Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7113255.stm

After all the fuss surrounding and fallout from the cash for honours issue how on earth could this happen?

Labour General Secretary Peter Watt didn't know it was illegal :confused:

Well if he didn't who the hell would?

Still at least he had the good grace to resign unlike so many of his political colleagues who seem to think making amends for all the cock-ups they've made is staying on in their highly paid posts to supposedly put right things that they shouldn't have messed up in the first place!

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Sorry, but the laws he broke are in place to prevent people paying large sums of money, then profiting from a government decision, by ensuring that all the doners are checked.

I would be staggered if he did not know this. I would also be interested to learn why one doner was giving the money to others, then asking them to donate on his behalf, if he wasn't dodgy, and trying to circumvent the controls put in place.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Ah, the famous Transit was presumably a kebab van, then?

I think the fallout from cash-for-honours consisted of the sods being able to pretend to themselves that they'd acted perfectly properly, and thus they've continued to ignore the law with impunity. They're also stone broke, so aren't going to ask awkward questions.

Surely Channel 4's '100 Worst Weeks For Gordon Brown' is in production, if he makes it to 100 weeks in charge...

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

I think this just demonstrates that lessons are not learned except the one that says get away with as much as you can.

Gordon is just as opaque as Tony and the lies, spin & ineptitude continues as it is party policy.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

How many times did Bliar say his bunch would be whiter than white? Beyond reproach? What did Brown claim when he came to power? Things would be different - no more spin! Many people will be thinking right now that these people are all habitual liars.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Once, I think, which is once more than he meant it...

I don't think it can be stressed too often that these people don't think they're doing anything wrong, after all, it's for the good of the Party and the Project. These are dangerous nutters, after all.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

I thought that before anyway.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

I have always considered that the ability to develop a blind eye and a deaf ear are prerequisites of staying a Politician.

The newly elected may enter the House with shiny ideals however they soon seem to be able to twist the truth like the old brigade.

Guess I'm somewhat of a cynic where politics are concerned. :D

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Just listening to Brown squirm under questioning - wonderful entertainment! The plot thickens.... Hilary Benn obviously knew something was wrong with these donations because he refused one offered via an intermediary. Harriet Harman on the other hand apparently accepted a similar donation from the same person but she didn't smell a rat :confused: Good old Gordy of course reckons he was oblivious to it all despite the very large sums involved and Abrahams being very well known to New Labour's hierarchy .... :rolleyes: He wasn't exactly unequivocal in his support for Ms Harman either... I wonder why..... :rolleyes:

In what many will view as an attempt to deflect responsibility he claimed that this latest enquiry would ensure this sort of thing couldn't happen again. Didn't they say that about the last one though??? I mean, how many enquiries do they need???

He also reminded us all of his statement after taking office that this country faced severe long term problems that he would ensure were tackled. Many people will right now be thinking that the most pressing problem we have is getting ourselves a government which is worthy of the name and in so doing ridding ourselves of a bunch of inept leeches.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7114327.stm

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Gordy doesn't like Harriet, and would be quite happy to see her swing for this as long as nothing touched him. Remember, they didn't run as a team and he's consistently shunned her since she won the Deputy Leadership.

There's a classic bit of bad IT knowledge in the transcript - something like:

'the data was sent password protected and uncompressed, but should have been encrypted'

What on earth does that mean!?

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Dunno ... maybe it's encrypted :D

BTW is anyone keeping count of all the enquiries?? Maybe we should have an enquiry into that too!

NEWSFLASH - apparently the NAO is reporting that there's been a sudden inexplicable surge in governmental spending on Teflon :D

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

There won't be a judge or bishop in the country who isn't trying to find out why Labour are inept and useless. Perhaps we should have an inquiry where the whole country can investigate it for themselves and come to a conclusion - we could call it a General Election or something. Just tossing the idea out there, Gordo.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

In my opinion, I believe that a General Election should be called to allow the voters to choose if the current administration is doing its job or not.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Just on Sky now - DEFRA is reporting an outbreak of Bovine Diarrheoa. Apparently the Whitehall area has been cordoned off. The affected animals are expected to slaughtered.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7116515.stm

These are just some of the questions being asked of Brown and his cohorts. One mystery appears to have been solved however though. The lady who claimed she had no knowledge of donations being made in her name now apparently can recall a cheque for £25k being drawn on her account. Well that's the sort of thing most Lollipop Ladies would remember I'd have thought..... funny how she ever forgot about it in the first place really....

As for Mr Mendelsohn, well he apparently knew about the illegal donations some time ago but decided it'd be far better not to say anything to anyone but try to arrange a meeting about it all with the donor at some future point... That's clear then :rolleyes:

Unlike so many of Brown's dodgy crew I can't help feeling there is much more to this than meets the eye.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Loved the quote from this article on the BBC website -
"The house has noticed the prime minister's remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos."

Mr Bean - excellent.......

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Yep - that's the first time I've heard a Lib Dem say anything worthwhile in parliament for ages :D

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

The LD's share of the vote in polls has gone up nearly 10% since they haven't had a leader. Cable used to be my MP - good bloke, if a bit right-wing for me, although not as bad as Huhne and particularly Clegg.

One thing that's been pointed out in a few areas is that all this happened under Blair, not Brown - it goes back years, and Brown's getting the bucket in the face that should really be aimed at Teflon Tony. Shame it didn't all come out during the last dodgy funding scam, really. Blair and dodgy north-easterners go back years of course, Mandelson, Blair's own constituencies were up that way.

The biggest question for me is why Mr. Abrahams wanted to give so much money to Labour so badly, rather than why they took it (simple: they're skint and thought they could get away with it*). The planning permission suddenly granted for a development of his by a minister obviously has nothing to do with it.

* Osem might enjoy this, from another LibDem the other day: 'what was it about a millionaire property developer that first attracted the interest of Labour Party fundraisers?'.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

I reckon the only happy New/Old/Nearly New/Same Old/Getting Seriously Tatty Labour politician right now is a certain Mr T. Blair who's probably thinking that his hospital pass to Gordon Brown was perfectly timed!!

......I wonder if he knew what was coming..........

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

No, he never thinks he did anything wrong. Mind you there's something amusing with the idea of him sitting there thinking 'thank God I've only got to sort out Middle East peace, I could be dealing with Harriet Harman's sudden memory loss'.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7123534.stm

It seems that things aren't going much better north of the border for New/Old/Nearly New/Same Old/Getting Seriously Tatty Labour....

Perhaps there is a God after all ......... :D

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7125770.stm

So Hain admits there have been more funding 'errors' ....... Really?? Who'd have thought?? :rolleyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7125317.stm

Would that be quick reform of the last lot of cash for honours reforms then? That didn't take long did it? Maybe these hugely time consuming and expensive government enquiries aren't what they're cracked up to be ...... Maybe what these politicians actually need to do is to reform themselves! By their own admission they're totally inept if not corrupt so why is it they're not resigning en masse? One minute they're howling like wolves for the heads of Northern Rock bosses and the next thing they're shamelessly trying to avoid responsibility for their own ineptitude.

What a fine bunch of worthy, upstanding and fair-minded folk they all are! :rolleyes:

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7180961.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7182480.stm

Presumably anyone who makes similar six figure sum 'administrative oversights' in their Tax Returns will now expect the authorities to be lenient on their ineptitude accept excuses in full and final settlement!

Just been listening to one of Hain's aides on the radio. Staggering!! Apparently we have nothing to worry about - we've had an apology after all, it's a relatively small sum and Mr Hain was so busy doing his real job what else could we expect..... Ermmm....... how about some leaders worthy of the name for a start?

Anyway Mr Hain apparently has taken full responsibiliy for the error ... it's just that in his cosseted existence the term responsibility seems to mean something quite different from that which applies to those who live in the real world.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

"Gosh, someone gave me £103,000 and I didn't think it worth mentioning, Mr. Tax Man"

"That's perfectly in order, Sir"

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7184128.stm

Just more ineptitude?

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7190966.stm

Phew - Good old listening, out with the old in with the new, Gordy has spoken and it was all down to incompetence. What a relief...... We're only being run by incompetents then. It's really nothing sinister at all, just a quaint New/Old/NearlyNew/ReallyQuiteShabby Labour tradition which started with the likes of Prescott and appears to be in very good hands. :rolleyes:

Anyway Hain has Gordy's full respect - doesn't say much for Brown's judgement does it.

For anyone who's forgotten, this is what Brown was saying upon being elected leader:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6245682.stm

His priorities were apparently:

"....education, health and restoring trust in politics...."

Well if those are his priorities I shudder to think how bad the rest is!

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

Part of a process of Hanging Hain Out To Dry. Well, some scrote did paint his face orange, I suppose. Perhaps it's time for his top coat.

Lucky for us, if he is indeed incompetent, that he's not in charge of pensions or anything. Oh, hang on.

Actually, the sad part of this is that Hain's just scored a remarkable victory over the Treasury in getting recompense for people whose company pension scheme collapses. Not that this would prejudice the ex-Chancellor and his friends against him, oh no...

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

You're not suggesting any dodgy donations were made to treasury officials are you? That really would be beyond belief.

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

No, I'm saying that Gordon and his best mates are strongly associated with the Treasury and Hain, being outside that group and having just won a fight against them (and being guilty as hell, not that that usually makes a difference) is a useful scapegoat in the original sense of the Jewish ritual where a goat is shoved off into the wilderness to take away the sins of the entire community.

I always felt rather sorry for the goat. There's an excellent painting by William Holman Hunt:

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/o.../scapegoat.asp

Re: Lies, Spin, Ineptitude? Sound familiar??
 

My post wasn't entirely serious you know lol