Where's Gordon?

I was going to write a coruscating attack on the cowardice of Gordon Brown. It would have pointed out the way that he has evaded even giving an opinion on the early release of al-Megrahi, using the excuse that it was because it is a devolved matter. I was going to contrast this behaviour with his previous willingness to congratulate quiz shows for reaching a milestone and enquire after the heath of "talent" show contestants, all matters just as outside of his remit. What's the point though? The BBC have decided that the release of al-Megrahi is a story solely about Scottish politics and "compassion" and does not impinge on Gordon Brown or Peter Mandelson at all. The BBC's top three stories on its web site this morning are "Jackson 'had lethal drug levels'", "US names CIA abuse investigator" and "'Legal highs' set to be banned". The only mention of Gordon Brown is "Brown holds talks with Netanyahu" a story that is about a meeting that hasn't even happened yet and is presumably there to imply that Gordon Brown has more important things to do than comment on the release of a convicted mass-murderer

"UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to hold talks with Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on the future of the Middle East peace process.

During a Downing Street meeting, Mr Brown is likely to push for a halt to the expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory."

The BBC do have an analysis piece hidden away on their politics page that purports to cast some light on why Gordon Brown is not commenting but in reality just drifts away.

If you want real comment, try Richard Littlejohn; in a piece entitled "Gordon Brown's yellow streak is the width of the Yangtze river" he takes Gordon Brown to task, here's an extract:

"In their amoral universe, there is little difference between theatrically letting Jade Goody's boyfriend out of prison for his stag night and freeing a convicted terrorist involved in the murder of 270 innocent civilians.

It's all a game to these cynics. Surely, say the sophisticates, Gordon wouldn't have gone along with this simply because he thought it would damage the SNP at the next General Election. That's precisely why he would have gone along with it. Every decision he ever takes is predicated upon what it can do for him personally and how much damage it will inflict on his political opponents. And to hell with the consequences.

Despite the preening world statesman posturing, Gordon is as much of a petty, point-scoring, partisan pygmy as the puffed-up playground posers in the SNP.

His stony silence is almost eloquent, serving both to insult our intelligence and remind us of the yellow streak the width of the Yangtze which passes for his backbone."

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson are the triumvirate that schemed to get "New Labour" elected and have shown that the true New Labour project was not about fairness but power, money and control.

More Labour corruption?

I am disgusted by the latest revelations about this Labour government. You can read in today's Telegraph about how "Deborah Mattinson, the Prime Minister's favourite pollster" has a business, Opinion Leader Research (OLR), which "has won nearly £3 million worth of contracts across an astonishing array of government departments and agencies...Lucrative contracts were awarded to OLR by the Treasury and other departments overseen by Mr Brown while he was chancellor. The market research firm also received substantial contracts from the Department of Constitutional Affairs when it was led by Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, a close friend of Miss Mattinson...Just months ago, OLR was paid nearly £800,000 by the Department for Work and Pensions to organise a forum to discuss pension policy. The Department for Education and Skills paid OLR £153,000 for a similar event in February..." Read the whole article to get a flavour of how a Labour supporting pollster can do "unpaid" work for the party and coincidentally obtain millions of pounds worth of work from the same government.

Now take a read of Guido Fawkes article on this matter which links this affair to the Sith Smith Institute and explains clearly how the arrangement works.

Now take a read of the comments at Guido Fawkes's site and digest some of the anger that this sort of New Labour sleaze is creating.

Now take a look at this previous article from Guido Fawkes on the Sith Institute affair.

So what is to be done?

An anonymous contributor to Guido Fawkes says "Why isn't this a big story? Narrative, I think. It took years, nine or ten, of incompetence and corruption at the heart of the Blairite establishment to hammer into the public (or at least media) consciousness that "sleaze" wasn't just a synonym for "Tory". Gordon Brown is Mr Probity. It will take years, I fear, for the message to get through that "sleaze" isn't just a synonym for "Blair"." I have blogged about the "narrative" before, it is the Main Stream Media that control the "narrative" and that means above all, the BBC. As I have blogged before, so many times, the BBC will support Gordon Brown by all possible means. The "project" must continue and succeed, nothing must be allowed to stand in its way.