Pause for thought
Lord Levy is in the Middle East preparing the way for a prime ministerial tour. Although dubbed the "Prime Minister's envoy", he travels at his own expense and in his own time. Something he will, no doubt, be pondering on as he hears that the police appear to be honing in on him in their investigation into allegations of cash for honours. Will he, I wonder, ask the man he's raised so many millions for what the police asked him and how their investigation is going? Or is it a case of "don't mention the police"?
One other reason for Lord Levy to pause for thought is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s revelation that the police have seized notes made by Sir Christopher Evans - a Labour donor who was arrested in September - after their conversations. The notes are alleged to include references to honours and they have been referred to by police when they have questioned witnesses.
Sir Christopher insists that the police have "no record of any conversation about or offers of a peerage". He finds himself in a curious position. Given his links to Labour and his success as a biotech entrepreneur, many people might have expected him to be nominated some day. The million pounds help he gave to Labour was always in the form of a loan - not a donation - and he is now insisting that it is re-paid in full.
Lord Levy has not commented but in recent days he's told friends that if people want to dream and fantasise about what he might have said, that's up to them.
PS There was much talk yesterday of "". Aren't we reaching for the wrong metaphor? Isn't it more a question of fly tipping so much of the stuff that one scarcely knows what to begin with?
I'm 
Comments
One wonders if there's about to be a lot of soft brown stuff flying towards fans in Downing Street & Millbank.....
Nick - I thought better of you. You are doing the job of the right wing press in this country and it does you no favours. These sstories thhat come out in a desperate attempt to keep this story going are ridiculous. The simple truth and you know it well is that Blair is innocent and he has been the victim in this facade. His characted has been impuned from day one and because of his position, he cannot give his side of the story. He will be able to in the years ahead and will anyone then apologise. I Doubt it - Shame!!
Is it just me or are others feeling physically ill about the brazen behaviour of the government yesterday?The releasing of a "shopping list" of bad news on the day of the Diana report and prior to Blair cutting and running shows absolute contempt for the public. Spending on consultants; changing the Freedom of Information rules; cash for honours; post office closure; airport expansion (but "green taxes"?); BAE Systems etc, and they deny the timing is anything other than a coincidence. Please, please, whatever your political leanings, get rid of this lot next time, this contempt for the public is becoming so dangerous for our nation's future.
Nick
There are reports in today's Telegraph that political journalists were being briefed by Mr Kelly at 11am that detectives "would not be calling today" when they were already in Downing St. and that David Hill had issued an unequivocal denial at 7am that the police were not calling.
If this allegation is correct I wonder why you lot don't boycott these "spinning meetings" rather than dance to Downing Street's tune.
Of course conveniently, Mr Blair is now away from the UK until next Wednesday when no doubt Parliament will be thinking more about the festivities than yesterday. How convenient.
I expect Lord Levy is rapidly finding out who his 'fair weather' friends are!
His success in fund-raising for the State of Israel will do doubt encourage some people to leave him spinning in the breeze, given the latent anti-Semitism amongst the British Left.
Air-dropping bad news out the back of a rapidly departing jetplane?
Nick - the metaphor, as any West Wing fan knows, is "take out the trash day".
I think you definitely got the right metaphor Nick.
I was just wondering why Labour chose to publicise so much 'bad news' on one particular Thursday in December. Alright we're getting close to the Christmas/New Year hiatus but there was always today (Friday) to make announcements and then drift off into the weekend and the 'dead' week before Christmas. So why did it all splurge out yesterday?
It makes you wonder what government has been doing in the other 364 days of the year!
Yes, wrong metaphor. In the West Wing they would have called it 'take out the trash day'.
This whole thing has already gone too far: the PM should have resigned and called an election months ago.
Much of the Labour damage limitation is so obvious, and the way media run to particular "tabloid events" might make us suspicious.
Are we that bad at discerning what has gone on these last ten years. Are we so forgetful, Blair feels he will leave office in triumph?
And what of Gordon "past his sell by date" Brown. He must be heartily saddened by personal matters, I would forgive him stepping down and letting in some other less than top notch player into the top job.
Mr Brown must have so many conflicts, I feel he may have been the right candidate, now I would suggest he is stuck. Neither staying and doing or letting it go, he has much heartache and deserves empathy.
Blair truly has mucked everything up. and we will not forget. Why should we? Blair has done nothing but spout nonsense for years. Let him stew all the way to next summer. Whatever he does, he has lost his Midas touch. A leaden and unwelcome guest at any party, political or otherwise. Once the darling, now the grotesque leader of a shambles he will have with him as we and history judge him, a fool and fancier, a liability and failure, in my eyes at least.
No amount of clever talk will change his legacy, Iraq his Albatross, never to be shrived.
I think all parties should take a long hard and intelligent look at the way politics is funded in this country. Otherwise we will end up with the system they have in the USA where you can only gain political power if you have enough financial power behind you. And then the politician is beholden to the financial backer for their entire time in office.
With that system only large financial powers will be able to influence government. So for example, we might end up with the ridiculous 3rd world crackpot dictator scenario where a large company involved in corrupt deals might be able to get the serious fraud office to drop an investigation involving them... oops...
You can go to jail for fly tipping these days.
I am starting to feel sorry for Lord Levy as he is increasingly becoming (I have probably missed the boat) the scape goat for the PM. I cannot understand how he could ever have acted without the PM's authority or that we as the public could believe otherwise. The net is closing on old TB especially now that ex-PM Major is throwing down the gauntlet on Iraq. Corruption? Probes? War Crimes? I can't wait to see the political New Year unfold. Happy Christmas!
Power corrupts and abolute power corrupts absolutely, or something like that. Appears that Labour are heading for this delusion.
What ever Blair/Brown /Prescott/Levy/their spin machine and the rest of them say or do now,the country does not believe them.They are past their sell by date but do not seem to realise it.If maybe there was some recognition and resignations,the populace might just seem some honour in them.But on past evidence this is unlikely.
If Blair cannot understand that by being the first Prime Minister to be questioned by the police about something which happened when he is in charge is not having an impact on the publics view of him,then he is living on another planet.
The catcher in the rye,a wonderful tip off,in a far foreign land lord Levy shall bury the evidence in the sand? elementary my dear Nick,i wonder if Mr Yates will lay a trap?The more one learns about Blair the gangster,the more one wishes he will just do one and go....
I used love your blog and think that you were such a refreshing change from Andy (to his government chums) Marr.
But this blog means that you are turning into Andy. The spin day yesterday was beyond belief. Why are you letting him off the hook?
Bob
Is it wise to have a Jewish person as your Middle-Eastern envoy? Sure there will be an empathy, but does it open the way for claims of bias, even without any evidence.
Couldn't TB find a non-jewish, non-muslim envoy?
"When the PM must be 'purer than the pure', quote unquote,
A policeman's job is not to rock the boat,
(rock the boat)"
{with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan}
Hello Nick,
I have a sense of deju vu.
Remember how and when the Hutton Report was released? Regarding your suggestion of "burying bad news", maybe they have all gone green and have created a giant compost heap!
Nick, For once, since I have been reading this blog let me say that I agree with you. The Metaphor "burying bad news" has been bounced around so much it has lost its meaning. As you so aptly put it, "fly tipping" is about right. The Prime Minister still doesn't have any matter sticking to him as yet,but with the company he keeps it makes one wonder when, not if something will actually adhere itself to him. Then we will see what he is made of. I live in hope.
I stopped watching broadcast television a year ago. The last thing I did watch was the news but the intrusive and unenlightening style of the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s top anchors was the final straw. Maybe I’m being a bit sensitive, here, but boys lying and girls crying to get their own way never impressed me when I was in short trousers and I’m less enthusiastic now.
Britain is facing a crisis of competence and trust at all levels, and attention seeking and baseless speculation don’t help. It may be technically smart at an individual level but doesn’t encourage a better tone at the group level. The numbers for political, media, and social behaviour back this up. Cleverness and maturity aren’t the same thing.
I don’t trust the Conservatives or like the Liberal Democrats on a policy or personal level for what they’ve done to me over the years, and was greatly disappointed with Labour until very recently. Now, their leadership is putting both business and the media to shame. This story is nothing. Better then, Nick, to say nothing than look a fool.
Sorry, but when I mentioned my sense of deju vu, I forgot to mention that
Jo Moore knew that it was "a good day for burying bad news".
Apparently there is no smoke without fire, no spin without sleaze, no flood without rain and, allegedly, no charity without donations or even a loan these days. One can only assume that there is a price for everything nowadays, even, allegedly, for integrity.
Aaaargh!! Nick - you, of all people!
"Honing" is something you do to a skill or a knife-blade. What the police are doing with respect to Lord Levy is 'homing in'.
Please, bury this horrid mis-locution along with the bad news...
Perhaps he will bump into Tony this weekend and they can do a spot of Christmas shopping !
I think Blair is the leader and instigator while lord levy is a gang member doing his leaders bidding.
Although this can only be regarded as a theory, its pretty obvious its right..
The police are seemingly letting the gangs boss off the hook while chasing the gang.. Seems to me though by questioning Blair he may be forced to implicate someone who then spills the beans.. Jurys are always told to judge case by reasonable doubt I have no doubt Tony is in charge.. and Reasonable doubt should reasonably find him up to his neck in it..
Burying bad news? Yet, if any of these stories had come out over the next two weeks, the Govt would be accused of trying to lose the story in xmas and when Parliament wasn't sitting. It doesn't really stack up as an accusation.
Personally I am sickened by TB's Middle East tour. He has done more - other than George W Bush - to exacerbate the problems in the region and now he is rushing around lecturing everyone on the need for a long term solution! He is nothing more than an opportunist, looking for a PR coup, in the hope people will forget his role in turning the flames up under the problem in the first place. I just hope that you, Nick, and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ wake up during this tour and stop letting him off so lightly. Let's have some hard hitting reporting and put him on the spot!
I'm waiting for the chorus of the politicians' usual lament - 'I've done nothing wrong..'
While at first sight it seems amazing that there should be so little public unrest at the way New Labour has conducted itself, I think that I have the answer. It is not that we don't mind, it's just that we can't do anything about it. And therein lies the solution. Government in Britain has far, far too much power. It should be stripped right back and turned on its head, restoring power to the people to decide on all key issues via local referendums. Using this approach our current government would have been out in 10 minutes.
What is worse the cash-for-peerages crime or a No. 10 cover up?
That is the growing question as the police now investigate No. 10 officials over the perverting the course of justice.
Also will Tony Blair be re-interviewed under caution, because there is a now a huge discrepancy in Blair's testimony to police.
Was it honours for services to the Labour party or for services to the public? Blair has said one thing the peerage citations say the other.
I'm sure Nick will find out for us.
I've always thought of myself as fairly politically savvy, but I can't see the point of Lord Levy's 'work' on the Middle East. The fundraising bit I get - all parties do that, though perhaps more suavely, but wandering uninvited through one of the world's most troubled regions to no obvious purpose? What's that all about? I've read the occasional comment that some Arab countries receive Levy politely, as a courtesy to the British government, but that they feel that Levy himself is a nuisance. As for Israel, perhaps Levy's philanthropic work for Jewish charities gives him a certain status, but we're talking high level diplomacy here, and a bit of charity work isn't really up there with the CVs of people like Jimmy Carter who really do have clout. Please Mr. R, can you explain the purpose of Levy?
Your comments about flytipping bad news are well made and at first sight it seems amazing that there should be so little public unrest at the way New Labour has conducted itself. I think, however, that I have the answer. It is not that we don't mind, it's just that currently we can't do anything about it. We need to change the system and particularly to reduce the unfettered power residing with the prime minister and the cabinet.
Nick,
there is a lot of salacious stuff in the press at the moment. I don't know what to make of the home news let alone the almost non existent coverage of Mr Blair Abroad. It usually snows in December, let's hope we don't get blizzards of political snow in the next few weeks. All this running around by the Premier just before Christmas.. What is he doing? Doesn't he have a home to go to? Oh yes he must have left the missus at home getting the packing done, or is that too soon? Well all I know is "The Times" online had a great cartoon of him last Friday as the Turkey in Turkey. To be found via their comments section under cartoons. A brilliant observation. Mind you headless chickens come to my mind. What are the they doing for xmas?
I like the fly tipping bad news as opposed to burying it!
You also have to wonder if the story is more in a pottential cover up than the scandel itself. It does seem from media reports that Levy's account differs from Tony's as well. The police will have to go back and ask more questions.
With not much else to report over Christmass, this story is going to run and run, both in the media, and logs like mine.
The government certainly buried enough bad news last week.
How strange therefore that the results of a local government review by a former labour councillor coincide with the fact that Parliament has now ended for Christmas!
I thing its time for the people to give them their own taste of cold turkey at the next election.
Oh, please Nick, give us a break with this "he's told friends" nonsense. We've all seen that Charlie Whelan doc, we all know that it's just a metaphor for "He told us, but asked us not to quote him directly". This kind of sleight-of-hand journalistic speech helps nobody and worse, erodes trust in ´óÏó´«Ã½ journalists. Report the real truth, and be damned to the consequences.
Isn't 'fly-tipping' rather like the US concept of 'take out the trash' day? Bad news gets released on a Friday, the idea being that no-one reads newspapers on Saturday, and with x column inches to fill, better to have them filled with multiple small items than one huge one.
Nick, while I do not always agree with you, I am with you all the way in your article that defends the ´óÏó´«Ã½ from the latest tirade from Richards et al. Richards has no doubt been briefed by what the ´óÏó´«Ã½ usually calls "Downing Street" (A phrase incidentally that I loathe for its lack of specificity). In short, Richards has been put up to this article by Blair himself or his acolytes, therefore his opinions need to be judged in that context.
Blair's trip can be summed up as "something ventured, nothing gained." I think he did it to insert a footnote in history hoping it will say "he tried" and equally hoping they omit the obvious and inevitable "he failed." He made as much difference as the hole left by a drop of water removed from a swimming pool.
I don't know why anyone would be surprised or upset that people can buy titles of aristocracy in Britain with money, influence, and power. Isn't that how they came into being in the first place?
Dear Nick,
"how long will it be before Iran invades
Dear Nick
Great Britain has become a very fearful place for the elderly and the sick, ------ this is Britain the fourth richest nation in the world, and we cannot care for our own people.