Brown Can't Run An Effective Tax Credit System ... Now We Expect Him to Run the Government?

Gordon Brown's tax credits system has handed out nearly £6 billion of overpayments over the past three years. Officials have already had to write off more than £500 million of overpayments and are "unlikely" to recover a further £1.4 billion according to a report by MPs. the MPs stressed that a further £1.28 billion of tax credits was lost in a single year as a result of "unacceptable" levels of fraud and error. The report also says that the Government has not introduced additional checks on tax credit claims submitted by migrant workers from Eastern European countries that have joined the EU.

According to the Public Accounts select committee tax credits now suffer the highest levels of fraud and error in the whole of the Government.


We already know about the pension disaster under Brown and the tax credit system he is responsible for hands out 6 Billion in overpayment and loses a further 1.4 Billion due to fraud. If this is Brown's track record should we not be concerned that he will be responsible for running the country?

Brown Hopes That By Bringing In A Younger Cabinet He Will Have A Better Chance a Challenging Cameron

Brown hopes a Cabinet with a younger yet still experienced image will give Labour a fresh start and counter the challenge of David Cameron after the Conservatives success in last week's elections. When Mr Brown takes over it looks as though the four most senior posts in Government, prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary and now home secretary are most likely changing.

This large cabinet restructure would the largest since 1997. Brown is attempting to make a clean brake with the Blair years and resurrect Labour. The only problem facing Labour is that the voters support Brown only marginally more than Blair. After the past 10 years the British public are no longer that easily fooled. Brown will create new slogans and spin however the same package in different wrapping paper is still the same package.

Brown will need to perform a miracle to gain the support of the country after the past 10 years of broken promises and Labour sleaze. A miracle which I hope, for our country's sake, never materializes.

Blair's Desire for a "European" Legacy Is More Important to Him than the Impact His Actions Will Have on Britain

Senior Whitehall officials claim that Tony Blair intends to use his final weeks in office to surrender British powers to Brussels as part of his drive for a European "legacy" despite the future repercussions. Prime Minister Blair will effectively be binding the hands of Gordon Brown by committing Britain to a rewritten version of the European Union constitution days before he finally resigns at the end of June.

Mr Blair's has wanted to do forge closer links with France and Germany since coming to power in 1997. This action by Blair will dash Labour's hopes of a "stable and orderly transition" of power when Mr Blair announces his departure plans later this week. Brown will have a series of difficult and time consuming negotiations to undertake to undo any or all of Mr Blair's moves to sign away powers. These negotiations would likely dominate Brown's tenure at number 10.

Yesterday a senior civil servant said, "The concern is that the outgoing Prime Minister will take constitutional decisions which will bind both his successor and the country for years. There is a worry he believes this should be part of his political legacy and that he will be acting as an individual and not the leader of a government." This seems to be a very accurate statement.

Blair is consumed by ensuring his legacy and will do so, it seems, even at the expense of the country he was entrusted to run.

Gordon Brown and the £1 Billion "Cover-up"

The Government has been accused of covering up a £1 billion discrepancy in the finances for the London Olympic Games when Britain submitted its bid. The original discrepancy of the £1 billion difference however has now turned into a 6.95 Billion discrepancy with the current estimate mushrooming to 9.35 Billion in March of this year or nearly 4 times the original 2.4 Billion pound estimate.

This latest revelation is highly embarrassing to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is poised to take over as prime minister from Tony Blair. When London submitted its bid, he portrayed himself as gatekeeper for the Games, saying the Government would act as "ultimate guarantor" of their final cost.

Shadow chancellor, George Osborne, accused the Government and Chancellor of "trying to cover their tracks". He said: "These startling revelations raise more questions about Gordon Brown's integrity and competence. It's taxpayers who are going to pay the price."

The most disturbing part is that Ministerial aides were told by accountants two months before the bid's submission, and 10 months before the capital knew it had been chosen to host the Games, that the estimated bill for the Olympics of £3.4 billion was significantly short of the mark.

Brown has attempted in the past months to distance himself from Blair and the various scandals and difficult situations Blair has been involved in. Gordon Brown can not distance himself from this however. It just goes to show that not only Blair, but his entire cabinet, are quite happy to lie to and manipulate the British public. Then ,when caught, they attempt to cover it up or make light of very serious situations. A source in Labour close to Gordon Brown attempts to brush off the entire issue by saying, "The Tories are really scraping the barrel if they are making an issue of this. [George] Osborne should stop playing partisan games with the Olympics."

This "minor" discrepancy of approximately 6.95 Billion pounds may not be an issue to this government, however I'm certain it will be to the taxpayers who will end up footing the bill. This government is doing what it does best, breaking promises, lying to the public and then attempting to cover the entire situation up. If you thought Gordon Brown would be any better than Blair perhaps now is the time to have second thoughts.

Leaked Memo of Talks Between Blair and Bush

Blair and Labour have lost the trust of the British people. Therefore it would not be surprising to find that this government has caused the rest of the world to lose trust in the UK as well.

Thankfully the leak of this memo was stopped, but what

happens next time when it is

not? All the more reason to

NOT vote for Labour at the next general

election. Whether we choose to admit it or not

the UK needs the support of our allies

and a breach in trust and/or breakdown of

communication would be disastrous for our country.

Over the past several years Blair and the Labour party have made many poor decisions, broken promises and been involved in more than a few scandals which have caused great embarrassment to the remarkable country we live in. Under Gordon Brown, or any Labour MP who has been a central part of Blair's government, do we really expect this to change?

The latest incident, the leaked memo, could have not only have "raised international tensions," according to Dave Perry QC but he also agreed that it would have"seriously damaged relations with friendly governments" as well as threatening life and public order and the "operational effectiveness of the security of UK or allied forces".

Civil servant David Keogh, 50, and MP's researcher Leo O'Connor, 44 deny three charges under the Official Secrets Act. Mr Keogh is said to have passed the record of the meeting between Blair and Bush to researcher Mr O'Connor. The contents of the memo are so sensitive that they are not being disclosed in open court and much of the trial is being held behind closed doors.

Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald said a leak would have sparked worldwide anger. Sir Nigel described how the leaking of such a secret and sensitive document could have damaged Britain's alliances within the world and destroyed the trust needed for governments to speak openly to each other and that it would have put UK forces at risk.

David Miliband Declares He Will Support Gordon Brown as the Next Prime Minister

David Miliband, Brown's most serious rival, said publicly for the first time that he will support the Chancellor. At a Labour press conference in Glasgow for the Scottish Parliament election campaign, Mr Miliband denied that he was waiting for the results to decide whether to stand. "I'll be voting for Gordon Brown as Labour leader," he said. "He's done fantastic things for the prosperity of all British people over the last 10 years and I think he's the best qualified candidate across a wider canvas. He'll bring pride to the whole of the UK and when he does I look forward to supporting him."

However Mr Miliband, who is now expected to head an environment and energy department in Brown's Cabinet, argued in a news-paper article that success in the next general election would require the party not to go back on the New Labour project, but to offer "New Labour Plus''.

What exactly is "New Labour Plus?" New Labour was filled with broken promises, airs of corruption, scandals, an increase in the "surveillance society" we now have to endure and many public services including the NHS going downhill. Does New Labour Plus mean even more of the above? Do we now have more broken promises, scandals, and even worse public services to look forward to?

"New Labour" was the country's golden child at one time, today they are nothing more than an embarrassment.

Cash For Access Memo Leaked Days After CPS is Handed 216 Page Cash for Honours File

A strategy to "sell" Downing Street access to wealthy party donors from the very beginning of the Blair years has been uncovered. A leaked internal memo places Tony Blair, his chief of staff Jonathan Powell and Labour's leading fundraiser Lord Levy at the centre of a "cash-for-access" policy to raise millions.

This leak comes days after police handed over a 216-page file to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is now deciding whether to press criminal charges over the cash-for-honours affair. The document was written by Amanda Delew, the former head of the High Value Fundraising Unit at Labour HQ, shortly after the party swept to power in 1997. It proposes that the prospect of access to Number 10 and Tony Blair could help raise more than £15million for party funds. The paper insists the Prime Minister 'must continue to have private meetings' with some donors while others 'would expect to be invited' to Downing Street.

A Labour spokesman insisted last night that the document was discarded before it reached
senior members of the party and that "no one who gave money to the party is given preferential treatment and no one can buy access to Downing Street".

But Angus MacNeil, the Scottish Nationalist MP who triggered the cash for honours police investigation, said: "This document is symptomatic of New Labour and its obsession with the rich and wealthy. It is not to me, or any other politician, they must answer. It is to the highest court in the land."

Lord Goldsmith , a Labour minister who once gave money to the party and who owes his job to Tony Blair, could end up making the final decision on whether charges are brought. Complaints have been made that the Attorney General is politically compromises however Lord Goldsmith insisted he would judge the case for a prosecution "objectively, on the evidence, independently from Government".

Opposition MPs questioned his impartiality. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "He is a politician and he is a peer - he was made a peer by Tony Blair. None of that is wrong but he should not be involved in this decision. It should be made independently by a members of the Crown Prosecution Service."


Yes, the decision should be made independently however I am certain that Mr. Blair will use all methods of persuasion available to him to encourage Lord Goldsmith to put a stop the the prosecution despite the fact sources close to the inquiry have described the police file as "very robust". If charges are brought, Mr Blair, who was interviewed twice by detectives, could be called to give evidence in court. That alone gives Blair motivation to pressure Lord Goldsmith.

It is quite obvious that honours were sold for donations to the party and even more obvious Levy tried to cover this up. The only remaining question is will Mr Blair's influence stop it from going to trial?

Labour - The Battle to Suceed Blair

Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke is heading the 'Stop Gordon Brown' campaign. He fired the opening shots in what threatens to be a fiercely-fought battle to succeed Tony Blair.
"Recent political history is littered with leadership favourites who have been pipped at the post," said Clarke. "There is no reason why the Chancellor should not suffer the same shock defeat." Mr Clarke, who recently called Mr Brown a 'deluded control freak', says that it is impossible to predict what will happen when Mr Blair resigns next month and the Labour leadership race starts in earnest.


The Labour Party during the last few years has had one problem after another. Most recently with the cash for honours inquiry, the handling of the Hostage Crisis, and now the battle within the party to succeed Blair. This Government is NOT heading in the right direction. We can only hope at the next general election the the public will see through the empty promises which they will no doubt make and NOT support Labour. Britain needs to rebuild its image as a country and government with strong effective leadership instead of the current image of a weak scandal-filled government in which one hand has no idea what the other is doing.