Day 2370: Change the (Criminal) Record

Thursday:


Lord Blairimort hasn't been out of office A DAY and already the police have nicked him again.

Just as last time, though, it turns out that it happened weeks ago and the Labour have been keeping shtumm about it, waiting for a good moment to BURY IT.

So much for "ALL CHANGE".


Possibly MORE shocking is the news that we heard on the The Today Programme the other day – though apparently it has been known for some time – that the police wanted to question Lord Blairimort "under caution", but were talked out of it. "Under caution" means treating him as a suspect rather than a witness, i.e. reminding him that he USED to have the right to remain silent, but that his government had got rid of that along with most of the rest of the civil liberties that would have protected him, so he'd better sing like a tweetie-bird. The police people were asked not to do this. The clinching argument was apparently that if they DID question him under caution, then he would have to resign.

Let us just ANALYSE that for a second. Why would you resign? (a) because your actions have been thought so questionable that the police WANT to treat you as a SUSPECT or (b) because the police ACTUALLY treat you as a suspect so people might FIND OUT about it?

It is a question of SUBSTANCE or STYLE, and we ALL know which one of those wins EVERY TIME with the Labour.


WILL Mr Frown's promise of CHANGE extend to cleaning up the Labour's habits of SECRECY and MISINFORMATION or will he be sticking to his SECRET STALIN ways?

He has an EXCELLENT opportunity this week, with the news that the Americans will be investigating the Al Yamamah arms deal.

This is quite a brave move by the American Justice Department, because it is bound to tee-off their key Saudi Arabian allies, just at a point where their "retreat from Arabia FORWARDS into Iraq" plan seems to have come completely unstuck.

(Although the CYNICAL reader could notice that this investigation also puts the kybosh on BAE's plans to expand into the American Market.)

The Al Yamamah deal first came to the Department of Justice's attention when they noticed super-tanker sized slices of cash flowing through the account of the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar. You may remember him – he is the chum of the Monkey-in-Chief who gets his own private airbus aeroplane paid for by, well, us, the British Public. In return for this ALLEGEDLY he makes sure that his government continues to pay for warplanes from BAE (formerly British Death Smiths of Goth).

But it turns out that the secrets of the deal – known only to a small, elect group known as the "Panorama viewers" – are actually kept by the GOVERNMENT and not by BAE at all. BAE are just SUB-CONTRACTORS. This is a LEGAL TERM meaning "we can pass the buck".

So, it is up to Mr Frown whether he will be "helping the Americans with their inquiries" or keeping Prince Bandar aloft in our his airbus.


Meanwhile, I hope that holding them in Lord Blairimort's PRISON CELL will not inconvenience the Middle Eastern peace talks TOO MUCH!