UPDATE : Lobbying for Olympic Profits in Downing Street
Apologists for Sleazy Levy have been on to Guido to try to deny that any influence could have been bought by Lowy's Westfield for his A$300,000 bung. The Olympic Delivery Authority was set up precisely to to prevent that kind of thing they claim. Overlooking the fact that the relevant planning permissions for Westfield's retail mega-development were given prior to the setting up of the ODA.
As Guido's co-conspirator Sero points out, the ODA is far from independent of Downing Street. The board is stuffed with Tony's cronies, not least of whom is Baroness Morgan, formerly Sally Morgan, late of the Cabinet Office. Up until June last year she was Director of Government Relations, a job which involved closely liasing with Lord Levy. Her successor as Director of Government Relations, Ruth Turner, is already under investigation in the Loans for Lordships scandal as a result of her own dealings for and with, you guessed it, Lord Levy.From 1995 to 2002 David Higgins was the Chief Executive of the Lend Lease group in his native Australia, a company in which Frank Lowy's Westfield holds a major shareholding. In an amazing coincidence, David Higgins was appointed by Tessa Jowell last year to be the Chief Executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority.
So was it Lord Levy or the former Director of Government Relations, Baroness Morgan that invited the head of Westfield's British operation, Peter Allen, to attend more than one Labour Party event at Downing Street?
Lord Levy claims that the A$300,000 was for him to "advise on the UK retail market, to flesh out the shape of that market and to identify business opportunities that might suit Westfield's scale of operations". So which large scale business opportunities did Lord Levy identify for Lowy's Westfield if not the Olympic Village?
12 comments:
I hope Lord Levys secretary has the fire extinguisher closer to hand this time.
Oooh. Naaaaarsty. Brown trouser time at Number Ten.
I confidently look forward to reading more on this story over the backwoods breakfast table on Sunday !! Kudos to Guido for a fresh hare.
The Olympic Development Authority's Director of Communications is Godric Smith. He was the No. 10 spokesman for many, many years.
In that role he would never have met Lord Levy would he? All these Downing Street people involved in the Olympics.
Lowy really wasted his $300,000 giving it to Levy didn't he. It could hardly have influenced anything.
What a bunch of shysters New Labour are, they run the country like a corrupt third world village council.
"third world village council"
erm, that'll be Milton Keynes then, where David Higgins and English Partnerships' finest hang their hat. AKA Developer Central.
Marvellous, Guido! You better hope your own life is whiter than white (I'm sure it s), because 'they' will be determined to exact revenge if this all pans out.
Kudos to you indeed, Guido, for bringing this one up.
I'm intrigued to see how this one will progress and how quickly it does...
I hope Guido doesn't have a "short illness" like so many people who seem to cross Labour do.
p**** ****** had recently suffered from depression.
Prone to wandering the streets of Westminster, unshaven, wearing baggy shorts and a football shirt, demanding the finest wines known to humanity from anybody with a corporate credit card he was today found dead in Hyde park having apparently cut his own throat and fallen backwards several times onto a Swiss army knife, it was obviously a cry for help that went tragically wrong declared Alaister Campbell.
Now remember Guido, your 'stack'ing your odds here, refuse or cancel any or all your Munro Baggin or fell walking invitations. Something 'cooking', avoid Bar BQ's too.
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Did Westfield acquire any property assets after the closure by Labour of Railtrack.Check out mainline stations.
This is all very instructive for those of us in Vancouver, looking towards 2010. So far all we have had to contend with is closures and forced homelessness.
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