Cheriegate (that's the 2006 version - nothing to do with Peter Foster) took a new twist today when Telegraph journo Alice Thomson alleged in her column that not only did Cherie sign a copy of the Hutton Report for auction, she actually donated it to. If that is the case, who paid for it? Cherie - or us, the poor bloody taxpayer?
Sign the petition at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petitiononline.com/hutton/petition.html
Iain,
ReplyDeleteAs I pointed out when this story first broke, the issue of who paid for the report is almost more pertinent than whether or not the whole thing was grossly insensitive.
If the Labour Party had not paid HMSO for the reports that have been auctioned, then they are not theirs to sell. If Cherie donated a copy that Toni had "liberated" from HMSO, it is still not theirs to sell.
The physical copies of the report belong to the taxpayer: if the Labour Party -- or their donors -- has not actually handed over £70 to the taxpayer (or their representative), they are effectively selling stolen goods.
So: have they paid?
DK
P.S. Got my copy of the book yesterday: very nice and informative (although, as a designer, I have mild issues with the typesetting. But that, when all's said and done, is just quibbling). Anyway, I know that my father has purchased a copy, having -- amongst other things -- seen it advertised in The Speccie bookclub.
Probably sponsored from The Loan Vault - no doubt commissions were skimmed from the Peerage Pot
ReplyDeleteI think I can take a shrewd guess. God, this stinks. It stinks of a contempt for the people of this country and an appalling abuse of power. I find it very depressing.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone might ask Mr Blair how he might feel if a political party sought to profit from a report about the attempted suicide of a member of his family.
ReplyDeleteA wholly hypothetical example, of course.
Perhaps someone might ask Mr Blair how he might feel if a political party sought to profit from a report about the attempted suicide of a member of his family.
ReplyDeleteA wholly hypothetical example, of course.
The PM spokesman said it was nothing to do with him as it was a party matter and she is not a member of the government etc. So why is she given an armoured car etc when the troops in Basra don't have enough? She is either treated as 'wife of' or 'a member of the public' - she cannot chop and choice which she wants to be depending on how much money she can make!
ReplyDeleteThis women appears to have utter contempt for those affected by the WMD scandal, now clearly politics is a pressured environment but what did she think she was doing signing an autograph book!
ReplyDeleteThis behaviour is nothing less than dispicable, its an insult to the friends and families David Kelly and those service men and women who have serve in Iraq.
I think we all know that Cherie Blair is not barking bonkers mad, or an ageing bimbo so why can't she take accept that she's made a mistake apologise and try to regain some dignity.