Kennedy dies memories go fuzzy

Kennedy, who has just died, is now being lauded by many politicians.

This video remembers Mary Jo Kopechne, who died 40 years aged 28, when Kennedy left her to die after he drove his car over the bridge at Chappaquiddick



Back in March of this year Gordon Brown announced that Kennedy had been conferred an honourary knighthood, which caused considerable derision.

Kennedy was the man who said Protestants who didn't want a United Ireland, should leave for the mainland and equated the presence of British Troops akin to American troops in the Vietnam.

Kennedy died would been more than enough news coverage for this man.

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While politicians talk, businesses act

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In September 2008, Gordon Brown made great play of a £285 million Mortgage Rescue Scheme, which would save 6 000 homes from repossession.

Eventually in January this year, the scheme was actually launched and so far the grand total of six homes have been helped.

Businesses on the other hand are actually getting on with things and as a result, approaching 1 000 homes a week are currently being repossessed.

When pressed on the numbers of homes which had received help from the scheme, Mandelson wouldn't be drawn on a figure, when he was told the number was six, his response was a cringing, 'you have scored your point'.

That Mandelson is back in office is a scandal, about which I have written previously, that he sees the fact that a 1 000 homes a week are being repossessed and only six families have actually been helped as a 'point scored' says all you need to know about the state of British Politics.

While politicians rush to take the microphone and grab a few seconds air time to announce yet another 'policy' the world continues around them, a fact of which they seem completely oblivious.

Homeless families are not 'scored points'. Mandelson may have friends who lend him money to buy houses, while he investigates their probity, he may get away with forgetting to inform the Britannia Building Society about the 'deposit' being a loan, but that is not the way for most people.

Politicians talk about doing things, Banks repossess homes and families are destroyed. Not scored points, but real people.

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Political amnesia

The Norwich-North by-election has thrown up an interesting phenomena, so the reports from mainstream media would appear to suggest.

Political commentators tend to congregate around political activists and forget the world is far wider than myopic interest groups, reading and listening to comments pre and post election saw a focus on the 'Ian Gibson' effect. The suggestion in the world of political punditry suggesting that the fact that Ian Gibson had been axed by the Labour party caused great resentment in the constituency, with people feeling it unfair that he had been singled out by a Gordon Brown vendetta, for being an Independent minded MP.

Ian Gibson voting record Publicwhip
From -------To -------- Rebellions --------------- Attendance
5 May 2005 8 Jun 2009 63 votes out of 897, 7.0% 897 votes out of 1047, 85.7%
7 Jun 2001 11 Apr 2005 52 votes out of 953, 5.5% 953 votes out of 1246, 76.5%
1 May 1997 14 May 2001 16 votes out of 1067, 1.5% 1067 votes out of 1273, 83.8%

Elliot Morley who was also axed, shows few rebellions

From ------ To --------- Rebellions -------------- Attendance
5 May 2005 still in office 5 votes out of 760, 0.7% 760 votes out of 1113, 68.3%
7 Jun 2001 11 Apr 2005 6 votes out of 766, 0.8% 766 votes out of 1246, 61.5%
1 May 1997 14 May 2001 5 votes out of 864, 0.6% 864 votes out of 1273, 67.9%


Which leads the 'vendetta argument' a little thin.

The argument continues other MPs, who are closer to Brown, did far worse and didn't receive the same treatment. It may be true, but does that mean he shouldn't have been axed?

Great play was made on some reports of the lone protester at the celebrations, that this was emblematic of the true feeling in Norwich, that this 'hard working' MP had been hard done by. A lone protester does not make for a rational argument.

Brown may well be hugely unpopular, there may well be many MPs who committed far worse infractions, but that shouldn't leave political commentators in a state of denial.

The simple facts are that Ian Gibson let his daughter live, rent-free, in a flat largely paid for out of expenses, and then sold it to her for below market value. The claiming for a second home for his daughter is and was untenable.

We hear how 'hard working' he was. This has become the mantra of the Labour party spin machine, based on political village gossip, that really everyone in Norwich North thinks he was a good man. We had the absurd sight of Geoff Hoon, on Question Time, defending Gibson on the grounds that he was hard working, this is the same Geoff Hoon, who was found out to have been claiming allowances on two 'second homes' of course by mistake and was forced to return an overpayment, claimed £400 a month in food allowances, lived in a grace-and-favour apartment in Whitehall yet claimed costs for his home in Derbyshire which he flipped within months of losing his grace-and-favour apartment in 2006.

Being hard-working is not in itself a virtue, Bernard Madoff, was by all accounts a very hard working man, unfortunately for those he ripped off, he was a man busy committing financial fraud.

The closed political circus are attempting to make the Labour defeat in Norwich-North to be an opportunity to blame Brown for yet another problem in the Labour Party. Brown may be totally discredited, the Labour Government out of steam and out of touch, but Gibson was the man claiming irregular expenses and it was right he was axed. It was his choice to stand down prior to the election, a good thing I would hasten to add. As a result of the by-election one bad apple has been thrown out of Parliament and that is a good thing, it is a great pity that more do not resign, have not yet been prosecuted and are not being sanctioned.

Irrespective of the size of the indescretion, any discredited MP who is out of office is a good thing. Were the mainstream media commentators to get their noses out of the Westminster trough and smell some real air, they may well also be celebrating this fact.

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More 'fiction' from Government Ministers

It has emerged that once again British Ministers have been making up stories to facilitate their own aims.

Yet another TLA Quango, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, who had responsibility for key stage tests for children aged 11 to 14, failed miserably to manage to get the results out in a timely manner.

As a result of the fiasco, millions of pounds were wasted on yet another inquiry, chaired by yet another Lord, Government Ministers were asked to provide evidence.

Keen as pigs sniffing truffles, Jim Knight, Schools Minister and Ed Balls (an apt surname if ever there was one), sought to disparage Ken Boston, the then head of the QCA.

They offered evidence to the enquiry that at a meeting on 17th June, Jim Knight claimed that Ken Boston was complacent and disengaged at the meeting.

Only problem is that Ken Boston wasn't at the meeting, so it is hardly much of a surprise he was disengaged is it?

Of course the dear old 'onest 'injun, Knight has denied this turn of events is accurate as he claims he subsequently wrote a letter to Sutherland, '..explaining an error in the way the June 17th meeting had been described...'

Sounds a little like Mistress if Porn, Home Office Secretary Jacqui Smith, claiming the expenses claim for Porn Films was an 'error' someone else should have picked up, but now it is all in the open and been corrected, all is well.

The speed with which politicians seek to absolve themselves of responsibility for anything, other than praise, is a disgrace.

Continually blaming quangos for mistakes is farcical. These Ministers work for Prime Minister Gordon Brown who promised a ‘…bonfire of the Quango’s…’ before Labour came to power, claiming that they were ‘..often government in secret, free from full public scrutiny…’.

If Brown really believes this, why have 7 Government Departments added more Quangos and why when a Quango is shown to fail, does responsibility pass to yet another Quango and not back to Government?

Politicians need to take responsibility, stop lying and stop blaming other people for their lies.

How Knight has the gall to think that sending a follow up letter to clarify a lie in a previous submission is good enough, beggars belief.

The question remains, why did Knight submit evidence that someone who wasn't at a meeting, was disengaged and complacent at the meeting?

Ken Boston, may not be calling for a ministerial resignation, I am.

A Minister who can make submissions which are evidently untrue: Knight was advising he felt that Boston was disengaged, when he knew full well the man wasn't even there, should not be in that position.

To claim it was an error is nonsense. Knight knew full well Boston wasn't at the meeting and should have corrected the lie prior to submission, not after the buck passing had been carried out.

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Gordon Brown hyberbole

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Gordon Brown the Prime Minister of the UK, either lives in myopic nirvana or really thinks the British Public are thick.

He sent a letter today today to the head of the civil service, proclaiming '....The public would expect no less and would also expect the highest possible standards from all their politicians and all those who work for them....'

This is the same Brown who claims an allowance for a home despite being given a grace and favour residence paid for by the British Tax Payer, the same Brown who still supports Jacqui Smith, who had the gall to defend her position on claiming allowances the wide Public opinion finds indefensible and is even so mean as to claim for a bath plug. How petty minded and tight fisted can a mind to claim for this be? This is the woman who made a fraudulent claim for porn films and protested someone else should have told her. I wonder what other fraud she has committed.

The same Brown who even now defends politicians expenses. Who defends Myners, the man who knew about Goodwin's pension, but lied and pretended he didn't.

The same Gordon Brown who continues to defend politicians claiming expenses that many people think are indefensible. This is the man who thinks he can save the world from global depression, but can't work out that MP expense claims are nothing more than self aggrandisement.

He adds: '...I entered politics because of a sense of public duty and to improve the lives and opportunities of those less fortunate than me...'

Brown your morals have been lost, there is no one 'less fortunate' than you. You may be alive and think you are important. You are nothing more than a moral bankrupt. A trip to a Psychiatrist may help.

Transcript of the letter Gordon Brown wrote to the head of the civil service, Sir Gus O'Donnell dated 13th April 2009:

Dear Gus

I am writing about the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, and the proposals I want to make to tighten this up.

I am assured that no minister and no political adviser other than the person involved had any knowledge of or involvement in these private emails that are the subject of current discussion.

I have already taken responsibility for acting on this - first by accepting Mr McBride's resignation and by making it clear to all concerned that such actions have no part to play in the public life of our country.

I have also written personally to all those who were subject to these unsubstantiated claims.

Mr McBride has apologised and done so unreservedly. But it is also important to make sure such behaviour does not happen again.

Any activity such as this that affects the reputation of our politics is a matter of great regret to me and I am ready to take whatever action is necessary to improve our political system.

I would therefore now like a more explicit assurance included in the special advisers Code of Conduct that not only are the highest standards expected of political advisers but that the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks have no part to play in the job of being a special adviser, just as it has no part to play in the conduct of all our public life.

I also think it right to make it a part of the special advisers contract by asking our political advisers to sign such an assurance and to recognise that if they are ever found to be preparing and disseminating inappropriate material they will automatically lose their jobs.

I think you will agree that all of us in public life have a responsibility to ensure that those we employ and who are in involved in our parties observe the highest standards.

Like the overwhelming majority of figures in public life across the political spectrum, I entered politics because of a sense of public duty and to improve the lives and opportunities of those less fortunate than me.

My undivided focus as prime minister is on acting to make Britain a fairer, safer and more prosperous nation and, in particular, on guiding the country through the current economic difficulties.

The public would expect no less and would also expect the highest possible standards from all their politicians and all those who work for them.

Yours sincerely

Gordon Brown

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