Wednesday 27th of November 2024
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at the seat of power .....

at the seat of power .....

As assassination plots go, James Purnell's move to finish off Gordon Brown must rank among the most dramatic in recent times - partly because he managed to keep it to himself, and partly because it was so direct and unequivocal.

While the Prime Minister was undoubtedly biting his fingernails to the quick in expectation that the local and Euro election results would prompt a move to oust him at some point over the next few days, he did not spot arch-Blairite Purnell creeping towards him in the undergrowth.

The Work and Pensions Secretary did not wait for the results of the elections before he broke cover and plunged the knife deep into Gordon Brown's front. The very second the polling stations closed he announced he was quitting the Cabinet, called on Brown to stand down for the good of the party and country, and declared he was not seeking the leadership himself.

The last, of course, is a clever, calculated attempt to suggest his actions are motivated purely by a desire to save the country and the Labour party and nothing to do with personal ambition. He did not, of course, say he would not be ready to serve if the call came.

Neither did his statement rule out the possibility that he sees himself in one of the top Cabinet jobs under the next leader, should it be someone from his own Blairite wing of the party like Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/48424,news,the-mole-james-purnell-the-lone-assassin-of-gordon-brown-labour-politics-britain?DCMP=NLC-daily

all in at the trough .....

More than a million items of MPs' expense claims have finally been published by the House of Commons authorities after a year-long Freedom of Information battle to force them into the daylight and more than a month after the Daily Telegraph began publishing leaked details.

And the most shocking revelation is that the official list fails to reveal the most serious abuses of the system which has plunged Westminster into its greatest crisis for generations.

Thanks to a deal which has allowed MPs to 'redact' - that's 'censor' in normal language - key parts of the documents, the practice of 'flipping' second homes to maximise expenses and/or to avoid capital gains tax on sales would never have been exposed.

So Kitty Ussher, who was forced to quit as Treasury minister last night, would probably still be in her job; details of her attempt to avoid nearly £17,000 in capital gains tax by re-classifying her second home for a single month would never have been revealed.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/49168,news,the-mole-parliament-reveals-heavily-censored-expenses?DCMP=NLC-daily

the sky is falling .....

The people are on the march. Betrayed by their rulers, they demand the right to determine their fate themselves. Their chastened leaders quail before them, and embark on a process of competitive abdication.

Recall of erring MPs, open primaries, electoral reform and parliamentary oversight will no longer be sufficient. Nothing less than direct democracy will meet the needs of the hour. Are our destinies to be decided by people's petitions, continual referendums, citizens' juries, perpetual push-button voting or all of these and more?

Beyond the political class, the great and the good have politely concurred with the prevailing mood. It is time to trust the citizenry, they murmur. They should beware.

The current eruption of mass revolt extends far beyond politics. It threatens to engulf most of the many and varied elites that have for so long called the shots in societies like our own.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/49036,news,with-our-elected-leaders-in-disgrace-the-public-is-in-charge-democracy-expert-opinion-elites?DCMP=NLC-daily