This information comes straight from a source with direct access to the Cabinet Office investigation into Fox’s relationship with Werritty.
Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary, has fixed with Cameron the lines of his investigation to allow him to whitewash Fox. This will be done by the standard method of only asking very narrow questions, to which the answer is known to be satisfactory. In this case, the investigation into Werritty’s finances will look only at the very narrow question of whether he received specific payments that can be linked directly to the setting up of specific meetings with Fox. The answer is thought to be no; that is what Fox was indicating by his extraordinary formulation to the House of Commons that Werritty was “not dependent on any transactional behaviour to maintain his income”.
So O’Donnell will announce that Werritty received no specific money for specific meetings with or introductions to Fox.
But the deal between Cameron, Fox and O’Donnell is that O’Donnell will not address the much more important question of who funded Werritty and why. Having claimed there was no wrongdoing, O’Donnell will say Mr Werritty’s finances are private and should not be made public. It was on that basis that Werritty agreed to give financial details to Sue Gray in the Cabinet Office yesterday.
The Cabinet Office will only look for direct evidence of a little grubby money-making for introductions to Fox. But what is actually happening is much worse and much more serious. Who paid for Werritty’s eighteen overseas trips with Liam Fox and his stays in exclusive hotels in the World’s most expensive destinations? What does he live on?
The answer is that Werritty is paid by representatives of far right US and Israeli sources to influence the British defence secretary. It has been discussed within the MOD whether Werritty is being – knowingly or otherwise – run as an agent of influence by the CIA or Mossad. That is why the chiefs of the armed forces are so concerned, and why there is today much gagging at the stitch up within the Cabinet Office.
This has parallels to the Christine Keeler case but is much, much worse.
That the British Defence Minister holds frequent unrecorded meetings in the Ministry and abroad with somebody promoting the interests of foreign powers is much, much worse than a little cash-grubbing. That the person representing the foreign powers is actually present, apparently to all as a ministerial adviser, at meetings of Fox with important representatives of foreign nations is simply appalling.
That we are being so easily misdirected to a narrow cash question – and that the media have followed that misdirection – is ludicrous.
Somebody needs to investigate who Fox and Werritty met during those ‘off duty’ stopovers that were being tagged onto the official trips.
Sunflower,
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Do you really want to take this serious matter to this vague direction? Be serious, this is pure criminal corruption and those who guilty need to face charges. Taking this matter to Zionist direction you are hijacking true substance, do not you think?
Happy Birthday Mrs T. You removed manufacturing and replaced it with the financial services industry. You removed the Unions and replaced them with privatisation. You removed the freedom of opinion / speech of individual M.P.s and replaced them with lobbyists. And the candle on the cake is the scandal of this defence secretary in which the recession-profiteering, spin-doctoring, Zio-banking, Werrities of this world openly sell our interests in the corridors of power.
This scandal has been a long time coming and was utterly predictable. Please remember that it was Maggie who started it, and whose radical disregard for political conventions is still admired by politicians today.
Emetic. Taken at his 50th birthday party last month.
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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00214/fox-thatcher-962691_214426g.jpg
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NORTH Somerset MP Liam Fox celebrated his 50th birthday in style at Admiralty House in London with family and friends from all walks of life.
Celebrities, politicians, media moguls and people from the constituency mingled in the grace and favour flat. But the “VIP guests of honour” must have been Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron.
Both Baroness Thatcher and Mr Cameron live close by in Westminster.
And while the trio toured the room one wag was heard to quip, “a past, present and future prime minister”.
Liam had labelled his party “the first 50” and the invitations to 325 guests said the preferred dress code was “casual”.
The birthday boy and wife Jesme were colour-coded wearing complimentary Tory blue outfits.
Anno,
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Are you suggesting that Britain was better off before Maggie? Was not it ‘sick man of Europe’ for a long while?
A thought for Sheila:
Why do I have to be labelled an ‘apologist’ for Israel? Are you an apologist for a corruptly elected, anti-gay, mysogynist leader of Iran?
There is an underlying assumption in many of these threads, Craig, that Israel trying to influence anything must, ipso facto, be evil.
My concern about this case is whether corruption has occurred, the law is being bent, or any threats to national security have occurred. It’s possible they have: so being neutral (just as with Hackgate)I will slam the shit out of anyone doing it…be that Merdeschlock or Trinity Mirror.
Who the culprits do or don’t support falls into the category of Agenda, and is of no concern to me whatsoever. I am always suspicious of agenda. Most people commenting here are trying to attach an agenda to Werritty based on associations with the US and Israel. One is an ally, neither is an enemy, and neither are rogue States. This must, I would’ve thought, reveal THEIR agenda.
Just thought I’d make my position abundantly clear. I am not left, right or centre, I am for justice.
So, like I said, keep it up Craig.
So does this mean that St Andrews in funkin Fife is a zionist hot bed ?
Seems our Parliament is goin the same way as Congress across the pond… Either friends of , spokesmen for or law changers for Israel.
Have noticed the European stance on the Mid east question is shifting too,so guess their influence is well embedded there as well.
Was it like this before WW I ?
What do non zionists get out of helping Netanyahoo and Lieberman continue with their ethnic cleansing ?
Uzbek
I am suggesting that the political, journalistic and chattering classes admire this sort of behaviour and it will boost Mr Fox’s popularity, not diminish it.
Maggie razed political and personal morality to the ground. I am a man who values honesty and integrity in private and public life over material prosperity. So yes, I am suggesting that the UK is very much worse off after Maggie, and the bubble she made is looking equally shrivelled as the culprit. I hope both the system and its initiators and supporters expire very soon. Good riddance to thirty years of lies and propaganda which has been a total waste of time. It is shame on a wealthy country like ours to have been driven into the ground financially, and left begging to the likes of Israel for permission to move on matters of defence and diplomacy.
Yes, my friend, after this recession and these wars, I am very, very ashamed to be British at this time.
@Uzbek
For many of us outside London & the South East it was immeasurably better. We even had jobs and a society back then (not that the Thatcherites would agree about there being such a thing as society). To Anno’s list I would add “removal of the impartiality of the Civil Service
What do non zionists get out of helping Netanyahoo and Lieberman continue with their ethnic cleansing ?
Campaign funding. The votes of Jewish voters in swing states/constituencies. Freebies to nice hotels in Israel. Contacts with very rich people. And jobs for life after they have been slung out of government.
Simples.
There must be some way of getting Fox and Werritty to answer the important questions surrounding W’s financial funding. Every business, as far as my understanding goes, is subject to scrutiny. But businesses like Blair and Werritty seem to escape this scrutiny. The trouble with inquiries is the conclusion is generally pre-ordained, so in essence they are useless in getting at the truth. But if Werritty has eased the brokerage of foreign deals as illegal “adviser” to Fox then he has broken the law and should face the courts.
AndyB,
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It is hard to view Thatcherism thought black and white prism only. Many things Thatcherism brought have indeed been negative and Anno rightly pointed out to some of those. On the other hand I think it is a bit hypocrisy to ignore many positive things that globalisation brought and particularly to the developing world. Many millions have been lifted out of poverty (particularly in Africa and South East Asia) by opening up markets in the West for their goods and it also forced some of these societies to change their socio-economic policies to attract investments. Look at China, look at India, look at Malaysia and others.
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To what extend do you think it was possible to continue to produce goods that very overvalued just because some in the North wanted to go to their factories and keep themselves employed? World changes and societies should change with it and it is always easier for developed societies to adjust to changes.
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Some 200 years ago some called Luddites raised against changes of time. What do you would have happed if they won? Would we be living in better world?
Craig, you say “The US is an ally. Israel is not, as a simple matter of fact.”
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Is it possible that the US is not really our ally either? They drag us into wars of choice, make us hated around the world and ruin our international reputation, corrupt our representatives from the top down, did nothing to stop the flow of arms and money to IRA terrorists, and conspire with Israel against us. Even now, we have Tim Geitner telling us not to introduce a STET/Tobin speculation tax (to encourage more rampant bankster-driven destruction to our banking system). They drive a wedge between us and Europe, and use us to influence Europe to their advantage. I could go on at some length, but you get the point.
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Indeed, with allies like this…
….if history teaches us anything it is that we learn nothing from history department:
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/analysis/55941/blair-not-flavour-palestines-week
Blair’s “week” (four days in other accounts) per month costs someone £1.5M a year (£1.8M, £2M). He will shortly be relocating to the disputed centre of East Jerusalem to save maybe 5% of the bill. Allegedly.
Anno,
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Do you suggest that Britain has had different (more moral value based) priorities in foreign policy before Maggie? Was not it main participant in Suez War, was not it supporting various anti-communist regimes around the world? Was not there corruption amongst those with power? Was not Oxbridge closed for anyone whose parents did not attend it before them?
@uzbek
“To what extend do you think it was possible to continue to produce goods that very overvalued just because some in the North wanted to go to their factories and keep themselves employed? World changes and societies should change with it and it is always easier for developed societies to adjust to changes.”
What a load of narrow-minded bogoted clap-trap.
The North wasn’t devastated by the world changing, although that did have an effect. It was devastated, and remains largely depressed due to an ideology that said we don’t need manufacturing we only need service industries. It was a deliberate policy and any dissent to it was brutally repressed by the police. I lived through the eighties in the North of England. You clearly didn’t.
As I work in the IT industry and have to constantly adapt to change I don’t think it fair or reasonable for you to call me a Luddite, but to answer the question you nearly asked: Yes, the world would be a much better place had we not had (and still have) Thatcherism/Reaganomics
To be fair to the BBC and Nick Robinson in particular, I don’t think he has bought the spin.
Pretty sure he reported last night on the 10 o’clock news that Cameron promised someone – suggestion was that it was one of Werritty’s patrons – that Fox would not be resigning. Basically he is signalling that there is a cover-up underway, which is exactly what you are corroborating.
Craig disclosure ties in nicely with the story of another ‘special advisor’ – that of Luke Coffey, the ex CIA agent with an MOD pass but no security clearance according to an ex Navy friend in the MOD. He has complained that the American Coffey has convinced Fox to buy American arms including torpedoes (Spearfish is dead and the 7511 as I knew it was deemed ineffective) despite costly spares, maintenance and loss of British jobs.
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Luke Coffey runs the London branch of an American think tank called CENSA (Council for Emerging National Security Affairs).
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http://www.censa.net/membership-directory-c.asp
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Jeff Benson, former US Office of Naval Intelligence and known to my contact, is a member of CENSA.
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I am wondering now how many more American think-tanks are directly UK Defence policies.
AndyB,
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Do not get me wrong. I was not calling you a Luddite. I was just using this historical fact as an example that sometimes society or part of society that feels perfectly normal with what they have (or with what they have achieved) rejects changes that are dictated by time even those changes that as proved by history to be more beneficial to a wider society if not whole humankind. Moving industries abroad resulted to lower prices on produced goods and also profited those societies that have been surviving on less than 50 pennies a day. Of course there are still millions of those who still survives on less than 50 pennies a day BUT if those societies did not have industries that have been moved from the North of England and elsewhere in the West they have been much worse off, have not they?
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Of course the policy that relies to financial services only is damaging and we are now experiencing damage as a result of such policy. My point here is that one cannot only highlight negative effects of Thatcherism without even mentioning some positive effects of it. This is particularly hypocrisy for one who does not want to be called narrow-minded bigot.
Liam Fox and Security Features Limited
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Within a year of Liam Fox’s move to the Tory shadow defence portfolio in late 2005, Mr Werritty was made a director of a company known as ‘Security Futures Ltd’ and used Fox’s London address as his point of contact.
It styled itself as “fuelling and informing” the debate on Britain’s future security needs, with Mr Werritty listed as a consultant.
Among those with a stake in the company was Iain Stewart and Laura Sandys, who both became Tory MPs at the last election.
Neither have been available for comment. Another director was Oliver Hylton, an aide to Michael Hintze, a hedge fund entrepreneur and Tory donor another ‘close friend’ of Fox.
The company was recently dissolved. I wonder why?
Mark_golding and Mary, I must thank you for your vigilance. You are both amazing in the facts and links that you provide. Please keep it up. Uzbek: get real. I am a Cambridge PhD and my parents certainly had no connections whatsoever. Please don’t discredit the dialogue with nonsense.
An illustration of the effect of globalisation not recognised by Uzbek in the UK. There are said to 1 million Chinese workers living underground in Beijing. They have left their rural lives to work as slaves in the factories dying of industrial diseases and overworking. Another effect of this migration is that food production is reduced this forcing up world prices for commodities. A better world for us all? Defintely not. For the rich? Yes. They have become richer.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/8291626/Underground-world-hints-at-Chinas-coming-crisis.html
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“Many millions have been lifted out of poverty (particularly in Africa and South East Asia) by opening up markets in the West for their goods and it also forced some of these societies to change their socio-economic policies to attract investments. Look at China, look at India, look at Malaysia and others.”
And many millions more have been plunged into poverty, as capitalism has dispossessed them, driven them from their land,and forced them to emigrate in search of wage labour.
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“Some 200 years ago some called Luddites raised against changes of time. What do you would have happed if they won? Would we be living in better world?”
Had the Luddites won would be living in a better world? Very much so: far from being opposed to machinery the Luddites, who were the people who had developed, adapted and tested the labour saving devices, were opposed to the distribution of enhanced productivity. They called not for more and harder labour but for an equitable distribution of both wealth and leisure.
The Luddism meme, like the “sick man of Europe” is highly misleading: in both cases the argument for socialising the economy, sharing the wealth and control over the means of production were being made. Historians have, of course, been seduced by the wonders of capitalism into characterising all opposition as reactionary and impractical; curiously enough they did not take the same view of Stalin’s Collectivisation (the relatively benign equivalent of enclosure) though they do of the mass dispossession of Latin American, Asian and African peasants as subsistence holdings are rolled up into capitalist plantations and food production gives way to biofuel and….come to think of it where did all that cotton land in Uzbekhistan come from? And what used to grow there before?
Anyway: leave the Luddites alone. They were right, and had we followed their more humane, socially protectionist path the world would be a better place and millions of those whose lives were shattered in the Victorian slums might have had better, more productive, less bleak lives.
Sheila,
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Do you now suggest that Oxbridge is not the place for rich chavs that have been famous with producing heads of states worldwide and top civil servants? Why are there only 3 Black- Caribbean students at Oxford this year (if I am not mistaken)?
Mary,
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You are getting me wrong here too. Globalisation has had and is still having negative effect as well as Thatcherism and any other changes to societies that have happened in the last 5 thousand years. There are in fact slave labourers in China, Bangladesh, and certainly in my native Uzbekistan but this is more problem for those particular societies to sort out their law enforcement and government system than becoming the reason to finish globalisation and return to the world with barriers and high custom taxes. As for commodity prices going up, this is a result of societies development OR do you suggest that peasants in China should work day and night and sell their goods for nothing, of course they rather move to the cities and find better source or income OR will you blame them for it?
The demise of ‘Atlantic Bridge’ is an insight into the Conservative’s secret agenda to KILL our NHS – THAT beyond all reasonable doubt.
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Congressman John Campbell, who sat on the ‘Atlantic Bridge’ advisory board, wrote: “Britain’s socialised medicine system is enormously inefficient, wasteful, and costly.”
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– This did not help Obama’s healthcare reform plans. The secret message to America from Agent Cameron in response was that Britain’s NHS will be privatised ‘in critical areas’ to ensure its survival in a time of economic failure. So much for this bastards election promise to protect the NHS as ‘free at the point of use’. Indeed our NHS in Tory hands will end up like the dentists – an utter shambles and expensive too boot without the ‘required’ insurance.
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The accounts OF ‘Atlantic Bridge’ also show that £104,000 – or 58% of the charities voluntary income – had come from one source: the Michael Hintze Family Foundation – the hedge fund entrepreneur and Goldman Sachs banker behind Fox’s company, ‘Security Futures Ltd. Money flowed between the two companies.
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So much for Nick Clegg and his Lib Dems for their influence over a Tory Party bent on destroying our social and health systems.
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I say – OUT! OUT! OUT!
Uzbek
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If the figure is correct, it’s only meaningful (as a criticism of admission policies) if we know how many Black-Caribbean students applied for admission. Do you have that figure?
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I am a Cambridge graduate, and was involved in the CUSU Access campaign. There is something similar at Oxford.
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http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/campaigns/access/
Uzbek. I have no idea in response to your question. Maybe it is drugs or reggie, a failure in school education or whatever. But as a graduate who attended Cambridge and stayed on as a post-doc at Cambridge for a while – pre-Maggie – I repeat that I never saw an incidence of bias against excellence, wherever the person came from, or whatever their background. So, I repeat, please do not promulgate nonsense about Oxbridge.
Uzbek:
Whatever the UK, France and Israel (co-opted through some devious diplomacy. and rather against its own interests) were doing in Suez, it was (a) under a Tory government and (b) opposed, and eventually stopped, by the US. I don’t see any lessons for the present situation, in which the Tories, at least, have done a complete volte-face on the Middle East and appear to be the humble servants of US policy. Which is to bribe Egypt, Jordan, Saudi and the rest not to have another go at Israel.
Seen in a shop window:
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“Nice to get some details of what O’Donnells life peerage was awarded for, when he selects his title can I suggest he goes for Lord O’Donnell of Whyte-Lyme.”