Sir Ian Blair: foot in mouth, again.

The Daily Mail accuses Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, of pre-empting the cash for honours investigation by telling ministers that his namesake, Prime Minister Tony Blair, is in the clear over the matter and that the investigation will be over within weeks.

Unlike his predecessor at the Met, John Stevens, who for all his faults was an old fashioned copper, Ian Blair is a New Labour apparatchik. Wikipedia has a convenient set of links of some of the nonsense Ian Blair has been involved in during only two years in the job. Blair's sociological ramblings (for example, see here and here) give some insight as to why this PC PC was given his present job by none other than Tony Blair.

Tags: Cash for honours, Ian Blair

Des Smith talks to the News of the World.

Des Smith, of cash for honours fame, has been telling the News of the World (text and video) that he contemplated suicide after being "hung out to dry" by Tony Blair during the cash for honours investigation.

Smith created the scandal by getting pissed and bragging to a potential donor about being able to fix him up with an honour in return for a donation to the city academies programme. The donor was, in fact, an undercover Sunday Times reporter. Oops! What did he expect Blair to do?

Tags: Cash for honours, Des Smith

Blair in the frame for cash for honours.

According to the Daily Mail, the Scotland Yard team led by the intrepid Assistant Commissioner Yates is nearly ready to submit a file on the cash for honours case to the Crown Prosecution Service. "Insiders" have told the Mail that Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell (Blair's chief press officer), Lord Levy and Ruth Turner (Blair's advisor on something or other) are the four people the Yard will recommend bringing charges against.

The police are being optimistic. The final decision will rest with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who received both his job and his peerage from Tony Blair. I fancy Blair will be calling in a marker or two.

Meanwhile, the world's few surviving socialists are enjoying the case and even the Iranian press is taking an interest.

Tags: Tony Blair, Cash for honours.

Goldsmith

The Evening Standard reports that Lord Goldsmith, Attorney General, the government's top legal official, has been pressured into agreeing to make public any advice he receives over cash for honours charges against individuals. Before getting tousled by MPs on Tuesday, he had refused to publish anything. Goldsmith also agreed

to demands by the Tories that he let opposition politicians help to chose an independent lawyer to advise him in the event that the Crown Prosecution wants to bring charges against Downing Street aides.

Such a major retreat, by the lawyer given his job and his peerage by the Prime Minister, looks like a prime example of a rat scurrying over the side of HMS Blair. The BBC has more, including a brewing row with deputy leader candidate, Harriet Harman, which may well rumble on for a few days.

As the Standard points out, Goldsmith's new openness is in sharp contrast with his refusal to publish either the first or second lots of advice he gave the Prime Minister over the "legality" of the invasion of Iraq. It has been widely reported (ie leaked) that Goldsmith first opined the invasion illegal but changed his mind under pressure from Blair. Wikipedia has links on the Iraq legal farrago.

Tags: Cash for honours, Goldsmith, Iraq.

Cash for Honours: let the cover up begin.

Des Smith, the braggart who began the cash for honours scandal by being indiscreet with Sunday Times journalists, is not be charged, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided. What a surprise!

I think we can also confidently predict that Lord Levy will not be charged either, or anybody else for that matter. Never mind that, as the BBC points out, Smith was concerned with only one aspect of the police investigation and there remains plenty of other matters which may yet result in charges, especially the cover up within Downing Street. Indeed,according to the Times, Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Downing Street press wallah, is still in Scotland Yard's sights

As I wrote some months ago, given the lack of an independent legal system in the UK, it was never to be expected that charges would be brought. The importance of the case has been the electoral damage to the government from the illumination of its crooked practices and of the sanctimonious hypocrisy of Blair's claims to moral superiority.

Other, early, reports from the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

Minor edits: 6/02/07.

Tags: Des Brown, Cash for Honours, Tony Blair.

More cash for honours pressure on Blair.

Loyalty amongst thieves is not what it was. Lord Cashpoint (aka Lord Levy) is threatening to sing, says the Mail on Sunday.

He is said to be prepared to "do whatever it takes" to defend his own reputation.

"He said he is not going to swing for the Prime Minister. He is not prepared to take the rap for what has happened," said a former Cabinet Minister who has discussed the matter candidly with Levy.

The Sunday Times says DAC Yates and his Scotland Yard team have evidence of a meeting last summer when Downing Street officials plotted their cover up. Of course they met and plotted; these people have nothing else to do all day. However, providing they were at last half competent in covering their tracks, proving a criminal conspiracy is another matter. Nonetheless,

According to a senior Whitehall source, police believe they now have evidence to recommend charges in the investigation. “They (the police) believe there was a conspiracy to cover up evidence over a period of weeks,” said the source yesterday.

Meanwhile the Independent discerns panic in Downing Street and paranoia at Scotland Yard; and the Sunday Telegraph puns away with Nightmare on Downing Street.

Many more links where the above came from.

Tags: Tony Blair, Cash for honours, Lord Levy

Cash for honours police interview shady character.

Last Friday, DAC Yates and his team interviewed Tony Blair, again. The news has just been released because, for reasons as yet known only to themselves, the police requested a media blackout. Also for reasons only apparent to the police, Blair was not interviewed under caution but as a witness. The Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and the Times have reports but neither side is saying much about the event. The DT also has a Rogues' Gallery featuring the main individuals involved in the case.

The Independent thinks the Labour government is "falling part" as Labour MPs begin to grasp the political damage being done by the scandal. Ah, nothing brings MPs into contact with reality more than a threat to their re-election chances.

Tags: Cash for Honours, Tony Blair, Politics

Lord Cashpoint arrested.

Crumbling Spires is re-opening for business with the news that, just when it was about to come to an end, the cash for honours police investigation has taken an interesting turn. Previously, the intrepid Assistant Commissioner Yates of the Yard has been looking into how Blair flogged honours in return for donations to the Labour Party; a juicy political scandal which may destroy this government but hardly likely to result in jail sentences. However, over the last three weeks Yates' focus has changed to more serious criminal matters than the sale of a few gongs: perverting the course of justice.

A fortnight ago, Ruth Turner, the Downing Street director of government relations, was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Yesterday Lord Levy, aka Lord Cashpoint, was re-arrested on similar suspicions. The Daily Telegraph has the details.

Obviously, for legal reasons, not too much can be said at this time but the Scotland Yard inquiry team do seem to feel that Downing Street has been obstructing their inquiry and that e-mails, relevant to the case have been destroyed.

Update @17:35

Monsters and Critics has an interesting American perspective on the affair

Tags: Cash for honours, Lord Levy, Ruth Turner

Cash for honours and holidays.

A bit of catching up to do after the Christmas break. The Cash for honours scandal rolls on. According to the Times, next in line to talk to Assistant Commissioner John Yates and his team are some of Tony Blair's Downing Street political staff: Jonathan Powell, John McTernan and and Ruth Turner.

Powell is a superior sort of personal assistant-cum-chief off-the-record spokesman, McTernan is the main Labour Party representative in Downing Street and Turner is some sort of political advisor. Exactly what they find to do all day is anybody's guess, but in the past they seem to have had occasion to receive, or perhaps even send, emails relating to the cash for honours business. It is such emails that AC Yates wants to talk to them about.

The Independent says McTernan was first up.

Meanwhile, the Blair family are on holiday at the Bee Gees' expense and certain MPs are not happy about it. Obviously there is no connection between the free holiday and the award of honours to the Blair's hosts, at least none that AC Yates has publicly expressed an interested in.

Tags: Cash for honours, Tony Blair, John McTernan

Cash for dishonour.

Not much is happening publicly in the cash for honours match up between Scotland Yard and Downing Street. Last weekend the press made a big thing of saying the inquiry was widening to encompass Blair's inner circle, Although the story made a splash abroad, as far as I can see, it is basically just a reworking of the "police seek e-mails" story which seems to accompany any major investigation these days.

Elsewhere, according to the Independent, some Labour MPs are out to get Assistant Commissioner Yates, the man in charge. The Evening Standard leads with the story but it is probably more accurate to say that they are continuing to go after Yates. As Lord Mackenzie, Labour peer and ex-policeman, pointed out previously, this sort of thing is not unknown amongst the criminal fraternity.

Which brings me seamlessly to Parliament. The major story to emerge is from this scandal is that MPs are using the case as an opportunity to bleed further the taxpayer. The logic,as expressed by leading Liberal leech doctor Alan Beith, seems to be that politics needs cleaning up, so remove the need for dodgy donations by funding the political parties with taxpayers' money. What next, abolish theft by giving everybody mounds of taxpayers' money?

Do not be fooled by the Guardian's headline that, "Time is running out for deal on party funding," or the difficulties identified by the Times, a deal will be eagerly agreed with tear-jerking, oscar-winning public reluctance and then whatever numbers are being mentioned now will pale into insignificant figures when our elected unrepresentatives really get their hands in the till.

Tags: Cash for honours, Parliament, Party funding.

Cash for honours: promotion and peace.

John Yates, the intrepid Scotland Yard detective in charge of the cash for honours investigation has been formally promoted from Deputy Assistant Commissioner to Assistant Commissioner. According to the BBC , he is now officially number 3 honcho at the Yard. Given that, these days, the top man, Ian Blair, seems to spend more time spouting sociological drivel than actually policing anything, arguably that makes AC Yates Britain's second most senior operational copper.

I can find no comment from the Prime Minister but the Daily Telegraph points out that Yates' appointment would have required the support of the Home Secretary. Meanwhile, the same link says, in the cash for honours nonsense, a peace of a sorts has come to the Middle East:

Mr Blair yesterday showered praise on Lord Levy, Labour's chief fund-raiser and his Middle East go-between, after a weekend of damaging speculation of a rift over the cash for honours affair.

Mr Blair said Lord Levy, who accompanied him to Ramallah for talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian authority, had performed "an excellent job" and been "immensely helpful" in his role as Middle East envoy.

Acknowledging the compliment, Lord Levy nodded in gratitude.

But in a sign that he has become a more controversial figure, he was placed in the second row of the press conference behind other government officials. During a trip to the Middle East in September, he sat prominently next to Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, in the front row.

You're not my friend any more, I don't want to sit with you. God help us. I wonder what the Palestinian terrorists thought of it all.

Tags: Cash for honours, John Yates, Lord Levy, Tony Blair

Of cash and dishonour amongst friends.

Loyalty can be a wonderful thing but it is rarely as entertaining as disloyalty. The headlines tell the story. The Sunday Telegraph goes with "Blair refuses to back Levy in Labour's cash for honours scandal", whilst the Sunday Mail sticks with "Knives are out for Levy as Blair rift grows." As I said again yesterday, Levy has made clear he is not going to be a fall guy and Blair seems to be getting rattled at the very thought of what Lord Cashpoint might say in court under oath. The Telegraph has a candidate for Lie of the Day,

Mr Blair is reported to have contradicted Lord Levy's written account to police when he was questioned at No 10. The Prime Minister is said to have told detectives he did not have "full knowledge" of the loans or the nominations, while the peer had claimed Mr Blair did know of his dealings with lenders.

The Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party had no knowledge of the loans and associated nominations? I hope Yates of the Yard has not spilt his coffee reading that one.

The intrepid AC Yates is still going. According to the Sunday Times, next up to have his collar felt is Jonathan Powell, the head clerk at Downing Street. It seems the Yard want to discuss a few emails.

Blair has told the police that individuals were nominated for honours for services to Labour. No, say the honoured ingrates, it was for " public service to the nation." The Independent says it has seen copies of secret Downing Street papers which prove the honoured ingrates are correct. I think the Indy's point is that Blair lied to the police. All the story proves is that Blair is an equal opportunities liar and certain rich businessmen have a high opinion of themselves.

Finally, for any fellow sad cases still enjoying the story, the Scotsman has a list of potential second time interviewees and names Detective Chief Inspector Graeme McNulty as the policeman who conducted the historic interview at Downing Street. Congratulations to DCI McNulty.

Sunday morning bonus @ 07:50: Andrew Rawnsley, who appears to have resigned from the Blair Fan Club, gets sanctimonious in the Observer. I just love it when journalists go all hypocritical on us. In the Sunday Times, Simon Jenkins has a go at the Attorney General on this (page 2 of the article) and al Yamamah.

Tags: Blair, Cash for honours

Cash for honours: the show goes on.

Gordon Brown has been forced on the defensive over his involvement in what appears to be his very own personalised version of Blair's cash for honours scandal.

The Daily Mail says he is "furious" that some newspapers are after him. I bet.

The Daily Telegraph thinks it might be a "dirty tricks" campaign from anti-Brown comrades in the Labour Party.

The Guardian , treats us to the rare sight of the comrades (one, at least) supporting Blair. A senior Labour backbencher has seen fit to poke his nose into a Police criminal inquiry and tell Scotland Yard to stop trying to enforce the law. How parliamentary of him.

Update @16:05

There is no getting away from it. The Daily Mail says AC Yates of the Yard, and his intrepid team are going to have another go at Lord Levy, Blair's chief fund-raiser. Could be interesting. As noted previously on Crumbling Spires, Levy is at the heart of this business and he has made clear that he is not going to be the fall guy for Blair. Sing, baby, sing!

Tags: Cash for honours, Gordon Brown, Lord Levy

The smells of corruption.

Tony Blair has finally been questioned by Scotland yard detectives investigating the cash for honours scandal. On radio and television, the news has been virtually eclipsed by rows over the inquiry into the death of the ex-Princess of Wales. As the Daily Mail reports, the Downing Street lie-machine has been in full operation.

Mr Blair's spokesman flatly denied that the interview had been deliberately timed to coincide with the publication of the Stevens report into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

"Categorically, that was not the case at all. Categorically, there was no linkage with other events." he said.

Blair seems to have had special treatment since the interview did not take place under caution or with lawyers present and the BBC says the interview was not done by the officer of charge of the case, Assistant Commissioner Yates.

I am no lawyer or expert on police investigations but I can tell a rotten political deal when I smell one.

Speaking of smells, the odious Gordon Brown is just beginning to reek over allegations, most fully reported in the Times, that he used the Treasury to force through a knighthood for one of Labour's major donors.

Sir Ronald Cohen, 60, who has given £1.3 million to Labour and is expected to become Mr Brown’s chief fundraiser, was knighted in 2000 for “services to the venture capital industry”.

But a senior Whitehall insider told Channel 4 News that officials had recommended that Sir Ronald receive a lesser honour, such as a CBE, MBE or OBE, but that was vetoed by the Treasury.

Neither the Cabinet Office, which oversees the honours process, nor the Treasury denied the claim last night.

A late bonus. Within the last few minutes, the Daily Telegraph has updated its time-line of the cash for honours scandal.

Tags: Tony Blair, Cash for Honours, Gordon Brown

Smoking guns and legal action.

The Cash for Honours saga continues to unfold, with tales of smoking guns and legal actions. Make of it what you will but I can see no smoke.

The Daily Telegraph reckons it might have found a smoking gun in the form of an email sent a fortnight before the general election by Matt Carter, then Labour's general secretary and Registered Treasurer. Aware that the media had got a story that the Conservative campaign was being financed by loans from wealthy supporters, Carter e-mailed a lot of senior Labour figures, warning them to leave the issue well alone because Labour was also using loans to finance its campaign. The DT draws the inference that senior Labour ministers and party officials, therefore, knew all about the loans, despite their subsequent denials. Maybe, maybe not.

In Guardian Comment, David Hencke reports some Labour constituencies are exploring legal options that could result in Blair and Levy being held personally responsible for any illegal loans.

Tags: Cash for honours

Des Smith, Tony Blair - a right pair... (updated)

According to the Sunday Telegraph Tony Blair is not letting the police have e-mails they have requested in connection with the cash for honours inquiry.

...detectives have complained privately that they received a "very slim" file of material only to discover, through further investigation of their own, that there were hundreds more documents, mainly emails, which had not been handed over. It is believed police gained access remotely to a Government computer to gather some of the material.

Yates of the Yard is said to be less than happy.

Meanwhile, Des Smith, the headmaster whom we have to thank for the cash for honours show, has been talking exclusively to the Daily Mail. When Smith was questioned by police, he was arrested and thrown in a cell for eight hours. Now he wants Blair to be treated the same.

He says: 'If the police are determined to treat everyone equally and be even-handed, a cosy chat at Chequers with Tony Blair simply will not do. My experience was dehumanising and designed to reduce me to my bare essentials. The Prime Minister must be treated the same way.'

Meanwhile,Tony Blair is already planning his revenge on the Police. No surprise. That's what criminals do.

Tags: Cash for honours

Cash for honours: nearly time to start feeling collars?

A few weeks ago, Assistant Commissioner John Yates wrote a letter to the House of Commons public administration committee, detailing the progress made by his inquiry into cash for honours.

According to the the Daily Mail, Yates also secretly briefed the committee, telling them that he was confident he would have enough evidence to bring charges and, in terms of the inquiry's progress, "he was 80 per cent of the way there."

Much as it would be fun to see Blair in the dock, it somehow seems the most unlikely outcome, however optimistic Yates might be.

Loans, donations and expenses.

A new twist in the cash for honours saga: Assistant Commissioner John Yates and his team have taken an interest in the possible conversion of the loans into donations, in order to circumvent election laws. As far as I know, commercial loans can be kept confidential but donations have to be declared. The question which will keep the lawyers rich is: when is a money handed over a loan and when is it a donation? According to the Daily Telegraph,

A source close to the investigation said that the commercial issue was now the critical factor in whether the Crown Prosecution Service would recommend criminal proceedings.

"If these loans were not commercial it is a serious breach of the law," claimed the source. "Loans have to have repayment dates and have genuine interest rates. That is what the police are now studying."

Yates of the Yard is to ask the Electoral Commission to examine the problem. Legal anoraks may want to study the relevant legislation: the 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.

Meanwhile,the Daily Mail is going big with the story that the perennially cash-strapped Labour Party is forcing Labour local councillors

to hand over hundreds of pounds each from their publicly-funded allowances to Labour slush funds for electioneering and party propaganda.

The scam - also under investigation by sleaze watchdogs – has been branded a "national disgrace", an "outrageous abuse of taxpayers' money" and an "affront to democracy".

News that their money is being used to line Labour's pockets will enrage council tax payers who have seen their bills soar as town halls have been starved of cash.

Council tax has more than doubled since Labour came to power.

The Mail has more on the financial details and, in yet another article, reveals that all the main parties have their snouts in the same trough.

Tags: Cash for honours, local government

Hewitt police interview.

Patricia Hewitt, Health secretary, has gained, I think, the distinction of being the first cabinet minister to be interviewed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates and his cash for honours investigation team. The Guardian report has a rather useful summary of events in the scandal so far.

Meanwhile the BBC offered a £100 bonus to the first journalist to confirm that Blair is to interviewed over the affair. Tightwads, £100 hardly covers a journalist's dinner time drink. Then the press, including the Daily Telegraph, got hold of it and the BBC's senior management went into damage limitation mode, blaming everything on a less senior manager:

...the BBC described as "wholly inappropriate" an e-mail sent to Millbank [BBC news] staff by the manager, named by Labour as Gary Smith. A spokesman said the manager had been guilty of an "error of judgement" and insisted that its journalists would continue to cover the "cash for peerages" affair in a fair and balanced way.

Tags: Cash for honours, Hewitt, BBC

Frank Field on cash for honours.

A senior Labour backbencher has joined in the cash for honours fun and games. Frank Field has always been something of a loose canon. Now, he is criticising the police for enforcing the law. Field has been telling the Daily Telegraph something that everybody knows but which, at this time, could cause the government political embarrassment. Honours, Field said, have been sold for centuries. He complained,

"The amount of police effort being expended on this is ridiculous. These police officers would be doing a much better public service if they were put to work trying to stop innocent people being blown up by terrorists.

The police investigation is utterly out of proportion. There was no complaint made to the police by a party leader. It was just a publicity stunt but the police bit and they should not have done so."

True, honours have always been sold but it has been done much more subtly than Blair's blatant disregard for the law. It is equally true that the police could be doing better things with their time, perhaps protecting the public from street robberies, but since they refuse to patrol the dangerous streets, this investigation at least gives them something constructive to do.

One final point. Since when have party leaders had a monopoly of reporting suspected crimes to the police?

Tags: Cash for honours, Frank Field