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Friday, 20 July, 2007

  • Newsnight
  • 20 Jul 07, 04:25 PM

By tonight鈥檚 presenter, .

Cash for Honours

levy_nn_203.jpg鈥淚 would like to take this opportunity to thank the police for their hard work, diligence and decency.鈥

The words of the Labour Party General Secretary Peter Watt. Others aren't feeling quite so warm spirited about an inquiry that went on for 16 months, cost a million pounds, threatened to bring down a government, and ultimately yielded no charges. Last night the 主播大秀 broke the story that no-one would be prosecuted in the Cash for Honours investigation. Today, with the confirmation, came many, many questions. Was it, as some claim, a political stunt by the SNP? Why did police drag it out for so long if evidence was so scant? Was the decision by the CPS not to prosecute the right one? And where does this leave party funding, and indeed party reputations going forward? We've got a panel of those involved together and the discussion promises to be pretty heated.

By-election

It will be hard to think of the MP for Sedgefield as being anyone other than Tony Blair. But as from today, there is a new one. Phil Wilson won the by-election pretty comfortably for Labour, which also won in Southall and Ealing. So will two early successes for Gordon Brown give him the confidence to face the polls early for a General Election? We'll be discussing the implications of these results tonight with our hot political panel of familiar faces.

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CASH FOR HONOURS

What was the cash for? New Labour party.
Why do parties need cash? To win elections.
How is the cash used? To fight other parties.
What has this to do with democracy? Not a lot.
Why are there parties? Self perpetuation.
Party government? Primarily game playing.
Government without parties? Good management.
Next election? 鈥淪poil Party Games鈥.
Underlying ethos? Democracy with integrity.

I Agree with barrie (post 1).
In addition to "spoiling party games" we should all indulge in becoming a Lord - without resorting to cash bribery. In flippantly replying to some crap advert recently I decided to elevate myself from 'Mr' to 'Lord' and was suprised at all the subsequent junk mail that addresses me as Lord: sure must impress the postman and maybe the neighbours!
As the peerage has now been besmirched and discredited by what is obviously not considered to be a crime, then we should all take a title when replying to any advertising mail. That's real democracy in action. In any event, beating somebody across the finishing line by a nanosecond makes one a Dame of the British Empire, so it no longer requires a long career in public service, or a lifetime of distinguished performance in the arts or sciences.

  • 3.
  • At 07:07 PM on 20 Jul 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Dear Newsnight

Perhaps a link between the 主播大秀 story and today鈥檚 story with the Police under the spotlight exists-?
that neither should be deterred or intimidated in any way by the way things have gone this week?

We need both to be strong and never to play safe for fear of antagonising vested and powerful interests including the Government.

I would hope and expect the Government to give their full and unequivocal backing to the 主播大秀 and the Police and other groups and organisations that uphold the law and standards in public life

Bob

A message from the desk of Lord Singleton of Floodplain: Hillsideboy (Post 2) you are pure genius. I recently applied to Alex Salmond to be an honorary Scot, but he did not reply. However, as you see, thanks to your brilliant suggestion, I am now a Lord. Do you think, if we get some sort of quorum, we might qualify for tea on The Lawn? The idea of diluting all the bought-and-bogus lords to the point of homeopathic non-existence delights me to the n-th degree. I am indebted to Your Lordship.

  • 5.
  • At 09:28 PM on 20 Jul 2007,
  • seamus mcneill wrote:

I see from the listings that you are to discuss the decision not to prefer charges. On what basis will that discussion take place? Have you seen the file which went to the CPS? Are you now taking on the role of prosecuting authority in addition to Her Majesty's opposition?

Seamus (post 5)is right. Do not the 主播大秀 realise that the proper way to establish an untruth is not discussion but to publish a dossier? Come on 主播大秀, let鈥檚 have a dossier entitled: 鈥淲as the evidence detailed, extensive and authoritative? Or did Yates of the Yard spend all that time chasing thin, sporadic and patchy! It鈥檚 what your publishing arm is for!

Now our little Tone came up to Cherie
In the kitchen this evenin when she was fixin supper
And he handed her a piece of paper he'd been writin on
And after wipin her hands on her apron
She read it, and this is what it said.
For secretly takin loans from the rich there's no charge.
For the lies that I've told,
brazen and bold, there's no charge.
For K's and Big Ps, fictitious WMDs, there's no charge.
Some diligent copper will soon come a cropper - no charge.
For the Iraqi dead and the streets running red
there's no charge.
Lord knows when you add it all up
though they say we're corrupt - there's no charge.

  • 8.
  • At 11:18 PM on 20 Jul 2007,
  • Simon wrote:

I thought the report from Michael Crick and Emily Maitlis was much better than what we have become used to of late. It's good to see more agressive questioning of people such as Levy and Patel. Nice to see the 主播大秀 getting a bit of it's nerve back. Keep it up.

  • 9.
  • At 02:37 AM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • the cookie ducker wrote:

I would be interested in seeing all the evidence gathered by yates of the yard, and the reasons for the CPS in not going ahead with prosecution, did someone get a shush 'loan'...?

  • 10.
  • At 09:40 AM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • wrote:

Reading Ruby (No. 7) - "PRICELESS". (For everything else there is plastic debt.)

  • 11.
  • At 09:48 AM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • Harriet Hamster London wrote:

When I watch a Michael Crick film on Newsnight I always think of this famous quote :

"A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing"

Albert Camus

  • 12.
  • At 11:58 AM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • Blessed are the Crickers wrote:

Putting this here because there's no link to last night's Review.

Why oh WHY, Michael Gove, must you indulge in ceaseless air-knitting? Please seek to restrain your (admittedly rather finely chiselled) hands to avoid further censure. It becomes exhausting trying to follow your pattern and determine the nature of the garment you're creating.
(My money's on an Argyle sweater with a V neck, chest 40", if anyone fancies a flutter)

  • 13.
  • At 03:13 PM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • wrote:

Ah 鈥 Michael Gove. Or 鈥淧rig鈥 as I call him. That pout, and the prissy delivery! But you are right (sort of) about the knitting. He was brought up as a girl (and rapidly becoming an old woman). But wrong about the 鈥済arment鈥. He is, as one would expect, chrocheting another lace doily. In the Gove house, everything is on a doily. Car keys, Ipod, 9-er conker and the cat. Even doilies are on doilies. Oh 鈥 the one he was doilying on air, was a five incher 鈥 you lose.

  • 14.
  • At 03:38 PM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • Stick with Crick wrote:

Michael Gove is knitting a Pringle Hoodie for Donkey Dave

Watch Gordon Brown his hands are steering an imaginary *Pogo stick*

  • 15.
  • At 07:18 PM on 21 Jul 2007,
  • Crick with Stick (merely a visual aid) wrote:

If that was a setup for a 'Brown Bounce' gag, I'll take it. Much obliged.

  • 16.
  • At 06:12 PM on 23 Jul 2007,
  • wrote:

If the reason why the prosecution could not go ahead is because there was not enough evidence, it would be interesting to know what happened to the evidence.

Was it shredded, with the police at the door?

Surely, if it had been, the police should prosecute on the basis of that?

And they should also prosecute for the original supposed wrongdoing, since any shredding which had taken place would of necessity have been to hide evidence.

Now that there is such a provable lack of moral judgement in this "Yah! Boo! Shucks!" government, isn't it time that all civil service and serving politician's documents - and those in regular contact with them - should be automatically copied to - and stored by - an independent non-governmental group?

Then when the originals were destroyed, that record could be used.

What is certain is that many people have no trust in government.

  • 17.
  • At 12:27 AM on 25 Jul 2007,
  • Mark wrote:

I would like to know exactly what the donors get for their money when they buy an honor by paying a bribe for it, the right to be called "Sir Cash Register" by the political party of their choice? What actual material benefits do they accrue or is this just about ego and the vestiges of an anachronostic class system out of Charles Dickens? Do they get invited to the Queen's masked ball at least? How about an official suit of armor?

  • 18.
  • At 07:01 PM on 30 Jul 2007,
  • Adrienne wrote:

Nobody I know was at all surprised by the decision of the CPS.

They were, however, all disappointed, as it just reinforced their already deep cynicism, if not contempt.

Instead we get a lot of (what looked like) insincere hand-wriging about past misdemeanours on the part of 主播大秀 producers.

Sigh... depressing. What's left other than getting drunk?

  • 19.
  • At 07:54 PM on 31 Jul 2007,
  • Barry8 wrote:

Well, well well to misquote a well known chap! One who has quite deliberately chosen to ignore the truth at his own convenience. But with a grin and happy look seems to have disarmed so many of us. Why we
should permit him to leave us with any sense of honour and no sense of shame is very questionable. Maybe a
bit foolish - with the legacy of misery he has left behind him in his
own country. And that is not counting
Iraq. How long will it take us to recover?

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