Blair gets his collar felt!

[InsaneApache]

Well, not just yet.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been interviewed by police investigating cash for honours allegations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6179911.stm

As the regulars and old posters will guess...I have a warm glow in my gut.

The mans a menace.

[Scurvy]

As the regulars and old posters will guess...I have a warm glow in my gut.

--> I honestly think nothing will come of it, even if he did do something wrong (which is likely) it wont be his head that gets the chop, likely someone conveniently unpopular withthin the party... at least the police are making an effort or should it be

[The_Doctor]

I have a warm glow in my gut.

You should see a doctor about that.

Honestly think nothing will come of it, even if he did do something wrong (which is likely) it wont be his head that gets the chop, likely someone conveniently unpopular withthin the party.

I agree. He has too many friends in high places.

This week's Have I Got News For You is going to be great, first Boris is going to be the host, and now this has happened.

[Scurvy]

This week's Have I Got News For You is going to be great, first Boris is going to be the host, and now this has happened.

[Pannonian]

I have a warm glow in my gut.

Have you been drinking at the same bar as that chap Litvinenko?

[lancelot]

This week's Have I Got News For You is going to be great, first Boris is going to be the host, and now this has happened.

Please tell me I havent missed that!

[JAG]

It was pretty obvious he was going to be questioned, great timing for him it was now, eh?

He won't get charged, he would have left the job already if he feared even a tiny reprimand, he won't want that on his legacy - charged while in office!

Anyway the problem I have with this whole thing is that they are concentrating so much on Labour, why isn't the fact that all three of our major parties were at it not put into perspective and reporting more?

[rory_20_uk]

Labour's "purer than pure" primises in 1997 to sweep away the corrupt Tories? The Tories are thought of as a lot of corrupt cronies. Blair promised otherwise - and is doing the same thing.

Plus he is PM, and only the second one ever to get investigated for this.

I feel that he was not cautioned was inexcusable. So he cheerfully says it was all his idea to them all, it's not admissable anyway.

[JAG]

Labour's "purer than pure" primises in 1997 to sweep away the corrupt Tories? The Tories are thought of as a lot of corrupt cronies. Blair promised otherwise - and is doing the same thing.

Very true and on reflection that is probably the main reason, though it doesn't stop the fact that the Tories are still the same old corrupt lot they were before.

[rory_20_uk]

Which is basically why I don't vote. There is no party that I have any faith in whatsoever to put in place policies that are for the long term good of the country and not the short term good of the current incumbents.

[macsen rufus]

Call me an old cynic, but is it really unconnected that this happened on the same day the Serious Fraud Office decided to drop their BAe/Saudi corruption investigation?

[caravel]

Call me an old cynic, but is it really unconnected that this happened on the same day the Serious Fraud Office decided to drop their BAe/Saudi corruption investigation?

Well apparently that's in the "wider public interest".

[Banquo's Ghost]

Call me an old cynic, but is it really unconnected that this happened on the same day the Serious Fraud Office decided to drop their BAe/Saudi corruption investigation?

And the report of the inquiry into Diana's death was released and the closure of 2,000 post offices was announced?

Nah, I think you're just a cynic.

[The_Doctor]

Please tell me I havent missed that!

No, it is on tonight.

[BDC]

Well apparently that's in the "wider public interest".

Well it's true. Thousands of jobs and billions of pounds. After all, we're British. If someone is going to profit, it may as well be us. :)

[IrishArmenian]

What is Blair's approval rating? I think it is worse than the "Fearless American Leader", because Bush has most of the South to back him up.

[InsaneApache]

I agree that 'Teflon' Tony will probably get away with it. Already Lord Cashpoint looks the favourite for the role of scapegoat.

Now this is an interesting development.

Downing Street aides and Labour officials involved in the cash-for-honours inquiry are being investigated on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, The Times has learnt.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has advised detectives to look into suspected attempts to hamper the nine-month investigation. Some e-mails and documents have yet to be handed over to the police while others have apparently “disappeared”. Some individuals are suspected of colluding over evidence.



The disclosure shows that the investigation has widened to include a suspected cover-up by those around the Prime Minister. Until now, it has centred on the £14 million in secret loans made to the Labour Party by millionaire supporters.

A prosecution source said: “There is more than a suspicion that evidence has not been handed over, people have colluded and the police are not being helped.

“It has been noted that when the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign, it was the cover-up, not the burglary, that brought him down. What these people should remember is that they are not dealing with a parliamentary inquiry; this is a criminal investigation and anyone failing to co-operate is participating in a criminal offence.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...509953,00.html

This is what I think will corner him in the end. Like a fox in a farmyard.

[InsaneApache]

Update:

OPEN warfare has broken out between Downing Street and the police over attempts by allies of Tony Blair to “coerce” detectives in the cash for honours inquiry.

Angered by senior Labour politicians who criticised the arrest of a key No 10 aide on Friday, police leaders and senior former officers yesterday openly accused the government of playing “Big Brother” politics by improperly interfering in a police investigation.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...558281,00.html

and

TO those who long to join the ranks of the great and the good, the secretive deliberations in Downing Street each year over the political nominations for the House of Lords are crucial. It is these discussions — conducted by e-mail, telephone calls and meetings — which are now being diligently and forensically unpicked by detectives.

What was once assumed to be a magisterial process has been laid bare by the police investigation as a tarnished affair in which party coffers play as important a role as personal achievements and integrity.

The dawn arrest on Friday of Ruth Turner, the government’s director of government relations, is the latest attempt by John Yates, the police officer heading the inquiry, to further unlock these deliberations.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...558183,00.html

Editorial

When, around 6.30am on Friday, four officers from Scotland Yard turned up on Ruth Turner’s doorstep, the “cash for honours” investigation entered a new phase in two important respects. The first was that Ms Turner, one of Tony Blair’s closest aides, was arrested not just under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 but also “on suspicion of perverting the course of justice”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...558010,00.html

[Banquo's Ghost]

What has amused me so much about this recent development is the wild squealing about police heavy-handedness for arresting the woman at 6.30 am from Labour ministers et al.

This from a bunch of thugs that think nothing of criminalising ordinary people without trial and which conduct all their business on the conviction that every citizen is a crook unless proven otherwise. Surely the police are simply following the lead given?

Methinks they squeal too loudly.

[Tribesman]

Methinks they squeal too loudly.

Yeah its not like they shot her then made loads of statements to the press about how evil she was .
Followed up by a very quiet sorry screwed up again .

[InsaneApache]

With this coming hard on the heels of Blairs decision to halt the police inquirey of corruption between Ba systems and the Saudi government......Blair sounds about as credible as Jade Goody at a ANC charity concert.

[Banquo's Ghost]

With this coming hard on the heels of Blairs decision to halt the police inquirey of corruption between Ba systems and the Saudi government......Blair sounds about as credible as Jade Goody at a ANC charity concert.

Don't worry. The Attorney General has refused to recuse himself from the decision on whether to prosecute Blair, so there's no doubt of a happy ending - well, happy for the politicians, anyway, and aren't they the only ones whose rights count?

[Banquo's Ghost]

An interesting development is reported here.

The police (with a warrant) hacked into the Downing Street computers to try and find the real documents pertaining to the allegations. Apparently Number 10 handed over a file considered a little thin, considering the discussions that are supposed to take place over honours.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Police hacked into Downing Street computer systems during their investigation into allegations of cash for honours against the Labour Party.

Officers were authorised to break into the network. The search was made before the arrest of Ruth Turner, a top Blair aide, on suspicion of perverting the course of justice on Friday.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Met team, headed by assistant commissioner John Yates, became frustrated with the "very slim" file of documents handed over by Number 10.

A Westminster source told the paper that police computer experts used forensic-type software to trawl for files related to the allegations: "Quite clearly, in the past few days, the police have found something quite significant, possibly a file dump of some kind.

"They have been using specific software of the type they use in complex fraud cases."

According to the paper, authorisation for the hack would have been given by a senior officer, or by an independent commissioner, often a retired judge appointed by the Home Office.

[caravel]

What has amused me so much about this recent development is the wild squealing about police heavy-handedness for arresting the woman at 6.30 am from Labour ministers et al.

This from a bunch of thugs that think nothing of criminalising ordinary people without trial and which conduct all their business on the conviction that every citizen is a crook unless proven otherwise. Surely the police are simply following the lead given?

Methinks they squeal too loudly.

The sooner they're out on their ears the better. Their was a time when the "king's men" would have ridden into the commons and sorted them out properly...

[InsaneApache]

Lord 'Cashpoint' this time....

Labour's chief fundraiser Lord Levy has been arrested by police investigating cash-for-honours allegations.

He was held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice when he returned to police on bail, following his arrest last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6314881.stm

I did wonder if the police were just going through the motions but with a second arrest on the charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, it looks like they might be onto something. One can hope.

Oh, and for those that say the other political parties are just the same. I cannot remember when anyone as close to a serving Prime Minister has been arrested. Not once, but twice, with a chance of several charges being brought.

[BDC]

They are all the same. Labour have just been in power too long and lost all contact with reality, as well has having issues seperating government and their party. But hardly any worse than anyone else.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

In principle I agree, but Tony's Labour is a different beast.

The Tories may have taken back-handers, has affairs and leaked memos but a small portion of their time was spent running the country and over all things were better then, services were not crumbling, the army hadn't been raped, taxes were lower and there was little to no national dept.

If Tony had spent the last ten years playing PAC-MAN things couldn't be worse, they might actually better.

Tories were corrupt on a personnal level. Labour is corrupt on a party-political level. Like Communists.

[BDC]

Tories were corrupt on a personnal level. Labour is corrupt on a party-political level. Like Communists.

Possibly. To be fair they have also brought through a lot of reforms that needed doing, changed things that needed changing, and held power during a long period of economic growth. Doesn't exactly excuse the corruption though.

Shame, imagine what they could have achieved if they'd focused.

[Vladimir]

More "criminals' in Parliment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/whamas31.xml

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A group of British MPs held a private meeting with senior members of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government in defiance of Britain's ban on contact with the militant Islamic movement.

Five members of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group met ministers from the Hamas government last week during a visit to Ramallah.

British ministers and officials are banned from meeting members of the Palestinian cabinet because London categorises Hamas as an international terrorist group.

One of the group, Richard Burden, the Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield, defended the meeting on the grounds that opening dialogue with Hamas was the best way to make progress in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

[rory_20_uk]

What is the point of rules when it is so patently obvious that they only apply to those in the middle?

The bottom are untouchable as fines are pointless, and locking em up only increases their cost to society.

The top can "defend their position" even when that is in contravention to a law (or int he case of celebrities take as much drugs as they want as for some reason they are immune from prosecution).