Led by Lord Mandelson, whose titles now include “First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Council”, there are now seven members of the Cabinet in the House of Lords. Gordon Brown is bringing in his unelected cronies to rule us.
This is an incredible step back in time for British democracy. It is the most Cabinet Ministers from the unelected House of Lords for over a century.
My first thought was that it was the most ministers from the House of Lords since the government of Lord Salisbury was defeated by the Liberals.
But incredibly, I am pretty sure that Gordon Brown’s government is less democratic than Lord Salisbury’s, because several of Salisbury’s ministers, like Lord Randolph Churchill and Lord Hamilton, were sons of peers and actually elected to the house of Commons. I haven’t checked it, but my suspicion is that this is the most undemocratic Cabinet since the Liberal Unionists walked out on Gladstone in the 1870s.
This really does defy belief. This is the Labour Party?
And not since the time of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, Britain has got two queens to rule us… nice one Mandy.
“Gordon Brown is bringing in his unelected cronies to rule us”…
http://tinyurl.com/q2sf6f
The universe tends to entropy. But since they are high-grade demons Straw and Mandelson do not obey the Laws of the Universe.
With the publics opinion in Labour at an all time low due to corruption who better than Mandelson.
A man of the people, defender of justice and above reproach. A true shite in shinning armour.
Once again Brown has outdone himself, he really knows the way to the peoples hearts.
now, now, now, you do Gordon an injustice……..he’s getting rid of the big Blearites, and smoking out the rest of them. He’s also introducing an American style “presidential administration”. This is not the beginning of the end…..this is the end of the beginning………..( fade….cue music)
And don’t forget Gordon Brown is unelected as Prime Minister.
I know this is “within the rules” – oh, where have we heard that one before?
Anyone of courage and integrity would go to the polls directly if appointed mid term.
We’ve had unelected Prime Ministers from the Conservatives and Labour, and they have both been rubbish.
Dear Craig,
As a University Rector, it would be great to hear what you make of this overlooked but hugely significant detail from the reshuffle:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=406877&c=2
Try to imagine a US president abolishing the Department of Education, and putting the Department of Commerce in charge of schools and universities.
No, I can’t either.
Shouldn’t you be resting Mr Murray?
This afternoon I was asked this very question and my reply was, “Haven’t a clue,” Immediately I arrived home I had a dig around on yahoo but my key words must have been poor because I didn’t raise anything about Gladstone’s difficulties.
I strongly suspect it is though, certainly in the past century. With this action Brown has removed the last vestiges of our democracy don’t you think.
Scott,
Thanks. Sorry, I should pay attention (even though it doesn’t affect Dundee). Will post something on it in the morning.
re my earlier post….of course to be truly presidential in the American style it would be necessary to give a job to the wife of a former premiere…Mrs Blair, no I don’t think so….wait , what’s this……Mrs Kinnock….and an ennoblement……way to go Gordie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/8086
May I suggest that for simplicity’s sake we now call Lord Mandelson “Pooh-Bah”, or “Lord High Everything Else”.
“Pooh-Bah” is too long-winded compared to the name I already call him.
Regarding Scott’s post above, please consider signing the following petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/honest-discovery/#detail
“Pooh-Bah” is too long-winded compared to the name I already call him.
– LOL
It’s a game. On all important matters, the hard state rules. They draw the white lines; politicians play against one another and the mainstream media report on the game, but only within those lines. The real ‘game’ takes place in the darkness, well outside the boundaries.
Ref your comment:
“The Green candidate in the constituency is an actor and local councillor and I am sure very nice and capable, but he doesn’t have anything near my life experience.”
Hi Craig,
I’m not an actor – I work in software, and have I believe, a fairly broad experience having worked in the US, Middle East (including Iraq), South America and North Africa.
Cheers
Councillor Adrian Holmes
Adrian,
I do apologise. The dangers of google. Mind you it is no insult to think someone is an actor.
I am sure you are a good man. I look forward to seeing you in Norwich.
The conservative candidate for Norwich North was on More4 News last night being interviewed with two other females.
She came across well – bright, young (she’s only about 25) and boyish.
If I was her agent I’d suggest she grow her hair. Certainly lots of potential there.
Craig’s intention to stand in Norwivch North has already made it on to a Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich_North_by-election,_2009
Dear Councillor Adrian Holmes
Are you worried about Craig Murray standing?
I think personally he should since he was shafted by New Labour.
He deserves justice and I think he could be a decent MP if given the chance.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Suhayl Saadi:
It’s a game. On all important matters, the hard state rules. They draw the white lines; politicians play against one another and the mainstream media report on the game, but only within those lines. The real ‘game’ takes place in the darkness, well outside the boundaries.
That’s exactly it and that’s what we should be addressing. We should be looking into where the real decisions are made ie going to war in Iraq and what drives them. All this business about corrupt MPs is diverting us from the real issue.
My belief is that the hard/deep/shadow state emanates from the inner depths of the Privy Council and that’s why Andrew Mackinlay made this comment:
‘It is also a bad day for Parliament when we get synthetic anger from the Opposition, who are cosying up?”the Privy Council club closing down debate and discussion on things that must be revealed.’
Gerard James stated:
‘Also The Privy Council allied with the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and the Cabinet and Cabinet Intelligence Unit which is the real control over the security and intelligence services are part of the secret permanent unaccountable Government.
We have seen from the arms to Iran, Iraq affairs, the Sandline affair and other scandals that politicians and Parliament have little or no control and are more like players in a pantomime put on for the general public and gullible public.’
I find it quite interesting that Mandelson is Lord President of the Council.
@Suhayl: “The real ‘game’ takes place in the darkness..”
You’re right. There is indeed such a Secret, called the Super Secret, and it is whispered from ear to ear in the Most Secret Society of Subversives. It is written in documents classified “Very Secret Indeed”. Would you like to know what it is?
Not telling you, it is a Secret. Na-na-na-na-na!
hope lies in the proles
I don’t understand why this upsets you so much Craig.
There is a surely a naivity to your trust in our ‘democracy’……
……If there was not a single ‘Lord’ in Brown’s cabinet it would make zero significant difference to how his ‘government’ behaves.
All such variations are merely cosmetic.
Let’s put it this way. For the last twelve years we have had a Tory government that operates under the name of ‘New Labour’.
Someone (more powerful than our elected members) has decided to trash this government, indeed the entire parliament, in the media.
The trauma has been seismic. The humiliation squirm-making. A gullible public seethes with rage.
The inevitable outcome of all this tumult?…….
…….a Tory government under the leadership of the wisteria-free David Cameron, he of the £350,000 taxpayer-funded mortgage.
Democracy?
Laugh…….I nearly bothered to vote last Thursday.
Smile, it’s not a secret, it’s very open. The people who decided the UK would attack Iraq and for whom Tony Blair was the PR man, the people who ensure that the UK is the second or third-biggest arms-dealer in the world, those who arm and train and manipulate idiots into becoming terrorists and then squash our hard-won liberties in the name of security, those who said they believed that (it’s a secret) Harold Wilson was a KGB agent but who actually feared people getting their hands on the levers of power – their power – it’s the arms-dealers, the global corporations, the parts (a la Italia) of the state in cahoots with the very biggest industry of all, organised crime.
In short, it’s public knowledge, if one is willing to look. But the powerful – there are clusters of power, it is the system, not a big, Da Vinci Code plot, so don’t dare try to put me in that kind of box, exert their influence in a covert manner – i.e. those involved don;t admit it to us, the readers – via constant information operations through journalists and media moguls – remember Maxwell? – on the payroll or simply those sympathetic to power.
This is not secret for anyone who are awake, but for people like you who want to cover their eyes and ears, it is and so you take refuge in pretending the world is as it is portayed to you. Don’t be a fool.
Smile’s post demeaning Suhayl Saadi and coming directly after my post is interesting. I’ve noticed that when anything fundamental and very close to the truth is posted a stupid comment follows. I suspect it’s to divert and as such is a tactic of the intelligence services.
Thanks, Ruth. Yes, it is interesting. I also find that a not so dissimilar thing sometimes happens when some of my public events are reported in the London-based mainstream media – here’s an example from The Guardian, see link at bottom of this post – to get a true picture of the event you need to scroll right down to read the ‘Comments’ from audience members (who hail from both London and Scotand), which differ completely from those of the journalist. I even thanked the audience members on the website, long afterwards, for pointing-out the mendacious nature of the article, as I didn’t discover the piece till long after.
I’m not saying that this event of mine and my colleague at the Edinburgh Book Festival was of any importance whatsoever in relation to the intelligence services – I’m sure they’ve got more important and more evil things to do, one imagines, than sit around listening to me, though if they would all buy my books and study them as part of thir training it would be helpful to me! (joke, I think) – but that – as I sense you may be suggesting – there is a prevailing attitude which rubbishes anything that smacks of truth, whether it be straight politics or arts politics or whatever, and that this is the normative, reflexive attitude of those who believe themselves to be, or who are, either in power, cosying-up to power, or representing power through the power of the word.
Whether this is deliberate or subconscious, or perhaps, like the imperialist attitudes fed to the young rulesr at public schools, a mixture of both, it is part of the hard-wiring of ‘our’ system.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/08/14/sunday_service.html
We have just been to a friends 33rd birthday party. He is a brilliant musician – and we felt so honoured to be invited.
Rachel turned up – and we all really love Rachel because she is just so nice.
But I got talking to Rachel about the power of psychology – and how I had been trained in it.
She said – well we do that all the time.
She then told me about the 4 year old little girl who was incredibly intelligent – and would have long detailed conversations with adults but would not communicate at all with children of her own age.
She said she had referred her to a psychologist for remedial treatment
I exploded You FASCIST!!!
How could you do that???
She is 4 Years Old
It is completely O.K. to be different – to be Shy – to not want to communicate.
She is Probably a Budding Genius
She is Different
For one thing – She shouldn’t even be within Your Control
She should be at home with her Mum
Now you have categorised her and referred her for TREATMENT because You Consider She is not NORMAL
She Doesn’t Conform To What YOU think is an Acceptable Standard Of Behaviour
There is Absolutely NOTHING Wrong with Being Shy
I asked Her – Was She Causing any Disruption To Anyone?
Was She Causing Anyone a Problem?
Rachel said – No – She was No Trouble at All – But Wouldn’t Communicate With The Other Kids Aged 3 and 4 – So Needed TREATMENT
Rachel has Never Had a Child Of Her Own
Rachel is about as Nu-Labour as You Can Get
Rachel is Part of The System of CONTROL
I will be seeing her later tonight and will probably Apologise for calling her a Fascist
I told her Partner What I had said – and explained the Details
Rachel came up to him – and Said You Are Drinking Too Much
He ignored her and got some London Pride from the Fridge
You might think this is Off Topic
But It Is Not
We are All Different
And For a Teacher To Refer a 4 Year Old To a Psychologist is Completely Obscene
She should be at home with her Mum
She will come out in her own good time if Given Real Love and Respect From Her Mum
Tony
Yes, Mr Opmoc, didn’t you know? It’s the beginning of the, uhm, rationalising process, so that regardless of any spurious individual talents or little pathological, ahem, differences we may have deep within our inner children, ultimately we will be wihout illusions, delusions or hallucinations and when we attin that level, it may be stated that we all can be potentially excellent middle managers who middle-manage everything and still remain, possibly through daily techniques of cognitive behavioural therapy, entirely, uniformly and blissfully sane.
So raise your glass and announce a toast to the Cogs of the World!!
That’s you ‘n’ me. Oil for the wheel.
Smile’s post reads like a joke to me. If there were a ‘message’ in it, I assume it would be not to take yourself or conspiracy theories too seriously. I recall a reported saying by the popular science writer Martin Gardner that sometimes a good horse laugh is the best answer to an outlandish theory.
Such theories – whether about Bilderberg, Halliburton or anyone else – can too easily become obsessions. Consider those who are immovably convinced that the American government murdered their own citizens on 9/11. They can be a negative example and a warning.