What a truly shameful day. Three men have been abandoned by their government and been extradited to a foreign country amid lies, spin and deceit by the government ministers concerned and having been led up the garden path by a Prime Minister who has happy to give them assurances on bail that he was in no position to give. And the one of the Prime Minister's closest political friends continues to be under arrest under suspicion of selling peerages. I don't often feel ashamed to be British, but I'm getting close to it today.Thursday, July 13, 2006
A Shameful Day
What a truly shameful day. Three men have been abandoned by their government and been extradited to a foreign country amid lies, spin and deceit by the government ministers concerned and having been led up the garden path by a Prime Minister who has happy to give them assurances on bail that he was in no position to give. And the one of the Prime Minister's closest political friends continues to be under arrest under suspicion of selling peerages. I don't often feel ashamed to be British, but I'm getting close to it today.
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29 comments:
The ad underneath this post made me smile, the fact that its blue.....(to attract the correct sort of clientele)? Is it because there is going to be some office space available in 10 Downing St fairly soon.?
Like the old Harry Enfield spoof add from the 1950, "L is for Labour, Lice is for lice".
But as someone said yesterday, the party led by Frankie and the Boy King are still only a handful of points ahead of this shower in the middle of their third term. Not great.
Rarely will I agree on politics with you, Iain. But on the shame of today, I think you are absolutely right!
For the sake of decency Blair must go!
'For the sake of decency Blair must go!'
If only! I'm afraid that you can't use the words 'Blair' and 'decency' in the same sentence. The man has no soul, let alone a conscience. We are talking about the man who led us into an illegal war and got away with it! I'm not sure I share the same sense of schadenfreude about this latest scandal (Levy arrested), but at the very least, his legacy is in tatters. We can only hope and pray...
Well said Iain. However I personally gave up on 'proud to be British' a few years ago. A complex amalgam of wholeale debasement of the political process through 3 x GE's (an electorate gets the government it deserves eh?); the whole saga that produced the farce that is 'The Hunting Act 2004'; Iraq/ Aganistan; the gross unfairness of the present devolution settlement; and the so called 'war on terror' with it's tailor made imperatives to destroy much of the so-called 'freedom' it claims to be defending.
My refuge, such as it is in being proud to be 'English' - stuff the bloody Union and its self-serving state apologists I say.
Not sure that defending three fat cats from deportation to the Land of the Free would make me feel terribly proud to be British, actually.
Once upon a time there was a gutless snivelling little toad called TeeBee. He was always smiling and telling everyone he was an ordinary sort of guy. Unfortunately TeeBee had a Sue Ellen lip that quivered every time he was in trouble and people felt sorry for him. What people didn’t know, but eventually discovered, was that TeeBee was really a dithering little prick that preferred to bury his head when decisions were required and didn’t bring it out until trouble had past. Once or twice he landed in deep excreta (couldn’t think of another word for that!) and instead of facing it like a man, plastered it over his friends, even though, just hours before, he had told them that they were safe. As more and more of his friends turned into enemies, he was left virtually alone. Even his former best friend GeeBee had done a QFO as the storm clouds were gathering. Left with just one friend, Uncle LeeVee, who had always helped him pay the rent, was snatched by the White Knights who threatened to have TeeBee next! With nowhere left to go, except down, TeeBee started to throw around more excreta, but it wouldn’t come off his hands. So now everybody else lives happily ever after – I hope!
vienna woods has said it all. Much as I am enjoying seeing the little rat on the ropes, I hope we will never forget that this is the man who also has the blood of British servicemen on his hands, and who, along with his henchman Hoon drove David Kelly to his death. Whatever TeeBee has coming to him it couldn't happen to a worthier subject.
Yes, it is a shameful day Iain, but people in this country with a scrap of decency left in their souls have been squirming with shame since 1997.
Disappointed you may be.
Surprised you shouldn't be.
All this is the confirmation of a gut-feeling that the public has had for years - that politicians (of whatever stripe) are lying, hypocritical scum who while paying lip-service to the idea of 'public service' are in fact dedicated to self-service - and bugger the voters, they'll come round eventually; after all who else have they got to vote for except other politicians, either established or wannabe.
The party system has become a fixers benefit, the bi-cameral system (such as it is) has been corrupted and castrated, and the electorate conned into believing that voting once every 5 years for a 'table of contents' hastily affixed to a disposable manifesto really is democracy.
It's got progressively worse over decades as those committed to a life in politics have come to see themselves as a class apart, first and foremost as party representatives rather that the voice of a disparate electorate.
Well, God rot 'em, says I. Serves 'em right that the public considers them less trusty-worthy than any other occupation, it's merely a reflection of the truth.
Sure, there are some with independent minds and opinions, but they become fewer with every election that passes and if (God forbid) some form of PR dominated by party lists were ever introduced they'd become extinct overnight.
Oh, and I notice there are reports that Dear Dave is calling together his loyal minions to break the sad tidings that the idea (firm promise was it?) of leaving the EPP has been binned. Surprise, surprise. The one firm commitment among a load of feel-good guff and hot air that got him the leadership and it gets junked.
It's a good day to hide bad news.
Yep; he's a real politician, is Dave.
He should go far.
Whilst I am delighted that Lord Cashpoint of peeragesrus.com has been nicked there is a small cloud arsing from the affair - it's pushed twoshags off the front pages.
As a separate thought, isn't selling peerages an offence in the US. Perhaps we could get Levy extradited to the US where he could await his trial in (say) Guantanamo.
I loved the story by Vienna Woods.
It should be a compulsory bedtime story.
Lest we forget!
Anonymous (11:01), as much as I loathe Tony and all the other crooks currently at No. 10, I was squirming with shame long before 1997.
Incidentally, Blair isn't the only PM with "the blood of British servicemen on his hands". Why prevent a Faulklands invasion, when you can look so much more triumphant winning it back?
Anyhow, that's old news now.
Back to the present - you find me all the decent and upstanding politicians (from any party) - then I'll find 10 other folk to form a football team.
They are all as odious as each other.
Don't worry, the 2-shags story isn't finished yet. In fact, it'll be better for having gone quiet for a while.
>Incidentally, Blair isn't the only PM with "the blood of British servicemen on his hands". Why prevent a Faulklands invasion, when you can look so much more triumphant winning it back?
Anyhow, that's old news now.
No, it's old twat-headed grade Z conspiracy-mongering.
bt - 11:19. As an old and seriously disillusioned citizen of a country I used to be proud of, I salute you. Your post should be required reading too.
Having returned Blair 3 times, I'm afraid I remain pretty cynical about the judgements of the electorate. 'Reality' for most seems to be defined by the likes of the latest from the Big Brother house. We really do get the government we deserve in other words. DC seems to have made a similar judgement so I'm not optimistic we are likely to get anything greatly different in terms of substance
Apart from the shameful and corrupt things that this government has done (and they are legion) it is the debasement of political life and the destruction of what trust was left between the public and those who seek election that is so terrifying.
I am appalled when I read some of the comments here which amount to all politicians are scum and there's no difference between them whatever party they belong to. This cynicism is pernicious and highly dangerous and is partly why this administration has been able to continue in office so long.
The causes of it are, I think, too complicated to try to set out here, but as they occur to me:
1. The corrosive effect of the gutter press in pruriently scrutinising every aspect of a candidate's private life
2. The silly dogma (which it is heretical to deny, except when you're running an army) that ignores the plain fact that we were better ruled by people who were brought up to it and saw it as their duty and had an aptitude for it. When universal suffrage first came about, we didn't elect corrupt idiots who were put up by their party machine; the choice was between men often of similar ability and standing, one of whom happened to be a Tory and the other a Whig.
3. And the third thing is that a candidate should perhaps only be able to stand for election if he or she has the means to do so. Paying politicians out of taxes entrenches them and creates a corruptible political class, many of whose members have no talent to do anything else that pays half as well and who will hang on to power to the bitter end, pace A. Blair.
But I'm afraid we get the politicians we collectively want and this lot are taking advantage of a deep apathy based on most of us being too well off and not giving a damn what happens after we die (which we don't really believe will happen anyway).
The current generation in control is the most spoilt and selfish generation in the history of Christendom and hubristically believes it deserves to be the last. That's part of the reason why things have got so bad that a corrupt mountebank of a madman and his gang has been allowed to destroy much of what made it worth calling yourself an englishman.
The fact that Blair felt he could get away with giving dishonest assurances about bail, yesterday in the Commons, that he had no power to give for the Enron, sorry Natwest, Three shows in microcosm how far we have been violated and debauched.
Sorry to go on so much Iain, but I have cut it short, I assure you.
If we're going to accuse people of fraud and extradite them - maybe a certain Home Office minister needs to come clean on their past parliamentary office expenses too - paying a partner for not doing any work seems pretty fraudulent it seems to me.
Is the purpose of blogging to get all your judgements out before the facts are in?
Spare me the sanctimony, Iain.
Which political party was happy to see British businessmen go to jail in this country for selling machine tools to Iraq - an unpleasant way to do business, but one where he believed that he had government sanction to act?
Members of that government signed public interest immunity certificates to keep quiet a secret change in policy.
I'm not defending the extradition act, as I believe it to be wrong in principle for a treaty to be this assymetric. Far better for it to have been ratified simultaneously with the US.
Funny how the Tories and LDs only got exercised when three millionaire bankers found themselves facing charges, though.
js - You speak as one who has never lived in the US. For one thing, they operate under the civilised English Common Law, not the dead hand of Napoleonic law. And they have a free press - and how! And Conservative talk radio. Zowie! (And if you love the French so much, that's where you'll find them. When I lived there California gave jobs to 200 French telephone technicians, en masse.)
Taxes are much lower than under the dreaded European socialists. Medical care is the best in the world. I am baffled by people who hate America. Are you so frightened of the responsibility of living in freedom?
Sabretache - No, we don't get the government we deserve. We get the government those in the public sector in tandem with those who are, one way or another, on the welfare tit, judge to be in their best interests and vote for. They are the ones who vote in the socialists. Which is why anyone who has been on welfare of any kind (except OAPs, who have earned their pensions) should be disenfranchised.
Anyone who works in the public sector, from MPs to Real Nappy Outreach Coordinators,should also be disenfranchised. Their choice: public sector gravy train but no vote.
So Simon b can't see a distinction between protecting the (British) Falkland Isles and invading Iraq? Or is this simply the best, albeit pathetic, attempt he can make at defending this shower by implying the Tories were as bad. When are these NL sycophants going to accept that they support the biggest bunch of crooks this country has ever known.
Pretty good summary, without hysterics, here.
Re: a few comments here.
We are merely "an obstacle best avoided", always have been always will be (apart from, of course, when we owe taxes).
Didn't "no taxation without representation" start the American revolution?
Ashamed to be British and 'decent people squirming since 1997'? In this case it seems that decent stands for 'don't care about anyone but myself', not the dictionary definition. As for being ashamed, perhaps some people didn't open their eyes and ears from 1979-1997 - if they had then they'd really have had cause to be ashamed to be British.
I'm not ashamed to be British, I'm ashamed that Blair is.
Average guy on the street - If you were referring to my comment ... yes, of course, "No taxation without representation" started the American Revolution.
In the 1700s.
Democracy has developed, not always pleasantly, since then. People are now able to vote themselves a seat on the gravy train which is funded by people who get up out of their beds and go to work. For the people who earn their livings and are forced to pay taxes, this is not democratic.
I think the time has come for double-tiered enfranchisement.
People who work, or who are living on their own money, should have a vote in how they are governed.
People who are living on the public purse should not get a say in who makes the rules regarding how forced contributions to that purse are disbursed. In other words, they should not be able to vote themselves a raise.
Therefore, public sector workers, funded entirely by taxpayers,should not have a say in who determines taxes and awards them their raises, perks and pension funds. This means no vote for the prime minister, MPS, local councillors, street football coordinators, Urdu translators, dustbin men,the million people employed by Europe's largest employer - the NHS - people infesting quangos, anyone who got their job out of the Guardian classified, etc, etc, etc.
I would make an exception only for our Armed Services and perhaps our emergency services - although I am undecided about the police.
Likewise, clients of the state: people on welfare of any kind. The unemployed should be given six months to get back into gainful employment before having their franchise removed by the computer.
So the voters would be British citizens either gainfully employed or living on their own money (this includes OAPs).
It is time for a new phase.
That silly bitch Baroness Scotland made the following comment about the NatWest 3 during her grossly mismanaged attempts to have the Yanks sign the reciprocal extradition treaty yesterday.
"If they can persuade the world and its brother that what they are saying is true, of course that may be an advantage to them. But all we are saying in relation to this case is that the extradition appears to have been well-founded."
Does the silly cow not know that there are no "sub-judice" laws in the US and that she should keep her over large mouth shut. This is just one of the reasons why the justice system in the US is grossly unfair to any accused.
Verity, you're a moron. You've just disenfranchised every doctor and nurse in the country. Not to mention Crown Prosecutors, dinner ladies, teachers, bin-men and diplomats.
You should think through your crap before you vomit it onto the web.
In agreement with 3:21pm Anon. Verity, you are nearly as bad as me for trying to disenfranchise everyone but you still haven't broken my record of 60 million people. I won't say how as you'll only go and better me (though you'd need to invent a few more citizens first).
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