Gordon Brown is back from Obama Beach and is starting to reshuffle his middle ranking and junior ministers. Sadiq Khan has just tweeted that he has just had a call. Careful Sadiq, careless talk costs careers... Or maybe the call didn't bring good news...
UPDATE: It brought good news. He has been appointed number two at Transport, but because Lord Adonis is in the Lords, he will attend Cabinet. He's the first muslim to do so. More HERE. His Tory opponent in Tooting, Mark Clarke, can now blame him when the trains don't run on time!
81 comments:
He is transport minister http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/4424355.Sadiq_Khan_named_first_Muslim_cabinet_minister/
why is his religion important?
What on earth is the point of the exposing of 'on the make' MPs like Khan if their reward is promotion ?
Deck chairs... Titanic...
No doubt Gordon wanting to make an impression with Obama after his speech in Cairo...
Did Lord Ahmed of Openprison turn Gordon down first for Transport, then?
Hopefully he will pay for his own train fares... he's still got to cover for the last scandal before creating new ones, Iain.
What short memories these overlords have. At least they kept the decision secular. Oh. No they didn't.
I'm sure Obama will be happy.
glad to see the PM reads my blog.
Sadiq Khan is a grade A f***wit.
Unfortunately he is my local MP.
The Post Office closure program hit a sub-branch a few hundred yards from my home. It was a small but popular operation that we used quite regularly.
Mr Khan organised a petition to try and save this branch - my wife as a regular user of the service duly signed it.
Mr Khan (like the supine prick he is) then voted for the closure program in the House of Commons.
Not content with this piece of treachery he then circulated a letter to the signatories of the petition trying to blame Wandsworth Council for the closure of the sub-branch.
This of course is the local authority with the lowest council tax in the UK and an area so enamoured with Labour that the last time I looked the council had 54 Tory councillors and 6 Labour.
Fortunately the lady who ran the sub-branch has far more backbone than Mr Khan and has been cirulating letters to remind people what a spineless shit he is.
His majority is decent but small enough that he may be removed at the next election.
I look forward to this day with relish.
What the hell are you all on about? Sadiq Khan is completely clean on expenses.
You must mean Shahid Malik.
But then I expect to you lot they all look the same...
The famous thing about Paine is that he had a notorious disagreement with Edmund Burke over the French Revolution.
Burke is considered the philosoper of Conservatism.
Burke supported the American revolution but criticised the French revolution. Paine was an American who supported both, and he couldn't understand why Burke didn't agree over the French revolution.
Their dispute is basically the difference between old left and old right.
Paine believes in universal principle and human rights. Burke believes in organic change and organic relationships.
Paine was a roundhead and Burke a cavalier.
That's it more or less.
It's worth reading up on their debate. It's fundamental to an understanding of politics and will stand you in good stead.
Both, by the way are brilliant but talking at cross purposes.
The fact that he is deputy to Lord Adonis surely means he will answer questions for Transport in the Commons, not that he will attend Cabinet....
who cares..another useless non entity..he must be if cyclops rates him
He owes his promotion to his religion and the fact that Adonis is too grand to bother with petty stuff like getting elected.
The "my-dad-drove-a-44-bus" guff is pathetic, and demonstrates what little talent he has.
Laughing and crying simultaneously. Brown is destroying this country. But we can't get rid of the swine.
Anonymous at 9:47. It's not his religion that's important but that his 'religion' is Islam.
One of this government's crimes is to promote Islam. It is one of the many reasons that it will be destroyed at the polls.
didnt his dad ever drive say the No 42 bus then
Weren't Muslims responsible for putting bombs on tube trains in 2005? Those of us on the Tube at the time, as I was, I have long memories......
The Telegraph is running a story that Blears and Purnell were part of a series of resignations but Flint hung out for a better job first.
Hutton resigned later because of a guilty conscience.
Pathetic the cabinet cannot organise a decent coup. How can we expect them to form a decent government.
I had always regarded Flint as an odious self publicist, now she is proved to be as big a creep as i always though. Still Elvira dissed Brown in the eyes of the female vote. Expect lakefulls of gushing from Sarah to say how attentive to women Gordo is.
But it does get better - 'Balls goes to war with Mandelson' - says the Times.
11 more months of this - wonderful!
@disillusioned Dale blog reader
I do despair when i hear comments like that from twerps like you.
I hope it was a flippant remark and you really don't hold those views.
On Thomas Paine:
A big fan of republicanism, atheism, universal free education, progressive taxation and the minimum wage. Honestly the two of you could have been separated at birth ;)
Oh and no one knows where his remains are. They were exumed from the United States by William Cobbett and brought back to Britain with the plan of having a huge funeral. Cobbett never got round to it and Paine's bones were still in his care when Cobbett in turn died. After that, no one knows what happened to them.
Sorry Iain,
I think the description (Have I got News for You} of Hazel Blears as "the bride of Chucky" is much more apt than "Chipmunk"
Sadiq Khan doesn't claim for a second home.
But he still had to cover for his slimy colleagues such as Hazel Blears on channel four news, and he was roped into Blears' expenses row.
Her gravy stains covered all of her lot when she was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
He defended the PM while turning his back on Blears. The promotion is no surprise, but the grime of scandal covers all of the Labour MPs, as the election results yesterday have shown.
dissillusioned dale blogger, you really should be ashamed of such a racist statement which is not worthy of this blog.
An oily, third world concession to local multiculturalism. Next thing we'll have oily Keith Vazeline sticking his nose above the parapet attempting to peddle influence.
Iain, why isn't the world 'Muslim' capitalised in your post?
@ londonmuslim said...
"dissillusioned dale blogger, you really should be ashamed of such a racist statement which is not worthy of this blog."
Why should disillusioned dale blogger be ashamed of speaking the truth? He's not the only one to wonder where muslims loyalties lie when push comes to shove. After all, lets face it, most, if not all, of the current terrorists causing aggravation around the place are muslims.
Gosh, Yasmin is a bit lacking.
Mr Dale doing the papers on Pravda is becoming my favourite show.
Its best when the wettest of wet social-liberals likes Yahadi-blah is on.
She looks in need of the Priory herself. Poor old cow.
Mr Dale you are storming on the News Channel!
You are certainly bettering Yasmin - what a ridiculous point about Charles' medals.
Classic OD to Y-AB about Gordo 'He'll be giving you one next!'
DO hope you meant a peerage, Iain! ;)
@ Bill Quango MP
There is a good piss take by Call me Ishmael of Alibaba Brown over at http://www.the-daily-politics.com/2009/05/wotontellyis-polish-view.html, about hafway down the column.
Jabba the Cat
Thanks. I can't get link to work but Ms Blah's medals comment was pure comedy in itself.
Shame the Pravda anchor cut her off when Iain asked her "So you admit that Brown lied?"
"Blah-blah- everyone lies--ermm..erm.."
If she could have continued she would no doubt blame Prince Charles' medals on Thatcher.
Anti-Tory and Anti -monarchy. She would have wet herself with delight.
Once again the instant reaction to someone mentioning muslim or islam in anything other than glowing terms is to cry racism.
It doesn't work any more.
Diane Abbott and others have been trying to deflect talk about Brown's future by saying that it would be almost impossible to remove him. That's as maybe - it hardly matters how cumbersome the process is if he can simply be persuaded to resign.
His friends shouldn't be telling him "You're safe", they should be telling him to step down for everyone's sake, not least his own.
There's no more wrong with Islam than there is with Judaism or Christianity.
Our wars have nothing to do with these religions, and oh so much to do with secular and geopolitical advantage.
Obviously.....
@ Adrian
I hope he resigns soon as I have vowed not to shave until he does and I don't really fancy the Hugh Laurie look.
Sadiq is a funny sort of Muslim. He repeatedly voted AGAINST any reduction in the maximum foetal age at which abortions can be performed, voted FOR allowing human-animal hybrids, and voted FOR the Sexual Orientation Regulations.
I guess being a Muslim is a vote-winner out in the constituency, but once you're inside the House and hoping for preferment, these things become a little more malleable. Cf. the situation with certain Labour ministers and their vaunted Catholicism.
Ah, the comment attackers are alive and well.....
@ golden balls : You don't agree with my comment so resort to a childish personal attack by calling me a twerp. You've really won the argument there, haven't you? You must be super intelligent to counter my comment with an insult like that. Gosh, you've really brought me round to your point of view now....
@ londonmuslim : My comment is not racist. More a statement of fact. All the bombers were muslim, weren't they? I don't remember buddhists, hindus or christians being blamed for the attacks?
I know that my comments may seem extremely controversial but when you are trapped underground on a tube train whilst bombs are going off, it changes you somewhat.....
disillusioned Dale blog reader - with you all the way buddy. i was past the GMC down the road a bit further when the bus went off.
no surrender to the likes of sadiq khan.
Rallings and Thrasher projected shares have just been released on the Sunday Times website. Some people regard them as more accurate than the BBC's projection:
C - 35%
LD - 25%
Lab - 22%
Tory share is 3% lower than BBC projection, LD share is 3% lower, Labour share is 1% lower. Obviously they calculate the minor parties did better than the BBC thought.
"the bride of Chucky"
LOL!
To: disillusioned Dale blog reader who says:
"Ah, the comment attackers are alive and well..... "
Not on your blog they're not....lol
0 comments seems to be your most regular theme.
What you may learn in time is that it's not enough to just talk right-wing shit in a childish way.
You have to be connected, a made guy.
It ain't democracy mais c'est magnifique....
On a side note I'd like to say thanks to you Iain for allowing even my very critical comments on your arguments.
You're obviously a free speech guy and I find that refreshing, so much so indeed that I forgive you the sexism error.
@ treble exes : If I am talking such "right wing shit", as you put it, how come two other commenters on this blog have spoken out in support of me?
Jabba the Cat and Anon @1217am : Many thanks for your support.
Referring to Brown:
"Another supporter of Purnell added: "Half the Cabinet hates Brown. One member of the Cabinet just calls him the psychopath, then you see him on the television defending him."
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/politics/-Civil-war-breaks-out.5342058.jp
Dissillusioned Dale etc - When any number of Catholics were appointed to the Cabinet did you immediately start making comments about their 'kind' and their connections to terrorism?
@ londonmuslim said...
"dissillusioned dale blogger, you really should be ashamed of such a racist statement which is not worthy of this blog."
I didn't realise Islam was a race - I thought it was a religion/ideology/cult ... take your pick.
The reason it's important is because it is important. Otherwise why would fellow muslim MP Shahid Malik make this speech?
@ anon 0119 am: I think that the conflict in Northern Ireland is an entirely different kettle of fish.
I do seem to be getting drawn into a debate about my one earlier comment. I do apologise if people find my comment racist or stereotyped but that is how I feel. Am I supposed to just shut up and not express it because others find it controversial?
Brown should not be allowed to continue reshuffling. Why does the Cabinet not just reshuffle itself (consulting the PLP so far as it chooses)?
Brown could remain as Party leader (as Neville Chamberlain did when Churchill became PM) whilst serving out his time on the back benches pending a Party leadership election to be held at the Party’s convenience?
I have vowed not to shave until he does and I don't really fancy the Hugh Laurie look.
Optimist !
"Paine was an American"
Paine was English. He didn't leave for America until Feb 1775 and stayed a few years only.
"Paine was a roundhead and Burke a cavalier.
That's it more or less."
Politics is not your strong point.
disillusioned Dale blog reader said...
"@ treble exes : If I am talking such "right wing shit", as you put it, how come two other commenters on this blog have spoken out in support of me?"
And I wonder how many others think the same but don't say anything? At least our votes are still secret, - although for how much longer in this police state?
Disillusioned voter - it's a good thing you're already disillusioned, as your vote is NOT secret. Have you never noticed the poll clerk writing your elector number on the counterfoil of the ballot paper, which like the paper itself is then kept for 12 months? and can be examined under a court order?
Also, thanks to this Government, local authorities have some novel powers of investigation and have not been slow to use them.
He's toast in a general election, an 8% swing wipes him out... so we will not have to put up with him for long...:)
Iain, apologies for being OT but can you tell what has happened to Politicalbetting.com? It has been down for almost 2 days now.
Fausty June 06, 2009 10:49 PM wrote ... One of this government's crimes is to promote Islam. ...
Is the following government promotion of Islam? If not, what is it?
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2008110320957
According to Dr. Mozammel Haque, writing in the Saudi Gazette, Labour MP Stephen Timms said:
... “When parts of our society are so deeply secular, so hostile to the acknowledgment of God, I want today to express appreciation and thanks to Muslims in Britain for insisting on faith ...[I want to thank Muslims] for helping put faith back today at the centre of Britain’s national life and debate in a way that it wasn’t for a very long time. ... You are part of the reason for that change, and I warmly welcome it ... We need more people taking up politics from the starting point of faith. Because faith is the source of decent values (like) honesty, commitment to family, generosity, support for peace ... [We need such] decent values which the Muslim community shows in abundance. ... Those are the very values which we need in our politics, and which this event can help us to promote ...
Anon 9:47.
Yes, why? Well maybe it's because the Muslim community in Britain make such a big deal of it. Personally I could't care less if he is a Holy Roman Martian - just as long as he displays some vestige of ability and integrity.
Any chance of that? Or has he been appointed by Brown as a sop to a particular section of the electorate? Why would Brown do that, eh?
And what about his 'expenses' embarrassments? Will he apply the same moral principles now that he has his grasping fingers on the levers of power? Yep, I think he probably will.
@ londonmuslim
Who the hell are you to determine what is or is not "worthy of this blog"? Are you some sort of morally superior being, sitting in judgement?
We are not worthy, O Great One....
Sunray.
Go to this link(their back up channel)
http://politicalbetting.blogspot.com/
or type in
http://87.106.214.196
For some reason some ISP are accessing the cached pages from 25th April and the guys at politicalbetting are trying to resolve. However the comments pages are still inaccessible on some ISPs even using the above links
Sunray @8.40: they're having DNS problems. Instead of the domain name - politicalbetting.com - use the IP address: 87.106.214.196
This will get you to the current page. Trying to make a comment will give you a blank screen - but just edit out the domain name in the address your browser gives for the comments, and replace it with the IP address, then press Enter, and the comments will appear. Bit of a drag but gets around the problem. Using copy/paste for the IP address speeds thing up.
I've been puzzling for ages just who Shahid Malik remind me of...of course, it's Bernard Righton, of Fast Show fame!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svLyyzBC_qI
Thanks to Russell and Anonymous 0920 AM for the info. I am sure that I will not be the only one on here who is grateful!
I believe he was in the headlines a while back:
'SCOTLAND YARD’S antiterrorist squad secretly bugged a high-profile Labour Muslim MP during private meetings with one of his constituents.
Sadiq Khan, now a government whip, was recorded by an electronic listening device hidden in a table during visits to the constituent in prison.
The bugging of MPs is a breach of a government edict that has barred law agencies from eavesdropping on politicians since the bugging scandal of Harold Wilson’s government.'
Gordon takes control freakery to a new level!
To Philip:
Paine was born in England but he was an American citizen and indeed one of the founding fathers. If you knew anything about politics you'd undertsand just how important citzenship was to Paine and of course this is the period when American citizenship is being created. He couldn't be a citizen in England.
So far as the roundhead and cavalier terminology is concerned, it's a well known shorthand for describing the long chain of political debate between left and right, and it fits both of them.
It is worthy of note that he is the first Muslim in cabinet. Anti Muslim feeling is rife in this country, and the BNP is exploiting it.
In many ways it is similar to earlier attitudes to Catholicism, or communism, those whose loyalties were at least split, and perhaps totally, in alignment with foreign powers. Suspicion will always remain until the foreign loyalties are either repudiated or become obsolete.
The Muslim council of Britain should explicitly back our troops, if not the war, not merely not call for attacks on them.
@disillusionedDaleblogreader
Weren't Muslims responsible for putting bombs on tube trains in 2005? Those of us on the Tube at the time, as I was, I have long memories......
Let's look at that logic.
5 people, who were Muslims, placed bombs on tube trains in 2005.
Sadiq Khan is a Muslim.
The implication, as you say, has to be that Sadiq Khan is going to make tube suicide attacks easier.
So - we should look at whether prospective Ministers share a religion with people who have committed atrocities when judging their fitness for position.
1.
The IRA, who are Christians, used to regularly place bombs on transport networks and in shopping centres, and shoot people because of their religion.
David Cameron is a Christian.
What's the implication here?
2.
The USA, a Christian country, unleashed 2 nuclear weapons on Japan killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
David Cameron is a Christian.
What's the implication here?
3.
Adolf Hitler, a Christian, killed hundreds of thousands of people because they did not share his religion in the Holocaust
David Cameron is a Christian.
What's the implication here?
MUPPET
@ anon 1123: I take it you don't agree with me then? ;-)
"1. The IRA, who are Christians"
The IRA are Marxists who use Catholicism as an excuse for terrorism.
"2. The USA, a Christian country,"
The USA does not have an established religion (First Amendment to the Constitution).
"3. Adolf Hitler, a Christian"
who led a pseudo-pagan movement which persecuted Christians.
Incidentally, he once remarked to Speer:
"The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness ..."
“Paine was born in England but he was an American citizen and indeed one of the founding fathers.”
He left England aged 37 and never took US naturalization, returning to London in the 1790s (he was later given 'honorary' French citizenship but later condemned to death by the same Terror whose beginnings he had foolishly supported). In 1806 he was forbidden to vote in a US local election - at La Rochelle N.Y. - on the grounds he was not a US citizen. He remained British until his death.
“He couldn't be a citizen in England.”
Baldercock. The term 'citizen' has been in common use in English/British government and other official documentation since the 1600s.
“So far as the roundhead and cavalier terminology is concerned, it's a well known shorthand blah blah ...”
And quite meaningless to the ends of analysing theory.
Subject yourself to some GCSEs. Good luck.
Thank you Jamestheless!
I am aware that anonamong wrote several outrageously silly statements in his "logical" analysis of my comment. I just thought that I would allow others to tear into him....
Brown seems to be taking his time in announcing any other ministers. There was talk in the Times that some, such as DEFRA minister Jane Kennedy, are planning on resigning. Maybe he's having trouble finding people to appoint.
To Philip:
It's clear you haven't a clue what you're on about using terms like naturalisation and US in this period.
But anyway.
He was an American citizen. That's just a simple fact. The dispute over the Honorary French citizenship was resolved. You're not even good at googling.
He couldn't be a citizen in England. That's the whole point!!
Clearly you haven't the foggiest notion what is meant by citizen and indeed what Paine meant by it.
Cavalier are roundhead are shorthand for right and left. Another simple fact.
If I wanted to do theory I certainly wouldn't be doing it with a fool like you.
@jamestheless
I see. All special cases - and we should assume that all Muslims support suicide bombing as the muppet suggests?
I am aware that anonamong wrote several outrageously silly statements in his "logical" analysis of my comment. I just thought that I would allow others to tear into him....
How was it any more outrageous than your comment? Talk me through the logic that "the 7/7 bombers were Muslim, Sadiq Khan is Muslim, therefore Sadiq Khan will make things easier for suicide bombers?". How does it follow? I really do not understand - it seems identical to the statements I made to show up your irrationality and bigotry
"The IRA are Marxists who use Catholicism as an excuse for terrorism."
If they're marxists, why have so many of them moved into organised crime, drug and arms sales and protection rackets? Sounds more like personal aggrandisement than homogeny of the state and equality of opportunity to me.
And as regards Northern Ireland being different from Israel, I don't think you'll find the differences so pronounced - it's just that Oliver Cromwell delegated his own God-given state to the squeaky wheels a couple of centuries earlier, without consulting the indigenous population.
They're both matters of people fighting over land and resource masquerading as sectarian religious conflict.
And as for the innocence of US, that Manifest Destiny was a bitch for the buffalo and Red Man, wasn't it? Still, at least they can now open casinos.
And if we're counting deaths historically, I'd put the Catholic/Protestant count of Europe way up there - and if we're talking recent deaths, then the Hindu Tamils have got blood on their hands.
The saving grace of Catholic Hutus and Tutsis and Congolese is that at least they only killed those of their own religion.
But of course, they're just 'misinterpreting' a religion, which is completely different to the slavish Manchurianism that undoubtedly lies deep in Sadiq Khan's blistered, satanic mohammedan soul which seeks only to rape and kill good Christian womenfolk.
Study a bit of history, and you'
"If they're marxists, why have so many of them moved into organised crime, drug and arms sales and protection rackets? Sounds more like personal aggrandisement than homogeny of the state and equality of opportunity to me."
Exactly the same as in the USSR.
Actually, my wording was rather inaccurate. I should have said:
"The IRA are (or rather were) Marxists who used the social and economic grievances of Catholics as an excuse for terrorism."
As for the rest of your rather bizarre post, I can only assume you've confused me with someone else (I didn't even mention Israel, for example).
"I see. All special cases"
Well, you chose them! Feel free to provide ones which support your argument.
"and we should assume that all Muslims support suicide bombing as the muppet suggests?"
No, I was just pointing out some factual errors.
@ Mr Disillisioned Dale Blog Reader
Question too difficult for you?
BTW that's an interesting name. What made your parents choose it for you?
Better than being an "anonymong" like me - it's good that you have the guts to put your full name on your bigoted comments so everyone can identify you, Mr Reader, with them, and not to do it anonymously.
@jamestheless
No, I was just pointing out some factual errors.
Ok, I understand. What you are saying is the fact that the IRA and Adolf Hitler claimed they were following Christian causes does not mean they were or that all Christians follow their values. It was my point - all the statements were logically consistent with the muppet's original statement. Why clear up "factual errors" to support the bigoted muppet?
Your point on America is a semantic one. You would not claim the US is not a Christian country really would you, given 76% of the population are Christian, 62% of the population are a member of a Christian Church and the continued use of biblical rhetoric by US leaders throughout history to justify why they choose the course of action they do.
anon: you have a go at me anonymously and then try to criticise me for not quoting my real name? are you serious? are you familiar with the word hypocrite?
By your consistent use of the word muppet to describe me, is there really any point in continuing this debate?
Yes, I am racist but, no, I am not a bigot.
anon: you have a go at me anonymously and then try to criticise me for not quoting my real name? are you serious? are you familiar with the word hypocrite?
You started the "anonymong" comments, while hiding behind your anonymity.
Your argument "Muslims caused the 7/7 bombings, Sadiq Khan is Muslim etc" fully justifies me calling you a muppet.
I don't understand your argument at all. Why don't you try and explain it?
And explain how it differs from any other argument based around "Members of a group did a horrible thing. Mr X is a member of this group therefore he fully supports this horrible thing".
I am a muslim and if you lot don't behave i will fart on all your heads!I too think that Mr Khan is rubbish but lets not hate but hope he will be kicked out along with the rest of the so called labour party
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