3 days is a long time in politics. Apparently long enough to say one thing and then do the exact opposite.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (which I listen to almost every week) the PM said that he wouldn’t be sacking Charles Clarke over the ‘foreign prisoner scandal’*. Blair said that the problem was with the process and the legislation rather than the minister himself. Blair said that Clarke deserved the chance to put right the mistakes that had been made. Blair said that he wouldn’t sack Clarke because of press pressure.
Yesterday a bunch of local elections were held in Britain. Labour did very badly. Today, Clarke was sacked.
I ask you, what kind of government is this? Is this meant to foster trust and inspire hope? How can a well meaning, informed citizen take this man seriously any more? He isn’t even trying, he’s just going through the motions until he achieves 10 years in office when he’ll hand over to Gordon Brown.
Now, I sent this comment (more or less) to the BBC radio and they read it out (literally as I’m writing this post) and the Labour cunt that they’ve got fudging and glossing said that ‘It’s politics, on Wednesday the elections were coming up and Blair couldn’t give the Tories a scalp but in the back of his mind the PM always knew that on Friday there would be this reshuffle and a new Home Secretary.’
In other words Blair is willing to lie in public to win a cheap point over the Tories. I can understand idiotic and castrated back benchers acting in this way but for the Prime Minister to be that willing to lie and cheat is pathetic. I used to admire Blair for his capacity to ambiguate any conversation and not tie himself down to specific decisions because although it is crooked and corrupt to behave like that it is strategic brilliance. Like I say, these days he isn’t even trying…
- About a thousand foreign nationals who’d been serving terms for both minro and major crimes had been released rather than deported due to a legislative and executive cock-up