The Quiet Death of Accountability
May 18, 2007
If you thought your government wasn’t accountable enough, then there is reason for celebration — from now on, it won’t be accountable at all. I am not being facetious here. The trappings of democracy are being lifted one after the other; the veneer is cracking. Nothing has been more damaging to the British democracy than the quarter of a century of Blatcherism. Just when the unprincipled sycophants and careerists of Labour coronated Gordon Brown (or “the Arse”, as Steve Bell prefers to call him) and proclaimed a break with the past (it isn’t so much the Labourites who are making this claim; in fact, it is those who are still deluded enough to vote Labour and want to ease their consciences), the same pack of rats has voted today to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act. Guardian reports:
MPs today backed a controversial bid to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act – a move described by opponents as “squalid”.
The Tory private member’s freedom of information (amendment) bill secured its third reading by 96 votes to 25, a majority of 71…opponents said the real aim of the bill was to block embarrassing disclosures about MPs’ expenses and allowances and accused the government of quietly endorsing a watering down of its own legislation, first implemented in 2005.
Introduced by David Maclean…a leading opponent, condemned the proposed changes as a “squalid” measure.
“I believe it is wrong. I believe it is against the interest of parliament. I believe we are in danger of bringing ourselves into disrepute,” he warned.
And he exhorted MPs: “The House of Commons should set an example to the country of honesty and integrity, not find some squalid little way in order to get out of the law.”
So a Labour MP is quoted as opposing the motion, but these token gestures of dissent are only meant to sustain the illusion that the party still has a progressive component. It does not. At the end of the day, they all defer to the party whip. The example of the two individuals imprisoned for leaking the Bush-Blair memo is instructive. They leaked the information to an ‘anti-War’ Labour MP. And the first thing the MP did is to set his putative principles aside, give a deep thought to his career, and snitch on the whistleblowers by sending the memo straight to Fearless Leader, aka ”the Poodle”.
Most bills tabled by individual MPs fall at the first hurdle unless they has government support.
Both the government and Conservative frontbench…have given tacit support in previous votes…
Simon Hughes, the president of the Liberal Democrats, described today’s vote as a “shameful day” for the House of Commons.
“David Maclean’s bill and the way it has got through the Commons will clearly diminish respect for parliament,” he said. “But the battle will go on and hopefully the Lords will deliver us from this terrible mistake.
“I hope the public will make their views very clear to the MPs who supported the bill and to the next prime minister that this is absolutely the wrong direction for open, accountable government.”
The so-called anti-war MP who leaked the leak and so got two decent guys sent down is Tony Clarke,MP for Northampton South,with whom I had the dubious pleasure of shaking hands once in our local WMC.
In my naivete I even congratulated him on his anti-war stance.He went on to lose his seat to the Tory,one Brian Binley in 2005,who is currently rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bibi Netanyahu and denouncing Iran as the next place we should send our boys to fight.
In point of fact Clarke’s anti-war stand figured not a jot on the day of reckoning.Given New Labour was only returned with 21% of a 61% turn-out interest in the election can be said to have been somewhat cursory.
No,what did for Clarke was the revelation in the local press that he had an ICF tattoo.That’s the notorious hooligan outfit who follow West Ham.A Northampton MP not backing the Cobblers? Now that’s one sure-fire way to lose your seat.Clarke was duly booted into touch by the voters.
Clarke was also booted out of the party when he opted to stand as an independent councillor against them.Ironically he now sits on the board of Northampton FC.
Clarke was reported to have been mortified by the sentencing of his erstwhile researcher and his mate.These guys have been sent down for revealing that Bush and Yo Blair discussed bombing Al Jazeera.
Now Blair has form on the question of endorsing attacks on civilian media stations.When NATO dropped bombs on a Serbian TV station in Belgrade and managed to kill a number of make-up artists Blair defended the target as legitimate since the station (he claimed)pumped out state propaganda.
Rather like the BBC then.
Now that would make a highly legitimate target removing some of the most irritating and arrogant broadcasters on the planet would do us all a favour!
Clar
The 70+ New Labourites who voted for the exemption are listed in today’s Mail.
Incidentally,the Arse contra Steve Bell,was Lord Robertson wasn’t it.I mean that guy had a face just like an arse.Ended up working for NATO.They bullet-proofed his arse!
Anyway the Roll of Dishonour includes Sir Stuart Bell,Nick Brown,HarryCohen,theEagle horrorbags….sorry..sisters,Caroline Flint(spiv),Doug Henderson,David (Bernie Grant will be turning in his grave)Lammy,Ian McCartney(the one that sounds incoherent to us Sassanachs),Tony (had loads of ministerial jobs and fucked up all of them)McNulty,Alan (detested in Wales)Michael,Eliot(sounds and looks like a Goth)Morley,Stephen(obnoxiously arrogant,comes as no surprise he holds voters in utter contempt,Fiddler On The Roof Ron Moody look-alike,laid down his coat recently when out campaigning with the Ginger(Blears)dalek)Pound,Martin (another spiv campaigned early on for PFIs)Salter,Sion(yea, the scumbag that used to..sorry still does..write on The Grauniad)Simon,Angela(nuver gingernut)Smith,John(seasoned political fixer)Spellar.
And among Tories Anne (Doris Karloff)Widdicombe.
An unsavoury crew if ever there was one.Ponces to a man and woman.Most of them methinks are in safe seats but don’t let them get away with it!
In 1831 a Black List “Being the Annual Amount of Pickings of the Peers and their Families who Voted Against the Reform Bill” was circulated by the London Spy Office a radical reform group.
The listed parasites included Delamere,a new peer,a pot companion to George IV,several new peers in the Wellington extended family,a number of Lords of the Bedchamber and twenty-two Bishops(“the greatest of all the cormorants”).The combined income of those listed who included half the whole number of peers was estimated at £2,161,867.
One would wonder whether today,given the freedom from public scrutiny now enjoyed by our elected representatives,such a document would be compiled.Indeed given the compliance of the corporate media to the self-serving interests of powerful elites would such a document ever have seen the light of day?
In our country today we have a captive state in hock to corporate interests.The state is no longer administered by the civil service.The cormorants today enjoy far greater pickings beyond public scrutiny of any kind than the same class did in the 1830s.
Central govt.has been effectively trashed with agencies,consultancies and private firms like EDS,SERCO and Capita being presented by Gordon Brown with multi-billion pound contracts some for as long as 25 years.
Administrators for Livingstone’s Congestion Charge scam Capita,have a string of New Labour contracts under their belt including individual learning accounts,London housing benefits,CRB,and the even more dubious “govt.literacy and numeracy strategy” costing £177m without a penny of it being spent on teaching!
Under Blair Capita’s income has soared from £112m to £1.4b.With the Capita director,designated by the govt.as resident expert on out-sourcing,Ron Aldridge has become a multi-millionaire at public expense.
Sycophants and entrepreneurs have now replaced civil servants in the upper reaches of government.Bach and Lord Birt friends to New Labour now get the top jobs.Privatisation has produced a vast power shift from officials who formerly advised ministers to KPMG and Price Waterhouse et al.Fees paid by Brown to privatise the Tube ran to more than £500m without buying one train.
Those looking back at the thriving radical press of the early 19th century ready to expose corruption at elite levels and our quiescent,politically illiterate culture of today might wonder whether the sacrifices our forefathers made have been well served over the last decade of Blairite cronyism.