This is what politics is. The slightest error in judgement will be used by those with whom you disagree to push for your resignation no matter whether you are blind, a cunt, or as in this instance, a blind cunt.
Blair is being isolated: Prescott will be the next to go, from some gaffe or other.
The future looks Broon.
But the Tories were trying the ride high on the moral hog - the Return to Family Values as they put it. Therefore they were prime and valid targets if they did not live up to the ideals they were shoving down our throats. The current regime is not making a big thing of imposing nineteen fifties values on us.
I’m glad he’s gone because he was a dangerous thug.
Love him or hate him, you have to admit that, as a congenitally blind person, he had an amazing career. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d say up until yesterday he was the most powerful blind person alive.
And also he is doing the opposite of what most politicians do - instead of cheating on his wife then abandoning any resulting children, he was unmarried and stood by the result/s of his affair.
That said, as a politician, he was a right cunt.
[As for the Yanks who don’t get the OP, a) why isn’t this news where you are, considering this is one of the biggest political scandals in recent years of your main ally, yet so many people on this board have told me I’m lying whenever I’ve said that the US news is insular… and b) do what we do when youse bang on about your politicians with no explanation - Google!]
Incidentally, these swings and roundabouts are only ever temporary: his blindness and tough bluster play well with the electorate, so he’ll be back in Cabinet after the election, I guess.
In a rather pleasing double-whammy, the Law Lords have just ruled that his policy of indefinite detainment without trial for naughty foreigners is illegal. Good stuff.
Regarding the politics of the scandal, I actually felt the Tories were pretty restrained; while they were hot on asking for an inquiry, the demands for resignation were invariably conditional on whether he fast tracked the visa. They stayed well away from the affair itself. I think most people sympathised with him trying to get access to his son. And to be fair, I think regardless of the motives of Kimberley Quinn in outing him, if he’s fiddling the immigration system as a personal favour for a lover, then he really ought to go. It’s considerably more damning than any of Mandelson’s scandals, IMO.
I’m not sure whether they’ll continue more of his policies - he was really the prime mover behind the ID cards proposal, and was initially quite isolated in the Cabinet in his support for the idea. While the others may have been convinced to support it, I’ve not heard any other minister strongly argue for it. There’s been a lot of noise about it in the press, with even the Government’s Information Commissioner coming out solidly against them, and I’m not sure any other minister is going to be willing to stake their reputation on it. Particularly since the Tories are so keen on them.
I disagree; Prescott is pretty much immune by dint of sheer dappiness. He doesn’t have the influence to make a serious cock-up, and isn’t taken seriously enough for there to be major ramifications if he does do something daft.
As for whether this is news in the US, well it was playing on the TV at lunch (and WHY there had to be two TVs in the nice restaurant dining room where we had our corporate do is beyond me) and three of the four people in my immediate vicinity had some clue as to what it was all about. But then, four out of the five people could slag off very nicely on Berlusconi, so it might have been a Euro-centric crowd.
Isn’t this the same guy who championed the idea of charging falsely accused prisoners £3000 for each year that they wasted the government’s resources by being unnecessarily incarcerated?
Nobody is immune in politics, DB, and while Prescott is certainly rather irrelevant to public politics, this resignation and a great deal of maneuverings over the past few months is all about Brown’s pieces taking Blair’s in their grubby little chess match. I believe the endgame is in sight, and Blair is preparing Labour to almost deliberately lose the election after next (when Brown will be PM) with irreversible moves towrds Europe, allowing the Tories in for a single term in 2009 only for Labour to return in 2014 on a full United States of Europe agenda. And I, for one, will welcome our new European overlords.
Danish Radio was talking about this being one of if not the largest scandal under Blair’s rule. And that it might even hurt Labour enough to jeopardize their re-election chances come next election. Is that a fair evaluation of the case? Admittedly it seems what he did was a bit sleazy, I just can’t see it blown into such proportions as all that. In the grand scale of things who gives a shit if he fast-tracked a visa application? Or is it because he has a mistress? Are you going all American puritan on us? Also from over here it seems the Conservative Party has ceased to exist. Do they have a charismatic candidate waiting in the wings ready to dash in and resurrect it?
While I agree that no-one is completely immune, I do disagree that this particular one is about Blair and Brown. Blair’s statements of the last couple of weeks notwithstanding, I’ve never really seen Blunkett as a Blairite in any meaningful sense. It’s certainly hard to see it as a coup for Brown; Blunkett lost the support of his colleagues with the spectacularly ill-timed and ill-judged comments in that book (whose publication I suspect was rushed deliberately to cash in). The coup de grace was administered by the inquiry he himself set up, and the scandal was initiated not by any politician but by his ex-lover. I can’t see either how Brown is significantly better off, nor how he could have affected Blunkett’s resignation in any significant manner, given how comprehensive the evidence against him was in the end.
Well, maybe. I reckon by then European events will have overtaken such plans. I find it hard to visualise the vast and disparate area the EU is becoming reaching such a s(S)tate. Indeed, this is why certain EU nations are noticeably twitchy about Turkey’s accession, and the anticipated western-style liberalisation of the Ukraine. I also don’t really believe that Tony is a federalist in the style you describe, given that we’ve hardly gone marching headlong into union under him, and have steadfastly resisted things like tax harmonisation that are a major step along the way. And on that one, if little else, he and Brown are agreed.
The problem is that he used his influence to gain advantage for someone who had a personal connection to him. Standards and Privileges is a big deal in the House of Commons (unless they get away with it, which I reckon a great many do). The affair, for all its prurience, isn’t that big a deal, but it is the glue that pins the fast-tracking to the politician.
This is a guy blind from birth, born into a poor family who was told he wouldn’t amount to much. His drive and doggidness (pun intended) to rise through the ranks + his own constituents comments (they love him) prove he is a remarkable man.
That said, he was a right cunt. Draconian was used above and I can’t think of a better word for him. I said a while back (not here, down the pub) he should resign, not because of an affair just because he’s a crap HS.
Here’s a little snippet from the Times today:
Blunkett (from his new biography) on Charles Clarke and his education team:
“They’ve taken the foot off the accelerator. they’ve gone soft.”
Clarke on Blunkett yesterday:
“David has been an absolutely outstanding Home Secretary and I will have a very hard time in following David.”
Blunkett on Jack Straw (Foriegn office) and his predecessors management of the Home Office:
“Abysmal.”
Straw on Blunkett yesterday:
“I am a real admirer of the work he has done in the Home Office and I will greatly miss him at the Cabinet table.Its a real tragedy for him and a serious loss for the Government and the British people.”
Now I wonder what they really think. Bloody politicians.
As for British political meltdown, I hope I emigrate in the next few years. NZ is supposed to be lovely.
Wild exaggeration and it’s seems more like a member of his department took it upon themself to help out the boss. As scandals go this is small, small beer, I’m still going with Iraq as the big scandal.
Mostly, nobody cares about the affair. They question his judgement of applying for custody of the children when Mr Quinn wishes to raise them as his own, and of timing it so that Mrs Quinn is in hospital due to complications with her pregnancy, but they’re not really bothered by the infidelity itself. At least he was honest, unlike Boris Johnson, who was sacked because he lied, not because he had an affair.
Blunkett is a bad, bad man and I’m glad he’s been sacked. Just because you’re Home Secretary doesn’t mean your mistress should get free travel and her nanny should get a visa.
He’s gone because of several things coming together at the same time. Most importantly IMO is the loss of support of his own party due to statements he’s made about other high ranking Labour members.
The papers weren’t going to let him off the hook anytime soon. The Labour Party are just going to start an election campaign. He had to go so that Blair could try to get the press and the party focused on that.
It hurts Blair coz he was so supportive of Blunkett. Another example of questionable judgment on behalf of the PM.
I don’t really view it like that, and in fact I applaud him for trying to get visitation rights (not custody) of his own children. So what if someone else wants to raise them as his own? I know I’d want to see them if they were mine, and I think that in this instance he’s doing exactly as he ought. I also think Mrs. Quinn entered hospital significantly after he initiated proceedings to get access, so that’s just a coincidence (a cynic might almost suggest that Mrs. Quinn finds it rather convenient to be in hospital right now). Disregarding my utter contempt for him as a politician, I think the only things he did wrong in this case were the abuses of his position. He deserves to go for those alone, but I do think he’s found himself in this position as a result of trying to do the right thing with respect to the children. Which is why I almost felt sorry for him.
Happy Happy! Joy joy! Thank God he’s gone - a symbol of this vile Borgia level government.
Cunts voted for 'em and the cunts get the government they deserve: The worst home secretary since Lord John Russell (although they named a nice pub after him), in the worst government since the rump parliament, led by the worst PM since the Marquis of Bute.
Not that Gordon Brown (texture like sun) will be any better - I know he’s only half blind (what is it with these trot cockmongers and their eyes?) , but he’s all cunt.
I think Mandleson could be next - he’s up to his neck in this Equitorial Guineau boondoggle - he’s WAY too close to Eli Calil (who has conveniently vanished), and has a lot of questions to answer.
I would rather be governed by ants. Hail ANTS!
I was wondering when you would crawl into this thread Owl and spew your usual diatribe about this government. When you talk about “worst government” you seem to have conveniently forgotten all the sleezy goings on in the last Tory governments.
As one of the “cunts” who voted the Tories out for all their double dealing, brown paper bagging et al I would like to hope that we have seen the last of Howard and his slimeballs for a while.
However, having said that I’m also pleased to see Blunkett out. A man who seemed to be even more to the right of Tebbit (another Tory dodgy dealer and all round nasty piece of work). I hope his replacement, Clarke will have second thoughts about the bottomless pit of expenditure that ID cards will be, while not being in the slightest effective against Terrorism/Asylum Seekers/ Benefit fraud/ Or whatever Blunkett decided was the latest threat to the UK. I’m not holding my breath though, Clarke will probably try to carry it through.
Well if I keep saying it, maybe it will penetrate the thick skulls of the two bob wankers who keep voting for the scum. Doesn’t seem to be working though.
Yes there were a few wrong 'uns in the 17 years that the tories were in power, not to mention a few out-and-out crooks, however this lot really ARE worse. For reasons best known to themselves the press aren’t going after them as hard as they went after the Major government, but the stories are out there alright.
Here’s some of the stuff that seems not to get out:
Derry Irvine is a nasty drunk who is drinking himself to death. He also gets viscious when drunk and no one will work with him. He has also been puled up drunk driving several times and has waved his silver badge at the police.
Mandleson is a thoroughgoing crook. He takes bribes and “gifts in kind” eg living rent free in Holland Park in the house of a well known gun runner. He’s up to his neck in the Equitorial Guineau coup.
Jack Straw should be better known as Jack Draw - not really the behaviour that one expects from a Home secretary in the war on drugs now is it?
Blair - Carole Caplin. Nuff said.
Katy Blair - there is actually an injunction out about this (and it’s all rather sad), but this sort of thing would have been carried if it were a tories adult kid, see mark thatcher. Blair really did come close to packing it all in over this.
Brown - has an “interesting” past.
Blunkett - Kimberly Quinn isn’t the only one.
Charles Clark - alkie (on the wagon now)
Stephen Twigg - cottager
and so on, believe me there’s more (I have explained how I come to hear this stuff before, but I wil reeiterate if necessary).
Now you may say that some of this is irrelevant - and in the case of Twigg, Clark, Brown and Katie Blair I’d agree with you, and some of the others are borderline. However what is also true is that these are very much the sort of stories that used to get out (usually spread by Alistair Campbell) as tory “sleaze.”
So this governement is not actually being compared on a like for like basis with the last one.
They really are wrong 'uns. History will not be kind.
You really are a sad sack of shit. Nothing this govt has done domestically can compare to the vicious (‘viscous’ you’ll find one day is a different word) actions of Thatcher and Major and the misery they visited on this country and the destruction they wreaked on the economy. Either you are too young to remember or you are a gibbering idiot with no sense of proportion.
And along with your list of unproven allegations and slurs I can add from personal knowledge via an involved professional a Tory Cabinet Minister under Thatcher who was/is a known paedophile.