From The Lancashire Evening Telegraph 31st March 2006
JACK Straw will include no broken confidences or tittle-tattle in his memoirs if he ever gets round to publishing them.
The Blackburn MP and Foreign Secretary came under fire from MPs on a Commons committee cross-examining him about his attempts to block two books by former diplomats. They asked him if he intended to publish his own memories, and he said he might.
Mr Straw was immediately accused of hypocrisy for on the one hand savaging former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer and ex- Uzbekistan envoy Craig Murray over their tell-all books and considering writing his own.
But today Mr Straw said: “I have not decided if I am going to write a book yet. I might but if I do it will be in due time and will observe all the rules. “If I do it will be memoirs not diaries like my predecessor as Blackburn MP Barbara Castle. I don’t keep a diary. “The problem with Sir Christopher’s book was that it broke confidences.
“The case of Mr Murray’s book is still ongoing. With Sir Christopher’s book, I take responsibility for not trying to legally stop it because he did not actually break any rules. He just broke confidences and filled it full of tittle-tattle.”
“If I do publish my memoirs I shall not break any confidences and there will be no tittle-tattle but I hope it will be amusing.”
This is the usual double standard, so often manifested in the actions of these 'New Labour' ministers.
The 'Rules', grossly unfair, and insofar as there are any, are subject to constant change – and depend entirely on what personally suits the Minister. They are all open to a wide range of 'interpretations' and 'reviews'. What is clear is that, as usual, Straw will want to have it all ways. This man is not capable of consistent thought or action except those of his own personal interests. He is a complete opportunist and a charlatan.
It's increasingly obvious that for all the protestations about 'Open Government' and so on, this regime is absolutely terrified of proper public scrutiny. That phrase and the manifesto pledge is completely hollow. These Ministers are completely amoral, manipulative, devious and unprincipled.
We are witnessing the naked exercise of power without any notion of responsibility. They have lost all sense of service to the electorate, preferring to 'manage' this country by ill-considered and profligate spending of our taxes, handing over huge revenues to their ghastly cronies.
This is a revolting spectacle. It is time for a change.
Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest….