Parallel Investigations Under Way
Guido has just got off the phone with the Electoral Commission and they were being reasonably tight-lipped about their investigation. They would only say that it started yesterday and it was being handled by their compliance department.
They would not be drawn to comment on how it might run in the very likely event that the police begin a criminal investigation.
Nobody is taking the investigation into Harriet Harman that is reporting to Harriet Harman very seriously. Possibly because it is being carried out by Labour's former general secretary, Lord Whitty, under the advice of the former bishop of Oxford and veteran Thought for the Day platitude peddler Lord Harries, and the former Labour Scottish Solicitor General, Lord McCluskey.
Everyone keeps repeating the same joke about "all we need now is an actress". But we already have Ms Harman...
UPDATE : Peter Oborne in tomorrow's Speccie :
They would not be drawn to comment on how it might run in the very likely event that the police begin a criminal investigation.
Nobody is taking the investigation into Harriet Harman that is reporting to Harriet Harman very seriously. Possibly because it is being carried out by Labour's former general secretary, Lord Whitty, under the advice of the former bishop of Oxford and veteran Thought for the Day platitude peddler Lord Harries, and the former Labour Scottish Solicitor General, Lord McCluskey.
Everyone keeps repeating the same joke about "all we need now is an actress". But we already have Ms Harman...
UPDATE : Peter Oborne in tomorrow's Speccie :
‘Get me a Bishop. Get me a f—ing Bishop!’ Peter Mandelson, then Labour’s political strategist, yelled these words across the floor of Labour campaign headquarters at a rare moment of crisis before the 1997 general election. Inquiries were made, soundings taken in ecclesiastical and other circles. With surprising speed, lo and behold! there emerged out of pontifical obscurity the austere figure of Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford. The ecclesiastical potentate obligingly anathemised John Major and his works.
47 comments:
Can't imagine why Bishop Harries has agreed to this. It seems a bit odd at his age to be stating a new career as a purveyor of whitewash. He may be the original Revd. J. C. Flannel, but he's not that daft.
The Whittering Investigation will no doubt conclude that Harpic donated money to herself, but neglected to declare it to her husband (who is there to take care of all financial matters).
And she must promise not to do it again.
Publicity, publicity! Why else would he do it. Surely not for the fee?
It was noted noted just after thought for the day on R4 today that you only call for a man of the cloth on your death bed.
And isn't there something familiar about the leader of a country relying on the advice of friendly judges to get them through a sticky patch...
Musharraf don't like it - er, northern rock the Casbah?
My next door constituency Mp. Sir Patrick Cormac was a wee bit feeble on PMQs!
I wonder where Abrahams got the cash himself? Its a a lot of spondulicks for anyone to cough up... does anyone know if he had that much cash floating about from declared sources? Just wondered...
Whilst I am here can I ask if I have won anything yet? If not who do I have to bribe?
Excellent stuff Guido - keep it up. The way the mainstream media is having to rely on you doing the digging and then playing catch-up is something to behold. Bet most of the hacks in Fleet Street are just sat at their desks reading this blog to find out what's going on.
Keep digging for us, Guido!
Lord Whitty - Isn't he the twitty who shafted the farmers over Foot and Mouth ? Or am I mixing him up with somebody else ? Or was it the Single Farm Payments fiasco where staff were wanking in the office, or somesuch ?
Perhaps Guido can enlighten us ?
But why now? Apart from the unlikely possibility that all this has come out because of the fearless investigative journalism of the Daily Mail, could this be a. an inside job from Labour (Brown has more enemies than friends) or b. something to do with the revelation a couple of weeks ago that "the most significant piece of evidence" uncovered during the Cash for Honours investigation had not been made public (thus proving that the Met had leaked)?
Is Yates of the Yard having the last laugh?
I hear Glenda Jackson is now joining the internal investigation?
From Mendelson's statement:
"I started in my role as director of general election resources on the September 3 2007, work I undertake in a voluntary capacity.
"When I was researching previous gifts and plans I enquired into the names of individuals I did not know or otherwise recognise which included Janet Kidd, Raymond Ruddick and latterly John McCarthy.
"I was informed by Peter Watt to whom I reported that this was an arrangement with David Abrahams which was long-standing and which was appropriately dealt with in relation to the party's reporting requirements.
"He told me these donations fully complied with the law and I had no reason to doubt that information.
"However, I was unhappy with the arrangement whereby donations were taken through a third party and was determined it would not play a part in our future plans.
"I was very concerned that these arrangements did not meet the strict transparency test that I wished to see in place.
"I did not discuss this with the officers of the national executive committee or party leadership but I decided to tell Mr Abrahams that his method of contribution was unacceptable."
So - Mendelson raises the issue with Watt, who says it's all legal (which rather tends to throw into doubt his earlier statement, if it needed that); Mendelson then decides - without informing his bosses - to end this arrangement which brings Labour tens of thousands at a time when it's not exactly rolling in it.
For fuck's sake - exactly how stupid do they think we are? This is just tragic. Maybe it's one of those cases where if everyone tells one lie each they can't be caught out.
"You have sat here too long for any good you might have achieved. Begone and let us have no more of you. In the name of God, go!"
I notice Mendy got his CYA letter out just before the shit hit the fan. Good timing that.
Hubble,bubble,toil and trouble.
It's all going down the shitter for Macbroon.
At least Blunkett could honestly say that he never saw things comming across his desk.
Macbroon only see's half of it.
Mendelsohn wrote the letter AFTER he knew that the MOS were onto the story. It was about damage limitation, not about propriety. Timing is everything in this story - who know what, when and how?
anon 2:14 item b
That's a scenario that would make a great deal of sense.
Why do I get the impression that you are wanking yourself something fucking stupid over this minor issue, Guido.
For fucks sake! A guy bungs a few quid to the poor cunts in the gutter and the Tories are preparing themselves for Government!
Bollocks!
No policies. No Government.
Tories are lying, cheating, thieving cunts who aren't in jail because all the places are filled up!
Another Tory decietful ploy, if ever there was one!
When Richard Harries was Bishop of Oxford, Paxman interviewed him for his book "The English". When Paxo asked the straightforward question: "What does the Church of England actually believe?" Harries waffled and waffled away and Paxo couldn't pin him down to anything.
I'm not expecting any clear answers from Harries on donorgate.
Sky just reported on a whispering campaign amongst Labour MPs and Ministers against elusive treasurer Jack Dromey.
Harman borrowed 10k from Nat West to fund her campaign. When the campaign finished she was, it would seem, still in debt. The 5k received after her win therefore served no purpose other than to reduce her debt. So, Abrahams money was of direct personal benefit to Harman at that time.
Bns Jay warned against Abrahms' aliases - they MUST have known.
And what IS quite so dodgy about Abrahms himself? His 'I'm a recluse' line is bullshit - it he's such a recluse why did he tell Newsnight he donates to schools and name a charity he gives to. The business deal issue is pretty key but let's face it - after the supercasino thing not so unusual. So what's really the colour of his money?
"Sky just reported on a whispering campaign amongst Labour MPs and Ministers against elusive treasurer Jack Dromey."
Sky News is practically as bad as the Brown Broadcasting Corporation now for being nothing more than a cheerleader for McBroon and his ZanuLab ilk. They've barely reported on this issue and it obviously irks them that they have to mention anything negative about their beloved McBroon at all.
If you don't mind, I'll continue to get my news from a source that isn't slavish to the Government - Guido, the only man prepared to tell us what's REALLY going on while the mainstream media keep up their self-imposed vow of silence.
Keep it up, Guido. Your country needs you.
Both Geoff Hoon and Jack Straw have today refused to make any more TV appearances to defend Brown over the donations scandal.
Looks like it's time to dig out Sion Simon again!
So a millionaire property developer gives hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party in exchange for having his planning applications for multi-million pound developments passed.
So what?
Ghost of Ian Smith said...
"Hubble,bubble,toil and trouble.
It's all going down the shitter for Macbroon."
But from what I hear, it mostly goes 'up the shitter' of Gordo 'butt-plug' Broon !
Only hearsay mind.
And when politicians start saying things like "there is not one iota of evidence that" (this week that Harriet knew, last week that the discs had fallen into dodgy hands) it really means "I hope to God I am going to be able to get away with this".
Follow the money...
(verification bgorb)
And this is just to say that the verification is now "yechwax", What does this mean? He doesn'e eat earwax too, does he?
We've got a serial donor on our hands. Is it time for a list of all Labour donors to be circulated to the public so that people can check whether their name is improperly on the list?
Douglas Alexander named in the Times thsi afternoon regarding a planning application for Abrahams comapny when Alexander was Transport secretary.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2959161.ece?token=null&offset=0
penultimate para on page 2
praguetory
I hope I haven't given anything to the bastards!!
Respect must be paid to Andrew Neil for his performance in the face of desperate, disgraceful tactics from Roy Hattersley and Ben Bradshaw on The Daily Politics today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/default.stm
Everyone should watch it.
I don't mean to sound foolish - but how is it possible not to know where a sum of money came from ? - if it was not a cheque from Janet Dunn or a bank transfer from Janet Dunn then it didn't come from her. There must have been collusion to cover this up...
In the week of the Annapolis summit, we keep getting flashed the subliminal message:
"Labour- Friends of Israel"
With large sums changing hands between these 'friends', does Mr Abbas need enemies?
Roy Hattersley looked like he was going to have a stroke, there and then on the programme, but more importantly back to "up to his neck"
Surely this is the smoking gun??
Guido take note, this is what its all about:
"has (wee dougie) also been dragged into the row after it emerged that ministers intervened with the Highways Agency to ensure that planning permission was granted to Mr Abrahams' associates for a business park in Co Durham"
That, sir, is called corruption.
Hey Guido, how about a thread where we can comment on what laws we think have been broken by this bunch of idiots.
Can I start with
1. If you give money to an employee (even to pass on to some one else) surely there is some tax to pay somewhere along the line?
2. On the same theme have Money laudering laws been broken?
3. Oh yes Electoral law.
4. Any planning iregularities...
ermmmm.... I'm sure that there are more that people (even lawers prehaps :-) ) can come up with
Get the SFO on the case, they've got a lot of time on their hands since being blocked from investigating BAE.
Now we will all be on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome of the investigations. What will the conclusions be I wonder?
"there is not one iota of evidence that..." can also be read as "not one iota - a fucking shed full of iotas, my friend...."
It's the interpretation I prefer to use.
Who will give me odds on a terrorist alert in the next few weeks so the fuckwit can do his "clunking fist" (or is it "fisting clunk"?) statesman act? Also keep an eye on New Year honours - arise Dame Harperson.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics
"Watch again" for Ben Bradshaw at 1hr 11mins in.
How Huhne stopped himself hitting that c*nt there and then I don't know.
Heh Heh, and they are rock bottom in the polls... I tried the swingometer from the 2005 election on this one and Jack Straw was in the frame to lose his seat, no wonder he has ducked off from site to sharpen the backstabbing knifes. Broon is in for a serious ride with his own front benchers now.,,,
mutley if you were abeter friend to isael you could be in for a windfall
4:46
The extent of Labour dependence on Israel friends for funding - now well publicised - will go down a storm with the Muslim community in Jack' constituency.
There is the hope that this will crack a seat or two in the NE of England, and Scotland is a lost cause. They are gone.
Where does Mendelson stash all the illegal loot? Fingel's Cave?
I'm sure its been said already, but are you normally on your death bed when you start asking for a lawyer and a priest at the same time?
bebopper 6:33pm
"Fingel's Cave?"
You mean Brown's left nostril?
That's disgusting.
Hattersley was getting apoplectic again on C4 News tonight with an extra dash of paranoia thrown in - according to him Datagate is all down to TNT - the company that broke the picket line of the strike against the Murdoch press. Yes he did say that. And then he had the nerve to say Cameron was too abusive at PMQs...
I honestly hope someone gave the Labour Party £250,000 in my name. I assure you it would not be given back to the anonymous donor.
I would be pissing it up the porcelain in some foreign field that is never England.
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