Paramedic becomes Doner in Kebab shop

The Independent reports that

A man who went berserk in a kebab shop left two paramedics in hospital today after biting one on the leg. Another ambulance worker was slightly injured when he was later headbutted by the man in Clontarf Garda station.

The paramedics from Dublin Fire Brigade were called to a disturbance at the take-away in Fairview Strand, north Dublin at around 4am. Gardai also arrived at the scene around the same time to find the man foaming at the mouth and threatening violence.

The man, suspected of being intoxicated, turned on one of the ambulance workers and bit him on the leg, according to Dublin Fire Brigade. After gardai were forced to restrain him and bring him to Clontarf Garda station, paramedics were again called out at around 5am to bring the man to hospital. Another disturbance erupted during which a paramedic was headbutted as he attempted to take the man for medical help.
Both ambulance workers have since been released from hospital and their injuries are not serious.

Gardai are expected to question the man when he is released from
medical care.

The Independent does not report if the drunk thought the man's leg was tastier than a Kebab.

Paramedic bitten on leg in kebab shop - Europe, World - The Independent

Kebabgate - Hain and the Fifth Man

Nearly a day went by without some more embarrassing revelations for Labour.

Now Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, admits

that he had not registered all the donations to his unsuccessful deputy leadership campaign with electoral watchdogs as is legally required. Mr Hain said his failure to register the payments was "extremely regrettable" and apologised, while sources stressed the failure to declare the money was an "administrative error".

And a fifth man may be involved in the David Abrahams donation crimes.

George Crawford, a Newcastle-based lawyer, went to the police amid claims that his name may have been used to illicitly donate money to the party.

He is demanding an investigation after a man of the same name was registered as giving Labour £36,000 in 2004. Mr Crawford believes he may have been used as a secret conduit by Mr Abrahams to donate money to Labour.

The lawyer suspects that the money was given in his name and has now reported the matter to the police as suspected identity theft by someone trying to conceal their donations. Northumbria Police said they would be forwarding the complaint to Scotland Yard.

So just another day in the Sleazy Life of Labour in the Kebabgate scandal. I think they are trying to bore us with the number of scandals and are trying to make it seem like "normal" behaviour.

P.S. As suggested by James Burdett in a previous entry, I'd just like to say that our Wendy hasn't yet resigned despite admitting having committed a crime. Apparently 800 criminals in Barlinnie have asked to be allowed out early as they hadn't realised they were committing a crime either, Honest Gov.

Peter Hain caught up in Labour funding row - Telegraph

Kebabgate - Mad Party Disease claims another Labour Leader

Interesting article from Iain MacWhirter in the Herald.

Two pieces of the article stand out. Th first points out that it is Labours own Laws that may put them in prison. Labour have to remember that these are not rules as they keep saying.

What a desperate situation: was no-one in the Labour Party prepared to step up to the plate and defend their own leader? Labour appeared to be in denial, unwilling or unable to face up to the enormity of the situation. This isn't any old law we are talking about, but one of Labour's own flagship statutes: the Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. This makes clear that any attempt to conceal the identity of a political donor is against the law, as is acceptance of a donation from anyone who is not on the electoral register.

This is not some obscure piece of redundant legislation but a fresh and potent statute designed by Labour to drive sleaze out of politics altogether. Breaching this law carries an unlimited fine or one year in jail. The way things are going, a number of senior Scottish Labour politicians face losing their political careers and gaining a criminal record.

Then we have the following which indicates that someone out there really doesn't like Wendy (join the queue!) and that Labour have been in disarray since their defeat by the SNP.

We know that all is not well in the Labour leader's inner circle, since this story has been driven by a series of damaging leaks from people with access to the most sensitive inside information. The Sunday Herald document, for example, could not have been widely circulated within Labour, but it found its way into the public domain. Someone somewhere harbours a very deep grudge against Alexander and is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to settle accounts.

I'm afraid this has been the Scottish Labour story since devolution - factionalism, cronyism, incompetence and personal vendettas. They can't seem to help themselves. The party seems to have lost the will to live. Alexander was their best hope in years for a clean break from the old numpty machine politics, but it has broken her instead.

Mad Party Disease Claims Another Labour Leader (from The Herald )

Kebabgate - Times article - Secrets in his smile

A comprehensive review of a week in the "Kebabgate" scandal in the Sunday Times.

A point to note:

In the article Sigmund Sternberg is quoted as saying this about David Abrahams:

"I have come across him at various Labour party events. The last time I saw him was at the conference in Bournemouth. I knew him to say hello to. He’s very nice, very personable.”

He certainly had come across him as I revealed earlier this week as he sponsored him for membership of the London Rotary club.

This seems to be the general thought of everyone in an around the Labour Party, They didn't really know him and they certainly hadn't talked donations with him.

Secrets in his smile - 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 - Labour launches inquiry into SECOND donor scandal | the Daily Mail

Has the Labour party got another dodgy donor ready to skewer?

According to the Mail

Mahmoud Khayami, a French citizen, has given a total of £830,000 in the past eight months, making him Labour's biggest individual backer after Lord Sainsbury.

The party said it would launch an investigation after The Mail on Sunday discovered that:

• Khayami made his first donation - of £500,000 - just 24 hours after becoming legally allowed to do so, by having his name added to the Electoral Roll.

• The tycoon - who runs a car dealership in California and has a villa in Cannes - had waited until the age of 77 before adding his name to the roll.

• Khayami is a close friend of Labour-supporting "fixer" Anthony Bailey, whose clients have included Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe regime, and whose own £500,000 donation was rejected by Labour because of fears it had come from foreign sources.

Khayami made his first donation on May 2 this year.

But The Mail on Sunday has discovered he only became a "permissible" donor on May 1, when he first appeared on the Electoral Register.

Had he made the payment 48 hours earlier both he and the Labour Party would have been committing a criminal offence.

Even though his name is on the register, he is permitted to vote only in local and European ballots, not general elections.

Commentators said that while he was thus technically qualified to make party donations, the fact he had done so meant Labour was 'sailing close to the wind' on donation rules.

Sailing close to the wind may just be an understatement!

Exclusive: Labour to launch an inquiry into SECOND donor scandal | the Daily Mail

Kebabgate - Grayling attacks Brown's Smokescreen

Gordon Brown made a speech this morning to Labours NEC as reported by the BBC here headlined "PM launches urgent funding review".

Apparently the Clunker called for consensus on the way forward and warned that he would not accept "one party deadlock". Apparently he reckons it's time to act.

Perhaps he's forgotten all the new rules, regulations and laws that Labour brought in to make donations more ethical and transparent which they seen to ignore and treat with such contempt, perhaps he's forgotten that it was his own parties intransigence that stopped the last talks on this matter when he refused to treat Union donations the same as any other donations.

Let's not get the truth out there but just blow a smokescreen to try and shift the focus from Labour, perhaps he has something a bit more to worry about?

Chris Grayling who appears to be the Conservatives spokesman on Kebabgate issued this statement on this matter

“This morning’s speech is a pretty opportunistic attempt by Gordon Brown to erect a smokescreen around events of the past two days. David Cameron wrote to him in October urging major reforms to party funding and a cap on donations, Gordon Brown refused because he didn’t want to give up on the multi-million pound financing from the trade unions. His decision to pick up the issue again today must be more than an attempt to divert attention away from party problems. The other real concern about this morning’s comments is that it looks like he’s trying to find ways of giving himself greater political advantage. He wants to cut campaigning by his opponents in marginal seats whilst continuing to use tax payers’ money to give his MPs a communication allowance to spend in those same marginal seats. It also looks as if he’s set on protecting big trade union donations whilst putting limits on everyone else."

That just about says it all.


ConservativeHome's ToryDiary: Grayling attacks Brown's attempts to switch attention from donations scandal

Kebabgate - The Wendy Apology

This is supposed to be an apology to us the punters who have to put up with this corrupt Labour Government. Wendy's ingracious apology and sneer of contempt show what she feels about the Scottish public.

A Wendy Apology

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.

Scottish Kebabgate - The Wendy House is collapsing

The Herald has some details of the problems facing Ms Alexander as her rapidly disintergrating Wendy House threatens to collapse.

As Murdo Fraser said

"The only defence Wendy Alexander and her team seem to have left is that they acted in good faith, but in total ignorance, of the law. When Wendy Alexander signed her letter to Mr Green, did she not think to query the Jersey address?

"Is it credible to suggest that that Scottish Labour leader, with a long track record of political experience, would have been totally unaware of the law on political donations. Her position is precarious and I wonder if they will resort to making the fall guy fall further, as Charlie Gordon is again heaped with the blame."

Yet again Labour are trying the incompetence defence, it just will not wash.

So another Labour Junior has fallen on his skewer to try and save his seniors, Will it work this time?

Hat Tip: Scottish Tory Boy for the letter.

Alexander Feels Heat After Letter To Tax Exile Is Revealed (from The Herald )

Wendy Alexander is not laughing

Kebabgate probably gets the first lump of meat on the skewer? And a large lump at that!

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Exclusive : Wendy Alexander Thank You Note Proves:

Kebabgate (formerly Donorgate)

I've decided to call the new crisis within Labour "Kebabgate" as hopefully they will be well skewered by the Donors.