Nimrod crash puts No 10 on spot

This will be another problem that Gordon will have to face up to (Of course he might do a Macavity) this week. As usual with any story these days involving the Clunker it's not good news and will bring the Armed Forces sharply back into focus for this disastorous Labour Government.

As the Sunday Times says

GOVERNMENT culpability in risking servicemen’s lives will be thrust to centre stage this week by the inquiry into the causes of the RAF Nimrod explosion over Afghanistan that killed all 14 on board.

There is intense government concern over Tuesday’s RAF board of inquiry report, which is likely to raise new doubts over Gordon Brown’s support for the armed services. The aircraft, which dates from the 1960s, was flying only because its replacement was delayed until 2010 to save money and a number of warnings about the risks were ignored.

The aircraft had a history of fuel leaks in the bomb bay, caused by pressure spikes in the air-to-air refuelling system.

The inquiry believes that the catastrophic explosion, west of Kandahar, was brought about by fuel leaking into the bomb bay, where it was ignited by hot air from a fractured pipe. That led the No 7 fuel tank at the base of the starboard wing to explode.

“The lack of safety equipment is a direct result of a culture of poor risk management that is endemic among senior officers and MoD officials and is largely driven by lack of funding.”

The MoD and senior RAF officers ignored repeated warnings of fuel leaks and fires on board the aircraft.

Jimmy Jones, a former RAF engineering officer who worked on the Nimrod trials, said: “If the MoD had acted on BAE Systems’ recommendations, those 14 crew members would still be alive today.”

In November 2004 a hot air pipe in the bomb bay of a Nimrod fractured as the craft came in to land at RAF Kinloss, Morayshire, blasting hot air onto the No 7 tank. An inquiry into that incident found the hot air would have been at least 50C above the spontaneous ignition point of the Nimrod’s Avtur fuel, which had begun to boil in the tank.

Disaster was averted only because the aircraft was on its way back to base. In his report on the incident, the station commander at Kinloss warned of more “unexpected failures” due to the aircraft’s age.

XV230 was one of a small number of Nimrods used to feed crucial live video of the battlefield direct to commanders in Afghanistan.

Nimrod’s air-to-air refuelling system was fitted as a quick fix in the 1982 Falklands conflict.

In March 2006 a report by QinetiQ, the defence consultants, blamed the Nimrod’s age and the “intense” way in which the aircraft were flown for what it described as a “critical” structural problem. The warning was ignored – with fatal results.

I have blogged on this and other problems with the over 40 year old Nimrod on a number of other occasions, most recently last month, when a similar Nimrod almost had the same fate and yet still had not had safety updates fitted.

Clunker Brown keeps trying to tell us he is "Honouring the Covenant" but he never actually shows us how. Honour to him means dropping colleagues into the doo-doo and then turning his back on them in the vain hope the problem disappears.

Nimrod crash puts No 10 on spot - Times Online

Kebabgate - Blame compliance for the donations scandal

Charles Moore in the Telegraph has the attached article which points at the multitude of rules and regulations causing the the problems that have led to "Kebabgate".

He argues that

Almost all the seriously corrupt things in politics happen when politicians misappropriate the money of the taxpayer, not when they scrabble desperately around for another cheque from Root/Abrahams.

This is certainly true to an extent but also the opposite is true as once a Politician has accepted a bribe or dodgy donation they then become vulnerable to almost any type of corruption because of the hold on them. This may then lead onto the taxpayer being defrauded but the original source was the "donation".

What I do like is his conclusion when he says

"So no, it is not reassuring that Gordon Brown is the son of the manse. His instinct, so disastrously displayed this week, is to perceive a moral defect and rush to distance himself from it as far and as fast as he possibly can, leaving colleagues in the lurch and dragging in a retired bishop to help save him. The phrase "holier than thou" could have been invented for him. This is pharisaism, not virtue."

Couldn't agree more, Gordon's sanctimoniousness nature is so apparent, as is his disdain for the general public which has become more apparent in recent months as he comes under sustained pressure from all angles.

Blame compliance for the donations scandal - Telegraph

Kebabgate - Skewered Count

Labour is well on its way to being thoroughly cooked as it displays hereto unseen depths of complacency and flagrant disregard for the laws of this land which it introduced to make donations to Political Parties more ethical and transparent.

The skewered count in the ongoing Kebabgate is growing currently it stands as follows

1. Definitely well skewered is Paul Watt, the Labour General Secretary who fell on his own skewer to try and prevent further skewering of his seniors. I discussed him here. His fall from grace may be even greater once Knacker of the Yard has grilled him further.
2. Again definitely well skewered is Charlie Gordon, erstwhile former Scottish Labour Transport spokesman, He has again become sacrificial meat for the skewer after being thrown to the dogs by his masters. Again he is likely to be the subject to a severe roasting by the police.
3. Looking well done is Wendy Alexander who after helping with the skewering of her former friend Charlie Gordon is now browning nicely on the skewer as she gets nearer to a proper grilling.
4. Looking well done as well is Harriet Harman who is being skewered left, right and centre by anyone in the Labour Party, the Clunker has been fanning the flames and increasing the heat and she may shortly be well done. Donations to the Save the Harman fund required.
5. Looking well singed is Jon Mendlesohn, The Clunkers "ethical" Fundraiser and former partner in the LLM spin merchants business.

Others that are standing by quietly marinating before the grilling begins, include the Clunker himself, Matt Carter and perhaps his predecessor David Triesman, and perhaps Lord Levy himself. Others no doubt will be defrosting as we speak ready to join them in the pot.

Money, Money, Money

No not a song title, just a thought on where all the trouble is coming from in the "Donorgate" scandal that is currently destroying the pitiful remains of the Labour party to many peoples amusement.

All the big problems for the Labour Party are now coming not from the general donations to the party from David Abrahams which are about 650k, but from the donations to the Deputy Leadership campaigns and the attempted donation to the Leadership Campaign fund which total about 10k.

Now I can understand that campaigning for the deputy leadership might cost a couple of bob, but the amounts spent between all the candidates seems to have very significant. Looking at the amount donated to each candidate we see the following rough totals.

Blears 69K, Benn 31K, Cruddas 70K, Hain 77k, Harman 46k, Johnson 53K.
These do not include borrowings of Harman (10K at a rate of 14.17%!) and "late" changes such as the 5K to Hain that he forgot to report from Jon Mendelsohn. This brings in a total of 361K.

Now this seems to be an awful lot of money for a fairly simple job, a few leaflets, a web site, and a couple of nice suits, but it seems to have caused some of the candidates a lot of problems and in particular Harriet Harman.

She has struggled to raise money and even had to take out a significant loan at what looks like a penalty rate and received over 30K of the money after the election had been completed, which is perhaps why she seems to have taken the money from David Abrahams via Janet Kidd without doing some simple checks.

And do try and explain to me how Clunker Brown managed to need 196k for his Leadership Campaign fund, there was no need for this money as no-one challenged him.

I assume that all the spare money from these campaigns is added to the general Labour coffers?

P.S. Note that here in Scotland it only costs £950 to cause Leadership woes.

Follow the Money

As I said earlier follow the money and then you will find the Smoking Gun.

According to the Telegraph

"Gordon Brown has ordered an investigation into the finances of the property developer who gave Labour illegal donations of more than £670,000."

"Fears are growing within the party that David Abrahams, who hid his identity by using four intermediaries, may himself have been a conduit for another mystery benefactor, after senior Labour figures questioned his personal wealth."

According to the usual rule of thumb a donor of over £500K is likely to have a fortune of over £50million.

The Telegraph continues

Mr Abrahams is described by friends as a “secretive” person who spends little money on himself but likes to rub shoulders with the great and the good at political and charity events. Last year he was pictured shaking hands with the then Israeli ambassador, Zvi Heifetz, who was questioned then cleared over money-laundering allegations. Mr Heifetz was recently appointed as an adviser to Mr Blair in his role as Middle East peace envoy. Yesterday, a Downing Street source said Labour “had not seen any evidence” to suggest the money was not Mr Abrahams’s. He added: “It would be very serious if it were the case. No one is aware of any such arrangement. It will be part of the inquiry.”

It just keeps getting murkier.

Independent thoughts on Gordon

The Independent has gone to Town on Gordon as follows.

Government in Crisis (I): Victory to the traffickers

Government in Crisis (II): PM and Darling hit by triple whammy

Government in Crisis (III): Defence Secretary’s £1bn plea rebuffed

Laugh at Gordon Time

Apparently The Clunker is giving away copies of his book "Courage" to kids in Uganda. Apparently all the press are laughing at him.

What can we say about this tragicomic figure. Please, Please think what you are doing to this country.

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Bottler Gives Remaindered "Courage" Book to African Kids

Old Buffers forced into Active Service

The BBC (other internet news sites are available) reports that Five former defence chiefs spoke during a Lords debate, during which there were calls to improve levels of military funding.

The most revealing statement was the fact that

"Gordon Brown was a most unsympathetic chancellor of the exchequer as far as defence was concerned - and the only senior Cabinet minister who avoided coming to the Ministry of Defence to be briefed by our staff on our problems."

So the man in control of the purse strings didn't care enough for the people who are risking their lives for him and his corrupt Government to even come and see the people running the Armed Services. The man is a complete disgrace. We can only hope he is beginning to see the writing on the wall and resigns in the near future.

Lord Boyce didn't hold back in his criticism

"The smoke and mirrors work of the government and, in particular the Treasury, actually means the core defence programme has had no effective budget rise at all.
If we were actually to cut to the truth, we would find it was actually negative - especially if one subtracts the £550 million to be spent on the slum accommodation that should have been replaced years ago.
And this negative budget is why, if you go to the MoD today, you will find blood on the floor as the defence programme is slashed."

Admiral Lord Boyce added that the decision to give one person - Des Browne - the jobs of both defence and Scottish secretary was an

"insult"

at a time of war and followed up with

"It is seen as an insult by our sailors, our soldiers and our airmen on the front line. And I know because I have reason to speak to them a lot. And it is certainly a demonstration of the disinterest and some might say contempt that the prime minister and his government has for our armed forces. And it shows an appalling lack of judgement at a time when our people are being killed and they are being maimed."

Another former defence chief, General Lord Guthrie, said Mr Brown had been

"unsympathetic"

to the military, following up Lord Guthrie said:

"In my experience... he [Gordon Brown] was a most unsympathetic chancellor of the exchequer as far as defence was concerned - and the only senior Cabinet minister who avoided coming to the Ministry of Defence to be briefed by our staff on our problems. And I think really that he must take much of the blame for the very serious situation we find the services in today.""

As I have been saying this Government and especially Gordon Brown have nothing but contempt for our Armed Forces yet expect them to fight and die for this country. This is the Labour Government's biggest disgrace and makes the loss of personal data by HMCR look like a petty mistake.

P.S. This post was inspired by a "Champagne" Socialist Roger of Political Betting who had this to say on the "Old Buffers"

I was encouraged by seeing those three buffers (who used to run the armed forces) in the House of Lords criticizing Brown personally for not giving them enough money. It reminded me what I dislike about the establishment in this country and I was left asking myself how these three could run a cake shop let alone the armed forces.

My reply to him is here


BBC NEWS | Politics | Brown 'shows contempt for forces'

Two die in Iraq Puma helicopter crash

The BBC reports today on the death of two more members of the Armed Forces in Iraq.

We also hear of further stories about the suitability of the equipment being used in Iraq and the age of the equipment. According to the BBC

The US military issued a statement on Tuesday saying two people had been killed and 12 injured when a coalition helicopter crashed near Salman Pak, on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital.

But a spokesman for the UK defence ministry said he could not confirm whether this was the same incident but the details did appear to match.

Defence chiefs said their thoughts were "with the families" of all involved.

The deaths on Tuesday take the total number of UK troops killed in operations in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to 173.

Puma Helicopters have been involved in a number of incidents in service

December 1979: Two RAF pilots and one crewman killed in Mtoko, Zimbabwe, after their Puma hit phone wires.

August 1991:Two killed when a British military Puma crashed in southern France.

November 1992 - Four killed when a Puma and a Gazelle helicopter collided in Northern Ireland.

February 1997 - RAF Puma pilot died after his helicopter crashed near the Bavarian village of Urspring during a training exercise.

April 2001: Two RAF pilots killed when a Puma crashed near Kosovo's border with Macedonia.

March 2002: Seven hurt after an RAF Puma made a forced landing in south Armagh, Northern Ireland.

July 2004: RAF co-pilot killed when a Puma crashed as it came in to land in Basra, southern Iraq.

April 2007: Two British servicemen killed in a collision between two Pumas near Baghdad.

And then in August 2007 3 servicemen killed near Catterick as a Puma crashed.

Which brings us to PMQ's today when the following question was asked

Mr. Paul Keetch (Hereford) (LD): The Prime Minister rightly paid tribute to the servicemen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The two men killed in Iraq were possibly in a Puma helicopter that was older than some of the personnel it was carrying. When will the Chinook helicopters ordered by the previous Conservative Government for use by our special forces be delivered for use by our special forces?

The Prime Minister: I do not think, despite the tragedy yesterday, that anybody should jump to any conclusions about what has happened. A full investigation should and will take place. I want to pay tribute to the courage, dedication and service of the men who have died.

As for equipment, we have ordered more helicopters; more helicopters are there on the ground; and we have the biggest defence programme of capital investment over the next 10 years of any Government at any time.

You just have to admire the gall of the Prime Minister as he ignores the question (that means no the Chinook's are not in service) and rolls out some Tractor Production statistics instead of answering the question.

Our Armed Forces deserve so much better than this. The Puma is a 40 year old design and all RAF Pumas are at least 20 years old.


BBC NEWS | UK | Two dead in Iraq helicopter crash

Four Ouches

Ouch! , Ouch! , Ouch! and Ouch! again.

The Brown bubble has definitely burst!

Gordon Brown the master ventriloquist - Times Online

Brown's New Conviction Politics

A new definition of Conviction Politics is emerging as Gordon Brown brings out the 'Clunking Fist' variety of Conviction Politics. This involves Ministers changing their Convictions within 1-2 hours after a quick fisting from Gordon. As the Guardian says

The government was plunged into disarray today over its proposed terror laws as security minister Lord West retracted his statement that he was not "totally convinced" about the need to extend detention of terror suspects for more than 28 days without charge.

The security minister "clarified" his remarks following a pre-planned meeting with Gordon Brown.

In a statement released less than two hours after his comments on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the minister said he was "convinced that we need to legislate now so that we have the necessary powers when we need them".

Brown just cannot stand having anyone disagreeing with him.

Minister backtracks over detention limit | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Update on Barclays shares suspension

More on the story that Barclay's shares were suspended for a period at mid-day today.

This really just goes to show how nervous the market is at the moment about the sub-prime crisis.

I note there is very little about the story in the MSM. Is this a sign that they have been asked to layoff in case of another run on a bank. BBC at this time(14:50) has only this story on Barclay's from a week ago. Maybe a sign of the "clunking fist" in action.

Maybe it's just lucky the weather storms are the main news rather than the Financial Storms.

Barclay's shares remain steady at the moment at 456.75 down 29.50 on the day.

Update at 17:46: Is some one playing with the market? This article from Robert Peston the BBC Business editor is quite interesting. Barclay's shares finished at 474.50 down 11.75 on the day.

Barclays shares suspended after plunge | This is Money

Consultation Brown Style

Brown explains Consultation

This is taken straight from the blog of Barry Monk who is trying to save Bedford Hospital.

Update: looks like the source of this is Dr Rays Focal Spot. More details and comments on it there.

If it is true it is just yet another example of the control freak that is Gordon Brown. I shudder to think what his next subject for his Citizens Juries will be. We have already seen the farce of the Nuclear Power "Consultation" which has had the likes of Greenpeace up in arms.

Remember it is the NHS that Gordon Brown wants to make a key part of his Election Plans (October 25th?)

A medical friend has just sent me this:

Yesterday evening I had an insight into the workings of Nulabours "consultation" process on the planned closure of NHS District General Hospitals and replacement with dumbed down polyclinics.

A few weeks ago invitations to attend a public consultation were sent to consultants at our Trust. We were only given one day to reply for the meeting a few days later even though we have to give 6 weeks notice of leave because of "choose and book".

Obviously this meant that most of us could not attend but one consultant did take up the invitation.

The location of the meeting was kept secret until three days before the event and when this consultant was eventually told the location and turned up in Birmingham it turned out that medical staff were outnumbered 2:1 by laypeople specifically chosen by an agency to attend the event. The media were present and had obviously been invited to publicise the event.

The delegates were split up into groups and each allocated an electronic voting device. A "minder" was allocated to each group.

Then the stars of the show arrived: Gordon Brown, Alan Johnson and Ara Darzi.

There followed a rapid succession of questions from the podium on which the delegates were asked to vote. The minder was available to suggest the best answer if there was any doubt.

Strangely, almost all the votes were 2:1 in favour of Nulabour's policy. Even the question: "Would you prefer gynaecological surgery to be carried out in your GP practice even if it meant the closure of your DGH facility?" was answered with 2:1 in favour.

Following the "consultation" the medical delegates were told to leave but the other 2/3 of the audience were kept back and each given an envelope. My colleague was intrigued by this and managed to catch one of the "chosen ones" and ask about the contents. Each envelope contained £75 in cash!

So now the consultation is over and the results indicate there is overwhelming public and doctor support for closing down the DGHs. I can only say that the way the voting was done makes the "Blue Peter" voting fraud seem like, well, "Blue Peter".

So now you know how it works

Save Bedford Hospital

Douglas Alexander - We are ready for poll

Nice to see the esteemed Secretary of State for International Development and former Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander, in his role as Labour's Election chief, thinks that they are ready to go for an election whenever his esteemed leader has manged to summon up the courage to go the Country. Douglas is of course very pally with the clunker as he is a son of the Manse as well as being one of his chief toadies back in the early 90's.

This is of course the man who presided over the 2007 elections in Scotland, with such great effectiveness that he managed to disenfranchise over 100,00 Scots, many of them likely to have been his own supporters. Since then the SNP appear to have bolstered their position in Scotland whilst Labour have looked stunned by the defeat.

Of course, his aim may have just been to get rid of Jack McConnell, and have his sister Wendy installed as the chief Brown Toady in Scotland. If this was the case then he succeeded in his cunning plan.

Sorry just had to put up this photo again as it is such a gem!


PM's election chief: we are ready for poll | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

All hail the Queen of Scottish Labour

Apparently Clunker Brown has decreed a coronation and Labour MSP's are bending over backwards to stand aside for the chosen one to be crowned.

Alex Salmond will be laughing for some time to come.

Second chance for Wendy Alexander

Brown Bounce costs you 39 Billion

Apparently the "Brown Bounce" in the polls that has some of the papers frothing at the mouth over the weekend has cost you and I 39 billion pounds. That's just over over twice as much as John Redwood thought he could save businesses in a year by reducing red tape.
The Guardian says

The huge sum suggests that, as chancellor, Mr Brown was able to hold back funds and policy initiatives until Mr Blair had stood aside. In effect, this helped fund the "Brown Bounce" that has delivered a run of significant poll leads and added to the expectation of an early general election.

The new spending includes an extra £7.7bn for defence to 2011; £15bn to improve the railways; £4bn extra spending on early years education over three years, covering Sure Start centres; £8bn on increasing the availability of affordable housing; £800m on flood defences; £400mon students grants and £1.2bn on a new electronic national border system.

Also noteworthy is that much of the spending is being targeted at issues that may affect marginal seats.

Oh and did I forget to mention that much of this "extra" spending has already been announced.

The biggest problem about all this money is that it has to, somehow, be paid for by us the Taxpayer. No mention has been made yet of where this money is going to come from, this will be saved until the fine print of the 2007 comprehensive spending review, due in October, has been pored over and the "Clunking Fists" deceit is exposed as per the 10p tax rate.


Brown spends £39bn in first seven weeks in No 10 | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Fine threat over T-shirt slogan

Gordon Brown will no doubt be happy with this sort of story as he leads us into a society where we are only allowed to do what he thinks is correct behaviour.

Assuming this sort of T-Shirt is banned, the police should be able to clean up most days on the streets by stopping people and fining them for wearing "offensive" clothes. I assume any with the FCUK label would be banned and obviously any with pictures of Politicians on them.

Of course the real beauty of this will be ability to ensure that those people who wear "baggy pants" that hang down to their knees are suitably punished. A quick tasering and removal of said offensive items seems appropriate.



BBC NEWS | England | Cambridgeshire | Fine threat over T-shirt slogan

Gagged by the Clunking Fist

Having allowed the sailors who were captured in Iran to sell their stories the MOD is now gagging the armed services from speaking out about conditions they are serving under. The use of forums, bulletin boards and blogs to do this has been increasing in the past months as conditions and the casualty rates have been increasing.

Let us wonder who might have prompted this "modernised" policy. The great "clunking fist" of Broon seems to be the most likely source as he attempts to control the political quagmire that is Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unfortunately for him, the stories and details of what is happening there are more and more coming into the public arena, particularly from members of the armed forces who have served in the area and have returned to the UK, who are passing on details to their friends and relatives. The true extent of casualties is coming out and the conditions and problems they are encountering are becoming well known.

This attempt to gag the Armed Forces will I predict backfire as the feelings in the Services are rising. The ability to post and blog anonymously is rather easy even from Iraq. Expect an increase in blogging from this area.

Update: Also have a look at this link in the Register which has some good comments about the effectiveness of this gagging order.

Update 2: Perhaps the new rules have been put in place because the MOD army of 1000 PR personnel is not quite getting it right and "bad" stories are appearing more frequently.

Also pop along to AARSE for some more discussion on this.

MoD issues gag order on armed forces | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited