Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Hesford Deals Further Blow to Baroness Scotland
I hesitate to praise the Labour MP Stephen Hesford, for fear of what his Tory opponent Esther McVey might do to me, but his resignation as a government PPS in the law officers department over the Prime Minister's decision to retain the services of Baroness Scotland is an honourable one. What a shame the Attorney General herself doesn't seem to have the same sense of honour. But there's still time...
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A more important question. How does an illegal immigrant obtain and use a NI number? She also paid tax apparently.
Help from Scotland perhaps?
Are you sure Iain? A Labour minister resigning? That's unheard of.
I am in shock. Dignity? Honour?
In 15 years of New Labour this feels like a genuine first.
Someone finally got the message... Speechless.
I hope 'Baroness' Schoorrrtland remains in her post!, shes out next June anyway along with Broon and the rest of the Scottish Raj!.
Stay in your post! its more McLabour votes being lost by the day! (not that they were not anyway!).
Jellyfish evolving spines, or rats deserting sinking ships?
No, you are wrong Ian the sands of time have run out.
If she were an honourable person she would have resigned many days ago. If she now resigns then it will be due to external forces and not inner morals.
Looking forward to Gordon Brown’s response to his resignation letter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8270920.stm
Esther Mcvey will win by about 8000
the seat is notionally tory at the moment due to boundary changes
the best looking MP list will ceratinly be getting a shake up!
Good for him!
It is a pity that we loose the men of principle, whilst the rotters cling on...
Hesford is right to do what he is doing but I'll wager he has an ulterior motive of getting re elected.
Good for you, whoever you are, Mr Hesford - shocking and shameful that your boss is breaking the law and remaining as AG, but 100% predictable - how very cynical, how very arrogant, but how very New Labour....
Go now, you ghastly bunch of shits.
You would think that this Hesford character would have had a quiet word with James Parnell before resigning on a point of principle...
The Adam Smith Institute has just mentioned Red Rag's point concerning documentation, or rather the fact that an illegal could not have had the right documentation in the first place. So presumably the Baroness did not check that which she had specified in the first place in her own legislation!
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/regulation-and-industry/baroness-scotland:-the-facts-200909234171/#disqus_thread
Yet another series of gargantuan mistakes by Brown. Simultaneously he refuels his critic's battle wagons by defending the indefensible, while spraying more petrol on the fire. His defence on R5Live is different to that of the Baroness. He says 'she has been misled by an employee who has given her wrong information'
Quite different from not photocopying the paperwork. What was the nature of the 'information'? Was it ever in a form that could be photocopied? If so was it forged, or was it never examined at all?
In any of these scenarios further investigation and charges should arise.
Further lies omissions, clarifications and obfuscations anticipated
Notts Al said...
His defence on R5Live is different to that of the Baroness. He says 'she has been misled by an employee who has given her wrong information'
Turn that round and what Brown is saying is that it is quite in order to mislead and lie and that is a defence in law.
The law is quite clear, an employer is in the wrong unless they can prove that they saw correct documentation and have copies of it. Otherwise they are in the frame and can be persecuted by the state.
Baroness Scotland is a typical Labour apparatchik, unable to see the moral and ethical position, as the little rules do not apply to the politicocrats, who are above the mundane.
The sooner they are all gone the better. BUT, i'm all for retrospective justice, we should put the whole shower on trial, starting with Blair for his war in Iraq.
It's only a PPS resigning.
Probably looking for an excuse to dump the ministerial bags.
Shame his resignation letter was so obsequious.
Better than the rest though.
There are only two words that cannot possibly exist together in the same sentence. These are 'still' and 'time'.
No. The Queen of Scotland must fall on her petard.
Maybe more of a desperate labour attempt to distract from Cleggy's speech?
Some of these scenarios suggest that the Baroness could have been economical with the actualite. If it transpires that she has in fact lied then that could offer another reason for her to go. Indeed, she might find herself accused of perjury - which Lord Archer found is not treated like failing to pay the congestion charge, but instead earns a jail sentence upon conviction.
Living in the constituency I can guarantee you that there is no principle involved here. Hesford has been looking for some way of setting himself up as an 'anti-labour' Labour candidate for a while now, as the writing is well and truly on the wall for him. This is merely the gift-wrapped opportunity he has been desperately searching for. Opportunist and self-serving, as per NuLabour manual.
No - its even worse, its the incompetence of Labour where even if HMRC see that someone's illegal they cant tell Borders Agency as it would breach taxpayer confidentiality
So long since a Labour chap resigned on principle that the BBC website can't spell it. They have it as principal. Berks.
"But there's still time..." (for Scotland to resign with honour)
Sorry Iain, not now there isn't.
1. She should have been sacked, & maybe Gordon would have preserved a smidgen of honour.
2. She's brought the legal profession into disrepute.
Major Plonquer @ 3:11
"The Queen of Scotland must fall on her petard."
Etymology: Middle French, from peter - to break wind.
Presumably what happens when you know you're in the sh1t
NottsAl
I did wonder how long it would take for the suggestion that Baroness Scotland (I take the liberty of abbreviating that to BS, given the circumstances)was presented with forged documents.
If Brown is now suggesting this he is entering very dangerous territory.
BS forgets to take photocopies of documents that are forged? How convenient.
That line will unravel with alarming rapidity and could involve BS and Brown conspiring to pevert the course of justice if such allegations are not true.
Why would it take so long to arrive at this explanation? If it were true BS would immediately have announced what documentation she had seen and then denounced them as forgeries. This she did not do.
It seems that as the situation grows more desperate, so too do the explanations.
I agree with sinosimon on this. The Labour dominated Wirral Council has sought to close some 18Libraries and public buildings: four of which are in Wirral West Constituency(Hoylake, Upton, Pensby and Irby Libraries) Hesford has set himself as the supposedly principle opponent to this Labour Council.
One always has to be careful in dealing with Hesford. He does not like taking rough and tumble of political debate and threatens to sue (at times with success)
He has an excellent candidate opposing him in Esther McVey but she alas has one of the most appalling Conservative Association in the Country riven by in-fighting and some bed-blocking mediocre Tory Councillors. Indeed only six of the fifteen Councillors in the Constituency are Tories and the Association has succeeded in losing a seat a year since 2005. Living in an adjacent constituency, it seems to me the only thing that unites the two factions in the Conservative Association is a loathing of Hesford. They both hate him big time. I've been told it goes back to his victory speech in 97 when he won the seat
But the main opposition to Labour's closure plans has come from the equally excellent Leah Fraser in next door Wallasey.
Hesford will certainly lose in the General but it will be because of Gordon Brown, not because of campaining by the Conservative Association
But Stephen Hesford a man of principle. Not the Stephen Hesford we know in Wirral. A rather unpleasant man who is no loss to Government office.
john miller said...
It's never the act, it's the cover up that gets them in the end.
Well, well! Contrary to Brown and Blair's best efforts there are still men of principle in the Labour Party.
Watch now for the smear campaign from Number 10 against Mr Hesford.
John Miller,
I agree. Unfortunately the other scenario is that after the raid on the Tongan by the border agency/police no documentation ever comes to light. Not sure where that leaves the prosecution case,although in order to get an NI No. (she must have one to pay it} you would assume that agency would require some evidence of legitimacy. So whence did that come? The employer?
Of course the Tongan can blow the whole thing up, but she will be pretty frightened by now, and I do not expect revelations from that quarter any time soon.
Her husband might be an interesting line of enquiry. He is a solicitor is he not? Surely he would have his wife's situation covered if only to protect himself.
More to come though, I reckon.
The Baroness has be really really dumb. She must know that the fasted route to promotion in labour is to be forced to resign. You then get brought back at a more senior level, and if you can manage it, resign a second time. Then you get an even better comeback job. Fancy trying to hang on?, some people just don't want to get on in life.
Peter, do Patricia a favour and pull her aside and explain how advancement works would you?
I must warn some of those posting comments here about the dangers of asking too many questions about the housekeeper's paperwork. For you never know. The housekeeper might be turning up dead next.
So why didn't Bojo's other deputy mayors go when he got Ray Lewis wrong, with no checks at all, and didn't walk himself?
Interesting points here: http://bnp.org.uk/2009/09/is-baroness-scotland-stupid-or-is-she-lying/
Well done BNP, too much to think the BBC would care to bring up these points!
Rats would need to do far far more than this to save their lives. In most cases there is nothing they could do to avoid their rightful punishment.
Notts Al - It's iffy whether her husband would have much to contribute given that she was appearing on a Facebook dating page within eight months of the marriage claiming to be in "an open relationship" according to I think it was The Mail, although may have been The Telegraph or The Times.
(This was the one from Tonga. Not the employer from Dominica.)
Notts Al
You're one step ahead of me there :).
I was thinking that enough time had passed after the raid for some items to disappear, enabling Brown to make his comments.
Scary.
I think it was more to try and save his seat at the next election.
I think that this has nothing much to do with Baroness Scotland and more to do with one Esther McVey and a rather slender 1097 majority.
This is probably just a convenient excuse you get some moral high ground headlines in the local rag
Go for it Esther
It was pretty well established a while ago that some politicians don't do the simple paperwork recent laws have wisely required of them (and, sometimes, us) when a fair few were caught out by election legislation when a few minutes work would have been all that was required for example.
As per the declarations of interests and expenses, and capital gains, some just don't get it, as is commonly said.
Not like the rest of us - eh? We love forms . . .
For the record,
After QT tonight, I think Baroness Scotland should resign. I though some of the questions were nasty, and I think the UKBA arrests of her employee are dismaying.
Despite all that, she needs to resign.
PBH
[PS: Despite being named (with Iain's approval) as a Labour troll, that's not true.]
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