Lord Levy arrested again

So Lord Levy has been arrested again and later released on bail. The interesting thing is he, like Ruth Turner, was arrested for perverting the course of justice.

Now I’m no expert, but in order to pervert the course of justice, wouldn’t you actually have to be worried the police might find something?

However it would appear that with the way the investigation is going, no one is going to be charged under the original Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. Otherwise why are the police arresting people for preventing the course of justice. Perhaps they are trying to make up for the fact they haven’t found anything?

Evidence of Blair link in Cash for Honours?

The Sunday Telegraph today is reporting detectives have found a hand written note from Tony Blair linking him directly into the Cash for Honours scandal.

Downing Street is of course denying any such document exists.

I still don’t think the PM will be charged, would be interesting if he was required to be a witness against the likes of Lord Levy and Ruth Turner though.

Week of blunders for Home Office

John Reid must be regretting the day he said the Home Office “isn’t fit for purpose” and attacked the Judge in the Craig Sweeney case for being too lenient. The Home Office hasn’t been out of the news for the last two weeks due to blunder after blunder being reported and now Reid has had to right to Judges, asking them to be more lenient.

What a way to land yourself in it. Gordon Brown must be loving this from a leadership point of view.

Future Olympic fiasco

Could the Olympics be an absolute disaster for this country? If there is one country that could manage to get it horribly wrong, it’s bound to be this one.

The Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport is to issue a very critical report over the handling of the Olympic project’s finances and the project is still in its early days. Plenty of time for things to get far worse yet!

Hiding behind terrorism

It seems the Government and it’s loyal MPs will use terrorism however they can, if it can be useful to them. One could be forgiven for thinking they actually want the terrorist attacks to continue, so they can continue to hide behind it.

Personal beliefs and Government

Can a Minister who believes homosexuality is a sin, really promote equal rights? It appears the answer has been made clear today. Ruth Kelly, the Minister responsible for equal rights, is pushing for an opt-out for Catholic adoption agencies, so they wouldn’t have to allow gay couples to adopt from their agencies. So much for equal rights.

The fact that if Ruth Kelly fails to get an opt-out, she will have to lead a debate promoting something she doesn’t believe in and her own religion denounces, could be interesting.

Blair can't face Iraq debate

So our wonderful Prime Minister who took us into the Iraq War, isn’t prepared to face the debate over how badly it’s going. How typical of our PM. Makes a decision and isn’t prepared to face the consiquences.

Split the Home Office

So John Reid wants to split the Home Office in two. One part responsible for justice and the other for public protection.

It’s always interesting when a Minister says they want to get rid of their own department. Reid clearly knows he won’t be Home Secretary once Brown takes over. Hence the split coming within months, Reid needs to move quickly if he is to the Home Secretary who made this dramatic change to the structure of Government and the Home Office. His own legacy if you like.

SNP and Trident

The SNP is proposal that should it be in power it will introduce a tax on Trident missiles which are brought into Scottish harbours.

They claim it could raise £85m a year. But of course that wouldn’t happen. Should ever such a tax be introduced, all the UK Government has to do is move our nuclear fleet from the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde in Scotland, to somewhere in England, therefore avoiding the tax. This would lead to the Faslane Navel Base becoming obsolete, costing Scottish jobs. I’m sure the SNP wouldn’t be popular for that.

Ming Campbell's day?

Wednesday provides a good day for Ming Campbell to demostrate to the country and his own party that he is the right man to lead the Liberal Democrats. On that day is a full debate on the Iraq war, a subject which at the time, Campbell has been one of the best MPs in the House of Commons.

Can he turn back the clock and come out of Wednesday’s debate on top, like he has in the past? He certainly could do with it!

Labour Party corruption everywhere

It seems Labour just can't help themselves, particularly those who are backers of Blair's New Labour ideal.

This is from LabourHome.

"A Tribune investigation has discovered that party staff and Downing Street officials, have been breaking selection rules, in order to assist favoured candidates."

It seems to be Labour's answer to everything, if the rules get in the way, just break them, even if it's your own rules.

When it suites us...

Guido makes a good point here, over the response of some Labour MPs to the arrest of Ms Turner in the cash for honours enquiry.

They have chosen to comment on "an ongoing investigation" after maintaining for months it would be improper to comment. Then again, should we really be surprised that MPs change their minds depending on whether it suites them or not?

Watch out for killer adverts

This is footage from a match in Johannesburg, South Africa.



And we think we had strong winds.

I should add, the match was later abandoned due to a lightning storm, not the wind!!

Chancellor snubs his own Union celebration

Our glorious Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who only last week was praising the union between England and Scotland has snubbed his own party at No. 11 to celebrate the 300 years of the Act of Union.

Of course despite praising the union, there’s no press coverage in attending a party at No.11. There is however press coverage for travelling to India, espeically at the moment with the goings on in the BB house.

Eu constitution to be ressurrected

It seems Germany when it takes over the presidency of the EU wants to bring back the failed EU constituction.

Here we go again! Another chance for EU members to show they don’t get along with each other in reality.

The off button

Fianally an MP has made a statement about TV that actually resembles common sense.

David Cameron when asked about the racism in the Big Brother House has said there is "a great regulator called the off button". About time this was said.

Instead of complaining about something you don’t like on the tele, just don’t watch it. In this case unless Shilpa Shetty actually complains herself, I don’t think we should be worried. All those that are, there is plenty of other channels. It’s like when people complain about Friday Night with Johnathan Ross. You know what he’s like and his sense of humour, so if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. If enough people feel the same way, ratings will plummet and the show will be axed.

The fact Miss Shetty hasn’t complained says a lot. I believe she said upon entering the BB House she was there to increase her status in the UK. This must be fantastic for doing that. Front pages in the press and even raised in the House of Commons. Everyone knows who she is now.

I should add I haven’t actually seen the show.

UKIP will cost Conservatives

This is stating the obvious a bit but the Conservatives have warned that UKIP will cost them and help Labour.

This is hardly a surprise as UKIP is aiming to attract the anti Europe Conservative vote. Labour doesn’t have quite the same problems.

However UKIP could be a problem for the Conservatives at the next election, provided they don’t completely collaspe before then. Remember the Referendum Party in 1997?

Blair gets his own award

So Blair is to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor later this year.

Now we all know why the UK was dragged into a war in Iraq. So Blair could be awarded this medal, move to the States and go on a tour of the US delivering speeches which will earn him millions. Nice to know the PM had the countries interests at heart the whole time and not his own future!

Well at least he will have the money to buy his own peerage!

A big hole

I find the Government’s line over the current Home Office scandle involving 27’500 unprocessed overseas criminals rediculous.

They keep saying the Home Office is doing all it can to identify those people who may have “slipped through the net”.

Well it must be a bloody big hole for 27’500 people to of slipped through. Quite worrying really. How many terrorists have “slipped through the net”?

Halifax scam?

During December Halifax were running a promotion for existing Halifax One credit card holders of 0% on balance transfers for 6 months.

Thinking this was quite a good offer I filled out the form and returned it to the Halifax 2 weeks before the deadline date for applications, to give them plenty of time as it said 5 days were needed to process the application.

But of course nothing happened. The balance from my other card wasn’t transferred and the deadline date ellasped.

I wasn’t too bothered really but then last week I got another letter from the Halifax offering 6.95% on balance transfers until the balance was paid off. Now call me a synic but at a rate of 0% the Halifax makes no money, yet at 6.95% it does. So surely it’s in the Halifax’s interest not to process applications under the first promotion in the hope customers will reapply under the second?

Of course I’ve no proof this is the case but it’s very convienient for the Halifax.