The whole lobbygate issue that has seen Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt see out their last days in the commons suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party is another case where the Lib Dems called for more transparency.
Just as in the summer of 2008 my Lib Dem colleagues placed an amendment to make the expenses more transparent and in line with most employees, in October 2006 they also looked to tackle the lobbying situation. Unlike the expenses where some from each of the other parties almost made the amendment pass, with lobbying Labour voted against and the Tories just sat on their hands and abstained.
So while David Cameron is taking the opportunity to call for an investigation into this lobbying case, why hadn't he or his party taken action about the possibility in the past? The answer is quite probably that they are gaining from it themselves, just not caught on camera as the Labour former ministers have been.
Yet again it is the Liberal Democrats who had been leading the campaign to clean up politics, something that the Davey come lately only signed up for last month.
Showing posts with label Geoff Hoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geoff Hoon. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Word of the Day Fraternally
Yeah what a way to end a letter, calling for fratricide, or regime change.
Well anyway Geoff and Pat signed off their letter which included the phrase:
"Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all."
It has led to a need for LabourList to conjure up a pledge of party unity, hattip to Yousuf. I personally don't think they have had a good start to the new year. The Tories even if they couldn't get their message straight were doing better, and Nick Clegg has been all over the media getting across the Lib Dem's four key points, and the greatest of these is fairness (I'm sounding a bit biblical for Nick there, hope he doesn't mind).
Indeed I'm going back to look at where else we are within striking distance of Labour in Scotland I think that in present circumstances the four seats of Edinburgh South, Edinburgh North & Leith, Aberdeen South and Glasgow North are just the tip of the iceberg.
Yours fraternally
Stephen
PS Eric Joyce MP has a rather good take on the whole thing.
Well anyway Geoff and Pat signed off their letter which included the phrase:
"Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all."
It has led to a need for LabourList to conjure up a pledge of party unity, hattip to Yousuf. I personally don't think they have had a good start to the new year. The Tories even if they couldn't get their message straight were doing better, and Nick Clegg has been all over the media getting across the Lib Dem's four key points, and the greatest of these is fairness (I'm sounding a bit biblical for Nick there, hope he doesn't mind).
Indeed I'm going back to look at where else we are within striking distance of Labour in Scotland I think that in present circumstances the four seats of Edinburgh South, Edinburgh North & Leith, Aberdeen South and Glasgow North are just the tip of the iceberg.
Yours fraternally
Stephen
PS Eric Joyce MP has a rather good take on the whole thing.
Did Shakespeare Foresee Such Drama on Twelfth Night, Again?
Well it takes something to put fire in the belly and heat you up on a day like today. This morning before I walked out into -9C I was about to strangle the male present on BBC Breakfast who seemed over excited that it was a mere -6C in North West England. But I digress.
So what has stoked the boilers today? Or rather who? Or rather Hoon, ably assisted by Hewitt. For Geoff and Patricia have had enough. The BBC are covering it live. Come to think of it wasn't it a January evening, though a rather warmer one, back in 2006, indeed 4 years to the day that the last long night of the knives from MPs against a leader took place, it led to me posting this in the wee hours of the morning.
On the 6th January 2006 a letter was going around the Lib Dem MPs in the commons seeking to find support for the notion that Charles Kennedy should resign. Today we find that Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have sent a letter to Labour MPs to call for a secret ballot to sort out Brown's leadership.
The Prime Minister is doing just what Thatcher did when the plot to get her to stand aside was being hatch, being busy. For Thatcher her trip to France on business may well have been her undoing in her dying hours. One wonders what Brown's visit to a snow command centre will lead to? Indeed Charles Kennedy after the night of the circulating letter fell on his sword. Will the new day bring Brown to the same decision?
UPDATE: Nick Robinson has just hinted live on BBC evening news that unless one of the Labour cabinet comes out and says what they say to him and his colleagues all the time in private, Brown will stay in number 10. How deep is the rift below this surface?
On a lighter side check out Liberal Conspiracy's pics live from the Labour plot.
moar funny pictures
Update 2:
I don't often link to Guido but this is a good take on the whole last 24 hours.
As this is a live and happening event this blog post is liable to be updated.
For example the list of who is for or against having the ballot.
So what has stoked the boilers today? Or rather who? Or rather Hoon, ably assisted by Hewitt. For Geoff and Patricia have had enough. The BBC are covering it live. Come to think of it wasn't it a January evening, though a rather warmer one, back in 2006, indeed 4 years to the day that the last long night of the knives from MPs against a leader took place, it led to me posting this in the wee hours of the morning.
On the 6th January 2006 a letter was going around the Lib Dem MPs in the commons seeking to find support for the notion that Charles Kennedy should resign. Today we find that Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have sent a letter to Labour MPs to call for a secret ballot to sort out Brown's leadership.
The Prime Minister is doing just what Thatcher did when the plot to get her to stand aside was being hatch, being busy. For Thatcher her trip to France on business may well have been her undoing in her dying hours. One wonders what Brown's visit to a snow command centre will lead to? Indeed Charles Kennedy after the night of the circulating letter fell on his sword. Will the new day bring Brown to the same decision?
UPDATE: Nick Robinson has just hinted live on BBC evening news that unless one of the Labour cabinet comes out and says what they say to him and his colleagues all the time in private, Brown will stay in number 10. How deep is the rift below this surface?
On a lighter side check out Liberal Conspiracy's pics live from the Labour plot.
moar funny pictures
Update 2:
I don't often link to Guido but this is a good take on the whole last 24 hours.
As this is a live and happening event this blog post is liable to be updated.
For example the list of who is for or against having the ballot.
***BREAKING NEWS***
Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have written to all Labour MPs to call for a secret ballot to sort out the Labour leadership issue once and for all.
I'll no doubt be able to write more, once I get out of work, and time allows.
Anyone got any songs for Hoon or Hewitt to go with last night's blog entry?
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
The 39 Mice on the Stairs
39 Labour rebels, including Linlithgow and Falkirk East MP Michael Connarty, who put their name to a rebel ammendment to the Budget Bill, set for a vote next Monday were subject to a Pied Piper charm offensive yesterday. The ammendment calls for immediate compensation for the approximately 5.3m lower-paid who face higher taxes as a result of the doubling the lowest tax rate to 20p rate instead of 10p.
Mr Darling, that's the Chancellor not a character from Dirty Sexy Money, had a meeting with 50 parliamentary aides and backbenchers concerned about the abolition of the lower rate along with chief whip Geoff Hoon last night. Darling apparently has a very cunning plan (didn't know there was a Baldrick at the Treasury) although Yvette Cooper his deputy denies he even promised this or is able to do anything about it. The two pipers emerged from this latest charming of the mischief of mice as if all was well is Hamlin, I mean Westminster. Mr Darling saying it had been "very useful", Hoon saying when asked if the issue had been sorted said "Of course", always worrying when a chief whip says that about a potential rebellion.
One of the MPs who came out of the meeting Ronnie Campbell MP for Blyth Valley appeared to be swayed saying "It's going to be sorted, no problem, by the end of the financial year." Pity we've only just started the financial year then isn't it?
However, Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) was not so easily swayed by the paltitudes. "I want to see the government coming forward with proposals", she said," that ensure no one on a low income is worse off with the abolition of the 10p tax rate. I hope it will come forward with further measures this week. We need more detail."
Of course Gordon Brown has done what he always does under times of such split opoinion in his party and extended the review into poverty to include those affected by the abolition of the 10p rate. As the Norfolk Blogger said the other day, "in layman's terms, due to Labour making people earning less than £18K a year poorer, Labour want to investigate why people earning less than £18K a year are poorer." Yes Nich I agree with you that really doesn't need that much investigating.
Mr Darling, that's the Chancellor not a character from Dirty Sexy Money, had a meeting with 50 parliamentary aides and backbenchers concerned about the abolition of the lower rate along with chief whip Geoff Hoon last night. Darling apparently has a very cunning plan (didn't know there was a Baldrick at the Treasury) although Yvette Cooper his deputy denies he even promised this or is able to do anything about it. The two pipers emerged from this latest charming of the mischief of mice as if all was well is Hamlin, I mean Westminster. Mr Darling saying it had been "very useful", Hoon saying when asked if the issue had been sorted said "Of course", always worrying when a chief whip says that about a potential rebellion.
One of the MPs who came out of the meeting Ronnie Campbell MP for Blyth Valley appeared to be swayed saying "It's going to be sorted, no problem, by the end of the financial year." Pity we've only just started the financial year then isn't it?
However, Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) was not so easily swayed by the paltitudes. "I want to see the government coming forward with proposals", she said," that ensure no one on a low income is worse off with the abolition of the 10p tax rate. I hope it will come forward with further measures this week. We need more detail."
Of course Gordon Brown has done what he always does under times of such split opoinion in his party and extended the review into poverty to include those affected by the abolition of the 10p rate. As the Norfolk Blogger said the other day, "in layman's terms, due to Labour making people earning less than £18K a year poorer, Labour want to investigate why people earning less than £18K a year are poorer." Yes Nich I agree with you that really doesn't need that much investigating.
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