World class poverty in Tower Hamlets! And not a single word about the cause, let alone solution, from Crossrail hole degenerate Livingstone

World class poverty in Tower Hamlets! And not a single word about the cause, let alone solution, from Crossrail hole degenerate Livingstone



From the web site of the London EVENING standardless STANDARD




"
HEADLINES:
Tower Hamlets: among the most deprived areas in England
Children of bad parents 'doomed to poverty at 3'
Joe Murphy, Political Editor
14.04.08
Related Articles
Comment: We need a mayor to rescue lost generation

A generation of London babies are doomed to crime or poverty before they are three years old, new research has shown.

They are born into such dysfunctional families that when they go to nursery school their brains are already underdeveloped.

The findings were revealed today by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith as he published a study containing startling statistics about social breakdown in the capital.

In an unprecedented move, his Social Justice Commission think tank is to team up with the Smith Foundation - the group set up in memory of late Labour leader John Smith and closely linked to Gordon Brown - to investigate the phenomenon further.

"The life outcomes for these children are virtually set in stone by the time they are three," said Mr Duncan Smith who, since losing the party leadership in 2003, has devoted his time to highlighting social problems and possible solutions. Most babies begin development with their parents talking to them or reading aloud, which develops their brains and teaches them to socialise.

The problem begins when babies are ignored, or live in homes where there is anger, shouting or mistreatment.

By nursery age, some are unable to converse properly and have not learned how to share toys or play happily. Only intensive teaching could save them but hard-pressed teachers were unable to break off from the other children.

"Once they are behind their peer group, it is very difficult to rescue them and they are likely to end up involved in crime or drugs," said Mr Duncan Smith. "This gets to the very heart of everything else we have been looking at.

"One lesson is that it costs three times as much to help a teenager who has fallen behind as it would to stop it from falling behind by helping its family at the earliest stage of development."

Today's report, Breakthrough London, also contained an indictment of the poverty tolerated in the capital alongside its wealth. It found that half the children in inner London live below the poverty line - defined in the report as an annual household income of £11,000, or 60 per cent of median income - and that the gulf between rich and poor is widening.

Crime is three times higher in the most dangerous boroughs than in the safest, and unemployment runs at almost 50 per cent in the poorest areas.

The report linked social breakdown to severe pockets of poverty, highlighting that in some parts of the capital six in 10 households are headed by a single parent - 65 per cent above the national average. Only 45 per cent of lone parents in London were in jobs.

The findings will be debated by the leading mayoral candidates at a Social Justice Commission hustings on Wednesday night. Mr Duncan Smith said the mayoral race was a chance to tackle the five main causes of poverty: family breakdown, worklessness, educational failure, addiction and debt.

"London is a tale of two cities," he said. "There will always be some level of disparity between areas in the city, but the current extent is unacceptable."

The report recommends a package of policies to reverse social breakdown.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Success

• London's economy is bigger than Sweden or Switzerland, valued at $452 billion.

• By 2020 it will be the fourth largest city economy in the world.

• With 12% of the UK population, it contributes 19% of national earnings.

• The Square Mile produces 4% of GDP.

• Take-home pay is 45 per cent more on average.

Failure

• Tower Hamlets, Newham and Hackney are three of England's most deprived areas.

• In Inner London, half of all children are in poverty.

• A baby boy has a life expectancy of 74.9 years if born in Islington and 83.1 years if born in Kensington and Chelsea.

• In Tower Hamlets 47.4 per cent of adults are not in work and a quarter have no qualifications.

Link to:

"

World class poverty in Tower Hamlets! And not a single word about the cause, let alone solution, from Crossrail hole degenerate Livingstone

World class poverty in Tower Hamlets! And not a single word about the cause, let alone solution, from Crossrail hole degenerate Livingstone



From the web site of the London EVENING standardless STANDARD


"

HEADLINES:
Tower Hamlets: among the most deprived areas in England
Children of bad parents 'doomed to poverty at 3'
Joe Murphy, Political Editor
14.04.08
Related Articles
Comment: We need a mayor to rescue lost generation

A generation of London babies are doomed to crime or poverty before they are three years old, new research has shown.

They are born into such dysfunctional families that when they go to nursery school their brains are already underdeveloped.

The findings were revealed today by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith as he published a study containing startling statistics about social breakdown in the capital.

In an unprecedented move, his Social Justice Commission think tank is to team up with the Smith Foundation - the group set up in memory of late Labour leader John Smith and closely linked to Gordon Brown - to investigate the phenomenon further.

"The life outcomes for these children are virtually set in stone by the time they are three," said Mr Duncan Smith who, since losing the party leadership in 2003, has devoted his time to highlighting social problems and possible solutions. Most babies begin development with their parents talking to them or reading aloud, which develops their brains and teaches them to socialise.

The problem begins when babies are ignored, or live in homes where there is anger, shouting or mistreatment.

By nursery age, some are unable to converse properly and have not learned how to share toys or play happily. Only intensive teaching could save them but hard-pressed teachers were unable to break off from the other children.

"Once they are behind their peer group, it is very difficult to rescue them and they are likely to end up involved in crime or drugs," said Mr Duncan Smith. "This gets to the very heart of everything else we have been looking at.

"One lesson is that it costs three times as much to help a teenager who has fallen behind as it would to stop it from falling behind by helping its family at the earliest stage of development."

Today's report, Breakthrough London, also contained an indictment of the poverty tolerated in the capital alongside its wealth. It found that half the children in inner London live below the poverty line - defined in the report as an annual household income of £11,000, or 60 per cent of median income - and that the gulf between rich and poor is widening.

Crime is three times higher in the most dangerous boroughs than in the safest, and unemployment runs at almost 50 per cent in the poorest areas.

The report linked social breakdown to severe pockets of poverty, highlighting that in some parts of the capital six in 10 households are headed by a single parent - 65 per cent above the national average. Only 45 per cent of lone parents in London were in jobs.

The findings will be debated by the leading mayoral candidates at a Social Justice Commission hustings on Wednesday night. Mr Duncan Smith said the mayoral race was a chance to tackle the five main causes of poverty: family breakdown, worklessness, educational failure, addiction and debt.

"London is a tale of two cities," he said. "There will always be some level of disparity between areas in the city, but the current extent is unacceptable."

The report recommends a package of policies to reverse social breakdown.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Success

• London's economy is bigger than Sweden or Switzerland, valued at $452 billion.

• By 2020 it will be the fourth largest city economy in the world.

• With 12% of the UK population, it contributes 19% of national earnings.

• The Square Mile produces 4% of GDP.

• Take-home pay is 45 per cent more on average.

Failure

• Tower Hamlets, Newham and Hackney are three of England's most deprived areas.

• In Inner London, half of all children are in poverty.

• A baby boy has a life expectancy of 74.9 years if born in Islington and 83.1 years if born in Kensington and Chelsea.

• In Tower Hamlets 47.4 per cent of adults are not in work and a quarter have no qualifications.

Link to:
Reader Views (6) Add your view | Show all
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
I have had lived in Hackney for a couple of years and am aware of the needs. The people there are friendly even if they are living under simple circumstances, it´s adorable how they manage life. Therefore we should support them with additional courses not only concerning the usual topics in school but what matters for daily life for both the parents and the children. The courses should meet the children´s and young adults interests to encourage them. Also school magazines with topics of both educational and social matters would be a good idea. I wonder if there are any such ongoing projects or plans about releasing those. It would be neat to post any contact informations for people who like to participate.
Also I´d like to hear the say of the people who are directly involved for they know best...

- Marion Ziemke, London

The over-generous welfare system is to blame, not just for financial disincentives but for teaching people that work is an option. Old people would receive a lot more attention from family members if they were still involved in childcare. There are numerous arguments against making people reliant on the State.

- Mark Curtis, London

Yet they all run around in nike shoes...poverty? Don't make me laugh, take some responsibility.

- Daveb, London

Is London 'mayor' candidate Brian Paddick right to say that 'Ken Livingstone is a nasty little man' ? AADHIKARonline investigates, NEXT

1200 Hrs GMT 1300 Hrs UK Time London Wednesday 16 April 2008:

KHOODEELAAR! the “No to Crassrail hole plot-peddling Big Bushes tout Ken Livingstone’ CAMPAIGN had TOLD YOU SO about the true nature of the newts-attached Livingstone!

At last!


Albeit in a most curtailed and limited and ‘edited’ [=in the sense of being cut, reduced] way, a report appears with the jointly-'put-up-with] [by McElvoy herself of course] by-line of none other than the ‘in’ woman with the political power brokers, Anne McElvoy of the London ‘EVENING standardless STANDARD’, saying that even they can now publish some aspects of the overwhelming truth... ...........


That Ken Livingstone, as they print at page 6 of their first edition [London, Wednesday 16 April 2008] “a nasty little man who treats anyone who dares criticise him with contempt’.


They, the London ‘EVENING standardless STANDARD’, attribute that statement in quotes to Brian Paddick, the Lib Dembs [='The Liberal Democratic Party' in the UK]’ ‘candidate’ for the post of mayor ‘in the name of London’ at the scheduled 1 May 2008 ‘London elections’.


But the fact that there is ANY such ‘characterisation’ of Ken Livingstone being made by any source other than the Khoodeelaar! movement, is in itself of historic significance.


Why? Because we have said throughout the Khoodeelaar! campaign [4 years and 3 months] so far, that Livingstone is a liar. That he is a liar as part and parcel of his very being. That lying is the first act that ken Livingstone performs as his equivalent of what virtuous, pious people do when they start their effective day Ken Livingstone has made a career by lying to, by lying about and by lying at the expense of the London public. Livingstone has been at it, lying, for over 40 years.


At least. Khoodeelaar! movement has been saying this in order to draw attention to the fact that the people of East London generally and the people of inner City London in particular are being taken for a giant and damaging ride by two of the lyingstill Livingstone's cons: The 2012 ‘hosting’ of the Olympic games and Crossrail. Both, as they have been conceived and controlled, will financially paralyse ordinary people of London.



[To be continued]


_______________________________________________



Mayoral Elections HEADLINES: Job offer: Brian Paddick said that he considered an invitation from David Cameron to run as a Conservative Paddick calls Ken a 'nasty little man' Paul Waugh and Anne McElvoy 16.04.08 Related Articles Mayor demands action on knives Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick today launched a savage attack on Ken Livingstone, describing him as "a nasty little man" who treats voters with contempt. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Paddick said the Mayor's "appalling record of maladministration", his cronyism and his attempt to set up a "socialist republic" at City Hall all made him unfit for office. By contrast, the former Met police officer said that Boris Johnson "appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual" - though he stressed he would never employ his Conservative rival to run a business. Mr Paddick also declared that Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was a "Stalinist" and said that he should not be given a second term at the helm of Scotland Yard. He said that current Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde should be Sir Ian's replacement because he was more of a "copper's copper" who could push through reforms. Mr Paddick, who beat his target time of five hours in Sunday's London Marathon, made it clear that he was now ready for the final straight of the mayoral race. With just over two weeks left until polling day, the former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met unleashed a vitriolic assault on the Mayor's character and record. He said: "I am really trying to get my head around this. Do you want somebody who is a really nasty little man in the shape of Ken Livingstone, very unpleasant and rather nasty, or somebody who just appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual - except I wouldn't trust him to run anything for me?" Mr Paddick said that Mr Livingstone's reliance on a tight-knit circle of Leftwing advisers meant that he had stopped listening to Londoners. "He is someone who treats anybody who has any criticism of him with complete contempt - whether it is the Evening Standard or the young woman at a mayoral hustings, claiming she was on drugs because she dared to criticise the bus service." Mr Paddick said he was not "equidistant" between his Labour and Conservative opponents and confirmed he seriously considered an approach from David Cameron to be the party's candidate. "I didn't say I was equidistant between the two of them. It is very difficult to gauge where I am between the other two candidates because it is like comparing chalk and cheese. "I seriously considered, for a few hours, the approach from the Conservatives. But on principle I couldn't stand for what the Conservatives stand for. I am a Liberal Democrat, that's where my heart lies." Mr Paddick said he would try to work with the Met chief if elected but stressed that his days were numbered. "I spent 30 years in the police and it became increasingly Stalinist in the restrictions that the Commissioner and Dick Fedorcio [director of public affairs] placed on senior officers and what they could say. This is what happens in times of trouble, you batten down the hatches, and Ian Blair was in a lot of trouble. "Most Londoners now wonder whose side the police are on, when they phone up either the police don't come or they can't get an answer on the phone. Or even when the police do come, they don't seem to do anything when you are a victim of crime. "No commissioner in the Met has ever had a second term, which is what Ken Livingstone has called for and I wouldn't support that. I think it's important to have a regular change of Commissioner and there is at least one potentially good candidate on the horizon." When asked who that would be, he replied: "I mean Sir Hugh Orde. If Sir John Stevens and Sir Ian Blair had a love child, it would be Sir Hugh Orde in that he has the modernising, liberal approach that Sir Ian had, but he has the " copper's copper" style and approachability of Sir John." When asked if there was a "crony" relationship between Sir Ian and Mr Livingstone, Mr Paddick replied: "I think there is. There are examples where Sir Ian has been very obliging to the Labour Party to the extent that people were wondering whether they were related, Tony and Ian." Mr Paddick said he had been more of a figurehead for London than the Mayor after the London bombings in 2005. "When London faced its most serious test since the Second World War after 7 July, I was the figurehead for the police and arguably, bearing in mind I got more airtime than he did, even more of a figurehead than Ken Livingstone was on that occasion," he said.


LIB-DEM ON POLICY AND PERSONAL LIFE MURDER 'EPIDEMIC' The number of parents who have come up to me and said, "When our teenage children go out at night, we are on edge until we hear the key in the lock". These are affluent parents, genuinely concerned their children may get involved in something that, with so many guns and knives about, either through accident or design they end up being killed. It used to be gangs and then "maybe people within the black community on deprived innercity estates who need to carry a knife or a gun to protect themselves from the gangs". Now it's much wider. We used to deal with murder on the basis that it was a tiny proportion of society. You were able to lock the people up for a long time and solve the problem. It's not like that any more - this is an epidemic, not a series of isolated incidents. The most important thing to do is to take the guns and knives off the streets. BUSES What we have is all the bus drivers encased in Perspex who only get out of their cab for a pee or a cigarette. You've got sometimes relatively harmless but very boisterous children making life a nuisance for all the other passengers. All it would take is for the bus driver to stop the bus and go upstairs and speak to the young people and say, "If you don't behave yourselves, this bus isn't going anywhere". In appropriate circumstances, they should intervene. CHILDREN/PRIVATE LIFE When I was married I did regret that my wife didn't want children. Dear Mary thought it would spoil her figure. She now has a child and I'm very happy for her. I'm getting a bit too old and selfish to have children - even adopted ones. Politicians should be allowed to choose how much of their private lives they give away. Link to:

Is London 'mayor' candidate Brian Paddick right to say that 'Ken Livingstone is a nasty little man' ? AADHIKARonline investigates, NEXT

1200 Hrs GMT 1300 Hrs UK Time London Wednesday 16 April 2008: KHOODEELAAR! the “No to Crassrail hole plot-peddling Big Bushes tout Ken Livingstone’ CAMPAIGN had TOLDBut the fact that there is ANY such ‘characterisation’ of Ken Livingstone being made by any source other than the Khoodeelaar! movement, is in itself of historic significance.
Why?
Because we have said throughout the Khoodeelaar! campaign [4 years and 3 months] so far, that Livingstone is a liar. That he is a liar as part and parcel fo his very being. That lying is the first act that ken Livingstone performs as his equivalent of what virtuous, pious people do when they start their effective day

Ken Livingstone has made a career by lying to, by lying about and by lying at the expense of the London public.

Livingstone has been at it, lying, for over 40 years.

At least.


Khoodeelaar! movement has been saying this in order to draw attention to the fact that the people fo East London generally and the people fo inner City London in particular are being taken for a giant and damaging ride by two of the lyingstill Livingstone's cons: The 2012 ‘hosting’ of the Olympic games and Crossrail. Both, as they have been conceived and controlled, will financially paralyse ordinary people of London.


[To be continued]


_______________________________________________




Mayoral Elections
HEADLINES:
Job offer: Brian Paddick said that he considered an invitation from David Cameron to run as a Conservative
Paddick calls Ken a 'nasty little man'
Paul Waugh and Anne McElvoy
16.04.08
Related Articles
Mayor demands action on knives

Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick today launched a savage attack on Ken Livingstone, describing him as "a nasty little man" who treats voters with contempt.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Paddick said the Mayor's "appalling record of maladministration", his cronyism and his attempt to set up a "socialist republic" at City Hall all made him unfit for office.

By contrast, the former Met police officer said that Boris Johnson "appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual" - though he stressed he would never employ his Conservative rival to run a business.

Mr Paddick also declared that Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was a "Stalinist" and said that he should not be given a second term at the helm of Scotland Yard.

He said that current Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde should be Sir Ian's replacement because he was more of a "copper's copper" who could push through reforms.

Mr Paddick, who beat his target time of five hours in Sunday's London Marathon, made it clear that he was now ready for the final straight of the mayoral race.

With just over two weeks left until polling day, the former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met unleashed a vitriolic assault on the Mayor's character and record.

He said: "I am really trying to get my head around this. Do you want somebody who is a really nasty little man in the shape of Ken Livingstone, very unpleasant and rather nasty, or somebody who just appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual - except I wouldn't trust him to run anything for me?"

Mr Paddick said that Mr Livingstone's reliance on a tight-knit circle of Leftwing advisers meant that he had stopped listening to Londoners.

"He is someone who treats anybody who has any criticism of him with complete contempt - whether it is the Evening Standard or the young woman at a mayoral hustings, claiming she was on drugs because she dared to criticise the bus service."

Mr Paddick said he was not "equidistant" between his Labour and Conservative opponents and confirmed he seriously considered an approach from David Cameron to be the party's candidate.

"I didn't say I was equidistant between the two of them. It is very difficult to gauge where I am between the other two candidates because it is like comparing chalk and cheese.

"I seriously considered, for a few hours, the approach from the Conservatives. But on principle I couldn't stand for what the Conservatives stand for. I am a Liberal Democrat, that's where my heart lies." Mr Paddick said he would try to work with the Met chief if elected but stressed that his days were numbered. "I spent 30 years in the police and it became increasingly Stalinist in the restrictions that the Commissioner and Dick Fedorcio [director of public affairs] placed on senior officers and what they could say. This is what happens in times of trouble, you batten down the hatches, and Ian Blair was in a lot of trouble.

"Most Londoners now wonder whose side the police are on, when they phone up either the police don't come or they can't get an answer on the phone. Or even when the police do come, they don't seem to do anything when you are a victim of crime.

"No commissioner in the Met has ever had a second term, which is what Ken Livingstone has called for and I wouldn't support that. I think it's important to have a regular change of Commissioner and there is at least one potentially good candidate on the horizon."

When asked who that would be, he replied: "I mean Sir Hugh Orde. If Sir John Stevens and Sir Ian Blair had a love child, it would be Sir Hugh Orde in that he has the modernising, liberal approach that Sir Ian had, but he has the " copper's copper" style and approachability of Sir John." When asked if there was a "crony" relationship between Sir Ian and Mr Livingstone, Mr Paddick replied: "I think there is. There are examples where Sir Ian has been very obliging to the Labour Party to the extent that people were wondering whether they were related, Tony and Ian."

Mr Paddick said he had been more of a figurehead for London than the Mayor after the London bombings in 2005.

"When London faced its most serious test since the Second World War after 7 July, I was the figurehead for the police and arguably, bearing in mind I got more airtime than he did, even more of a figurehead than Ken Livingstone was on that occasion," he said.

LIB-DEM ON POLICY AND PERSONAL LIFE

MURDER 'EPIDEMIC'

The number of parents who have come up to me and said, "When our teenage children go out at night, we are on edge until we hear the key in the lock".

These are affluent parents, genuinely concerned their children may get involved in something that, with so many guns and knives about, either through accident or design they end up being killed.

It used to be gangs and then "maybe people within the black community on deprived innercity estates who need to carry a knife or a gun to protect themselves from the gangs". Now it's much wider.

We used to deal with murder on the basis that it was a tiny proportion of society. You were able to lock the people up for a long time and solve the problem. It's not like that any more - this is an epidemic, not a series of isolated incidents.

The most important thing to do is to take the guns and knives off the streets.

BUSES

What we have is all the bus drivers encased in Perspex who only get out of their cab for a pee or a cigarette.

You've got sometimes relatively harmless but very boisterous children making life a nuisance for all the other passengers.

All it would take is for the bus driver to stop the bus and go upstairs and speak to the young people and say, "If you don't behave yourselves, this bus isn't going anywhere". In appropriate circumstances, they should intervene.

CHILDREN/PRIVATE LIFE

When I was married I did regret that my wife didn't want children. Dear Mary thought it would spoil her figure.

She now has a child and I'm very happy for her. I'm getting a bit too old and selfish to have children - even adopted ones.

Politicians should be allowed to choose how much of their private lives they give away.

Link to:

Muhammad Haque [Times online] on the democratic morass in the UK and the de facto death of an intellectually & democratically active Parliament

0715 Hrs GMT 0815 Hrs UK Time London Wednesday 16 April 2008: Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole plot, KHOODEELAAR! the ‘No to unconstitutionality in the process of ‘legislation’ in the ‘uk Parliament’ CAMPAIGN again comments on the the unconstitutionality that is prevalent in the UK Khoodeelaar! the NO to the Crossrail hole Bill [the ‘hybrid’ UK ‘draft law’, that is, the ‘Crossrail Bill’, now in the UK ‘legislative’ House of Lords’] CAMPAIGN incorporating the relevant campaign against abuse of the licence-paying public by the BBC, as was perpetrated by the unethical and the immoral controllers of the broadcasting agenda of the BBC yet again for Big Business Crossrail hole ‘project’ on Wednesday 15 April 2008 and as staged on BBC1 TV [terrestrial] and as fronted by Andrew Neil, is demanding that the BBC tell the long overdue truth about Crossrail, that they apologise to the pub lci and to the ‘viewers’ for having lied for Big Business Crossrail over the past five years…..
[To be continued]

Editor©Muhammad Haque

0715  Hrs GMT 0815 Hr UK Time London Wednesday 16 April 2008:

Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole plot,  KHOODEELAAR! the ‘No to unconstitutionality in the process of ‘legislation’ in the ‘uk Parliament’  CAMPAIGN  again comments on the  the unconstitutionality that is prevalent in the UK Khoodeelaar! the NO to the Crossrail hole Bill [the ‘hybrid’ UK ‘draft law’, that is, the ‘Crossrail Bill’, now in the UK ‘legislative’ House of Lords’] CAMPAIGN incorporating the relevant campaign against abuse of the licence-paying public by the BBC, as was perpetrated by the unethical and the immoral controllers of the broadcasting agenda of the BBC yet again  for Big Business Crossrail hole ‘project’ on Wednesday 15 April 2008 and as staged on BBC1 TV [terrestrial]  and as fronted by Andrew Neil, is demanding that the BBC tell the long overdue truth about Crossrail, that they apologise to the pub lci and to the ‘viewers’ for having lied for Big Business Crossrail over the past five years….. Khoodeelaar! puts on the record on the London Times newspaper web site the fact of the absence of constitutional accountability that prevails in the UK…. 
[To be continued] 

View [below] the Muhammad Haque comment on the Timesonline as published today 16 April 2008


From The Times
April 16, 2008
Gordon Brown's trophy peers are victims of a well meant but muddled strategy
Digby Jones is absolutely correct. He should never have become a minister. This is little to do with his refusal to join the Labour Party, or about what his preferences might be at the next general election (when he will not have a vote anyway). It is simply because – as my colleague Sam Coates revealed in his report yesterday – the man who is now Lord Jones of Birmingham does not understand what being a Lords minister involves. Nor did Gordon Brown, who appointed him last June in order to demonstrate that he was forming a government of all the talents.

There is nothing wrong with bringing in non-politicians to serve in the Lords, provided that they appreciate what the role of a minister is. This is not just about taking an executive role in a department, or accepting collective responsibility as a member of the Government.

It is also, crucially, about Parliament, not only being accountable and subject to scrutiny, but also voting and taking through your department’s legislation.

Most outsiders appointed as ministers accept that range of responsibilities. Lord Adonis overcame the initial scepticism of some Labour peers about appointing a former Downing Street adviser as a minister by being assiduous in his Lords duties, replying to questions and taking through numerous Bills. Lord Drayson also won wide support among former defence chiefs in the Lords by his commitment to the Services. They took the Lords seriously, a minimum requirement if you are a minister.

But some of the five “trophy” peers – the outsiders brought in by Mr Brown – do not seem fully to understand this side of their work. There are unconfirmed reports, widely believed among Labour peers, that the five were told that they did not have to spend much time in the Lords.

Some have been patchy in performing their Lords duties, with Lord Jones an infrequent voter. The long-suffering Lords whips have to handle some of his department’s business.

The sensible thing would have been to give Lord Jones the same executive responsibilities that he now has as chairman of UK Trade and Investment, even to make him a peer, but not a minister. As he is reported to have said, his role in bringing business investment to Britain should not be done by a minister but by a leading independent businessman. His talents lie as a booster rather than a minister, with all that that entails.

Similarly, Lord Darzi of Denham, a distinguished surgeon as well as conducting a review of the NHS’s next stages, could perform his dual roles as an adviser without also being a minister – though he has already saved the life of one peer. And if Mr Brown really needs more views on domestic terrorism, he could have appointed Lord West of Spithead as an adviser rather than making him a minister, where he does not appear fully at home with the nuances of legislation in a chamber of legal experts.

Lord Jones and the others are in many ways victims of Mr Brown’s well-intentioned, but muddled, big-tent strategy. Lord Jones said yesterday that he had “never claimed to be a political animal”. He believed “trade and investment should transcend the factionalism of party politics”.

But then why did he agree to become a minister which, by definition, cannot be divorced from party politics?

HAVE YOUR SAY
If we have anymore peers in the house of lords they will be sitting on each others knees. I have never seen such a rabble as pictured in the house of lords today, they are a mockery of our noble society and the right to the working person. Is this the result of peers for £'s.
Pol, Melton Mowbray, Leics
Peter Riddell is correct to make the very timely point about accountability and the role of Parliament.

In the dozens of editions of the Gordon Brown defensive interviews given to the electronic media during Tuesday 15 April 2008, he did not once make that same point.

In any way at all. In fact Gordon Brown kept talking about his own background and how he was personally concerned about helping others in [he meant to say] society.

But neither Parliament nor society, let alone any political party with demonstrably democratic structure that might provide any pro-democratic support to the Gordon Brown regime, was allowed a look of.....


And NOR did the official Opposition party leaders in their own [less wide ranging] appearances on the media had anything to say about the substance of Parliament.


I would suggest that this absence of emphasis on the role of Parliament in holding the Govt of the day to account, and through all the procedural stages and concepts, is even more worrying than the periodic capitalistic crises that are being featured in the mainstream media and discussions.
Muhammad Haque, London, UK
Please do not let Mugabe win, reports on Zimbabwe are slowly lessening. If Mugabe had won the results would have long been released.
How low does the country have to get before the rest of the world intervenes.
priscilla, worcester,
"As long as they understand what it involves". Isn't that the eternal public school condecension to women/blacks/Jews/Irish/secondary modern kids etc etc. The more people who dont 'understand' that get into the Lords the better and more productive a place it will be.
E Skelton, Cardiff, Wales
Show fewer comments
HAVE YOUR SAY