Blunkett gone...

dahamsta

Just breaking at the moment, apparently Blunkett's resigned. Good riddance to the liberty-stomping hypocritical tosser.

adam

mike65

..but he's blind Adam. How dare you attack a blind man, what next wimmin?! Still at least he went thats the difference between politics there and here.

Mike.

quarryman

i always thought he just liked walking his dog alot.

Meh

mike65 wrote:

Still at least he went thats the difference between politics there and here.

Don't worry, they'll probably make him EU commissioner soon (when Mandelson's next resignation comes up). Then he can force the whole continent to carry ID cards, not just the UK!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

cdebru

maybe martin cullen might join him soon although i doubt it

A Dub in Glasgo

I can hear cheering in the streets outside my window although I did have a bit of sympathy for the git regarding his recent spate about parental rights.

Good riddance and I just wish some of the clowns in the Dail would take note

dahamsta

mike65 wrote:

..but he's blind Adam. How dare you attack a blind man, what next wimmin?!

Heh. You have to admit though, it can be a a bit odd watching Rory Bremner doing him in full swing.

adam

wheels of ire

The most illiberal Home Secretary ever,who has made even Michael Howard seem a beacon of liberalism,has had to bite the bullet.I am sure his internees in his own Gitmo, Belmarsh, some of whom have been driven mad by the conditions imposed on them in their legal limbo,will be shedding tears over his plight.
I do not seek to judge him on his affair, although I must say that any man who embarks on an affair with a woman only two months married is at least a cad, to use an old-fashioned expression. But I may be biased.
Did he give no thought to the feelings of the cuckolded husband at all?
No, I think that is his obsessive pursuit of the woman involved, which included bombarding her with a bombardment solicitors letter a day for a couple of weeks, inter alia.I have some understanding of this; when my own marriage went down the tubes I think I found out the reality of the cliche 'mad with jealousy, and I am not proud that I used sneak into my former home and read my ex's diary. Not what I'd describe as normal behaviour.
And in that state I don't believe I would been capable of being responsible in a high position.
And isn't there a beautiful irony that he has been hoist on his own petard. The Home Secretary who tailored his policies to suit the agenda of the Daily Mail, and who courted the Editor of that fascist rag to the point of believing him to be a personal friend, has had his career destroyed by which tabloid. Which one?
Step forward, The Daily Mail.
Blind justice, indeed.

BuffyBot

Can't say he'll be missed all that much...although, it depends on who replaces him!

gandalf

I am actually surprised he went. I have a feeling that there was more to come out. This damages Blair quite a bit as he was his man and Blair was sticking by him.

Does anyone reckon that Gordon Brown will make a move soon ?

mike65

gandalf wrote:

Does anyone reckon that Gordon Brown will make a move soon ?

Where to? There's only one job he wants now and in a heave against Blair he'd loose every time. Browne is, how can I put this...a bit mad. He'd be a disasterous paraniod, cranky PM. In the Exchequer he can just do the sums and he's safe enough but give him a country to run...:eek:

secret_squirrel

Have mixed feelings about why he's going - but hoping that this damages their whole ID cards bollox.

SpabSFW

Here's the BBC on Blunkett's resignation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4099719.stm

...But Mr Blair also had no option but to let his man go once it became clear the Budd investigation had uncovered new facts Mr Blunkett "did not remember".

This is the end of Mr Blunkett's political career for the foreseeable future...

...His likely replacement, Charles Clarke, is a similarly tough, no-nonsense politician who is in many ways an obvious successor.

Just how eager he will be to adopt the same hard-line approach as Mr Blunkett remains to be seen...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4099581.stm
Blunkett quits as home secretary

...Downing Street has named education secretary Charles Clarke as Mr Blunkett's replacement. ...

When I think of Blunkett, I think of this incident:
http://www.sundayherald.com/40592

WHAT do you give someone who’s been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn’t commit?

An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne? Compensation? Well, if you’re David Blunkett, the Labour Home Secretary, the choice is simple: you give them a big, fat bill for the cost of board and lodgings for the time they spent freeloading at Her Majesty’s Pleasure in British prisons.

On Tuesday, Blunkett will fight in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for the right to charge victims of miscarriages of justice more than £3000 for every year they spent in jail while wrongly convicted. The logic is that the innocent man shouldn’t have been in prison eating free porridge and sleeping for nothing under regulation grey blankets...


...Paddy Hill was one of the Birmingham Six. He spent 16 years behind bars for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA. Hill now lives on a farm with his wife and children near Beith in Scotland. He has been charged £50,000 for living expenses by the Home Office.

It wasn’t until two years ago that Hill was finally awarded £960,000 in compensation. However, during the years since his release, while waiting for the pay-out, the government had given him advances of around £300,000. When his compensation came through, the £300,000 was taken back along with interest on the interim payments charged at 23% – that cost him a further £70,000.

“The whole system is absurd,” Hill said. “I’m so angry about what has happened to me. I try and tell people about being charged for bed and board in jail and they can’t believe it.

“When I left prison I was given no training for freedom – no counselling or psychological preparation. Yet the guilty get that when they are released. To charge me for the food I ate and the cell I slept in is almost as big an injustice as fitting me up in the first place.

“While I was in prison, my family lost their home, yet they get no compensation. But the state wants its money back. It’s like being kicked in the head when someone has beat you already.

“I have to put up with this, yet there has not been one police officer convicted of fitting people up. The Home Office had no shortage of money to keep me in jail or to run a charade of a trial.

“But they had enough money to frame me. Nevertheless, when it comes to paying out compensation for ruining my life they happily rip me to shreds.”

...“Only a sick mind could have invented this policy, yet the government is fighting to retain the right to act like this. It is cruelty with intent. They seem to want to punish people for having the audacity to be innocent.”...

klap trap

damn it that guy was a legend why did he have to go?

Invader Zim

Good. I was personally hoping he'd get run over by a car, but this is almost as big a relief.