From the National Statistics:

Although median hourly pay provides a useful comparison between the earnings of men and women, it does not necessarily indicate differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs. Pay medians are affected by the different work patterns of men and women, such as the proportions in different occupations and their length of time in jobs.

Enough said?

Quote of the day: Harriet Harman (post Smeargate).

"We will stick fast to our principles and values,"

Harriet Harman (STUC annual congress in Perth).

Oh Shit.

Harriet Harperson Harman in the Economist.

Tomorrow's Economist has an interesting article about the "lady in red" Harriet Harman:

PRIVILEGE is no bar to the commanding heights of the Labour Party. Neither are women always squashed under its industrial machismo. There is even a place for lifelong Londoners in a movement whose heartlands are northern and Celtic. So much is obvious from a glance at the cabinet with its expensively schooled chancellor, female home secretary and Primrose Hill’s own Miliband brothers.

But no modern Labour figure embodies all three forms of otherness like Harriet Harman, the deputy leader whom many suspect of manoeuvring to replace Gordon Brown after the general election he seems doomed to lose next year. Recent weeks have seen this feminist of vaguely aristocratic provenance, not only a native of the capital but an MP for one of its constituencies, side with the left of the party on such wedge issues as bankers’ pay and the planned part privatisation of the Post Office. Bookmakers have her the favourite to take over from Mr Brown and, having beaten five others to the deputy leadership in 2007, she is a proven winner.

She is also a survivor. Almost half of her 58 years have been spent in Parliament. She has weathered myriad setbacks, including her controversial decision to send her son to a selective school, and her sacking in 1998 as secretary of state for social security after a row with a junior minister there. And unlike other veterans such as Jack Straw and Alistair Darling, she projects a hint of freshness: her three years out of government (followed by four in the quiet role of solicitor general, where she relived her early career as a lawyer) proved as invigorating as it was frustrating.

Even Ms Harman may be daunted, though, by the obstacles that lie between her and the Labour crown. Younger colleagues such as James Purnell, Ed Balls and one or both of Ed and David Miliband can claim to be better long term bets. The Labour left, in which the party may seek comfort after years of centrist compromise, is roamed by the creative Jon Cruddas and the increasingly active Peter Hain, both outside the cabinet. Ms Harman is no great thinker, say many, and lacks political judgment. Such carping is unfair.she has not survived for so long through obstinacy alone. but she recently encouraged it with a bizarre and unenforceable promise to deny a failed banker his hefty pension.

Full story HERE.

Domestic violence - Men are victims too.

Commenting on International Women's Day, Scottish Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon said:

"Sadly, violence is part of too many women's lives across the world. "On this day and throughout the year the Scottish Government is determined to tackle the scourge of violence against women and children."

So when is it International Men's day then? You will no doubt think that domestic violence is on the whole a female problem. If you do, then you are wrong, of all the domestic violence incidents reported, 19 per cent of the victims are male.

And as for the gender pay gap, please give it a rest. For the year 2007 to 2008, the gap between women's median hourly pay and men’s was 12.8 per cent. Not bad when you consider breaks for pregnancy and the fact that many more women (than men) work in the low paid retail sector. Men in general, do not take career breaks and therefore tend to occupy more senior positions than women. If Harriet Harman was to publish figures that showed a wide gap between men and women who occupy the same positions, then I would take her more seriously.

From the National Statistics:

Although median hourly pay provides a useful comparison between the earnings of men and women, it does not necessarily indicate differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs. Pay medians are affected by the different work patterns of men and women, such as the proportions in different occupations and their length of time in jobs.

Enough said?

Harriet Harman has just made a BIG mistake.

In a speech to delegates at the Scottish Labour conference, Harriet Harman said that they should use the Euro elections as a "dress rehearsal" for the next UK election.


Oh dear, what Harriet has just achieved is to make the Euro elections a vote of confidence on not only Gordon Brown, but also upon herself. If Labour do poorly (and it is highly likely that they will) both she and Gordon will carry the can - Brown for being the leader of the party and herself for being the manager of Labour's Euro election campaign. I suspect Harman has been stitched up (by Brown) with this suicide mission.

UPDATE: I've been thinking. Harman no doubt knows she has been 'done up like a kipper' by Brown. Has she deliberately linked the result of the Euro elections to Gordon Brown and the General election? - "If I'm going down, you're going with me".

PMQs - William Hague missed a massive open goal.

While William Hague did a decent job replacing David Cameron at today's PMQs, he did miss a massive open goal. Harriet Harman repeatedly asked if the Tories were supporting Labour's one-point-odd billion pound injection into job centres. She threw out this line every time Hague asked if the government would pull its finger out and introduce the Tory proposal to have a business loan insurance scheme. What William should have said in reply is this:

"While this Labour government wants to throw money at job centres, we Conservatives believe that money would be better spent keeping people in their jobs in the first place, which is exactly the point of our business loan insurance scheme".

More Labour bias from the BBC politics section.

I use the BBC News website quite a lot, it's a great site, but it lets itself down by having a politics section run by what seem to be Gordon Brown's best mates. On last night's Question Time, Harriet Harman got a right slating from the panel and the audience (even though it seemed that Labour HQ had bussed in the last of their die-hard supporters from the bunker).

Even so, the BBC's politics section chose to put up the article: Labour rebels made error - Harman (with attached video). If you watch the video it will show you Harman saying that the rebels made an error. What it does not show is that she made her loyal statement in response to being asked if she would stand in a leadership election if one was called - she would not answer - as the video shows she just waffled on about Gordon being the best man for the job.

You can see the real story by watching Question Time yourself by clicking HERE (23min 40secs in)

Next Prime Minister to be a Woman in Labour?

No, not a pregnant woman - one of those lovely ladies* from the cabinet. The current odds from William Hill still have David Miliband as the hot favourite to succeed Gordon Brown as permanent Labour Party leader when he gets the boot (probably before or shortly after their conference). However, there are three women in the in the top ten most likely to be PM. Harriet Harman is third favourite on 7/1, Jacqui Smith is 16/1 and Yvette Cooper is 20/1. Scary?

What do you think? I know we have already had one woman Prime Minister so it's nothing new, but are you happy about the possibility of one of the Labour Coven running the country?

*Go easy, I'm being polite.

Breaking news: Harriet Harman 7/1 to replace Gordon Brown.

Over the last couple of days there has been a great deal of rumour surrounding Harriet Harman replacing Gordon Brown. Adding to this William Hill have just slashed Harriet's odds to 7/1 (3rd favourite) to become the next permanent leader of the Labour party. Please God don't let it be true. To add to the rumours, Iain Dale has reported that Harriet has been seen having a cosy lunch for two with Jack Straw. David Miliband remains the favourite (7/2) to replace the bumbling Brown and Jack Straw is hanging in as the 6/1 second favourite.

Ladbrokes are a bit slow on the uptake and still have Harriet at 16/1 - could be worth a flutter?

Inequality Minister, Harriet Harman's positive discrimination

I take it that employers can now write: "White men need not apply" at the bottom of job advertisements?

Can you imagine the uproar if any other group of people were treated with such inequality? God I really dislike Harman. How the hell can she be the Equalities Minister and discriminate against white men all at the same time. It's a bloody joke.

Should white men now ask before an interview whether any women or ethnics are applying for the same job, so that they can save themselves a wasted day?

Why is it about the word Equality that Harman doesn't get? When it comes to job interviews, everyone should be treated equally i.e. The person most suited to the position gets the job.

No wonder Labour are so unpopular with chimps like her running the country.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Labour MPs are thrown to the lions by Harman.

Harriet Harman has ordered Labour MPs and Ministers to help out in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. I bet they are chuffed about that. "What, me? Face the voters? Are you mad? they'll tear me apart. "Anyway, why do I have to go if Gordon is bottling out?"

If I were a Labour MP, I'd be avoiding the public like the plague. And if I was a journalist, I'd be following them with great interest.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Gordon Brown in a Celebrity Death Match (Poll).

Roll up!, Roll up! For one night only: Gordon "the clunking fist" Brown will be fighting in a Celebrity Death Match. It's up to you to choose his opponent. If you can't find the opponent you like in the list below - make a suggestion in the comments section.

If Gordon Brown was to take part in a celebrity death match, who would you like to see him fight? (one must die).
	David Cameron
	Nick Clegg
	Wendy Alexander
	Tony Blair
	Boris Johnson
	Red Ken
	John Prescott
	Harriet Harman
	Piers morgan
	Michael Portillo
pollcode.com free polls

Question Time 17th April - Lets get ready to rumble!

Question Time should be a good one tonight. Here is the line up:

Daily Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer, Conservative Party chairman Caroline Spelman, Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, author Tony Parsons and the Labour Party's deputy leader Harriet Harman.

I wonder if the claws will come out. It's not been a good day for Gordon Brown - Harriet will have to defend her leader.

BBC1 10:35pm

Labour MPs are voicing their dismay over poor ministerial behaviour (Smith and Hain).

It seems that each day more and more Labour MPs are making statements to the media that are not at all supportive of their ministers. Over the last couple of days their comments have been aimed at Jacqui Smith and Peter Hain. Keith Vaz, Labour chair of the home affairs committee, Lindsay Hoyle and Andrew Mackinlay have all made it very clear that the police pay award could have been handled better. Keith Vaz believes that the police pay award is of such importance that it should be voted on in parliament. Lindsay Hoyle has called the two stage pay deal "unacceptable and unpalatable", and Andrew Mackinlay believes the deal would not only cause "disproportionate offence to public servants" and "collateral damage" to the Labour government, but it was also "unfair". However Jacqui is not listening:

"I had a responsibility to make a decision that was right for the police, for the affordability of policing and for the taxpayer as a whole."

What Jacqui fails to mention is that her actions are in breach of the police pay award arbitration.

As for Peter Hain - he is getting it in the neck from all angles. Even Gordon Brown has left him swinging in the breeze, saying that Peter's fate is out of his hands. Labour MPs Peter Kilfoyle, John Spellar and Ian Gibson have made it clear that Hain should step down for the good of the party. To add to Hain's woes, it looks like the police could be called in to investigate his undeclared donations.

Rumour has it that Gordon Brown plans to have a cabinet reshuffle in February. If I were Gordon, I would ensure that Harriet Harman, Peter Hain and Jacqui Smith would still be standing when the music stopped and all the cabinet chairs were taken.

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!

Breaking wind with dignity V breaking the law without shame.

I found a story today that sums up the way I was left feeling after watching yesterday's debate on party political funding:

77-year-old Maurice Fox received a letter from Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in Paignton, complaining about him breaking wind loudly in the public bar. Maurice may be a man of with a bad habit, but he is a man with a sense of decency. When Maurice received the letter did he complain? no. This is what Maurice said: "I am happy to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy - I am an old fart now. "I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell. "I do not think it [the letter] is unreasonable, you get ladies in there." Maurice now goes outside to fart.

Compare this to the Labour party's behaviour at the commons debate for political party funding yesterday: If certain members of the cabinet had received a letter complaining about their party breaking wind in the bar, this would have been Labour's reply: "We admit that one of our group has been farting loudly in the bar. "We are angry that this has happened. "We are going to instigate an immediate review into this matter, and we are determined to have transparency at all times when it comes any member breaking wind. "Our friends will carry out the review, and on completion they will provide a detailed report of their findings to the alleged farter. "We will of course report this matter to the bodily function commission."

"However, we would like to make it very clear that patrons on the other side of the bar, have in the past, farted louder and longer than any member of our drinking group. "To this end, we would like to put forward a motion to ensure that any future farting will be done in a fair manner, and on a level playing field. "Although we admit that one of our group has farted, that member will not be going outside to fart until the Landlord throws them out."

Maurice Fox is a man with a sense of decency - The Labour party do not know the meaning of the word.