baldysblog.co.uk

It is true that unlike in the distant past, over the past couple of decades the former Home Office had become far too unwieldy for one Government Minister to handle so that the splitting of it into a Home Office and a Justice Ministry probably makes some sense. As both Blunkett and Clarke found out to their personal cost, the Home Office that was had a propensity to spring nasty surprises out of the blue. In this context, the sudden discovery that civilian security jobs and Government clearance to do them, had been given to around 5,000 illegal immigrants is pretty much par for the course.

Gordon Brown “ascended the throne of Prime Ministership” and appointed a new Cabinet back in June with Jackie Smith as the new Home Secretary and within a week or so, her department presented her with this information. Now to be totally fair to her, she can hardly be blamed for this state of affairs having only just taken on the job however, what happened next must surely rank as an extraordinary blunder of massive proportions for the Government and The Labour Party.

Brown had made great play of his Government being a spin free zone and whilst that claim was to be completely blown out of the water during the Party Conference Season some months later, this was right at the beginning and what they did was to try and bury it until much later something after 10 years in office, they should have already learned was probably the worse possible strategy. Remember 9/11 and a good day to bury bad news ?

Sure enough and in due course came the inevitable e-mail leaks which exposed the facts and worst of all, confirmed that there was an attempted cover-up. Why any politician should not remember that Nixon was removed from the US Presidency not because of any personal involvement in Watergate but, for being involved in helping to cover the tracks of those who were, beggars all belief. My gut feeling is that the Tories have been a little too restrained over this, they have “attacked” the Government but not at this moment in time “savaged” it which leads me to suspect that they know a lot more but are biding their time, the crunch will come later.

In centuries past when the Monarch wielded absolute power in England and Wales, they would have a Privy or Private council made up of people with various interests and experiences that could give them sound advice on policy. Of course and to be honest, sometimes members were just self seeking cronies however the concept has remained but been modified to serve current circumstances. The Privy Council is sworn to secrecy, none of what is discussed or any information given may be disclosed to non members. The Council represents a cross section of the House and covers all so that the Leaders of all political parties become members, it is a good method of sharing sensitive information.

Gordon Brown had a golden opportunity to side step this problem whilst at the same time, emphasising that his Government was a “New Start for Britain” despite in reality it being the same bunch of dead beats who had been running the Country for 10 years. All he had to do was refer it to The Privy Council. He was enjoying a “bounce” in the polls, the Tories were 8-10 points behind and would need to be that in front to threaten Labour in a General Election, it was a slam dunk so why didn’t he do it ? Just how many flaws has this man got in his personality ? Is he fit to lead ? If I were to guess, this whole thing will turn on when Brown knew about it, the Tories aren’t after Jackie Smith’s head that would be far too easy, Gordon Brown is the target.