Hilary and Hillary, the BBC are ready to campaign for both

Even the BBC realise that Jeremy Corbyn has been promoted above his level of competence, is he indeed the Peter Principle personified? So they are pushing the credentials of Hilary Benn as a possible replacement. Of course the Benn name has always been dear to the hearts of the pro left Labour BBC and as they couldn't get Tony they'll make do with his son,  Benn Jnr. 

That Hilary is no more than adequate is of no importance, but then when your political allies are currently being lead by such as Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell I suppose adequate seems more than... well adequate.

The BBC boosting of Hilary Benn can be seen here.  The BBC's boosting of Hillary Clinton is all over the place.

The judgement of Ed Miliband

‘I loaded the bullets in, aimed, fired and shot down that Zionist’

The words of Ed Miliband's staff member Joseph 'Seph' Brown. The story is that in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, 'Seph' uttered the words ‘I loaded the bullets in, aimed, fired and shot down that Zionist’ while pretending to wield a machine gun during a protest. Apparently Jewish students were somewhat baffled at the sight of the LSE’s Anti-Racism Officer going all Rambo, felt intimidated and complained. Ed 'less Jewish than David'* Miliband's team are reported to have decided this was merely ‘silly behaviour’ and are keeping ‘Seph’ on the campaign in a ‘Web Ed’ capacity.

One of Ed Miliband's other advisers recently described Ed (off the record, of course) as being ‘less Jewish’ than his big brother.

I have never liked Ed Miliband, he always struck me as arrogant and smug, this makes me like him even less.

Don't forget that it was Ed Miliband who was reported in Hansard to have said "The hon. Gentleman knows that we have published our own home energy efficiency plan for 700 million households to be insulated by 2020" - 700 million households by 2020, what were Labour's real plans for immigration!

It was Ed Miliband who the BBC reported pre the 2009 Labour conference said Mr Brown was "the right leader".

It was Ed Miliband who in September 2009 told Andrew Marr that "There's no danger of power cuts in the next decade."

It was Ed Miliband who pushed the Climate Change Act through Parliament this landing the UK with a £1 trillion bill to no useful purpose.

And here is Ed Miliband in all his smug glory in 2008 managing to be even more shifty than David Miliband... and who quite clearly had not read the Lisbon Treaty

Hilary Benn contradicts Gordon Brown

On the BBC's Any Questions last night, the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, admitted that his own Department was facing future cuts and would have to prioritise where it spent money.

Any comments Gordon?

Maybe more to the point where is the headline news coverage of this on the BBC? If a Conservative minister says something slightly at odds with the shadow cabinet's stated view then the BBC swing into action explaining why this is indicative of a split party.

The Cabinet and their pasts

I have been increasingly irritated over the years by the way that any dalliance with the "extreme right" in a Conservative politician's youth is regularly brought up by the BBC and other media whereas the "extreme left" past of Labour MPs is ignored. Today I decided I had had enough and thought I would track down the Marxist pasts of the Labour Cabinet. In fact what I found was that the current Cabinet splits into six groups - the ex-Marxists, the never done nothing except politics, the ex-media types, the ex-lawyers, the ex-third sector and those who have had a real job before entering politics. So before the pen portraits here is the breakdown:


ex-Marxist or extreme-Socialist backgrounds:
Peter Mandelson
Alistair Darling
Jack Straw
Alan Johnson


Only ever been in politics or related:
David Miliband
Alan Johnson
Hilary Benn
John Denham
Ed Balls
Ed Miliband
Andy Burnham
Baroness Royall
Jim Murphy
Yvette Cooper
Peter Hain
Bob Ainsworth


Media then politics:
Gordon Brown
Peter Mandelson
Jack Straw
Shaun Woodward
Andrew Adonis
Ben Bradshaw


Lawyer then politics:
Alistair Darling
Harriet Harman
Jack Straw
Douglas Alexander


Various third sector jobs before politics:
Tessa Jowell


Jobs in the real world before:
Liam Byrne


So this Labour cabinet comprises just one person who has had a real job in the productive sector, just one. It does however have four lawyers, six ex-media and twelve who have only ever been involved in politics or related areas. There is a degree of double-counting in this list as Jack Straw appears multiple times; I never realised that Jack Straw was in fact a Renaissance Man!


Returning to my original point, the current Labour cabinet has four senior members whose background includes well documented dalliances with the extreme left of British politics; namely Peter Mandelson, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Alan Johnson. I have yet to hear the extremist backgrounds of any of these four individuals mentioned by the BBC. It is odd that Peter Mandelson's former membership of the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain is never mentioned, whilst David Cameron and George Osborne's membership of the less relevant socially exclusive student dining club at Oxford University, The Bullingdon Club, is frequently brought up. It is odd that the current Chancellor of the Exchequer's former support for the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International is never mentioned despite the group, at the time Alistair Darling was a supporter, having completely rejected parliamentary politics and being found to have made "vicious, violent and unprovoked attack on the Police". Surely it is interesting that the man, allegedly, in charge of the UK economy was formerly a Trotskite, a member of an organisation which wanted to destroy that economy. I will leave you to draw up your own comparisons for Jack Straw and Alan Johnson, the men who now head the UK's government departments responsible for law and order & justice.



In the pen portraits, all quotes are taken from their respective heavily edited Wikipedia pages:

Gordon Brown - PhD, dull TV journalist, Labour politician.

Harriet Harman - "Legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties and as such was found in contempt of court by Sir Hugh Park in the important civil liberties case Home Office v. Harman 1983 1 A.C. 280, 308 (the conviction for contempt being upheld on appeal), before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982." She's the niece of an Earl.

Peter Mandelson - "in 1971 left the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) to join the Young Communist League, then the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain. This move was partly a result of disagreements with the Trotskyist Militant tendency that had just won a majority in the LPYS nationally.... director of the British Youth Council in the late 1970s. As BYC director, he was a delegate in 1978 to the Soviet-organised World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, with Arthur Scargill and several future Labour cabinet colleagues. He was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in September 1979, but retired in 1982, disillusioned with the state of Labour politics. He worked as a television producer at London Weekend Television on Weekend World, forming an enduring friendship with John Birt, then LWT's Director of Programmes, before being appointed as the Labour Party's Director of Communications in 1985...."


Alistair Darling - "Before joining the Labour Party at the age of 23 in 1977, Darling was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International... He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984. He was elected as a councillor to the Lothian Regional Council in 1982 where he supported large rates rises in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's rate-capping laws and even threatened not to set a rate at all. He served on the council until he was elected to Parliament. He was also a board member for the Lothian and Borders Police and became a governor of Napier College in 1985 for two years."

David Miliband - "Politics at universities both in England and the US, and started his career as a policy analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy whilst the Labour Party was then in opposition and was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, following which Miliband was elected to parliament for the north-east England seat of South Shields."

Jack Straw - "Straw was elected chair of the Leeds University Labour Society at the 1966 Annual General Meeting, when the Society changed its name to Leeds University Socialist Society and withdrew its support from the Labour Party... He qualified as a barrister at Inns of Court School of Law and practised criminal law. From 1971 to 1974 Jack Straw was a member of the Inner London Education Authority and Deputy Leader from 1973 to 1974. ... He served as political adviser to Barbara Castle at the Department of Social Security from 1974 to 1976 and then to Peter Shore at the Department for the Environment to 1977. He then worked as a researcher for the Granada TV current affairs series, World in Action." Then became an MP.

Alan Johnson - "Johnson joined the Union of Communication Workers, becoming a branch official. He joined the Labour Party in 1971, although he considered himself a Marxist ideologically aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain... A full-time union official from 1987, he became General Secretary of the newly-formed Communication Workers Union in 1993 following a series of union mergers. Before entering Parliament Johnson was a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. During this time he was the only major union leader to support the abolition of Clause IV. Just three weeks before the 1997 general election, Johnson was selected to stand for Parliament in the safe Labour seat of Hull West and Hessle when the previous incumbent, Stuart Randall, stood down suddenly. Randall was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords."

Hilary Benn - "became a Research Officer with the ASTMS and rose to become Head of Policy for Manufacturing Science and Finance. In 1979 he was elected to the Ealing Borough Council where he was Deputy Leader from 1986 to 1990. He was the Labour candidate for Ealing North in both the 1983 General Election and 1987 General Election. On both occasions he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Harry Greenway. When Labour won power in 1997, Benn was appointed Special Adviser to David Blunkett as Secretary of State for Education and Employment. In 1999 he was quickly selected as the Labour candidate for the Leeds Central by-election following the death of Derek Fatchett."

Douglas Alexander - Perpetual student in Scotland and US. "Whilst studying in America, he worked for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 American Presidential Election campaign, he also worked for a Democratic senator in Washington, D.C.. In 1990 he worked as a speech-writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Gordon Brown. He returned to Edinburgh to study for an LL.B. at Edinburgh University, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with Distinction in 1993. He then qualified as a solicitor. On qualifying as a solicitor he worked for a firm of solicitors in Edinburgh." Then became an MP.

John Denham - "After leaving education in 1977 he became an advice worker at the Energy Advice Agency in Durham, before becoming a transport campaigner with Friends of the Earth in 1978. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983, and was responsible for public education and advocacy for War on Want from 1984 to 1988. He subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies until his election to Westminster."

Ed Balls - Political geek - "He joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 but while at Oxford joined all the main political societies, including the Conservative Association, so that he could "hear all the speeches at all the political clubs"."

Ed Miliband - "a Labour party researcher and rose to become one of then Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidantes and chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers. Miliband was elected Labour Member of Parliament for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North in the 2005 general election. "

Andrew Burnham - "researcher to Tessa Jowell MP from 1994 until after the 1997 General Election. He joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1995. After the 1997 election he was briefly a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation from August until December 1997, before taking up the post as an administrator with the Football Task Force for a year. In 1998, he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, where he remained until his election to parliament."

Shaun Woodward - "From 1982–90, he worked as a researcher and producer for BBC TV News and Current Affairs on the programmes That's Life!, Panorama and Newsnight...From 1991–2, he was Director of Communications for the Conservative Party." Conservative then Labour MP.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon - "special adviser to Neil Kinnock, the Leader of the Labour Party, in the 1980s, and she has remained a close ally of his ever since. She sought selection as Labour's candidate for Ogmore in a 2002 by-election. However, the constituency party preferred to choose Huw Irranca-Davies as their candidate. When in 2003 she became head of the European Union's office in Wales there were calls for her to stand down because of her Labour connections."

Tessa Jowell - social worker, charity worker, politician - miraculously protected against too much criticism over her husband's financial affairs, due to her saying she left the mortgage paperwork up to Mr Mills

Jim Murphy - "President of the National Union of Students Scotland, after attending the University of Strathclyde. He was then elected in 1994 as President of the UK NUS, serving until 1996. Under his leadership in 1995, the NUS dropped its opposition to the abolition of the student grant in line with the Labour Party's policies. Subsequently Murphy was condemned by a House of Commons Early Day Motion signed by 17 Labour MPs for 'intolerant and dictatorial behaviour' shortly before being elected to Parliament"

Yvette Cooper - economics researcher, domestic policy specialist, policy advisor, research associate, economic correspondent with The Independent, Labour MP

Liam Byrne - Communications Officer of the University of Manchester Union, founder of the computer company e-Government Solutions Ltd, a provider of e-commerce solutions to government, and is an associate research fellow at the Social Market Foundation. Before working in Parliament, he worked for the multi-national consulting firm, Accenture and merchant bankers, N M Rothschild & Sons, before co-founding a venture backed technology company, eGS Group, in 2000. Between 1996 and 1997 he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of Millbank, and helped lead Labour’s business campaign.

Peter Hain - "In 1972, a private prosecution brought by Francis Bennion in regard to his leadership of the illegal direct-action interference with the tours resulted in a ten day Old Bailey trial with the jury failing to agree on three charges and hence he was acquitted on those charges, but Peter Hain was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and fined £200. He appealed against the conviction in 1973. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal with costs. As reported in the Daily Telegraph of 23 October 1973, the court said his conviction was "fully justified". Lord Justice Roskill said Hain had not elected to give evidence, adding that "He gave no explanation of his part over the incidents with which he was charged." In 1976 Hain was tried for, and acquitted of, a 1974 bank robbery, allegedly having been framed by the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS). Two schoolboys positively identified him. A deliberate "double" may have taken part in the robbery. Despite modern DNA techniques and mass fingerprinting now being available no further investigation of this unsolved case is known to have taken place. He joined the Liberal Party and was elected president of the Young Liberals, but in 1977 switched to Labour. The same year, he was a founder of the Anti-Nazi League and he remains a prominent supporter of Unite Against Fascism today."

Bob Ainsworth - "He first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry, where he worked from 1971, and served in many capacities within the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union there, including four years as the Branch President. During 1982 and 1983, he was a candidate member of the International Marxist Group, but he was never a full member of that organisation. In 1984, he was elected to the Coventry City Council, and was its deputy leader from 1989–1992."

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis - "From 1991 to 1996 he was a public policy correspondent, industry correspondent and public policy editor at the Financial Times. In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist and editor. From 1987 until 1991 Adonis was an Oxford city councillor for the Liberal Democrats. In 1994, he was selected by Westbury Constituency Liberal Democrats as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, but resigned after about 18 months, without having fought an election. The next year, he joined the Labour Party. During the mid to late 1990s, he was politically active in Islington North... he was selected to contest St George's Ward, Islington Council for Labour in 1998, but withdrew from the process when the education and constitution policy advisor post previously referred to was offered. On 16 May 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Adonis, of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, elevation to membership of the House of Lords making possible his appointment as a government minister without having been elected to Parliament."

Ben Bradshaw - Journalist then Labour MP

MPs expenses

I have deliberately not commented on every twist and turn of the MPs expenses scandal as I don't have the time and I would have run out of bile some time ago but the news today that nine Labour Cabinet Ministers have claimed for accountancy advice on their expenses is worthy of comment. Leaving aside the specifics for the moment, it seems to me that many MPS saw their salary as "theirs" and all "expenses" as reclaimable. In the real world a person is paid a salary and has to live on that salary, spending taxed income on travelling to and from work, on housing costs, on utility bills, on food and cleaning etc. etc. etc. In the world of many MPs it seems that everything was claimable and that was just plain wrong.

On this specific case, it seems that nine Labour Ministers claimed for accountancy advice on preparing their tax returns. This really hits home when you read that as well as Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears, David Miliband, James Purnell, Douglas Alexander, Geoff Hoon and Hilary Benn and one unnamed Minister the same claim was put forward by Alistair Darling (the pretend Chancellor). When the front-man/fall-guy for Gordon Brown's economic failures is "allowed" to claim for taxation advice then you know the people using the expenses system have no shame. Gordon Brown and his minions have spent 12 years making the UK tax system more and more complicated, compliance more onerous and the penalties for making a mistake more and more serious and yet the people who enthusiastically called Gordon Brown an economic genius were able to claim as expenses for the tax advice they received.

Many MPs seem to have no shame but when you have a Cabinet that seems united only by greed and the fear of the electorate's response, what hope is there of an election to cleanse Parliament?

"With respect"

Take a trip here and listen to Hilary Ben just about keep his cool as he is interviewed rather well by a student about Guanatnamo Bay and the British government's attitude to torture. I think Hillary Benn would prefer to be interviewed by the more respectful and less persistent BBC interviewers.

Yes Gordon, that will sort it...

Gorodn Brown is reported to be planning a 1 September Cabinet reshuffle, so he can hit Number 10 running when he returns from his holiday and the Beijing Olympics. Apparently Gordon Brown thinks that his fortunes will be turned around by injecting fresh, young talent such as Jim Murphy, the Europe Minister, and Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister into Cabinet positions - I can feel the buzz on the streets already, can't you? This buzz is no doubt being helped by rumours that Gordon Brown might move out of the Cabinet such incredibly high profile figures as Des Browne, the part-time Defence Secretary, Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, and even Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary. I am feeling re-energised, are you? The icing on the cake is that Gordon Brown may be contemplating moving Alistair Darling to the Foreign Office in a job swap with David Miliband - rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic is a phrase that comes to mind.

Poor Gordon, being Prime Minister must have seemed such a wonderful proposition. If he wasn't such an awful fraud I'd almost feel sorry for him.

Which is the least trustworthy?

David Miliband or Ed Miliband, tough choice isn't it? You can also "enjoy" the equally viable Hilary Benn.

I know I have posted this video before but since David Miliband is accused of wanting to be our Prime Minister, I think it only right that the public see him in all his glory.

"An extremely large, extremely powerful idiot"

There is a letter in Tuesday's Independent newspaper that I think bears repeating. It's in reply to a comment piece by Howard Jacobson supporting the 42 days detention without trial and questioning why people fear "the State". Here's the letter in full:

"Sir: I don't fear the State, Mr Jacobson (Comment, 14 June). I don't suspect it of base motives. I just don't think it's very bright, and nobody enjoys having a fool for a boss. Consider, for a moment, being required to work with an editor who, flying in the teeth of all available evidence, considers himself best placed to tell you how to write your books.

The State feels the need to get involved in all aspects of my life, without ever showing any particular aptitude for the job. It wants to educate my children, but can't quite decide from one week to the next on the best way to do so. It wants to keep me safe, but approaches the analysis of comparative risk with the mind of a four-year-old child; happy to play hopscotch on the M25, but terrified of dragons.

It wants everyone to behave themselves, but believes the best way for that to happen is for it to stand peering in through my kitchen window in case I do something wrong. It wants to collect as much information as it can but, like a bank that opens a branch before installing the safe, can't quite figure out what to do with it, or where to put it. It wants to go to war on our behalf, but can't bring itself to explain the real reason why.

It is surrounded by battalions of advisers, but listens only to the bad ones. It desperately wants to make things better for everyone, but is constantly distracted by its perceived directive to help rich people to get richer.

There is an overwhelming case for the State to finally decide on its core competencies, wherever they may be, and to be swiftly kicked when it steps beyond them.

What appears to have happened is that, in a moment of nervousness, lacking the comfort of any convincing Higher Power, we have decided to make our own, and in a ham-fisted attempt to do so, we've taken the brightest and best, the finest intellects of our age, put them in a room together and created an extremely large, extremely powerful idiot.

Tim Hinchliffe

Beckenham, Kent"

A good letter that makes some serious points but I must take exception with one part of the letter:

"we've taken the brightest and best, the finest intellects of our age, put them in a room together and created an extremely large, extremely powerful idiot.

"brightest and best"? In no particular order I give you for your consideration - Geoff Hoon, Des Browne, Yvette Cooper, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband, Harriett Harman, Hilary Ben, David Miliband, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown. Brightest and best, really? Has the UK sunk that low?


Thanks to Mr Eugenides for the spot.

"It'll come back to haunt you"

Remember this electoral campaign?


Harriet Harman - Hilary Clinton, usual women's solidarity reasons

Hilary Benn - Waffle, waffle, waffle - sounding worryingly like his dad

Alan Johnson - Republican candidates look pretty gruesome, would prefer Al Gore

Peter Hain - Hilary Clinton but would prefer a Democrat to a Republican - Doesn't his face colour clash with the purple background

Hazel Blears - Ignored the question and waffled

Jon Cruddas - Barack Obama



If Barack Obama does get the nomination, how will Harriet Harman react? She will probably claim she always wanted him to win.

One rule for us, one rule for them

I have blogged before about the current attitude amongst Labour Ministers that the laws they bring in to make our lives just that little bit less pleasant do not apply to them.

Last week I read that the Hilary Benn's family home seemed to have escaped the coastal path that had encroached upon all other houses on the coast in the vicinity. Today I read in the Telegraph that the Conservatives are to raise questions in the Commons as to why the sea wall outside this same house was repaired last autumn, whilst Hilary Benn's department was proposing to abandon a nearby historic harbour to the sea.

Why won't people realise that Tony & Hilary Benn were/are Labour politicians and we owe them a lifetime of gratitude and care for what they have done for us.