Recently in Hazel Blears Category

Readers of this blog are unlikely to be "floating voters" who have not yet made up their minds which way to vote in today's General Election.

Please vote, tactically if necessary, for any candidate who is likely to unseat a Labour MP or to deny a Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate victory in a marginal constituency.

Most of the decent Labour MPs (such as Andrew MacKinlay, Bob Marshall-Andrews, David Winnick etc. ), who have actually rebelled against their party leaders' authoritarian, pettifogging, nanny / police / surveillance state policies and the incompetent jobsworth bureaucracy ruled by a risk adverse / blame someone else, form filling tickbox culture they have created, are not standing for re-election today.

Hopefully some of the more odious former Labour Ministers such as Ed Balls, or those tainted by expenses scandals like Tony McNulty or Hazel Blears, or those in marginal constituencies like Jackie Smith (who ticks several boxes), will suffer electorally today.

If the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats do gain power tonight, this blog will oppose them also, if they renege on their promises to undo the wretched Labour policies which have eroded our freedoms and liberties and livelihoods.

Apologies for not posting about Labour / New Labour / NuLabour recently, they are too depressing to waste too much valuable blogging time on.

George Monbiot, has excoriated the totalitarian Hazel Blears in a Comment id Free opinion piece in The Guardian.

Just what exactly do you stand for, Hazel Blears - except election? An open letter to Hazel Blears MP, secretary of state for communities and local government.

How can we get rid of Hazel Blears and her colleagues in this repressive Labour government, without getting anyone else who is just as bad or worse in power ?

The Great and the Good (including George Monbiot, Henry Porter, David Davis, various pressure groups like the NO2ID Campaign and Liberty Human Rights etc.) from The Guardian reading intelligentsia (together with some people who might well be "wolves in sheep's clothing") will be pondering this at:

Convention on Modern Liberty to be held on Saturday 28th February 2009

The Convention on Modern Liberty is being held in the Logan Hall and adjoining rooms at the Institute of Education in Bloomsbury, central London.

Address:

The Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL

Loacation Map

Nearest Tube Stations: Russell Square or Goodge Street

There are video linked screenings or other parallel meetings being held across the UK in Belfast. Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff and Manchester.

This event is quite expensive (£35 a ticket or £20 for concessions), and it is in central London, so it may be better to spend the money on a party with a few friends and debating the issues around a broadband webcast link to the main speeches.

The Sunday Times reports the astonishing news from a "Downing Street source" that the disgreced ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett is to take over control of the Home Office, whilst his replacement Charles Clarke goes on holiday.

'A senior Downing Street source said: "There has been a lot of fuss over Charles going on holiday, but we think he deserves one and David Blunkett will fill in over that brief period while he is out of the country. He obviously has a lot of experience in the area."

Tony Blair, who is to go on holiday this week, has also given Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, a role in the day-to-day running of the department. John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, will be in overall charge of government while Blair is abroad.

The source added: “Prescott is in charge, but Blunkett will have control over issues relating to the Home Office.”'

So why is Hazel Blears MP, Minister of State for Policing, Security and Community Safety, who is meant to be responsible for "Counter terrorism" not up to the job ?

David Blunkett did not resign from the Home Office for reeasons of health or family , it was the result of getting caught out in a meddling with an immigration visa as part of his scandalous private life.

David Blunkett should not have been brought back into the Cabinet as Minsister for the Department for Work and Pensions, let alone anywhere near the Home Office where, presumably he will be rubber stamping Control Orders, Extradition Warrants, Electronic Intercept Warrants, and Immigration Visas and Appeals etc.

Who exactly is in charge of the massive Department for Work and Pensions, whilst Blunkett is crushing civil liberties and meddling with the Home Office and Police and the Security Service ?

Why was David Blunklett chosen rather than Jack Straw, also a former Home Secretary, who is presumably more currently more up to up to date with anti-terrorism investigations than Blunkett, since MI6 the foreign espionage Secret Service reports to him.

What are NuLabour playing at ? They have not protected our civil liberties and they have not prevented terrorist attacks in London.

Any sucesses by the Metropolitan Police and the Security Service etc. seem to be in spite of the NuLabour politicians, and not as a result of their incompetent leadership.

Following on from all the hype about "hoodies" and to a lesser extent, baseball caps last week, The Guardian reports that

"Uniforms for young offenders 'not policy'

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Monday May 16, 2005
The Guardian

New proposals to make young offenders wear US-style uniforms while carrying out community punishments appeared to be heading the same way as Tony Blair's shelved plan to make yobs pay on-the-spot fines by marching them to cashpoints.

The Home Office minister Hazel Blears who is responsible for dealing with anti-social behaviour, floated the idea yesterday in a newspaper interview as a way of ensuring that justice was seen to be done in the battle against the "culture of disrespect"."