Coincidence or Corruption?
Gordon's pollster Deborah Mattinson sits on the board of Gordon's think-tank, the Smith Institute. Her relationship with Gordon has been very profitable for her firm, OLR. According to today's Sunday Telegraph, government contracts totalling some £3 milllion have come her way.By coincidence OLR does a bit of polling for the Smith Institute for no charge. In February Guido queried who paid for their latest "92% favour Gordon" poll. OLR came back and said they had no paying client for the research. Nor did they have an identifiable paying client for their "What it means to be British" research in 2005. Shortly afterwards Gordon began loudly banging his Britishness drum. Opinion Leader Research has helped Gordon on "Britishness" issues before, their research was also used extensively in “New Britain” a 1999 publication produced by the Smith Institute. The pamphlet was itself singled out and explicitly criticised by the Charity Commission as being party political in the first 2001 investigation into the Sith.
When the taxpayer is paying OLR £153,484.38 for one-day seminars it can't be hard for OLR to do a bit of off-the-books work for the Smith Institute. The taxpayer is subsidising Gordon's private polling, just as it subsidised the event hosting of Gordon's Smith Institute at Downing Street.
When the taxpayer is paying OLR £153,484.38 for one-day seminars it can't be hard for OLR to do a bit of off-the-books work for the Smith Institute. The taxpayer is subsidising Gordon's private polling, just as it subsidised the event hosting of Gordon's Smith Institute at Downing Street.Chris Grayling has written to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, asking him to investigate how OLR comes to win so many government contracts. Many market research industry competitors agree with Guido:- it is cronyism plain and simple.
44 comments:
Peanuts compared to Common Purpose.
We know its corrupt. The question is what can be done about it?
Otherwise you are just howling at the moon and they get away with it.
they just make you sick dont they? how3 much longer can this go on for??
I don't undrestand how blatant corruption can just take place in front of us and nothing be done about it. I'd understand if we lived in Walpole's time.
How does this compare with Neil hamilton being pilloried for allegedly acception a cash bribe in a brown (ah!) envelope from a man who admitted lying to the DTI (Fayed). No actual evidence of this was ever produced other than the word of a man who thinks the Duke of Edinburgh killed his daughter-in-law, yet the mud sticks.
Is there no organ of state (backbench MP, Police, Charity Commission, anyone) who can investigate it?
There are very few coincidences in a control freak's world.
Nulab the Organised Crime Party setting a wonderful example to us all.
Rob steal cheat & lie you can do it all.
Fancy risking your skin in iraq for Nulabs security, what mugs.
In regards to dealings between the Sith and the Treasury, no one should forget this.
http://www.order-order.com/2007/05/myners-infraction-or-cover-up.html
It is an unexplained major breach of public contracting rules, from a little time ago. Either payments were made without a corresponding requisition, or a requisition was issued fraudulently. It would be nice to know which, and to see the consequences.
Was it not Dennis Skinner (Lab., Bolsover) who was fond of jumping to his feet in the Commons and denouncing the Tories as a "bunch of bloody crooks"?
He is strangely silent in these strange days.
Why isn't this a big story?
Narrative, I think.
It took years, nine or ten, of incompetence and corruption at the heart of the Blairite establishment to hammer into the public (or at least media) consciousness that "sleaze" wasn't just a synonym for "Tory".
Gordon Brown is Mr Probity.
It will take years, I fear, for the message to get through that "sleaze" isn't just a synonym for "Blair".
Dennis [1.52 PM] Good point! We could do with a Skinner-type oik on the Tory benches. I believe Bunter Soames has been known to make a stab at the role but I haven't heard much about him recently. Is he still around?
She has appeared on Newsnight a few times conducting "independent" vox pops. How's that for impartiality?
Chris Grayling is our best hope. He has a wonderful way of getting under their radar, and has a respectable hit total on corruption, ie Blunkett.
It really is rapidly coming to a time when another revolution will be necessary. We need a person with the attributes, intelligence and patriotism of Oliver Cromwell to return England to its Anglo-Saxon core values and beliefs.
Is deborah Mattison Scottish?
I cannot find out anything about her.
Here is some info on mattinson:
http://www.poolonline.com/bios/biodmatt.html
In 1985 she set up Gould Mattinson with Philip Gould, and became full time co-ordinator of the Labour Party's Shadow Communications Agency, advising the Labour Party on all aspects of campaigning, including logo redesign, Party Political Broadcasts, PR, advertising and speech drafting.
Why has no one referred to poor little Oona King, crying into her backbench.
Just weren't up to it, were you, kid?
The sleazy,thieving NULAB bastards dont even bother hiding their corruption anymore? There must be some higher authority such as the queen, Armed Forces and the Police watching what is happening and the qustion is WHEN will they step in and remove these crooks? Are they waiting for a general uprising before they step upto the mark? One wonders at the way the British public sit back and take these abuses! What will it take for the British to rise up and say NO MORE!
Perhaps a sharp economic downturn will wake people up?
I truly despair that we ever trusted the Nation to a bunch of smooth talking lawyers(snake oil salesmen).
I couldn't put it better english democrat, and I think the Queen must step in over the refusal to honour a clear manifesto commitment to a referendum on the European Constution scam. She's done it before in Australia, and here we have clear evidence of powers that the Crown handed to the PM being handed over without the PROMISED by-your-leave to foreign powers. The only alternative after that is citizen action. Every taxpayer should refuse to pay council tax, income tax, car tax, every tax that we actually have to write a cheque for, and companies to cease to collect PAYE. The establishment will remain unpaid, and the whole stinking Nu-Labour edifice will collapse. A bit like a general strike. DO IT.
Darth brown, anonymous.
The main problem is, and this is why they get away with it again and again is that many of the public simply don't know or care.
Bitterly frustrating certainly.
Re: Trumpeter lanfried 2:13pm -
Last time I looked Nicholas Soames was very round.
There will be a severe downturn, there is surely no doubt of that, give that the "economy" is a candyfloss scam.
Then the Nulab pork-barrel tax and spend machine will seize up. People don't like these bastards but they control the purse-strings, as the money runs out their power will melt away.
Suppose there was widespread public sector strike action, suppose say that the POA came out again and Nulab tried to send in the police to arrest prison officers and the police refused to do it. Then Nulab called in the army, and the army very bitter over the breach of the military covenant and the Iraq quagmire refused to move. Where would Nulab go then? It could be the begining of the end. The soldier serves the nation through the Crown not through a Stalinist control freak loon. Nulab have no real legitimacy, only 1 in 5 voted for them. They have misused the power our less than democratic system gives them, and betrayed the trust that should reside in the Queen's government.
We need a Cromwell moment, perhaps the excellent General Dannatt will be the man. If we have a bit of decent leadership for a change to start sorting the country out, many will follow.
"Anonymous said...
It really is rapidly coming to a time when another revolution will be necessary. We need a person with the attributes, intelligence and patriotism of Oliver Cromwell to return England to its Anglo-Saxon core values and beliefs."
Just noticed this from above from another anon, absolutely heartening to see people are thinking along these lines
Here's a little quote from "God's Englishman" written by Christopher Hill. Cromwell raised a troop of horse at Huntingon......"many years afterwards Thomas Tany remembered Oliver "at Huntingdon in the market-house, myself there present promising to stand with us for the liberty of the gospel and the law of the land".
This is what we need, suitably updated for 2007
freesherry said...
The main problem is, and this is why they get away with it again and again is that many of the public simply don't know or care.
Yes that's the problem for sure. We have more folk in employment than ever before. Better NHS than ever before. House prices doing very nicely thank you. Better paid jobs. Higher pensions, and going to get even better, when Gordon fixes Maggies' meddling of yesteryear. Less bloggers dying from lung cancer thanks to a brave Government sorting out the smoking lobby. Pity it took so long, but they did it, they bloody did it. I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't. Nearly forgot, no miners having the shit kicked out of them while Gordon and friends have been in power. No council houses being sold to Tory only voters, no Labour M.P. being sent to prison, sorry I said I wouldn't go on. How soon we forget,well how soon you forget. You really are a pathetic bunch of whining prats,grow up and accept we don't give a rats arse about what you think. You really think that what you post here is going to make any difference, in your dreams.
Anonymous said...Here's a little quote from "God's Englishman" written by Christopher Hill.
This is a blog.Your boring.Push off.
stroppycow said..
Last time I looked Nicholas Soames was very round.
I find it very difficult to take seriously the views of the morbidly obese.
45govt said...
I couldn't put it better english democrat,
Surely you could, a person with learning difficulties could have put it better.
dennis said...Was it not Dennis Skinner... He is strangely silent in these strange days.
He's retired,perhaps that's why !
45govt said...I think the Queen must step in
You're a bit simple lad.
judith said...
dennis said...Was it not Dennis Skinner... He is strangely silent in these strange days.
He's retired,perhaps that's why !
I think Dennis Skinner would be very surprised to find that he has.
Trolls are out I see, are these creeps getting overtime for home nonjobbing now? It is soooo nice to watch them squirm. They'd better get used to it.
Judith ... my point exactly. People think he's retired!
Check his entry in Wikipedia.
The trolls are getting more and more desperate. I suspect they have got bored reading the drivel from the Guardian, and even they don't believe Gay Gordon's spin, and fear for their benefits and non-jobs is starting to take hold. Pathetic nonentities, all of you.
"your daft you know,your all daft" nearly said:
'You've never had it so good'
Hmmm... Education, education, education?
With the greatest respect 'Your Daft', shouldn't it be 'You're daft you know, you're all daft'
Still, I suppose your rite (or even you're right) about the benefits of the Indian and Chinese low cost labour markets.
I wonder if a future Prime Minister, in say a couple of hundred years time, will be apologizing for the iniquities of the 'Slavery' of the early twenty first century that funded our life styles, wars, etc.
Your daft......is a labour puppet who CAN'T EVEN SPELL! It's You're as in you are.
Hell, what do they teach you people at Labour HQ. Even if you were watching telly while typing this up on your laptop.
And as for the NHS, my local hospital now won't take children....you have to take them to ANOTHER hospital 15 miles up the road. And an 11 year old boy has been shot dead while your PSCO's are being given skateboards! Never mind the war based on a 45 minute lie!
You condescending shit!
£3 million, peanuts compared to the free ride he gets from the BBC £3.5 billions worth.
The best you could manage was a spelling mistake. I'm always getting that wrong, very silly. You're, your, it's been pointed out to me before. What is annoying was that my comments were superb, and then to slip up when adding my user name. Bother, bother, bother. Still I won the argument, and that's all that really matters.
@ the troll: so have the police caught whoever keeps defecating on your lawn yet
Dear you're daft,
Er, NO! your comments were shallow bullshit & lies! You seem to take in all the crap you are told like a tape recorder and then regurgitate it to anyone who will listen!
May I suggest you walk down any city centre late at night on your own or walk into an Asian ghetto and I promise you an education in NULAB stupidity that you will never forget(if you live)!
If you are admitted to an NHS hospital you are likely to come out sicker than you went in(if you live)!
Real unemployment is reaching EIGHT MILLION now and the shrinking number of taxpayers who shoulder the burdon are getting pissed off!
Gordon Browns fake economic miracle has been created by the most stupid and shortsighted idiots ever to grace the cesspit that is Parliament!
you're daft ,you are all daft. said...
"Still I won the argument, and that's all that really matters."
Rubbish, read Larry Elliot and Dan Atkinson's Fantasy Island
Blair, and Brown's, Britain is described as "a seedy dreamworld mired in debt". That's all your "miracle" is, personal debt exceeding GDP - to say nothing of warmongering aggression, financial and unprecedented electoral corruption.
english democrat said...
Dear you're daft,
I lived through it, and I'm living it now. It's better than it's ever been,for me anyway.
Anonymous said...personal debt exceeding GDP
Not my personal debt. Greedy folk getting into debt, that's their problem. Bit like fat folk, I'm not fat, and I'm not in debt.
Anonymous said...
@ the troll: so have the police caught whoever keeps defecating on your lawn yet
The neighbour as I suspected,he's being neutered as I type.You're well I hope.
Guido,
When does the Charity Commission report on the Sith come out?
I've got a feeling we may all have died of old age before it happens.
Can you enlighten us?
Ta
Oona King can cry into her IVF sperm test tube. She has been common and vulgar enough to tell us how she and her husband did it - so, fry, love.
I am amazed that The Mail on Sunday - a campaigning paper that I love, has paid God knows how much money for the so-called Diaries of that silly no-brain MP.. Oonie King.
Shame on you MOS.
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