Smith Under Fire As Greengate Dropped

Trumped up home office leak charges against a top Tory MP have been dropped as a committee of MPs slated civil servants for "exaggerating" the seriousness of alleged leaks, which led to the heavy-handed police raid and arrest of Damian Green. It's goodbye Smeargate, as Greengate leaves a discredited fag-end of a government trying to close another 'gate' after the pre-election dirty tricks horse has bolted.

The Greengate decision comes as a reeling Downing Street struggles to cover up the Smeargate email scandal against the Tories and raises fresh doubts over the involvement of home secretary Jacqui Smith and her band of political police, already under fire for G20 police brutality. 

Now the CPS has said there was "insufficient evidence" to bring a court case against the shadow immigration minister, adding: "The information leaked was not secret information or information affecting national security," something police must have known before the raid and arrest. 

Many at Westminster expected charges against Green to be dropped weeks ago but instead it dragged on for months since anti-terror police made an unwarranted raid on Green's office in the sanctity of parliament. 

Red-faced cops and officials tried to use the excuse of 'national security' for the raid to hide their embarrassment. Now the home affairs committee has questioned whether police would have got involved if they had not been misled.

The MPs said there was a "clear mismatch" between the "misleading" and "hyperbolic" contents of a senior cabinet office official's letter citing national security as a reason for the raid and the description of the leaks provided by the home office's civil service chief.

The decision to drop charges against Green comes days after the appointment of Yates of the Yard, commissioner John Yates, to head up the Greengate police inquiry after Smith's favourite copper, bungling Bob Quick, was forced to make a quick exit when he exposed anti-terror plans to  the media. 

Green's controversial arrest last November came after Quick sent 20 anti-terrorist officers to search his parliamentary office, causing outrage at the time by both LibDems and Tories: 

Both Green and Christopher Galley, a junior civil servant working at the home office, always denied wrongdoing. Both have had charges against them dropped due to "insufficient evidence". Green says he was releasing information in the public interest.

Key questions remain over why police were involved in this case when it was clear that could have been handled as an internal matter. 

But the Tory MP paid the price of public interest after the heavy-handed tactics of the political police were exposed with his arrest. Yet he was bailed, not under anti-terrorist laws but under common law.

The shameful arrest of Green made a mockery of the pseudo-liberal facade of the New Labour government. Once again it exposed the hidden workings of powerful institutions of political and social control. 

Home secretary Smith and the rest of the gang involved in this disgraceful episode now face fundamental questions at the heart of this scandal, not least why were the heavy mob used for the arrest when clearly this did not involve any state secrets? And who authorised the police search in the sacrosanct precincts of the Place of Westminster?

Downing Street had claimed this was a matter for the police and the prime minister had no prior knowledge of the arrest but the Orange Party smelt a big political rat at work here and some scary heavy-handed Big Brother tactics. A police investigation into a high-ranking politician would have to have been cleared at the very top. 

Speaking after the CPS decision a relieved Green pointed the finger of responsibility at the home secretary: “I believe in the old Italian phrase that the fish rots from the head down.” Smith was “a poor home secretary” who had "shown poor judgement."

The decision to drop all charges over the Greengate affair is a further nail in the coffin for disposable home secretary Jacqui Smith, as the two homes secretary is already under fire over her second homes expenses fiddle. It is difficult to see how she, or speaker Michael Martin can survive. 

Goodbye Smeargate, hello Greengate. The government is spinning out of control as another concerted attempt by Brown's bunch of spinners and henchmen to stoop to dirty tricks in Tory attacks has been exposed in the run up to the general election. 

Read More...

Smith Should Fall On Her X's

MPs are looking over their shoulders wondering if they'll be fingered in the next expenses scam, while the credibility of the home secretary lies in tatters. Brown won't lance the boil as the stench of corruption fills the air at Westminster. But it's a sorry state of affairs when a beleaguered home secretary cannot make serious statements of state, without everyone sniggering behind her back.

Many in Westminster thought Smith's second home allowance claim was enough to finish her off. But that was before the revelations over employment minister, Tony McNulty, claiming for his parents' house, took the heat off the squalid Smith affair.

Instead it is the damaging revelations over two homes secretary Smith’s husband’s penchant for pay-per-view porn on the taxpayer which is increasing speculation over Smith's future as home secretary. Many want a scalp and Smith could be the fall-guy.

Already under fire and under investigation, Smith had her family's dirty washing hung out in public in another nice 'n sleazy Sunday. The sight of her No 1 letter-writing fan, husband Richard Timney, forced to come out and apologise to the assembled hacks was a sorry spectacle, with speculation it may now force him to go out and look for a proper job. 

Ministers can often ride out the storm of sleaze but only for so long and only when there's a half-respected prime minister whose inevitable backing often kills a story and the scandal that lies beneath. Brown's support for his home secretary means diddly-squat.

A culture of stick it all on expenses and stick two fingers up to taxpayer threatens to embroil the government tarred with the brush as the Party of Sleaze.

The timing of the revelations could not have come at a worse time and that may prove crucial to Smith’s survival. 

And it's getting much worse as all MPs' claims are published. 

MPs are breaking out in a sweat over the commons publication of a list of expenses claimed by MPs, with New Labour MPs caught in the 'McNulty Triangle' shown up to be amongst the most expensive and worst culprits. 

That's prompting some to ask if there's a mole at work, leaking juicy titbits ahead of publication. 

Anger has turned to ridicule as hapless ministers are rounded on, turning them into a figure of fun. But this joke of a government is no laughing matter. The damage of ridicule can be far-reaching.

The 'angry brigades' are set to take to the streets this week as police throw down a £7m taxpayer-funded security cordon, locking down the capital for a pointless  G20 charade. The home secretary could well be called on to make a public statement while at the same time having to fend off questions about hubby's choice in videos and her signed-off expenses claims. 

And how can Smith be taken seriously when launching one of her holier-than-thou crusades against pornography, prostitution and lap-dancing? 

Smith was always destined to be the disposable home secretary. No threat to Brown's leadership, she popped up from nowhere and was handed the poisoned chalice of the home office. She's not exactly Ms Popular and stands no chance of holding onto her Redditch seat at the next general election. 

MPs are now seen as fair game and it's getting right up their noses. LibDems are smug with a blanket ban on second homes expenses for their London MPs but Tories are easy targets.  Pickles has already got himself in a pickle showing himself up as another porker with his snout in the second homes expenses trough. 

Under normal circumstances, hiring a couple of porno films whilst Smith was not at home, would have aroused a little titter at breakfast.

But  that expense claim was  made  from a home secretary already under scrutiny for fiddling her second homes expenses and having the cheek to claim for everything but the kitchen sink. And that comes on top of McNulty, up to his neck in a similar scam.

The relentless exposing of ministers caught up in squalid expenses scams and sleaze are a Major sign of a government in decay. 

Public anger over MPs' expenses is reaching fever pitch but often can be batted way by ministers hiding behind the blind arrogance of commons rules with no shred of common decency. But when that anger is replaced by ridicule and satire, it's a clear sign the game is up. 

The Orange Party senses a mood at Westminster that some MPs are looking for someone to be thrown to the wolves to assuage voters and unpopular and ridiculed Smith could be that hapless victim. 

UPDATE: Figures released today show Smith claimed around £23,000 in expenses during a single year for her second home, in total claiming £157,631, that's £33,000 more than the prime minister.

Picture: Daily Mail

Read More...

Stats Office Squares Up To Spinners

While it wasn't only the sea bass being grilled in the commons, served with lashings of Brown sauce, the row brewing at Westminster is how that reckless lot at the ONS had the cheek to publish clear, accurate and relevant jobs and immigrant figures, without letting Downing Street spinners get their grubby little paws on the press release. 

Yesterday's ONS release has left ministers "fizzing with anger" about the publication of numbers showing how many UK jobs go to immigrants.

The figures show the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27 million. Not good news for ministers still smarting from the BJ4BW protest. 

Such a release would have been unthinkable during the Campbell/Blair years and indeed up until very recently. But that was before home secretary Smith's political advisor was slammed by a commons watchdog after ordering the release of misleading knife crime figures. 

Then ministers and Downing Street spinners were blasted for 'corroding public trust'  using 'selective' figures to claim they are winning the war on the streets as ONS officials tried in vain to stop the government's 'reckless' release. 

The ONS is desperate to prove its independence and restore public confidence but juggling with any figures within a tight and highly skewed criteria set by the government has made a complete mockery of any government statistics, which no-one believes anymore, anyway. But well done guys for trying. 

Playing the numbers game has been a low point of the powerful Downing Street spin machine with obsessive control over what, where and when any information is released. 

Now it seems the spinning top had no idea what is coming out of the Office of National Statistics, as it fearlessly goes its own way. 

As usual, Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting puts his finger on the issue: "Isn’t this also a measure of the decline of Labour’s power? Whitehall has a strong sense that the game is up and bodies like the UK Statistics Authority can launch moves without fear."

Read More...

Wilders Ban Reeks Of Double Standards

Government double speak and double standards have been laid bare as the home office caved in to pseudo liberal pressure and banned a Dutch MP who has voiced his opposition to an “Islamic invasion”. His far right views are distasteful to some but the ban reveals a sinister trend to suppress a once cherished freedom of speech.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch right-wing Freedom Party had been invited to show a film called 'Fitna' at the House of Lords. That was until home secretary, Jacqui Smith, stepped in and banned him from entering the country. 

But the film - easily viewed on YouTube - does not incite violence and does not break any laws, nor does the home office suggested that it does.

The Orange Party condemns religious zealots who preach hateful racial bigotry, particularly when they hide behind the mask of religion to ram political ideologies down our throats. Wilders' views are loony right but he should be free to express an opinion. 

As the Times thunders in an eloquent leader today: "There is almost nothing on which Mr Wilders cannot be relied upon to be inflammatory, ill advised and illiberal, and this is precisely why the Home Secretary is wrong to deny him entry. Mr Wilders is an elected politician in a member state of the European Union. Freedom of speech, association and travel is part of the political culture of Europe." 

Wilders opposes what he terms “Islamic invasion” and demands the US and EU “stop appeasing Islam and start fighting together against the rapidly increasing Islamisation of Europe”.

Smith is doing no-one not least decent Muslims any favours. The half-baked decision reeks of double standards, when the UK denies a politician access to the country, just because someone doesn't like what he says. 

Let the man in. It is better to blow apart his arguments rather than just forcing him to shut up.

Holding up to ridicule the vices and virtues of society is essential in a tolerant liberal democracy and that has always included the right to oppose, mock and insult people's beliefs, as long as that doesn't overstep a clearly defined legal and moral mark set by the prevailing cultural mood of the day. 

But it seems the last thing the home office wanted was a confrontation between Wilders and some British Muslims. 

Wilders has never broken the law or threatened anyone with violence, yet the government has stood by while a number of extreme imams have been allowed to preach hatred. 

And it doesn't stop at turning a blind eye to extreme Islamists who openly incite murder and the destruction of Jews. Lesbian and gay people have been targets, as people have been allowed in to say whatever they want. On that criteria alone the decision doesn't make sense. 

All kinds of undesirables seem to be welcome, while this Dutch MP, who does not preach violence, is told that he can’t come here and that reeks of double standards. 

The actions of the home secretary only fuels the belief the government is quite happy to tolerate fanatics but not a misguided Wilders. 

And that decision highlights a fundamental and disturbing trend, when pseudo liberal views are allowed to corrupt a democracy's cherished values. 

UPDATE: Wilders, defied the ban and flew into Heathrow this afternoon where he's been held by home office immigration officials.

Read More...

Scandal Of Second Homes Secretary Smith

The chickens are coming home to roost for greedy government ministers, with the home secretary now caught shamefully fiddling commons expenses, claiming her West Midlands family home is her second home, while lodging with her sister in London and claiming that is her first home. 

The Mail on Sunday claims home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has received £116,000 in allowances while lodging at her sister’s house. This is on top of the taxpayer-funded security, which the paper puts at around £200,000 a year. 

The revelations are the latest to hit the home secretary who also clams £40,000 a year for parliamentary assistant husband, Richard Timney, who was caught out writing glowing free puffs for his wife in the local newspaper, without disclosing the family connection. 

The Mail reports Smith claims the maximum parliamentary second-home allowance, currently a tax-free £24,006 a year on the detached house in her West Midlands constituency, where her husband and two young children live and which she bought for £300,000 five years ago.

Smith claims she has done nothing wrong and her spokeswoman said "Jacqui has documentation to prove that everything is completely above board. It has been cleared by the Commons Fees Office". But the Orange Party is at a loss to understand whether this office scrutinises and clears expenses claims or merely makes a note of them.

Smith is not the first cabinet minister to be caught using their MPs' homes expenses in a squalid rip-off at the taxpayers' expense. 

Brown's favourite cabinet couple, Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper were let off the hook  after it was claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home.

Once again it exposes the "morally dubious practice" of ministers on the take in what is nothing short of a commons scam.

The Orange Party could never understand how Smith suddenly popped up from nowhere and was handed the poisoned chalice of home secretary in the first place, when she stands no chance of holding onto her Redditch seat at the next general election. 

Since taking the powerful position, Smith has been snapped in a bullet-proof vest on the streets of London with armed police officers to show the streets are safe, while her political advisor has been slammed by a commons watchdog after ordering the release of misleading crime figures. 

At the same time as pushing through hugely distasteful and expensive ID cards, her department found time to get involved with the heavy mob's unwarranted raid on the commons offices of opposition spokesman, Damian Green. 

In other circumstances ministers caught playing these dirty tricks would be forced to resign but with ministers now so wrapped up in their own arrogance and self-interest and with the full backing of Brown, it seems anyone in a position of power caught fiddling expenses can easily ride out the storm. 

Picture: Tractor Stats

Read More...

Well-Stuffed MPs Return To Palace Of Plenty

Well-fed MPs drift back to Parliament today after a record-breaking 24-day festive holiday at the taxpayer expense, as people suffer the worst slump for nigh on 30 years. Meanwhile home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has a lot of explaining to do about her bogus figures. 

While shops go to the wall, UK manufacturing falls at its fastest since 1981, numbers on the dole the highest since 1997, MPs have lost their conscience and connection with ordinary folk.

Job losses seem to have escaped the public sector fat cats with meaningless job titles, now part of a long overdue crusade by many national newspapers. At the top of the public sector food chain stand the country's MPs, ring fenced and cushioned from the recession and the growing band of 'payroll MPs' flushed with promoted egos and self-importance. 

What a difference a job makes. On the one hand, the government offers top whack wages, generous benefits and gold-plated pensions to its card carrying Common Purpose quango lackeys, while in the real world of real dwindling jobs, it's all wage cuts, unpaid overtime and short-time working.

The grotesque contrast between the harsh world of struggling ordinary folk in the economic crisis and the cosy comfort of the political elite, is most evident in the closeted world of MPs and their lifestyles, as they look set to continue to squander our money. 

While occupational pension schemes are being closed down, MPs' pensions remain protected. Hard-pressed families struggle with debt, but MPs have their mortgages paid for them by the taxpayer. People are tightening their belts but MPs' generous expenses system allows them to squander taxpayers' cash on furniture and home improvements. 

Peter Oborne, writing in the Mail last week, put his finger on what he called a national disgrace: "MPs who put private profit above public interest are treating voters with contempt as they milk their expenses system." Yet still nothing on MPs' expenses has been published.

Top of the dishonesty pile must come home secretary, Jacqui Smith, who seems to have put on a bit of weight over Christmas, according to the picture above, to face questions over more bogus figures and face accusations of becoming a bit of a big fat liar. 

Last year, she was forced to admit that immigration numbers were made up. Letters to newspapers sucking up to her while attacking the Tories were actually written by friends or relations.

That's on top of the revelation that the home secretary misled MPs over knife crime statistics. And there's the not so very small matter of Tory opposition spokesman Damian Green, who looks set to be cleared over trumped-up home office leak allegations.

Meanwhile Brown faces his first real test of the New Year as he tries to look busy doing nothing and prepares to spin his way around the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow with a decision on the controversial scheme, opposed by environmentalists and west Londoners, expected in the next few days.

More than 50 Labour MPs are opposed to it, along with the Conservatives. But Brown is behind the scheme and, backed by deputy prime minister Mandelson and a very powerful Heathrow lobby and advertising campaign, the government is set to wriggle its way around the pollution and noise with the promise of a new high-speed rail link on top of another runway.

The high point on the horizon? Some political commentators are bending over backwards to toe the Downing Street line that Brown has ruled out holding a spring election. He's done nothing of the sort. He lives and breathes election strategy and how to wrong-foot the Tories. 

Last week team Brown spent around £200,000 of taxpayers' money on a pre-election tour of the north. Mandelson's minion, Derek Draper, who has set up a New Labour propaganda blog, with contributions from, er, Mandy and Brown's bully Charlie Whelan, is already in a pickle over 'moderation'. Brown's personal Downing Street website a flagrant breach of the civil service code, would not look out of place in North Korea. 

If that's not all blatant electioneering, the Orange Party is at a loss to know what is.

Photo: Tractor Stats

Read More...

Lies, Damn Lies And Knife Crime Stats

Officials tried in vain to stop the government's 'reckless' release of yesterday's much vaunted knife crime figures which have been exposed as a sham by the very body which compiles the statistics. Ministers and Downing Street spinners have been blasted for 'corroding public trust' by using 'selective' figures to claim they are winning the war on the streets.

That 17% fall in serious injuries and deaths over the past six months, dominated the TV news bulletins. It seemed too good to be true - and indeed it was. 

Once again this spinning government has been exposed for manipulating crime statistics to suit their own ends, pulling the wool over our eyes and peddling lies. 

Head of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Michael Scholar, attacked the figures as "irregular" and "premature" and said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) had tried to block their release.

Ministers were quick to use the figures to prove they're winning the war on knife crime. But the figures covered just six months since the £2m home office campaign targeting 10 knife crime hotspots.

Many smelt a rat as these strange statistics popped up from nowhere and grabbed the headlines, all packaged up for the TV news bulletins, with smiling home secretary Jacqui Smith and prime minister Gordon Brown. 

But Sir Michael, in his letter to No 10 and the home office,  said the figures were not due for release "for some time" and that officials at the ONS  tried to stop their release.

Thursday's figures appeared to suggest there had been a sharp fall in the number of teenagers caught carrying knives and hospital admissions due to knife wounds in areas targeted by police.

Sir Michael said the figures were provisional and had not passed through the "regular process of checking and quality assurance". 

Ominously he had been told by ONS officials that officials or advisers in No 10 caused the home office to issue a press release containing the information.

"I hope you will agree that the publication of prematurely released and unchecked statistics is corrosive of public trust in official statistics and incompatible with the high standards which we are all seeking to establish."

So government ministers and Downing Street spinners sanctioned the selective and manipulative spinning of these statistics. Peddling lies is a shameful and irresponsible way to run the country. 

Read More...

Whose Parliament Is It Anyway?

MPs right to launch an immediate cross-party inquiry into the Greengate scandal is being stifled by a government trying every trick in the book to put a lid on the whole affair.

As MPs meet for the first time to fully discuss the outrage, the future of parliament is at stake. MPs should tell government ministers and their political police poodles to stuff it.

The heavy-handed anti-terrorist police raid on senior opposition spokesman, Damian Green's private commons office has made a mockery of the elected House, left democracy in tatters and the country appalled and afraid we are slipping further into a police state. The Greengage scandal exposes a government which preaches tolerance at the expense of justice, truth and freedom.

But this is showing all the signs of descending into a squalid party political squabble over the future of the speaker and the right of parliament to investigate the twist and turns of this monumental blunder and affront to civil liberties.

MPs do not hold a divine right to rule, they are elected. Their overriding job is to uphold the rights of parliament, not their Party, not the speaker, certainly not the police and not the government of the day. And that truism holds just as much for the prime minister and his home secretary as it does for a humble backbencher.

At the centre is the role of the police, the government, the commons ringmaster, Michael Martin and the right of MPs to mount an immediate cross-party inquiry.

The motion to hold back on an inquiry until the police investigation is over, tabled by leader of the House, Harriet Harman, has its own delicious irony. As a civil liberties lawyer in the 1980s, Harman herself was found in contempt of court in a landmark battle with the home office, the outcome of which is used as a legal precedent to this day (harman v home office [1983]).

Some of the government's own backbenchers are accusing ministers of trying to kick the row into touch, well aware that a police investigation could take months to complete, bringing the MP's inquiry hard up against a general election.

There are enough top legal minds at Westminster to form a committee, round up the usual suspects, subject them to forensic questioning and bring this matter to a swift conclusion. With full parliamentary privilege and no issues of national security here, that should be held in public.

But asking the key players what they knew and when they knew it, is just what the government does not want to happen. Already a likely committee of seven, stuffed with government supporters, has led the LibDems to threaten a boycott, joined this afternoon by the Tories.

The discredited speaker is toast, despite last-ditch government smokescreens. A letter from Met commissioner Bob Quick, to the home secretary Jacqui Smith, posted here, flatly contradicts the speaker's version of events. Someone is clearly telling porkies. Now the only question left to resolve is does he jump or will he be pushed into cosy retirement in the Lords.

With the top job at the Met up for grabs, the issue has become more political than ever. The convenient ongoing police inquiry, as feared by the Orange Party earlier, as this debacle unfolded, is a neat move to allow the government to hide behind that inquiry with little comment.

The opposition, with LibDem support, has been joined by outspoken voices from the Labour backbenches. But government ministers, backed by the powerful whips, hope they can rely on the huge gang of payroll MPs to steamroll through their wishes.

The New Year bring a whole different ball game, as Brown sets off on his 'meet the people' tour of the country as part of his election campaign. By then Greengate will take a back seat, as party politics and electioneering move into top gear.

Parliament reflects the will of the people through its elected members. It is for parliament to decide when and how to hold an inquiry, what to do about their discredited speaker and how to stop the police from descending further into a mere political tool of government.

That is not something to be decided and engineered for political advantage on the whim of a government of the day nor by party political bickering or misplaced tribal loyalties.

Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop, jokingly described the Greengate scandal as the most important challenge facing parliament since - Magna Carta. Only Hislop probably wasn't joking.

5pm UPDATE: Blair's former home secretary, Charles Clarke, intends to vote against the government over the outrageous plan to put off the commons inquiry. Clarke has told whips the vote is a "House of Commons matter" - commons code for voting against the government, according to the Westminster Mole. With a packed House, a full Tory and Lib Dem turnout and a good number of angry backbench Labour MPs, it is set to be a knife-edge vote this evening.

Read More...