Recently in Lord Drayson Category

The Independent on Sunday claims to have another leaked document, detailing some possible "cash for Peerages" candidates.

However, some of them appear to be only relatively small financial donors, and the biggest, e.g. Lakshmi "£;2 million donation" Mittal have not yet been "honoured".

Forking out a relatively small amount of cash, in return for lots of Government subsidies, by participating in the controversial City Academies scheme, seems to be the path to enoblement. The undeserved enoblement of NuLabour political commissar Lord Adonis, i the architect of this scheme .is an ongoing scandal.

The Sunday Mirror speculated about Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans for a propserous retirement.

The Carlyle Group are investors in various military defence companies, including the semi privatised Qinetiq, which sells British Government sponsored military research to the private sector.

They have been touting their Passive Millimetre Wave "see through your children's clothes" scanners on the bandwagons of hysteria over schoolchildren carrying knives, and the London Tube bombings.

It will be worth watching if multi-million pound contracts are let by the NuLabour Government to Qinetiq whilst Tony Blair is Prime Minister or afterwards.

What role will the controversial Lord Drayson, who was appointed by Tony Blair as Defence Procurement Minister, play in such contracts ?

The Sunday Times has led their front page with a bit of a non-story about Lord Drayson's former use of offshore tax havens - what do they expect from a multi-millionaire who employs professional tax advisors ? Don't Rupert Murdoch or some of the Sunday Times staff also do this ?

Remember our first reaction to his appointment ?

"Ministry of Defence
Parliamentary Secretary
Lord Drayson (unpaid)

Paul Drayson, a businessman, whose ennoblement was already controversial due to his apparent donations of over £500,000 to the NuLabour party, and whose company PowderJect managed to secure a £32 million Government contract for smallpox vaccine, awarded without it being put out to competitive tender. Allegedly this was because PowderJect had managed to contractually sew up the capacity of the actual pharmceutical company producing the vaccine with an ironclad contract."

However the figure that the Sunday Times quote for his donations to the Labour Party is £1.1 million. Guido Fawkes also comments on these donations.

"Why has this man appeared as a Junior Ministry of Defence Minister ?"

Well, the good news is, that according to his potted Ministerial Biography, he has a BSc(Hons) in Production engineering and a PhD in Robotics, which must be a good thing given the complexity of modern warfare.

The bad news is that he has been appointed Under Secretary of State and Minister for Defence Procurement !

No wonder his position is unpaid ! How many billions will he be able to make once he leaves office, with his detailed inside knowledge of massive Defence contracts ?

By not taking a salary, do the normal rules for ex-Ministers and conflicts of interest apply ?

The full post election Cabinet has now been announced, and there are some controversial appointments at the Junior Minister level:

Department for Education and Skills
Minister of State (Children)
The Rt Hon Beverly Hughes MP for Stretford and Urmston is the disgraced ex-Home Office Minister who had to resign over the immigration scandal involving Romanian and Bulgarian visas exposed by whistleleblowers Steve Moxon and James Cameron.

Beverly Hughes takes over from The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MBE MP for Barking, whose disregard for Data Protection and Privacy worries about her controversial "Big Nanny Database" Children Act does not bode well for future policy in her new postition as Minister of State (Work) under the authoratarian technological illiterate David Blunkett at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Department for Education and Skills
Parliamentary Secretary
Lord Adonis

Andrew Adonis was, until today, simply a NuLabour political commissar, with the ear of the Prime Minister's office, and not even a Member of Parliament, which is why he has been ennobled so that he can serve as a Junior Minister. he was responsible for dreaming up amd meddling with the implementation of the City Acadamies, which waste vast sums of public money. handed over to private companies, who are also allowed to brainwash the children with their own products and meddle with the curriculum to include rubbish like Creationism, and who can decide to sell off assets like buildings or playing firlds for their own profit.

What right has he to be literally now lording it over Education policy ?

Ministry of Defence
Parliamentary Secretary
Lord Drayson (unpaid)

Pual Drayson, a businessman, whose ennoblement was already controversial due to his apparent donations of over £500,000 to the NuLabour party, and whose company PowderJect managed to secure a £32 million Government contract for smallpox vaccine, awarded without it being put out to competitive tender. Allegedly this was because PowderJect had managed to contractually sew up the capacity of the actual pharmceutical company producing the vaccine with an ironclad contract.

Why has this man appeared as a Junior Ministry of Defence Minister ?

Tony McNulty MP for Harrow East is now Minister of State at the Home Office, presumably replacing Des Browne, in charge of Citizenship and Immigration (who in turn had replaced the disgraced Beverely Hughes). Will he really be spearheading the re-introduction of the controversial Identity Cards Bill ?