Surprise! Smith Institute Plans More Meetings at No. 11
On Friday Gordon complained about smears in a statement where he denied that the Smith Institute had any formal link to him. Sure he is not on the board, but the board is Brownite.
Remember Wilf Stevenson, the institute's director, both denies it is political (which would put it in breach of charity law) and that it is a Brownite front. Nevertheless we discovered recently that Gordon pushed to have Wilf made a working peer.* That would have meant that Brown had made him a Labour working peer for his Smith Institute work. How in any sense therefore is he non-political and non-Brownite?
This is all a "Mandelson smear" the Sunday papers were briefed. Guido has no formal link with Mandelson, but he has been digging into "the Sith" sleaze for months. When is a smear not a smear? When it is the truth.
Remember Wilf Stevenson, the institute's director, both denies it is political (which would put it in breach of charity law) and that it is a Brownite front. Nevertheless we discovered recently that Gordon pushed to have Wilf made a working peer.* That would have meant that Brown had made him a Labour working peer for his Smith Institute work. How in any sense therefore is he non-political and non-Brownite?
This is all a "Mandelson smear" the Sunday papers were briefed. Guido has no formal link with Mandelson, but he has been digging into "the Sith" sleaze for months. When is a smear not a smear? When it is the truth.
Guido has obtained this list of events being held by the Smith Institute. You have just missed "Shaping Global Policy" - which seems an odd subject title for a non-political public charity. Isn't policy formation a bit political?
Are these meetings open to the public in line with the charity's charter? No. Are they anything to do with Brown's current imperative to repaint himself as Green? They are all being held at No. 11, what do you think?*So, yes, he would actually have become the Dark Emperor's very own Sith Lord.
61 comments:
'"Next stage" policies'? Next stage of what? Labour Government presumably.
How many other charities are given the regular opportunity to hold meetings at No11 or other government buildings.
This stinks to high hell and needs to be investigated.
Gordon seems to have had a charmed life, but, these revelations about the Smith Institute and the way it is run and structured are highly damaging.
It is a clear demonstration of how NuLab hold the people of this country in complete and utter contempt.
About as non-political as Gordon is as effective a steward of the UK economy. Guido, unless I've missed an earlier posting, why not just rename it "The Sith Institute"??
Glad to see that young David Owl-Magnet is back in the Sith Lord's affections (or should that be affectations?)
Bruce Banner's really let himself go.
Given Red Ken is turning up to one of these, that surely means that GLA members can ask all sort of embarrassing questions?
The irony of Ken meeting up with the CEO of Ford UK ?!
Guido, please can you stop using the 'Star Trekkie' nomenclature ?
It is very confusing for us non-anoraks.
Guido, would it be £50 well spent for you to join this illustrious organisation?
Penfold is absolutely right...this is a gross abuse of 11 Downing Street and I'm suprised that this has not raised the hackles of the few remaing civil servants that hang around the place. Would one of our rather timid Tory MPs like to ask a few questions on this...or maybe they have and its one of the 1000 that Labout have refused to answer
"The irony of Ken meeting up with the CEO of Ford UK ?!"
There isn't any, since there isn't any difference between corporate capitalism/socialism/communism etc
The subjects of those meetings read like a policy/manifesto shopping list?
They're really taking the piss.
It's simple:
- is No 11 available for others to hire?
- if so, is the Smith Institute renting No 11 at the standard rate that applies to all charities
Id like to go to one of those meetings, I would sneak up into tony and cheries flat and take a great big Guinness fuelled dump in their lavatory (a full flock of pigeons job) and not flush.
wouldnt do it in their bed as we would all end up paying for a new one.
"Guido has no formal link with Mandelson"
Not the use of the word 'formal'. Guido has picked up the weasel ways of the spinerati...
Peter, how primeaval, lol.....
glad you are not a vegetarian, the aftershock would even be felt in Mayfair...
Two points spring to mind:
1. this could well be a legit charidee concering itself with politics, which is entirely different INHO from a political charity, however there would then have to be contributing representatives from all political hues, which I don't see from the short extract shown in the post.
Second, and more importantly I reckon, the name "Dark Emperor" semms singularly inappropriate for someone looking more like a 1st rosette winner in a Yoda lookalike competiion.
You shouldn't judge anyone on the colour of their skin. He just looks like an alien. To hear him talk you would think he had come off another planet. In reality, he's just the boy next door...to Tony.
It's no surprise to see Livingstone at the current Smith Institute meetings in 11 Downing Street.
The London mayor's office is run by John Ross and Redmond O'Neill; they are leaders of Socialist Action, a trotskyite splinter group affiliated to the Fourth International and well integrated into the Labour Party at all levels, not to speak of their cadres dominating the Mayor's Office staff, right down to the most junior levels .
Their power base in Livingstone's office gives them the funding and the operational advantages that let them punch well above their weight in terms of numbers.
They recruit extensively in the universities and follow the Labour Party infiltration policies of the militant left into the unions and local level party structures (all those boring meetings, but they're always there, proposing and voting away) that Kinnock was supposed to have confronted and rooted out.
Gordon Brown has long been their candidate for the Labour Party leadership; and they are now determined to parachute Brown in as prime minister without a general election. They react very strongly whenever the impropriety of Brown simply taking over Blair's majority is raised.
Cameron is currently being dissed for considering whether a general election might be required when Blair goes.
And if all this sounds conspiritorial, they are, they are.
Whatever Gordons dysfunction's maybe
I dont think they have ever extended to butchering his land lady, unlike our good friend jailhouse lawyer.
Do you still hear her screams in the middle of the night Hirst?
Can you still smell the blood?
Do you still get aroused thinking about her warm corpse?
Even if this Institute really is a charity, how do they get away with all these meetings on Government premises? Any ordinary person or organisation would be hounded by the Revenue on a "payment in kind" basis.
I really don't like my girls being near the autistic axe killer; he should be kept seperate, in a jail.
No. 11 Downing Street is used by at least two or three charity events every single day - often considerably more than that.
The Smith Institute, like any other charity can ask to hold a charitable event at No. 11.
This really is a non-story.
If you want to know more about charity events held at No. 11 just make a phone call to No. 11. I know the Tories on this board find it difficult to fathom that the electorate would choose a Labour government three times in a row, but we do live in a democracy and so you can ask questions about the use of government properties.
I would say for every Smith Institute event you'd have in the region of 100 non-Smith Institute events at No. 11.
give it a rest Hitch I've just had my lunch.
Robert Harris once savaged Brown and his "Machine politician's contempt for democracy" .
I think this elitist and undemocratic 'sordid sith' business confirms that criticism.
"Next Stage" policies , Shaping Global Policy: subjects designed to suggest that the select few invited to the bunker to participate will have an influence..
Talk about 'shambles'
The GLA building gets used a lot by lots of charities as well.
Aha! A Labour denial so it must be true - the 'Sith' is a political animal
hatfield girl: If they are anything like you, I would not want to be near them.
Fuk me, this is getting BORING.
"The Smith Institute, like any other charity can ask to hold a charitable event at No. 11."
But it's not really a charity, is it? That's the point of the story...if you're following!
Anon - if boring, why not go elsewhere?
JHL does seem to be dominating every thread now doesn't he? Maybe because he doesn't seem to have many people to talk to on his own blog.
bow and agree: "nothing more than a messenger boy, a factotum, a purveyor, a self-loving, over-scented clerk."
"On the evening of June 23 they were watching television when Mrs Burton asked the defendant to collect some coal from the shed. He went to the shed, got the coal and at the same time picked up a heavy hand axe. He returned to the living room, put the coal on the fire, and then approached Mrs Burton and hit her, perhaps seven times, on the head with the axe. He then went to the kitchen to make coffee and drank it, waiting for Mrs Burton to die."
bowandagree prahlereien auf der flucht as we say in the bunker
bowandagree: "The Smith Institute, like any other charity" is currently being hauled over the coals by the Charity Commission. Did you mean to say?
does the sith institute publish a list of its corporate backers?
Macbroon
For funders look at Sith accounts. EMI Diageo and others use Sith to slip bungs to the whited sepulchre Brown - he of the moral compass. Before Sith, Brown was funded by Robinson who himself was funded by Joska Bourgeois via an offshore arrangement Orion Trust. The sanctimonious Brown holds himself out to be a paragon of virtue. This is more sickmaking than his destruction of pensions, sale of gold, tax credit fiasco, underinvestment in defence and tax/spend binge. The sentimental fuckwit Blunkett could do a better job.
Peter! I've warned you before about playing with that nasty Hirst. Now stop it RIGHT NOW or I'll take your privileges away.
Guido,
I think we have a moral duty to report The Smith Institute to the Charity Commission.
In you can all do it - send emails to the following address.
enquiries@charitycommission.gov.uk
Dear Charity Commission,
Guido Fawkes (http://5thnovember.blogspot.com) has found evidence that a non-political charity called the Smith Institute is holding political events aimed at policy formation. Could you please investigate whether this is a breach of charity law and tell me your conclusion.
Regards
Concerned citizen
Brown's dead man walking now Tony and Levy have kissed and made up and decided to dump on Gordon.
In fact you can email a person as well - just to make sure they don't lose the enquiry.
sandie.brown2@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk
I have already written to them and await reply.
Oh - if you go here you can submit a question to the charity commission and enter sombody elses email address - much more fun !! Try this email info@smith-institute.org.uk
http://charitycommission.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/charitycommission.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=66
At the top left hand corner is a link called "Email Answer"
You may want to change the text of the email to first person - something like.
"Can you tell me if we at the Smith Institute have breached charity law and avoided tax by holding overtly political meetings when we are listed as a non-political charity. We will pay back all the tax we have avoided if you say we have breached the law, yours faithfully Dark Lord Sith"
The Smith Institute like many other charities is involved in suggestions for policy. Almost all charities now have "Policy Officers" and create policy to suggest to government - the NSPCC do it, Greenpeace do it, the Smith Institute do it.
It is transparent.
I don't wear any scent.
I'm intrigued by Guido's Mandelson comments.
hatfieldgirl,
I think you'll find the only members of soicialist action left are those who work for Livingstone.
The organisation you describe did indeed operate that way in the 1970s and 80s but they split and split and split again and there just aren't any of them left. I believe the real name of the organisation is "the Socialist League" and the journal they are named after - "Socialist Action" hasn't been seen in the wild since about 1995.
Let's try and keep it simple for the factotums: Does the Sith Institute publish a list of its corporate backers?
anon 2:27 "Does the Sith Institute publish a list of its corporate backers?"
I don't think so.
The Royal Bank of Canada, a PFI investor, funded the institute's work on PFI.
Private Eye mentioned Diageo too didn't they?
Eds and British Gas also.
The Sith are also friends with the Grainger Trust.
bow and agree:" I don't wear any scent. "
He really shouldn't be so sniffy.
Well my parsnips are well and truly unbuttered.
bowandagree:
"It is transparent."
BUT doesn't publish a list of its corporate backers?
Uri
It does not have 'corporate backers'. It is funded from donations - now mostly FTSE companies seeking to gain favour with Chancellor. It owns a subsidiary which 'organises' events many of which are held at #11. Simple formula for corporate access to Brown with taxpayers money thrown in. More recently Sith was a vehicle to pay Ball's bills after he left Treasury. The trail is so obvious as to escape notice of Fleet Streets finest.
dr crackers: "The trail is so obvious as to escape notice of Fleet Streets finest."
ah, Like Polly Toynbee you mean!
Hitch - let it go now. He's done the crime, he's done the time.
He's paid his debt to society, now please forgive and forget.
It is Christmas after all.
uri
you took the words out of my mouth
fraid we have become so corrupted that we do not notice the filthy waters we swim in. this is blair's legacy(iraq apart), aided/abetted by a weak opposition, lacking in confidence for past decade. but we get the govt we deserve, i suppose.
Dr crackers, as it's xmas | don't want to depress you even further , but do you remember this from Gordon in 2003 when he expressed uequivocal support for war?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,907670,00.html
BROWN SIGNS BLANK CHEQUE FOR CONFLICT
"Gordon Brown indicated yesterday that he has handed Tony Blair a blank cheque to fund a war against Iraq. To the delight of Blairites, who fear the chancellor is equivocating over Iraq, Mr Brown said that he was prepared to "spend what it takes" to disarm Iraq."
GORDON SAID:
"The international community must not stand by while a regime that proliferates weapons of mass destruction defies more than a decade's international agreements."
"nothing should prevent us from equipping and supporting our armed forces".
Filthy waters indeed!
Gordon Brown 2003: "nothing should prevent us from equipping and supporting our armed forces".
"Our armed forces do an outstanding job for Britain and today I make clear our gratitude for the work that they do and my resolve to ensure our armed forces are properly supported for whatever lies ahead," he said.
Cut to 2006 and:
The Independent : "The betrayal of a soldier: Coroner in blistering attack on ministers at inquest"
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2086707.ece
"Lack of Armour 'unforgivable'" C4 news
The Daily Mirror: "Unforgivable and Inexcusable"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=unforgivable---inexcusable&method=full&objectid=18284639&siteid=94762-name_page.html
"A TANK commander was killed in Iraq because of an "unforgivable and inexcusable" delay in giving troops body armour, a coroner said yesterday."
From The Eye's street of shame preview :“Imprison my colleagues and editor!” shrieks Polly Toynbee"
Anyone know the story?
The Sith Institute: Embarrassing AND illegal?
“Imprison my colleagues and editor!” shrieks Polly Toynbee"
No, but worth repeating!
See Ed Balls caught posting here under the name patprimer74:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=39359&st=30
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