Liberal Burblings

This must be another nail in the political coffin of Andy Coulson – from today’s Observer:

John Prescott tonight demanded the Metropolitan police reopen its investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal as the Observer revealed that Scotland Yard holds News International documents suggesting that he was a target when deputy prime minister.

Two invoices held by the Met mention Prescott by name. They appear to show that News International, owner of the NoW, paid Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, for his help on stories relating to the deputy PM. Lord Prescott spoke of his anger that the information, spelled out in a letter from the Yard’s legal services directorate, emerged only after he was given a series of personal reassurances by detectives at the highest level that there was “no evidence” his phone may have been hacked.

Gordon Thomas is to be congratulated on a superb article here in the Telegraph:

Despite his widow’s-peak haircut and geeky smile, [Gareth Williams] worked at the cutting edge of computer technology. His mathematical brain made him a vital tool in the fight against terrorism and cyber warfare. Yet the security services are anxious to play down his role, so as not to alarm the world over his importance to anyone involved in his murder.

What I found very strange, and, in a gallows-humour sort of way, amusing, was that it was two weeks before Gareth Williams’ employers reported his absence at work to the police.

Two weeks.

Only an idiot would take this at face value. You only have to have watched couple of episodes of “Spooks” to suspect that an enormous amount of frenetic checking and hard disk erasure and memory dumping was done during that fortnight.

Do they think we were born yesterday?

Well, yes, we were actually.

photo credit: Narwee

I occasionally do a Google news search for “Gillard” to see if any kangaroos are hopping up down under in the race, or should I say, stumble for someone born in the UK called Gillard or Abbot to become Prime Minister of Aussieland.

At last it seems that Labour leader Julia Gillard, born in Barry, South Wales, has managed to outwit (il)Liberal (see Russia and Japan) leader Tony Abbott, born in London.

And, surprise surprise (and for this she deserves great quodos) she has managed to get Kevin Rudd (on whom she ratted just a few months ago) to buddy up to his old mate Katter the Hatter, one of the Three Haystack Amigos (independents) who are currently holding the future of this great nation in their pork barrels.

Fortunately, action on Climate Change appears to be the winner out of this whole sordid mess. Don’t ask me how, but here are the wise words of The Australian:

Gillard on the move for power

THE dominoes are falling Julia Gillard’s way. This week she used incumbency brilliantly to create momentum to form government and discredit Tony Abbott over his alleged $11 billion “black hole” deception.

It is folly to call this election until the final announcements are made. But an Abbott government would occur against this week’s trend. Gillard has formed a Labor-Green alliance, won the backing of Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie, seen Abbott’s humiliation over the costings issue and watched as the public statements from the three rural independents lean Labor’s way.

There have been two elections: the first contest determined by the people saw a Gillard-Abbott dead heat and the second contest for the support of the “balance of power” MPs sees Gillard thriving.

If Gillard forms a government it will testify to her skill as a negotiator and fixer, adroit at managing people, deft at judging the extent of concessions and likely to be comfortable in the new power-sharing politics.

The Australian article is an excellent one and can be read in full here.

Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer is starting to develop a Palinesque quality as the gift which keeps on giving. Earlier this summer she said in a televised interview:

…our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded

This beheaded bodies claim was entirely false. At a televised debate with her opponent, when repeatedly asked to recant on her error, the governor changed the subject.

After the debate, reporters repeatedly asked her to recant but she sort of froze, then changed the subject, then froze again, then thanked everyone for their time. It is an extraordinary example of avoiding the question. Paxo would make mince meat of her.

It makes for an hilarious video particuarly at about 1’50″:

After all this, the Governor belatedly backpedalled on her claims:

That was an error, if I said that,I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there’s a lot of violence going on and we don’t want that going into Arizona.

Yes, that’s very clear.

From the Independent:

Nick Clegg is facing a growing grassroots revolt as Liberal Democrat councillors quit the party in protest at the decision to form the Coalition with the Conservatives.

 Eight councillors in four areas have already resigned and the party’s high command is braced for more resignations as the full impact of the public spending cuts becomes clearer. Town halls face a severe budget squeeze despite the Government’s pledge to devolve power.

It would be surprising if there were not some sort of resignation wave after the coalition agreement, particularly from councillors in councils facing severe spending regimes (aren’t they all). But if eight councillors in four areas is all the Indie can dredge up then it is remarkable that there are so few.

Also, note that at the end of the article it quotes the very positive (for Clegg) LDV poll earlier this week. It also says that 600 LibDem members have resigned since the coalition agreement, but 4,500 have joined.

That doesn’t sound bad. To sanitise Ricky Tomlinson: “Revolt? My elbow”

From the Guardian

Michael Gove, the education secretary, will next week be forced to announce a dramatic scaling back of the Tories’ landmark plans to create a new generation of schools run by parents and voluntary groups.

Labour tonight accused the education secretary of presiding over a “chaotic shambles” after it emerged that as few as 20 free schools are on track to open in September 2011. In June Gove hinted that 700 could be established.

That says it all.

I have nothing against Free Schools. Indeed, I am all for them. But what I have a problem with is the way Michael Gove has built them up into being a massive “silver bullet” which is going to revolutionise schooling in this country.

It’s all been complete codswallop from beginning to end. Parents don’t want to run schools – in general – as the numbers above show.

By his behaviour on this matter, Michael Gove has been shown to have extremely poor judgment. He should stop chasing rainbows and knuckle down to doing the basic work needed to run our education system.

It’s the easy bit in any televised candidates debate. You’re given 30 seconds to say your piece. Great. Learn 30 seconds of carefully crafted words and rehearse them several times.

A sinch.

Especially when you are an established Governor of a large US state.

You do this sort of thing all the time don’t you?

Except that poor old Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, freezes several times during her pitch on local TV.

She simpers like a debutante cheerleader.

And she “delivers” some platitudes which are remarkable for their stunning asininity. For example: “We have changed everything!!!” she breathlessly proclaims. What, even the time of sunsets?

Watch and enjoy. But also sympathise. There but for the grace of God go all politicians….

As a commenter on Political Wire remarks: “Arizona fries your brain”. Indeed.

From Political Wire:

Levi Johnston may be attempting a run for public office but a new Public Policy Polling survey in Alaska suggests his political career might be short-lived.

Just 6% of Alaskans have a favorable view of Sarah Palin’s almost son-in-law while 72% have an unfavorable view. He is reviled pretty universally across the board but he’s a little more popular with Democrats (15/61) than he is with Republicans (4/76) or independents (4/74).

Key point: “It’s hard to muster a favorability rating lower than 6% — that’s about where the average person off the street we polled on a lark would be — so Johnson may hold this dubious distinction for a long time.”

Photo from Rochdale-on-line

I was very sad to hear of the death of Sir Cyril Smith. I extend my great sympathy to his family and friends, and to the community of Rochdale.

We Liberals owe a great debt to Cyril.

During the times when we only had a few MPs, and during the controversy of the LibLab pact, Cyril’s role could be described in one word: stalwart.

It really was inspiring and deeply reassuring to have Cyril as a leading figure, demonstrating rock-solid liberal principles with great character and charisma.

I don’t think it is an exagerration to say that without him (plus a handful of other deeply committed and charismatic liberals such as David Penhalighon, David Steel, Russell Johnson, Jo Grimond, John Pardoe and Jeremy Thorpe) the Liberal Party and liberalism as a recognised, active movement in this country, would have evaporated sometime between 1960 and 1980.

Thank you Cyril!

An emission from Paul Staines’ French second home which sums up ‘the cynical view’:

If Hague had kept an experienced press handler like William Littlejohn as his SpAd he wouldn’t be in this situation would he? He wouldn’t haven’t released that stupid statement on Monday, which brought him more unwanted press attention. He wouldn’t have released that cynical, Aitkenesque, “sword of fidelity” statement yesterday. All in all, he has only himself to blame for being ill-advised and has shown a staggering lack of judgement.

There comes a time when we all have to be a little human. It really takes a cold, cold heart to cast aside a tale of two people struggling for a child, suffering miscarriages including a recent one, and make such a cynical statement such as that above.

William Hague is a good foreign secretary. He is a politician of integrity and honesty, but he displays occasionally poor judgment.

Appointing a close colleague to a special adviser role at £30,000 is not a big deal. Special advisers are often close political allies – that’s what they are there for – to provide the political advice of a close ally.

You really don’t have to write more than a 300 word synopsis of the qualifications of a Durham university history graduate to justifiy them being selected to do a £30,000 job (which for a graduate of such a good university could justifiably be described as “two-bit”).

Give the man a break.

By the way, Staines is flattering himself by alluding to the Jonathan Aitken affair via the “sword of fidelity” reference.

While both cases come down, by bizarre coincidence, to hotel arrangements, there is no real comparison between employing a £30K adviser and the Aitken case, which involved possible/alleged imprioriety by the Defence Procurement minister in a contract worth hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money. 

If we are now going to spend the next few months going through the fine nuances of Hague’s statement and coming up with stories about holidays, hotel rooms etc, then I despair. If that happens, I think we can rightly conclude that British blogging (or at least one blogger) and the British media have finally “jumped the shark” and landed head first in the gutter.

And, yes, I never thought I’d end up defending William Hague!