Vaz on Wilders

Thank Heavens for YouTube. I missed Newsnight when the unctuous Keith Vaz gave his views on controversial Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

Just watch Kirsty Warke’s face when Vaz admits that he has not seen the film to which he is so opposed.

Questioning the Ruling Labour Executive

The next Full Council meeting will be on Tuesday 24 February, starting at 6.30pm in the Civic Offices. It is an important meeting as it is the one in which we set the budget and Council Tax for the next year.

The public gallery will be open if anyone wishes to come along and watch.

I have tabled the following questions (numbered as they appear on the agenda):

1. Would the Leader of the Council tell me what plans she has to celebrate Armed Forces Day on 27 June this year?

15. Would the Leader of the Council inform me how many Council employees have remuneration packages worth more than £50,000 in the current financial year? This should include salaries, bonuses, benefits in kind and termination payments, but exclude employee pension contributions. Please indicate how many of the staff listed are directly employed, how many indirectly and how many are teachers or school staff.

16. Could the Leader of the Council inform me how many staff received bonuses in the 2007/08 financial year. What was the total awarded in bonuses?

I will post the replies I receive and a summary of events after the meeting.

Bank Crisis Trail Leads to Brown’s Door

Whistleblower Paul Moore (formerly of HBOS) claims to have evidence that could force Gordon Brown from 10 Downing Street. Moore was fired by Brown acolyte Sir James Crosby after he warned that HBOS’ lending policies were reckless and likely to lead to disaster, as far back as 2005. Moore was “Head of Risk” at HBOS and well placed to understand the risks that the bank was taking.

Crosby left HBOS and was appointed by Brown to become Deputy Chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the body that Brown established to take over regulation of the banking sector from the Bank of England. He resigned from that post when Moore’s allegations were first made public, denying any wrong doing but claiming that he wanted to spare the FSA the difficulty that would inevitably stem from him remaining in post.

Moore claims to have 30 documents that would pin the blame for the banking crisis firmly on Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s door. Whilst I can see that Brown may have been warned about HBOS specifically and bank lending more generally I cannot think of what Moore could have in his possession that could force Brown’s resignation.

Whatever the truth of the matter it will only serve to further undermine any possibility of a global economic role for Gordon that some in Labour have been suggesting as a way to be rid of him before he leads them to disaster at a General Election.

Blair on Economics

Two quotes from Tony Blair which resonate today:

“If you mess up the finances of the country, it’s ordinary people that end up paying.”

How true!

“The days when government shoveled out more money are just not going to happen anymore.” (Big Issue, January 1997)

How ironic!

Source – “The Blair Necessities” – Edited by Iain Dale