by antiaristo » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:59 pm
<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="font-size:small;">Labour's secret loan operation generated more than £10m</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <br><br>· Blair concedes mistake over not telling treasurer<br>· Role of PM to be curbed in nomination of honours <br><br>Patrick Wintour, political editor<br>Friday March 17, 2006<br>The Guardian <br><br><br>Labour may have gathered as much as £10m in secret loans before the election, more than double the figure revealed so far, one of the party's most senior party fundraisers admitted yesterday.<br>He said Labour had taken the money before the election after its bankers were unwilling to give the party a larger overdraft.<br><br>At one of his most difficult monthly press conferences, the prime minister conceded he had made a mistake in not telling the Labour party treasurer, Jack Dromey, about the loans. He said he took personal responsibility, but was unable to explain the reason for leaving Mr Dromey out of the loop.<br><br>Tony Blair also admitted that he had not told the Lords appointments scrutiny committee that three of his candidates for working Labour peerages had given the party loans.<br><br>Faced by accusations that he was running a parallel party within the party, Mr Blair yesterday rushed forward a raft of reforms, including one that will limit the role of the prime minister in the nomination of honours, such as knighthoods and OBEs, but still retain the right to appoint Labour working peers until wider reforms for the Lords are agreed.<br><br>He said that an independent figure would seek to create a consensus between the parties on greater state funding of political parties, including a cap on the level of donations. The move might limit the influence of the trade unions in the Labour party. He would also strengthen the independent monitoring of the ministerial code, in the wake of the controversy surrounding the culture secretary Tessa Jowell. In future, so long as there was a cross-party consensus, he would also support commercial loans being made declarable in the same way as gifts.<br><br>Mr Dromey issued a statement late on Wednesday revealing he had been kept in the dark about the loans, and accusing Downing Street of treating elected party officials with contempt.<br><br>The deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and the party chairman, Ian McCartney, had met Mr Dromey only hours earlier. They believed they had an agreement that he would not discuss the issue further until the party's national executive met on Tuesday.<br><br>But Mr Dromey's allies said he went public because he felt he had not received the right assurances at the meeting. They stressed he was not accusing Mr Blair of breaking the law or offering peerages for cash.<br><br>A senior Blairite returned fire, accusing Mr Dromey of "trying to put the final knife into the heart of Tony Blair on behalf of Gordon Brown".<br><br>There is no evidence that Mr Brown or his allies were involved in any plot to undermine Mr Blair.<br><br>The party's chief fundraiser, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Lord Levy</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, is known to be furious with Mr Dromey, pointing out that he has not met the union official since he took on the role of party treasurer. "If he [Dromey] did not know, it is because he did not ask," said one senior party figure.<br><br>Mr Levy's friends claimed that Mr Dromey's denunciation of Mr Blair was "irrational and illogical".<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Downing Street conceded that the party's fundraising committee, set up by the then Labour chairman Charles Clarke in 2002, had not been told about the loans or their source since they were not deemed gifts.<br><br>The committee had been set up following a gift from Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The Tories fell in with Labour, and the recommendation of the Electoral Commission, by saying that they would in future declare all loans.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,1733040,00.html">politics.guardian.co.uk/c...40,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Why would Richard Desmond make a gift to Labour?<br>And what's it got to do with the Vampire of Finance?<br><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>C/Eusebio Navarro, 12<br>Rt. Hon. Robin Cook MP                                        35003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria<br>Leader of the House of Commons                        Spain<br>5 June 2002<br><br><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">Blair, Byers, Desmond, Hollick and the Express</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END--><br><br>Dear Mr. Cook,<br>Would Tony Blair prostitute himself for 100,000? No, of course not.<br><br>As usual the British media are looking in all the wrong places when it comes to the Express takeover. Lets go back to basics and ask ourselves who gained the most from Byers' circumvention of the law.<br><br>Richard Desmond was prepared to pay a very full price for the Express, and we all know the reason why. The only other offer on the table was from the Barclay brothers at 75 millions. Had the Desmond offer been referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission the Sullivan precedent would dictate that a pornographer was not a "fit and proper person" to own a regional, let alone a national newspaper. The vendor would have been forced to accept 75 millions rather than 125 millions. So the vendor, in obtaining an extra 50 millions, was the big winner.<br><br>The vendor was Lord Clive Hollick. He was a forced seller, having been fingered along with the impostor Blair at Feira on 19 June 2000 (I'm sure you remember it well). Lord Clive Hollick, known gangster and the largest single financial donor to the Blair "project". Lord Clive Hollick, who at the time of the Desmond decision was Special Advisor to the Prime Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, notionally run by Stephen Byers.<br><br>Under the circumstances it is easy to see why Byers was pressurised and circumvented the rules. And having circumvented the rules, why it was that Blair was prepared to support him "For better or for worse" these past 12 months. And why, once Byers buckled and released the report, he was summarily dismissed.<br>So the decision to break the rules was made by Blair himself. And would he prostitute the nation for 50,100,000? After Feira I will let you answer that yourself.<br><br>Please forward copies of this letter to all the interested Select Committee Chairmen, including the one that “knifed Stephen Byers in the back” according to Two Jags. Oh, and a reply would be nice.<br> Yours sincerely,<br>John Cleary BSc. MA MBA<br><br>CC        R Prodi<br>I Duncan Smith MP<br>        C Kennedy MP<br><br>Enc.        Mary Archer’s Fraud 8 August 2001<br>Cleary to Blair 25 July 1994<br>        Blair to Cleary 30 July 1994<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Are you starting to get the picture yet?<br>It was at this time that the Old Slag made Hollick Chairman of the South Bank. Such useful idiots.<br><br>It can't do him any harm now, may he rest in peace.<br>But Robin Cook, to his great credit, DID reply to me.<br><br>I'll post it tomorrow, when I've found it.<br> <p></p><i></i>