Taken For A Ride In Quangoland

The public is being taken for a ride in quangoland. Now the Tories are hoping to sweep some away with another "bonfire of the quangos". But it'll be a tough job lighting the bonfire when the tentacles have spread everywhere.

In quangoland, the unelected and unaccountable face of New Labour touches everyone's lives with a worthless, useless and wasteful quango or two or three or four.

Cameron is promising to cut back the powers of unelected quangos to save cash and increase accountability as he tries to get to grips with post-election public spending. But a roaring bonfire is unlikely. More likely a few will be picked off to stoke up the public spending cuts fire.

He would not be the first opposition leader to call for a "bonfire of the quangos". Way back in 1995, bushy-tailed Brown, as shadow chancellor, famously promised a "bonfire of quangos", until that incoming government realised what a useful tool they were to mask public spending, hand out jobs for their pals and squander billions of pounds of taxpayers' cash.

The Tories won't fall into the trap of empty promises but sacking or reducing the numbers of quangos is a small step. Cost and accountability are equally important. Every little helps. But it's not just the size and cost of these nightmares to New Labour. At the heart is the issue of democracy, where the unaccountable are run by the unelected chosen ones.

Who's in charge in quangoland? Elected ministers hide behind unelected, unaccountable quangos knowing full well this arms length approach gets them off the hook. Stuffed with New Labour cronies at the top, ministers usually have an easy ride while the quango rides rough shod over people, passing the buck instead of sorting out problems.

Nowhere is this more shamefully and starkly evident than with schools secretary, Ed Balls, hiding behind faceless bureaucracy over the SATs fiasco and Baby P scandal.

In biology that would be called a symbiotic relationship. In a democracy it is called a disgrace leading to widespread cynicism and anger about the state of our public affairs.

Everyone's been quangoed. There are a staggering 791 quangos in England and Wales squandering £43.2 billion, equivalent to £2,000 per household. And that's just the tip of a masssive quangoberg. Where is the public scrutiny?

Hiding behind the organisation’s strange acronym, any kind of questioning is treated as meddlesome intrusion. People are fed up of being bossed around and patronised by arrogant and pompous jobsworths, not least by people with questionable levels of competence and changing goal posts.

Equally galling is the cosy relationships between the quangos and the big-name consultants and the way money is splashed around on life's little lavish lunches and luxuries.

The solution is simple. Cut out the expensive quangos and delegate responsibility straight back to local authorities, which are democratically accountable and tightly audited, overseen by a now sidelined civil service.

But adding 1,000 jobs to the civil service is not a "good thing'. An increase in 1,000 quangocratic jobs goes at worst unnoticed and at best applauded.

Quangoland is a cure all for all the government's ills. Whatever the problem, if in doubt set up another quango. Inevitably the problem gets worse. But with a quango, a minister can show action with yet another body with a strange-sounding name and costly logo.

Keeping tabs on the rise of the quangos and getting to grips with the sheer numbers is no mean feat. A dirty job but someone had to do it as the government continues to stoke the quango fires.

Back in 2005, Dan Lewis from the Economic Research Council made a start with his Essential Guide to British Quangos.

Quango duplication is common. In 2005 Lewis estimated there were 529 "useless" quangos that either did very little or duplicated each other. That's on top of quangos that are working is direct opposition to each other in the crazy world of quangos.

But the main problem with quangos is not that they waste money but that they suppress democracy. The quango has developed into a tool to support the ruling political class where time and again the top jobs with obscene salaries and pension perks are handed out to government cronies knowing they'll toe the line.

At last there are signs of a proper debate on quangos, highlighting those that come up to scratch and those that do not. And if some do get the boot, all the quango-bashing will have been worth it.

Not to be outdone by the Tories, chief secretary to the treasury, Liam Byrne, reckons the government would review quangos to try to "make sure every penny of public money goes to frontline services". At a stroke that totally misses the point.

Quangos are an expensive and cumbersome extra layer of bureaucracy. What is needed is a less centralising and shadowy government that has more faith in local democracy and governance.

The government will do nothing to solve the problem, because at its heart New Labour prefers to rule by cronies, rather than democracy.

However, with Sir Alan Sugar set to climb aboard Brown's sinking ship, ministers could take Siralan’s lead. Time to say to some of the quangocrats, “You’re fired”.

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On The Right Track

A glimmer of hope is on the horizon for the country's costly railways shambles with the government stepping in to take over the troubled East Coast main line franchise. With jobs on the line, discredited rail privatisation in chaos and the country in the grips of economic recession depression, a little bit of nationalisation is a welcome relief.

With paper franchise holder National Express facing losses around £20m in the first half of the year, the East Coast main line has been offered a life-line from an unlikely socialist savour in the shape of transport secretary, Andrew Adonis, one of Blair's 357 political peers.

Casting MPs and parliament aside, unelected and unaccountable Adonis banged the drum for nationalisation, popping up bold as brass on BBC R4 to tell listeners the government is to take it into public ownership for "about a year" because he was not prepared to bail out the struggling rail operator.




Time and again the government has said it won't bail out rail franchises during the recession but rejected nationalisation. That always begged the question: what if a rail franchise came to breaking point?

National Express agreed to pay the government £1.4 billion to run the East Coast main line after it won the franchise from GNER. All part of a very dodgy banking deal, laid bare by the BBC's Robert Peston.

Since then cuts have been made in shareholder dividend and pay-outs, while 750 jobs have been lost.

Only recently the firm started to mug passengers with a new profiteering con to charge 'customers' £5 to reserve a seat, on top of the already astronomical fares.

National Express, Virgin Trains and their fellow train operating monopoly conspirators have plumbed the depths in their quest to wring every last penny from rail travellers.

But the government dismissed rail nationalisation, harking back to the bad old days of BR and a "joke" railway which became a laughing stock.

Tell that to passengers crammed for hours on a train that reeks of urinals, forced on to replacement buses during a never ending round of maintenance, with meaningless reliability targets using every trick in the book to fiddle the figures.

Of course the railways have to be "modernised" since BR was scrapped. But that shouldn't mean immoral reductions in quality and reliability in return for sky-high fares and a whopping taxpayer subsidy.

So why stop at the East Coast main line? Beardie Branson is making a fat personal profit from his unique guarantee against competition on the West Coast main line. Why should one railway be propped up by taxpayers and another allowed to milk passengers for profit and Beardie live in the lap of luxury?

The Orange Party has long been a supporter of public ownership for strategic public services. Setting up not-for-profit companies can work for the railways. As long as a government which couldn't run a whelk stall isn't in the driving cab.

A long-term solution to the chaos of discredited rail privatisation is staring the government in the face, not least for the future of the country's railways and lucrative franchises.

Time and again rail nationalisation comes up as an issue which would get public support. The Post Office and Royal Mail too could be transformed into not-for-profit companies. Investing in the future with public ownership would lift the spirits of economic recession depression.

Top picture: The Flying Scotsman BR publicity poster, 1962

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It's Still All In Dodgy ID Database

ID cards have bitten the dust in a whisper of lies, as the government clears the decks of controversy on the sinking ship. But only the plastic goes on the scrap heap. The sinister database, which lies at its heart, is sneaking in through the backdoor.

Determined the poisoned chalice of the home office won't be his graveyard, new home secretary, Alan Johnson, slipped in the scrapping of the compulsory ID card almost as an afterthought.

At a stroke, the government's hugely expensive and highly controversial scheme now joins the doomed Royal Mail sell-off and Trident left in limbo, as the fag-end government throws policies on the back burner in the run up to the election to take off the heat.

A welcome retreat but only half a U-turn here for the man who would be leader of Mandy's Party. The sinister database behind the scheme is left unscathed with moves to use passports to push in the scheme through the backdoor.

Johnson has left himself wide open to attack from Tories, LibDems and civil liberties groups with the most costly and controversial part of the scheme, the national identity database, alive and kicking civil liberties where it hurts most.

The big issue with ID cards was never about the cards themselves, it was the massive database lurking in the background snooping around.

A database which has become a disturbing feature of the Big Brother state and the unrelenting quest for control over the individual.

Plans to make the cards compulsory have been dropped. Plans to foist the cards on airside workers and some pilots have been scrapped in the face of threatened industrial action.

The lame excuse that the cards would be a powerful weapon in the fight against terrorism? Forget it - that was a "mistake" anyway, blurted out a beaming Johnson.

But it's business as usual for the £5 billion project. Now entirely voluntary and a complete waste of taxpayers cash.

The Tories say they will kill off the cards and delete the database.

For all Johnson's politicking trying to win over support, he’s offered nothing to grass roots members who hate his guts as a Blair prop.

But what he has offered on a plate is a big stick for the Tories to beat the boys from the New Labour brand and renewed vigour for campaigners fighting for an end to the disgrace of the database.

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A 'Shrinking' Violet In Gordon's Rosy Garden

Government spin on the end of the slump has been slapped around the chops with a wet Wall Street weekly as financial wire-service Bloomberg spells out the horrific state of the economy for all the world to see. For the first time in half a century UK output shrank by a scary 2.4%, according to official figures. Everything in Gordon's garden may be coming up smelling of roses but in the real world it stinks.

Today's grim figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) paints an horrific picture of Gordon's garden. The decline in output was more severe than earlier estimates of a 1.9% fall and worse than the Brown sauce from the spinning ship, with construction and manufacturing taking the big hit.

As Bloomberg points out, the quarterly drop was the biggest since the year Michael Jackson was born.

And the biggest since Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan rallied the Party to the call: “most of our people have never had it so good.”

And that was at a time when the post-war economy was in and out of recession, ending in a 2.6 percent slump in the second quarter of 1958.

Translated into English and the real world that means more jobs are on the line. Another nail in the coffin of crap and more bad news for consumers ahead. With no real cash in the kitty there's not a cat in hell's chance of a real kick-start. The country's triple-A credit rating looks decidedly dodgy.

There are choices out there for a rocky road of recovery. Those tough choices should be made now. The country cannot afford to wait around in New Labour la-la land until after an election. The public can take a Tory line, a LibDem line or the government's fishy line.

Today's stark figures come hard on the heels of the other grim warning from leading economic think tank, OECD, that the country is in a miserable mess. With the biggest budget deficit in the world, a severe recession to come and dire times ahead, the UK is predicted to sink further into the red than any other major developed country next year.

And still in the land of grim, Bank of England boss, Mervyn King, called for tough action to tackle the "truly extraordinary" deficit. Firing off a broadside, useless Darling was urged to get a grip on his huge deficit and the debt-ridden borrowing binge.

All in stark contrast to bouncy Brown and deluded Darling’s heady optimism. Only last year the Laurel and Hardy pair told the public the economy would be on its uppers by this July. But that was a political recovery not a real one. Trying to hide the fine mess they'd got the country into, a gullible public was expected to fall for it hook, line and stinker.

Buried in the report is the revelation that the economic recession depression began much earlier.

The ONS now says the recession began during the second quarter of 2008 rather than during July to September. So the recession has been running for a whole year.

So why did we have to wait until January before it was officially confirmed? Why did the government and Brown's BBC string the public along for so long with a cute little downturn? Why was it only at the stroke of midnight the beloved 'downturn' turned into a pumpkin and the nightmare of recession depression?

Sprinkle financial fairy dust and ministers didn't have to get off their backsides and do something about it. They could play politics, dupe the public, burying their heads in the sand, live in cloud cuckoo land, pretend it hasn't happened and pray it will blow away.

A bit of planning not petty politics wouldn't have gone amiss. The patient is poorly, cry some politicians and dry-eyed economists. But it's worse than that, he's dead Jim.

A dose of mother's ruin is all that's on offer. Borrow billions and leave a mountain of debt.

Will this discredited government of lies and deceit ever wake up and realise it's not just the ONS, the OECD, the governor of the Bank of England, Saint Vince, uncle Tom Cobley and all who can see see through the smoke and mirrors accounting and the heady mix of lies, deceit and dishonesty over the economy?

Probably not, so it's back to the bad old ways trying to fool some of the people some of the time until bunkered Brown has the guts to call an election.

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Mandy Manifesto With Dollop Of Brown Sauce

Another day and another relaunch from the crazy world of Gordon Brown and the boys from the New Labour Brand. The public does not want another born again Brown relaunch, it wants a general election. Until that happens, all the political posturing is pointless. Hollow promises and hidden cuts are like water off a duck's back.

The joke dish of the day is the mouth-watering document 'Building Britain's Future' - or 'Building Brown's Future' which has the paw prints of Mandy, aka PM, all over it. A pie-in-the-sky election manifesto served up with a dollop of Brown sauce.

Setting the country on yesterday's road to a new tomorrow, the blueprint for a sharp exit sees the struggling Supreme Leader trying to find a few crumbs of comfort for his legacy and shore up his position ahead of what could be September's leaving party.

But Zombie Brown and the Prince of Darkness can churn out all the eye-catching initiatives they want and dress them up in faded, jaded pink ribbon jargon. In the end it's a coda from the Living Dead.

As the Orange Party has pointed out so many times, the problem for Brown is that he's stuck in the past and the problem for the Labour Party is that they're stuck with him.

So bleary-eyed voters are sent to sleep with another big relaunch and another dishonest damp squib. Today's initiatives tell more about years of failed policies than the shock and awe of an election manifesto to set the country alight.

Trying to breath some life into a corpse, it's a sad admission of 12 years of failure in key public policy areas of health, housing and education and an indictment of a discredited target culture at the root of many of the ills.

Stand by for some shockers. After over a decade in power, the government is now promising a 14 day turnaround to see a cancer specialist which should happen anyway to nip it in the bud. After years of suffering an education fiasco, parents will now get help for kids over basic numeracy and literacy skills which should be a basic cornerstone of any education policy.

And local residents are promised housing priority in a 'British homes for British residents' ploy to try to win over core voters coupled with building more 'social' homes, when everyone regardless of citizenship or residency should be entitled to a roof over their head.

The measures are so basic the public can be forgiven for thinking they should be happening anyway. And just how will the government pay for it all?

Add to that silly mix a stark admission that years of a target-based culture has been a dismal failure and at best this is a damn disgrace.

After years of fannying around, the NHS mainstay of centrally-imposed targets is being ditched. A sure sign the target culture which has been defended so robustly and suffocated the country for years was just a deceitful device used as a ministerial cop-out.

Just what has the government been doing with all the cash for all these years?

The public can see through the sham. The country is being saddled with a mountain of debt for generations to come. Something has got to give. Come clean and tell it straight and voters will be eternally grateful.

Instead it's a game of cat and mouse and more smoke and mirrors accounting from a fag-end government which can't bring itself to own up to its past incompetence and monumental mistakes.

And to cap it all Mandelson has finally admitted there'll be no Whitehall comprehensive spending review this side of the election so no one knows what the hell they're doing, voters will be kept in the dark over spending costs and Brown can pile on the lies. What a mess. All dubbed by Cameron as "a relaunch without a spending tag".

Cameron is chipping away at the lies, deceit and dishonesty and every blow is a further nail in the coffin for beleaguered Brown. The latest wheeze revolves around the revolving door of spending money earmarked for the future that the country won't have anyway. Bring it forward, bring it on and hey presto an 'investment' miracle.

Years of power have bred a culture of smug arrogance.

If only the government would own up to the economic mess and pile of debt. Then there would be a stark choice over what to cut and what to keep and more importantly who do you trust most to keep their word.

Those choices depend on a political point of view and make for a healthy political debate which voters would buy into. They pays their money and makes their choice. if only they were given the choice and the chance.

In the dying weeks and months of the government, nothing today will see the light of day before that election. There are no Big Issues like Trident or the vexed Royal Mail sell-off plan. Scaredy-pants. It should be treated with the contempt it deserves - just election propaganda bullshit, selling the electorate short.

The public deserves better. The empty posturing will only end when voters are finally allowed to have their say.

General election dividing lines are being formed. That will probably boil down to who voters trust rather than old tribal loyalties. Honesty versus lies, trust versus deceit. Today a heady mix of fudge, fakery and failure has been thrown into the mix.

Mid picture: Gerald Scarfe, Sunday Times

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Moonlighting MPs In Spotlight Of Shame

MPs are bracing themselves for fresh revelations over obscene earnings from the great outdoors as some start to make a sharp exit from their sharp practices in the House of Greed. As the spotlight turns from second homes to second jobs, 'moonlighting' Milburn is an early runner.

Brown is hoping Tories will be painted as the Party of Plenty but when greed breeds, there's no account for taste.

For most people, a second job means getting home knackered and dragging yourself out again just to make ends meet. For some MPs it's a nice little earner and a chance to make a mint on the back of their influence and on the back of taxpayers who pay their wages plus expenses and put them in power in the first place.

Cameron's Tories will be caught like rabbits in the headlights of the moonlight as Brown is set to make MPs' second jobs his next big thing for a summer clean-up of the Palace of Plenty and some MPs scrabble for the exit before a July 1 deadline to come clean over lucrative earings. It's not just the Tories or New Labour. LibDems like John Hemming are making a packet on the side.

But today up popped arch Blairite ex-cabinet minister, Alan Milburn, leaving politics to once again spend more time with his family. A regular thorn in the side of Brownies, he's no great loss to the true Labour Party.

On the surface cheerleader Hattie Harman’s plan to ban MPs from having second jobs, was a golden chance to wrong-foot the Tories. But what happens when New Labour MPs are booted out of office and the boot is on the other foot?

Faced with years in the political wilderness, scraping a meagre living as an MP earning three times more than average Joe, government MPs face a close call in the dying days of the New Labour brand. Leaving parliament before the election with a fat pay-off may make financial sense but makes a mockery of their bleatings that they are just in it to serve the people.

On balance Tories are probably worse culprits of this shady practice. But as with the expenses scandal they are not the government. New Labour is the party of government and has the most to lose in the court of public opinion.

Cameron is having a stab at cleaning up. So too Brown. But, as with the expenses scandal, this is more a chance for them to clear out the deadwood and axe those whose face doesn't fit in the new election order, rather than a root and branch clear out of the crooks, spivs and chancers.

After all, would a leader sack a general on the eve of battle, unless that general was useless, plotting a coup or the leader is so deluded they think they can win the battle all on their lonesome.

But Cameron is learning from Brown's mistakes. Making sure everything is shipshape before setting sail is always a better bet than finding out you've not enough lifeboats after you've hit an iceberg.

So shadow foreign secretary and after-dinner darling, William Hague, who last year earned a fortune, has now started giving up his outside interests to concentrate on the day job.

Penning the odd newspaper article or giving the odd after-dinner speech is part and parcel of being a politician. But hiding full earnings from the public or masking the whiff of conflict of interest takes MPs down the slippery slope of sleaze.

MPs don't take up second jobs for the fun of it, they do it for the cash. Firms don't hand over the dosh out of the goodness of their hearts - they're in it for political influence.

Former health secretary Milburn manages to squeeze in quite a few odd jobs while raking a fat MPs' salary plus expenses. A non-executive director at Swedish healthcare company Diaverum AB, he's also earned more than £25,000 as a member of Lloyd's pharmacy healthcare advisory panel. And over £20,000 as Member of the Advisory Board of PepsiCo UK, according to his entry in the register of members' interests.

His departure follows on the heels of former trade minister, Ian McCartney who's announced he is standing down at the next election and giving up a £113,000 consultancy with American gas and oil company Fluor.

Meanwhile, top Tory Oliver Letwin, has promised to give up 60 grand a year doing work for the Rothschild bank. Frontbencher David Willetts has said he'll be giving up his 80 grand a-year as consultant. Alan Duncan has agreed to scale back his complex interests. Others are digging in their heels.

For Brown now the danger also lies in ex-ministers being a bit too quick to jump ship and jump in bed with firms linked to previous political responsibilities.

The register of members' interests doesn't reveal the full picture. What's needed is an 'expenses file' showing how much MPs rake in on the side. Maybe the Telegraph will oblige.

Milburn wasn't the first and won't be the last to leave for pastures new. As with the expenses scandal, the 'moonlighting' revelations will end up damaging all MPs in the eyes of an increasingly fed-up and disgusted public.

All MPs are tarred with the same rotten brush however squeaky clean some certainly are and that damages politics. But MPs have only themselves and their greed to blame for getting themselves in another fine mess in the first place.

The Orange Party has a simple solution - just deduct the cash for jobs from MPs' salaries plus expenses. Any left over give it to charity. After all MPs bleat on about just wanting to "serve the public". Put the money where their mouth is.

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Can Brown Shake Off McPoison 'Link'?

Twice Brown has been forced to deny dealings with his disgraced spin doctor McBride. Twice he was forced to stand at the commons despatch box and deny any links. Spiteful Tory trouble stirring to ruffle Brown's feathers? Or is McPoison back already? There's something fishy going on.

For the Tories the name of Damian McBride is spat out through gritted teeth. Forced to leave Brown's side in shame with his tail between his legs after being exposed at the centre of a nasty email smear campaign against top Tories.

Revenge could be a dish best served cold at the dispatch box.

Since McBride went to ground, many political observers have raised the vexed question. Where's McPoison? What's he up to now? Is he up to his old tricks offering "informal briefings"?

The mere suggestion forced Downing Street to put up the story that he's turned his back on the dirty tricks of politics, short listed for another job as an "outreach worker" for his old school. Some kind of penance perhaps or maybe taking the outreach just a little bit too literally?

The Orange Party was taken aback somewhat when for the second week running a Tory asked the PM a planted question during PMQs over links with McBride. The Westminster Mole is pondering the same intriguing question with equally intriguing conclusions.

The first week's question to Brown was messed up. Woolly, imprecise, asking only about alleged "informal briefings", that allowed Brown to get away with a simple denial. Tory high command was furious.

Not so this week. A very tight, detailed, precise question designed to pin Brown down, which had all the hallmarks of being drafted by Tory central office.

Tory backbencher James Duddridge demanded to know whether Brown had had "any correspondence, emails, telephone conversations or texts from McBride". Brown again brushed it aside with: "I have not" but here's the rub - the MP asked him to send his answer to the Commons Standards watchdog. Outch.

MPs cannot accuse one another of lying in the House. But they can force someone to account for themselves if what they've said is a bit dodgy. A prime minister caught lying to the House and its curtains for Brown.

Are the Tories onto something? What is clear is that all communications between a prime minister are routinely monitored by Downing Street and the spooks. It goes with the job.

It's designed to protect a prime minister from any false accusations and to give Downing Street a steer on a PMs thinking. Blair never had a mobile phone, Brown has. The record is there on the grounds of national security and in the best interests of the state.

Falling into the wrong or right hands and it's a case of Gotcha.

Ex-spin doctors have a habit of turning up like a bad penny. Disgraced Campbell is doing quite well with his feet under the Downing Street table blogging for the Blair brand.

And why not. Nice work if you can get it. Old habits die hard and McBride could well have offered some kind words of advice. Some lines to take on a vexed issue. No one would bat an eyelid.

But now Brown has been forced to deny it to the House. It only takes one transcript of a text message, one mobile phone link and he's toast.

The Tories maybe on to something. Or just giving Brown a taste of his own medicine. The McPoison wounds of Smeargate ran deep. What is clear is they won't give up, if only to make the struggling Supreme Leader sweat.

Picture: McBrown and McBride in happier days

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Will Mandy Drop Brown After Iraq U-Turns?

With more U-turns than a drunken driver deluded Brown's long-awaited Iraq war inquiry is set to descend from fudge to farce changing at every twist and turn. Now the shabby stitch-up deal between Brown and Mandy to protect his boss Blair has been exposed. Brown could be cast adrift after serving His Master's manipulating purpose.

For arch political plotter Brown, the problem was intractable. Go for a full blown cover-up and risk the wrath of backbench Labour MPs and many in the Party or bow to Mandy on a promise to prop him up in the fag-end days of his premiership.

In the end the struggling Supreme Leader chose his own political survival over the Party and the people.

The outcome of the shabby deals has left the Iraq inquiry a confusing mess and left McCavity Brown looking foolish.

Playing out in the full public spotlight it was difficult keeping up with U-Turn Brown.

Standing up in parliament and announcing the inquiry would be held in secret to cries of a stitch-up. Now some bits could well be held in public.

It would not apportion blame. Then his own foreign secretary directly contradicts this, telling MPs exactly the opposite.

The inquiry is not a full blown legal public inquiry and does not have powers to subpoena witnesses under oath. Now it seems it can ask witnesses to make a formal promise to tell the truth.

The country was duped and taken to war on a lie. Everyone knows that. So why take such a suicidal line on something which gets right up the nose of many backbench true Labour MPs, military chiefs and families of the war dead and injured?

Brown was out-manoeuvred and out-classed as he caved in to Mandy pressure. A squalid little deal was struck to get Mandy support for increasingly beleaguered Brown and part of a Mandelson plan to protect Blair and his bid for the EU presidency.

John Kampfner, in the Spectator, blows the gaffe on the Prince of Darkness in a brilliant piece of incisive writing. Mandy's boss Blair has a lot to hide. Inquiry revelations could damage his plan to become EU president. Demanding a secret inquiry was part of the deal for supporting beleaguered Brown during the failed Blairite plot to oust him. In return he gets to be top-dog.

Now the inquiry is being dragged screaming into something resembling what it should have been in the first place. McCavity can turn around and say he kept to his part of the deal and it's out of his hands. But that won't keep Mandy or Blair sweet.

The inquiry outcome into the disgrace of a war is still set to take a full year until after the general election but could still blow both Blair and Campbell out of the water.

The power behind the throne will not be a happy bunny. Brown's last hope will drop him like a ton of bricks when the time it right.

Any spin of 'winning' yesterday’s vote on a Tory motion was a hollow victory. True Labour 'rebel' MPs have been let down and were expecting more than this sham, disgusted by the whole charade. It still leaves a bitter taste and a festering reminder of a fag-end government which spent billions of pounds and lost dozens of lives, fighting an illegal war.

A bunch of faceless cronies and government props will still be locked away behind closed doors. The issue of the legality and how the wool was pulled over everyone's eyes and the smokescreen of WMDs will be buried under the usual smokescreen of secrecy.

The shameful legacy of events leading to war has left many with blood on their hands, not least a disgraced two-faced ex-prime minister Blair and his "taste for war" and the squalid part played by New Labour chief spin doctor Campbell over sexed-up dossiers, invisible WMDs and the death of government scientist, Dr David Kelly.

There is still raw anguish of the families of brave servicemen and women whose loved ones were sent to a bloody war ill-equipped and duped into the Iraq killing fields on the back of a pack of lies and deceit. The dreadful legacy is still fresh in many people's minds.

The whole shameful episode needs the disinfectant of the public spotlight. The stitched-up secret inquiry with a whitewash outcome in a year's time would have put the clocks back to the bad old days of New Labour lies, deceit and spin. But now there's a chance it may have some real teeth after all.

But Brown has lost control of the inquiry and with it his power continues to ebb away.

The casualty could well be Brown. Mandy doesn't need him any more. Billy no mates Brown could be left to face September's leaving party conference all on his lonesome. Time to make that dignified exit and do what he's adamant he would never do - walk away.

Meanwhile another war rages in the new Vietnam of Afghanistan as over-stretched troops struggle to keep up with the doomed US surge to root out invisible Taliban.

Few had the guts to challenge war-mongering Blair in his Iraq war. Few have the guts now to ask what the hell we are doing out there in this bloody, hopeless and winnable war.

Picture: Front cover Private Eye

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Berk's Arrogance Laid Bare

The true colours of smug, arrogant squeaker Bercow has been vividly laid bare on YouTube in a contemptuous spat with ITV News' political editor, Tom Bradby.

Without doubt this is one of the most disgusting displays of pompous arrogance by a politician on camera the Orange Party has ever witnessed. Disgusting, discourteous and downright rude.

Bradby was clearly taken aback during the interview for yesterday's Evening News, asking questions any journalist worth his salt would have asked, not expecting such a nasty little put down from a nasty little man.

MPs stuck two fingers up to the electorate with the election of squeaker Bercow showing they don't give a toss about honest decent voters. Berk stuck two fingers up to Bradby and through him to the public.

The Orange Party has been at the sharp end of political interviews in the past and the sharp end of the tongue. Brady too, with Prezza and Brown spats under his belt. But never before has such appalling behaviour been played out in front of the camera. This is truly disgusting show of shameful showmanship.

New Labour cronies who voted in their government prop should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

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Get A Grip Darling

Saint Vince has done it again. A week since the economic god warned to take talk of the end of recession depression with a large pinch of salt, a leading economic think-tank has come up with the same stark conclusion, warning of dire times ahead. And tough-talking Bank of England boss, Mervyn King, has once again stuck the boot in, telling useless Darling to get a grip on his huge deficit.

If only this fag-end government would for once play it straight with voters instead of an endless game of economic cat and mouse and political point scoring. They may even pick up a few votes from a public who prefer honesty to a daily dollop of Brown sauce.

The recession is very far from over warned Cable in an article in the Independent last week: "What we are seeing is an economists' and financiers' recovery rather than a real one."

And back in that real world of real people with real fears and the real economy, the UK is predicted to sink further into the red than any other major developed country next year, in a grim warning from The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

At a stroke this blows out of the water the government's cunning plan to spin a recovery in time for a general election and put up deluded Brown as the only true saviour of the world.

The mother of all economic crises seems "mysteriously to have vanished" said Cable, in the face of a "determined counter-offensive by the forces of optimism". This diagnosis, he warned, is profoundly wrong.

Now with a stark message, the OECD has revised down its forecast for the UK economy in 2009 and warns the UK is in "a sharp recession" with output set to contract by 4.3% in 2009, worse than its previous forecast of a 3.7% fall.

But the worst is yet to come. The OECD predicts zero growth in the UK economy in 2010 and says the UK budget deficit will hit an eye-watering and totally unacceptable 14% of GDP next year.

Echoing the views already expressed by Saint Vince, the OECD calls on the UK government to cut back the ratio of debt to output which is set to be a lasting legacy for generations to come.

Something has to be done about it. Now. Not leave it it for the other lot to clear up after the election.

This UK forecast is much worse than those the Treasury made during the Budget. It's the worst in the developed world.

"Public finances have deteriorated sharply" warns the OECD, particularly concerned over the size of the UK's budget deficit. And that came as Bank of England governor Mervyn King called for tough action to tackle the "truly extraordinary deficit", firing off a broadside to Darling's economic disaster plan.

But will the government listen? Will it heck.

Even if the UK reduces government borrowing by a paltry 1% of GDP per year for the next seven years, it will still have a staggering gross debt-to-GDP ratio of 125% by 2017, one of the largest in the OECD.

So much for the recent spin by the National Institute for Social and Economic Research suggesting the recession is bottoming out in the UK.

This is all in stark contrast to bouncy Darling’s optimistic forecast. The OECD projects zero growth for the UK next year which is heading into worst-case scenario territory.

The warning bells are there. But the government isn't listening. Unemployment will soar above the three million mark. Darling is faced with a massive budget deficit billions bigger than he's factored into cloud cuckoo land financial plans.

It all makes for grim reading and blows out of the water the Brown spin which weary voters have to put up with.

Telling people what they can already see every day around them, the OECD reckons UK unemployment, which currently stands at a 12-year high of more than 2.2 million, will "rise substantially" and "labour market conditions will remain unfavourable for a long period".

But the dire state of the economy and what to do about it is being reduced to a daily round of lies from a discredited government set on a collision course with voters.

King and Cable have a lot in common. Both gents of the old school of economics. Both right on the ball. And both seem to live in a permanent state of despair over the debt which is piling up and the mess which is unfolding around them.

When will this discredited government of lies and deceit wake up and realise it's not just Saint Vince and the governor of the Bank of England who can see through the sham? Voters can see through it and feel it in their everyday lives.

Never mind the pathetic party politics and political posturing. It may all make for fun and games at Westminster but people's livelihoods are at stake here.

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Who Guards The Expenses Guardians?

Parliamentary democracy is being torn to shreds in the dying days of a fag-end government with plans for an unelected quango to oversee MPs' expenses. At the heart lies the vexed question: who will guard the guardians in Brown's Big Brother House?

Once again the government has found a neat way of side-stepping responsibility and accountability for its shabby actions, at a stroke sweeping away centuries of constitutional tradition at the centre of our democratic process.

On the surface it all sounds so sensible. MPs can't be trusted, so set up an 'independent' body to keep them in check.

That in itself is a sad indictment of democracy. The checks and balances are already firmly in place. They are called voters who can see through the lies and deceit and boot out the crooks and spivs if only they were given the chance.

But without that election, parliament and democracy is being reduced to a sinister farce. Scratch away at the surface and a rotten underbelly is exposed, threatening the cornerstone of constitutional democracy and parliamentary sovereignty.

For the first time, parliament will have to play second fiddle to a bunch of faceless beaurocrats and cronies. In a complete reverse of the way this country is supposed to be governed, MPs will be answerable to unelected bureaucrats not the electorate.

Time and again when the government gets itself into a mess it digs itself into a deeper hole, wriggling around with another unaccountable and unelected quango to get itself off the hook.

Trust in parliament and MPs is at an all-time low. But proposals set out in the Harman Bill move the constitutional ship of state into unchartered waters. If in doubt, set up another quango. That is not the way to build trust.

As Oborne points out today, the Parliamentary Standards Bill takes this country into "untested constitutional waters, proposing nothing less than subjugating the centuries-old sovereignty of Parliament to an unelected quango."

And to add insult to injury: "This new Bill will be voted on by a House riddled with expenses cheats which has just elected a tax-dodger as Speaker."

The despicable true colours of this smug, vile, arrogant little man propped up by New Labour cronies were vividly laid bare last night in a contemptuous interview with ITV News' political editor, Tom Bradby. The most disgusting display of pompous arrogance by a politician the Orange Party has ever witnessed. In this country.

MPs stuck two fingers up to the electorate with the election of squeaker Bercow showing they don't give a toss about honest decent voters. Bercow stuck two fingers up to Bradby and through him the public.

The rot is set to continue.

The new Parliamentary Standards Bill will set up the “Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority” to administer MPs’ pay and allowances, as well as establishing a "Commissioner for Parliamentary Investigations" to probe alleged breaches of the rules.

But there's a rub in the Harman Bill. IPSA members and the commissioner will be approved by a 'Speaker’s Committee', at a stroke handing vast power over to a bunch of political elitists who are not accountable to the electorate.

Just how will these guardians be selected? How can voters be sure they will stay corruption-free?

An elected Parliament, warts and all, is at the heart of democracy. Parliament and its lawmakers are the highest court in the land. As Oborne observes: The Commons is set to be reduced to a farce. Parliamentary government, a national joke.

So who exactly guards the guardians? The answer comes back. No-one.

The Orange Party fears for the future of democracy which is paying the price for the government's stubborn refusal to hold a general election.

The answer isn't more rules and regulators. A 'root and branch' reform of the whole expenses system, clearly setting out who can claim for what, where and when would solve the problem for the future.

Procedures are already in place for a strict enforcement of the rules and laws already there to catch culprits. It didn't work in the past because those with a vested interest turned a blind eye to the scandalous abuse.

If all MPs expenses had been truly out in the open in the first place, the squalid expenses scandal would not have happened. No MP would want would any dirty washing hung out in public.

In a democracy, the electorate is the best regulator. Voters are quite capable of kicking out the crooks, the spivs and the chancers. They're chomping at the bit but denied the chance.

What is not needed is yet another unelected, unaccountable quango or committee. Only a general election can begin to restore public trust in politics and politicians. Some will fall by the wayside and that is exactly why one is not being called for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to the font of all expenses at the Telegraph, voters now have enough information to dig out the truth behind the lies and deceit of the self-serving servants of the public.

But without that election, voters will continue to be treated with contempt. Revenge is a dish best served out of a cold ballot box.

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A Spiv For A Speaker

Government MPs have smug grins on their faces after one of their kind was elected Speaker, despite flaunting his token Tory credentials. Unless there's a massive change of heart and conscience, the election of second homes flipping spiv, Bercow, will only inflame public mood as voters treat the whole squalid mess of an election charade with the contempt it deserves.

Quentin Letts over at the Mail gets it in one - They voted for someone who could be even worse than Gorbals Mick!

Born-again Bercow finally beat off a challenge from Tory toff Sir George Young after MPs voted with their feet to ignore government favourite Old Ma Beckett amid claims of a stitch-up by the whips.

Pointedly, the Conservatives were the only ones in the House not greeting the election of a New Labour ringer with rapturous applause. Cameron's welcome was decidedly lukewarm.

More comfortable sucking up New Labour than the Tories, despised Bercow's biggest problem now is that most of his own party hate him as he tries to square up to a bitterly divided House.

And that doesn't bode well for someone charged with clearing up the stench of the expenses scandal, restoring public faith in parliament and steering the commons with an impartial hand on the tiller in the run up to a general election.

Chancer Bercow was in with a chance not for his parliamentarian skills but because he slimed up to MPs and backbenchers for years touting for the top job.

Displaying all the superficial charm of a used car-salesman/merchant banker, squeaker Bercow's toughest task now will be to charm voters, fed up, angry and thoroughly disgusted with a discredited Commons.

What was needed was a good egg, someone in it for parliament not themselves. In the end, New Labour MPs lined up to support their Trojan Horse in the speaker sweepstakes because they saw in him one of their kind and could get one over on Dave. No wonder Brown looked so chuffed with himself.

This obnoxious little man insists that he's got what it takes to restore trust in Parliament and politicians but it's difficult to see how an expenses cheat would be capable of repairing the damage of the House up to its greedy neck in sleaze and corruption.

As failed speaker hopeful Ann Widdecombe so assiduously puts it: The speaker needs the "goodwill of parliament" to succeed. The new Mr Speaker hasn't got what it takes. With many Tories detesting this vile man and New Labour voting for him in a game of ya boo sucks to the Tories, he's not the right man to restore that much-needed public trust.

MPs have learnt nothing from the devastating expenses scandal, clinging onto the the vain hope it will all blow over.

The font of all expenses shows all-round slime-ball Bercow is no stranger to the expenses scam. The Telegraph reveals how he 'flipped' his second home and twice got his tax form filled in at taxpayers expense, a move which a tax expert described as “scandalous”. So much for the much heralded fresh start.

For the history books, Bercow becomes the first 'Conservative' Speaker since 1992, following Labour's Martin and Boothroyd into the hot seat. But a Tory in name only without the guts to cross-over to his new found friends.

As the election sweepstakes unfolded, government shoe-in Beckett fell at the second hurdle, with revolting MPs refusing to play ball with a stitch-up by government whips, leaving squeaker Bercow to be installed as a ringer in the big comfy speaker's chair. The messy game of party political one upmanship will do nothing to restore battered public confidence.

MPs were still up to their old tricks, trying to juggle their favourite into the top job, treating the public and parliament with contempt. The Orange Party wholeheartedly agrees with Rachel Sylvester over at The Times. This shows the commons at its worst.

How depressing that MPs could not seize this opportunity to show the public they truly understand their anger and need for a fresh start with a Speaker who was relatively clean and not too tarnished with the expenses brush.

MPs still have a lot to learn from the public wrath over their squalid expenses which saw disgraced speaker Martin getting the boot. The Commons does not exist to serve their own greedy self-serving interest.

The high office of speaker does not exist to serve the self-serving interest of a two-bit politician who's motive to become Speaker is based more on personal ambition rather than on a honest belief in the need to clean up the Commons.

What's most disturbing is that the appointment of squeaker Bercow could bring the House even further into disrepute.

The Orange Party may be proved wrong and he may turn out to be the best thing since Betty B. But he's on probation and may not last long with the Tories waiting in the wings to pull the rug from under his feet.

Everyone wanted change except MPs with the most to lose. But for now it's back to business as usual in Brown's Big Brother House.

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