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Monday, April 3, 2006

Capita and Ruth Turner (Part II) "Unanswered Questions"

Ruth Turner has recently attracted a lot of attention with questions being asked by two Tory MPs about her role. None of the questions however have as yet been answered. Growling Chris Grayling, a frontbencher, asked what meetings Cabinet Office ministers and officials had held with Capita since the start of January 2004. He basically meant Ms Turner. Stewart Jackson was even more explicit with his question tabled two weeks ago;
Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough): To ask the Prime Minister, if he will list meetings his Adviser on Government Relations has had with (a) Capita, (b) organisations acting on behalf of Capita and (c) Mr Rod Aldridge in the last 18 months; what the purpose of the meeting was in each case; and if he will make a statement.
The very next day after that question was put, Rod Aldridge, the CEO of Capita, resigned saying of his million pound bung to Labour "There have been suggestions that this loan has resulted in the group being awarded government contracts. This is entirely spurious.'' So far the government has dodged giving answers to the questions claiming "To provide the detailed information requested would incur disproportionate cost." How much does it really cost to ask Ms Turner simple questions?
  • Have you met Mr Aldridge?
  • If so, when did you meet Mr Aldridge?
Total cost of a two minute phone call to Ms Turner? 5p.

To see Guido's previous Capita and Ruth Turner stories click here.

to be continued...

14 comments:

kingbongo said...

I wonder if this will be the repsonse when Knacker of the Yard asks the same question. We'll see Levy and Turner do the perp walk yet (just prior to resigning on health grounds/ spend more time with family/ pusrsuing other interests)

Methinks the plods could do worse than interview the Richardson brothers in the Midlands about their meeting with Levy when he tried to tap them up for a mill.

Anonymous said...

I'll preface this comment by admitting that I knew Ruth Turner in one of her previous lives and found her extremely impressive - not your typical new labour clone.

I'm slightly concerned that this line of questioning seems to be leading towards a scenario where a back-room official (and in this case, one relatively new to Westminster) gets the blame for a scandal going back years rather than the politicians in charge.

Moonbat Baiter said...

Get Ruth, and you may get Powell, get Powell and you may get Blair.

Like in V for Vendetta, it is a question of toppling the dominos.

kingbongo said...

This is not about 'getting' Ruth Turner it's about finding out how the secret funding operation worked.

If Ruth Turner is so impressive she should have known better than be involved in the corrupt practice of using taxpayer money to spend her time working for the Labour party and soliciting funds outside the normal channels.

She may well be a very nice person with a huge brain but that doesn't mean she doesn't have to obey the law.

The remittance Man said...

I was under the impression that government officials keep diaries of their appointments and meetings (it may even be a rule to which they must adhere, I don't know).

In industry the diary is kept by the official's secretary if they are senior enough to warrant one and what could be more senior than a special advisor to Swiss Tony?

Whether it is true or not the more the government obfuscates on this whole issue the dirtier they look and the smellier they smell.

As a right wing loon this pleases me no end, but giving credit where it is due, His Toniness is reckoned to be a master of the political game. Surely he can see the damage that this is doing to himself, his "legacy" and any future socialist government?

Anonymous said...

A worse scandal is about to come out,David Cameron loves to meet up with Bozza Johnson in the house of commons bike sheds and swap dirty stories, Bozza sometimes lets him sniff his fingers for fifty pence.

Anonymous said...

You Tory boys really are getting desperate, aren't you?

Face facts, Cameron screwed up big time because he knew he couldn't be honest so he had to desperately raise money to cover his tracks.

It's over.

John Miles said...

Very true. If Cameron was serious about winning back power he'd have just released all the names, regardless of confidentiality and hang the consequences. The worst thing that could have happened is for the Tory party to be taken to court - an that could have been spun as "in the dock for being honest with the public". Blair would have done it (1994-97) in a second.

Regardless of who's right and who's wrong, the Tories are, through their own misjudgments, the story now.

I still maintain that Friday 31st March 2006 was the day that the Tories lost the next election.

Anonymous said...

As a "Tory boy" I cant tell you how much I am enjoying watching Cameron screw up, Blair ditto, hopefully this is the end of the huge stinking pile of shit that our parliamentary system has become.

TheLeveller said...

What the people (prols?) of Uk should be asking is: Who pays the wages of these so-called labor MPs, is it Swiss Tony? Who should they be loyal to - pathological lairs like him or to us? How do they think they can constantly protect him and his unelected court? Think we are too dim to add one and one - we are powerless to do anything yet but the sensible, honest, silent majority will take its revenge as it did on the Tories. The worst of them will not be safe to walk the streets. In the Black Country we don't like LIARS.

Gregor said...

My arse this is a Tory story, Labour for our sins are the governing party and as such are in a far worse position in this. The mud isn't sticking to the Tories, but it will stick to Labour if evidence of a peerage going for a kickback is found. Nobody is going to be going on about Dave Cameron getting some money to fight the Medway bi-election when Tony is circling the plughole, I suggest you anonymous hacks get some perspective.

Anonymous said...

Facing a Brown(or at this rate Blair)/Ming alternative, does it really matter what Cameron does now?

Anonymous said...

Tut tut - this appears word for word in the Londoner's Diary in the Evening Standard today (4.4.06)

Anonymous said...

this is stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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