Leatherhead Matters

So, another Minister, Peter Hain (Dept for Work & Pensions) is caught not declaring political donations, but, this time it’s a whopping ₤103,000. The profered excuse is that he was too busy doing his job. I’ll try that on the Inland Revenue if ever I forget to submit my tax return!

It has become a hallmark of New Labour to tough out this sort of crisis, since the media attention usually passes after a few days. But, this neglects the cumulative effect of these incidents on the New Labour brand. There is a growing perception that New Labour may be chronically infected with sleaze, particularly since the Hain story has followed so quickly after the David Abrahams “illegal” donations. The Conservative Government of John Major, in the 90’s, acquired a similar perception, although this was more about sex than money.

Gordon is still in his honeymoon as Prime Minister. If he wants to avoid his government being tarnished with the ”sleaze” label, it may be approaching the time for him to declare that “enough is enough” and dismiss Hain.

Update: Benedict Brogan (Mail Online) thinks that if Hain has to go theb probably Harriet Harmen & Wendy Alexender also have to go (not so much money involved in their under the table donations but, same principle!)

H/T Beau D’or for great cartoon

A report by Privacy International, on the level of government surveillance of citizens, ranks the UK as one of the worst countries in the world for surveilling its citizens and not providing constitutional protection of citizens from government surveillance. The UK stands out, by far as the worst nation within the EU. The report highlights the following concerns about UK surveillance practice:

• World leading surveillance schemes
• Lack of accountability and data breach disclosure law
• Commissioner has few powers
• Interception of communications is authorised by politician, evidence not used in court, and oversight is by commissioner who reports only once a year upon reviewing a subset of applications
• Hundreds of thousands of requests from government agencies to telecommunications providers for traffic data
• Data retention scheme took a significant step forward with the quiet changes based on EU law
• Plans are emerging regarding surveillance of communications networks for the protection of copyrighted content
• Despite data breaches, ‘joined-up government’ initiatives continue
• Identity scheme still planned to be the most invasive in the world, highly centralised and biometrics-driven; plan to issue all foreigners with cards in 2008 are continuing
• E-borders plans include increased data collection on travellers

  The report was published before HM Revenue & Customs lost personal data for half the UK population….so perhaps we stand a good chance of reaching first place in at least one international league table in 2008!

You can read the Privacy International report HERE.

H/T Mr Eugenides