Carole Cadwalladr on Jacqui Smith

Jacqui Smith is not faring well today is she. I have already commented on Simon Heffer in The Telegraph and his views on Jacqui Smith, now I see that Carole Cadwalladr in The Guardian's Comment is Free is little kinder:

"So there it is. Greed is good. And on the same day, that Gordon Brown appeared before an audience of economists like a dark avenging angel and said that he would be "sweeping away" the bankers' bonuses, his spokesman told reporters: "Jacqui Smith has made her statement on that and that's it as far as the prime minister is concerned."

In fact, the tale of Smith has more than one parallel with the banking crisis. She "fully abided" by the rules. Just as the banks did nothing legally wrong. The problem is that it's obvious to anyone, to everyone, that is, apart from Gordon Brown, that the rules are wrong."

If you want a flavour of Labour anger then take a read of the comments that follow the CIF piece, here's a few:

"Resign. Now. This is absolutely and unforgivably scandalous."


"GUARDIAN, seriously, why isn't this on the front page?"


"Jacqui Smith is actually so reminiscent of the Napolean from Animal Farm I am finding it all quite disturbing

The cowardly pig who encourages the other animals to fight and die for the good of the farm.

Controlling, greedy, deceitful hypocrite : Jacqui Smith."



"Jacqui Smith is just another not-terribly-bright politician who's in it for herself.

I'm sure she doesn't see herself as corrupt but she certainly makes sure she gets her snout as far into the trough as possible. I truly wonder if she has any understanding that to the general public it seems venal and corrupt. She's spending nearly five times the median wage on benefits for a second home. How else can it look but corrupt?"



"The other key point that the Guardian & BBC etc are not mentioning is that, on becoming Home Secretary, one of the top Cabinet posts & the key national security position, she turned down the use of a grace & favour apartment in Whitehall with existing police guard, as this would have meant that she would lose her £24k pa second home allowance. So instead, she carries on living in her unsecure Peckham house share which now needs 24 hour police protection, costing c. £200k pa. Not a bad deal for the taxpayer, is it ? And why was the Mail on Sunday front page with this on not shown during the press review on Andrew Marr's show on the BBC ?"



"If they want to monitor our calls, emails and messages, then we ought to have the right to see what they are spending our money on."

The public are getting angrier by the day. When will Gordon Brown and Michael Martin realise that the game is up; it's our money your getting in "expenses" so you and your associates can bloody well account for it like any other taxpayer. Your are public servants not our masters, behave appropriately.

BBC on Islamism

Andrew Marr's Start the Week covers some interesting territory this morning - the first three might be of most interest:

"The novelist MARTIN AMIS has been the focus of much controversy over his journalism in the aftermath of 9/11. He is not, he declares, Islamophobic, but is instead "Islamismophobic" or anti-Islamist. He explains his views and argues that Western liberals have given in to ‘moral equivalence’ on the issue of terrorism. The Second Plane: September 11: 2001-2007, a collection of essays and short stories, is published by Jonathan Cape.

In the year that marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the lawyer, campaigner and UN Special Rapporteur, ASMA JAHANGIR, warns of the attacks on these rights by nations using the pretext of the 'war against terror.' Recently released from house arrest in Pakistan, she argues that targeting Muslims in anti-terrorism measures is counter-productive and that intolerance cannot be wiped out by intolerant behaviour by governments. Asma Jahangir will be giving an Oxford Amnesty Lecture on Wednesday 30 January and a talk on the subject of human rights at the University of York on Thursday 31 January.

While Europe was stagnating in the Dark Ages, Arabic science experienced a remarkable golden age, particularly during the reign of the Abbasids of Baghdad between the 8th and 11th centuries AD. Physicist JIM AL-KHALILI tells the story of Baghdad’s ‘House of Wisdom’ and the scientific geniuses the academy spawned, who took the philosophy and science of the ancient Greeks and turned it into modern scientific method 800 years before the dawn of the European Renaissance. Professor Jim Al-Khalili is delivering the Michael Faraday Prize Lecture on The House of Wisdom and the Legacy of Arabic Science at the Royal Society on Wednesday 30 January.

400 years after he was born, John Milton would be horrified that we still have a monarchy and a government with arbitrary powers to declare war. Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, QUENTIN SKINNER, re-examines Milton’s theories of human freedom that mark his lesser known republican prose as well as his major poetry. Quentin Skinner is delivering a lecture, John Milton as a Theorist of Liberty, at Christ’s College, Cambridge on Wednesday 30 January. It is part of a series of lectures at Christ’s to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Milton on 9 December 1608."