Cameron/Allen Exchange of Letters
These are the letters that the Prime Minister had up his sleeve:
Dear Sir Alex Allan
You will be aware that I will this week be giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. As you know, I have decided not to refer Jeremy Hunt to you as I am satisfied that the relevant information about this issue has been established and I am content that he did not break the ministerial code.
Separately, I will be outlining to Leveson some of the initiatives this Government has taken to strengthen accountability and transparency as well as some areas where I am proposing future changes to the current guidance. These include the conduct of special advisers and the handling of quasi-judicial decisions and I would welcome your comments.
Yours sincerely
David Cameron MP
-
Prime Minister,
Thank you for your letter of 13 June. I note your decision in relation to Jeremy Hunt’s adherence to the Ministerial Code which is of course a matter for you. The fact that there is an on-going judicial Inquiry probing and taking evidence under oath means that I do not believe that I could usefully add to the facts in this case though I remain available should circumstances change or new evidence emerge.
On the broader issues I would welcome the opportunity to comment in more detail before the new guidance is finalised.
Yours sincerely
Sir Alex Allan
Not quite as clear cut as Dave made out, but it stumped Ed enough for a win at PMQs…
It doesnt take much to stump Ed.
It is a valuable thing that can simultaneously stump Ed and make Dave look sleazy.
Why did it make Dave look sleazy ? has he got to be the “good ” boy while Ed has carte blanche to drag anything he pleases up no matter how inane ?
“Anything he pleases”? I take it you think the public believes the Jeremy is much misunderstood and was completely impartial? Even Violet Elizabeth Minibland could not have overlooked this subject.
Tories = sleaze, Liebour = beyond reproach.
Simple really or it is to the BBBC etc.
Cameron’s judgement stumps everyone!
As every choice Cameron has made so far has been either awfully bad or just plain wrong……….. this is just another on the ever growing list. JH is by all the evidence (strangely not exposed by the MSM) a slug of the grandest order and his links with the Murdoch empire clearly exposed elsewhere. ‘Heir to Blair’ is the only honest phrase ever to emerge in public from this disgrace of a prime minister.
The Leveson enquiry has accorded a new collective noun to the English language (as coined by another at The Slog) ‘A Leveson of liars’……….No doubt whatsoever that the Cameron thing will just add to its adoption in the English lexicon.
And Miliworm is just as low a snake……….he should be raising the real facts about JH and not just name calling and bear baiting. I’ll tell you if nobody else wants the job of hangman when all these monsters bring the country crashing down around OUR ears – are tried (and are found guilty) under a REAL court of LAW (not the pretend courts of justice that we have now) – I’ll Fooking do it !
Ed must think the pulic are thick and are not able to see that he is just wasting parliamentary time and PMQs for political mischief on a subject that no one, probably even most labour MPs give a fig about.
Floundering like a haddock on the beach, our Ed, pathetic little twerp. With Union paymasters as he has he can show nothing but embarrassment, but does he?
He has a hide like a rhino, i wouldnt leave the house if i looked and sounded like Milliband. Never mind appear on TV !
Hang on a minute was dave standing outside allens door first thing this morning handed him the letter and then allan handed him the reply. Nothing wrong with that if it made the miilitwat the leader of unite look a fool
I would think he knew the answer was needed before PMQs. This is what is needed to put Milliband back in his box !
I shall table a no confidence motion in David Cameron.
His treatment of Steve Rotherham was a disgrace,even from a “Bullingdon Boy”
Who is Steve Rotherham ?
Rotherham rambled on and on and on. WTF was he asking (and in what language)?
Scouse….but what he was rambling on about not very cogently is anyone’s guess even the normally Labour tolerant Bercow was forced to intervene to draw his soliquoy to a close
FFS stop droning on about Bullingdon boys, i switch off, its lazy.
No it wasn’t. Your defence of Rotherham all over the www just shows that you think he is not capable of looking after himself. Don’t forget it was mr rotherham who started thye hostilities anyway.
It was definitely a Flashman moment.
The question was pretty dire though. It wasn’t the Scouse accent, it was the rambling whine.
Was Rotherham wearing a tie? If so he must be in court later today. See ya round like a doughnut wack.
Makes a fool of Clegg and the LD’s too. That’s priceless
latest from the Euro tournament.
Labour
tackles – 2
attempts on goal – 6
attempts on target – 0
foul – Balls. Harman. Cooper.
Liberal
{Double} crosses – 1
Off {own} sides – 5
Own goals – 1
Conservatives
Lucky saves -3
Yellow cards – Hunt.J – Cable.V {has had four but somehow not sent off}
Red Cards – Huhne.C / Fox.L. Laws. D.
Free kicks {at Miliband } – 2
Rather depends on whether Hunt survives to the next election. Current odds are rivalling those for Pickles and Prescott jointly winning the 2012 slimmer of the year title.
Very polite stuff-you billet d’amour there from the Pasty & Lolly Boy.
To Leveson.
Allan chose his words very carefully, “I do not believe that I could usefully add to the facts”. He says nothing about the approprite conclusions to draw from said facts.
That’s a decision for the PM. Read the reply again.
No – bs is right. He says the decision is for the PM – nothing about whether he agrees with the PMs decision or conclusions leading to that decision. Its true civil service speak. Sir Humphrey would be proud.
To quote another famous non-denying denier, I couldn’t possibly comment.
After this then chaps, it would be ok if Call me Dave to call a general election, and of course you will all rally around him and raise his standard aloft.
Come on aren’t there any takers OK rise your standards with Bossa
Public Administration Committee – Twenty-Second Report
March 14, 2012
36. What we find less reasonable is that the independent adviser was apparently cut out of the loop altogether. The level of media and public interest in this case should have made the involvement of the independent adviser, more, not less important. He should at least have been consulted.
44. As PASC recommended in the last Parliament, we again recommend that the independent adviser should be empowered to instigate his own investigations. The Prime Minister could do this on his own initiative, without any need for legislation, but placing the post on a statutory footing would be preferable.
47. We believe there is a strong case for more structured co-ordination of the work of the various regulators of propriety in public life and will consider in our future work how this might best be achieved.
58. The title given to the role we have been considering is the ‘independent adviser on Ministers’ interests’, but the nature of this independence must be in doubt, since:
the post is in the Prime Minister’s gift;
the appointment by a closed recruitment process took place without the House or the public even being informed that the previous incumbent had retired or that a new appointment had been made; and
the new appointee himself had only just retired from a senior role at the heart of Government.
59. The title of the role implies that the independence of the role is a key objective. PASC in the last Parliament recommended a “healthy distance” between the independent adviser on Ministers’ interests and the Cabinet Office, and called for the holder to be appointed through a transparent open competition and subject to a pre-appointment hearing by a parliamentary select committee. We view the implementation of these recommendations as essential if this post is to be genuinely ‘independent’ and to inspire public confidence in the enforcement of the Ministerial Code.
60. For the role to be independent, the appointment process was flawed, and so, unfortunately, was the choice of individual to fill that post. Any successful candidate for a post requiring independence from Government must be able to demonstrate that independence. Sir Alex Allan, as a recently retired senior civil servant, was therefore never likely to be an appropriate choice, and his evidence to us did nothing to convince us otherwise. In fairness, it is unlikely that many retiring civil servants will have had the opportunity to demonstrate the necessary independence from government in their career to date.
Can you use a yello highlighter on the important bits.
It is lunchtime you know.
I’ve edited it already and i can’t see my screen now cos it’s covered in tippex
How about a simple guilty/not guilty synopsis ?
Summed up in not more than five rude words.
Cameron dictionary missing word independent
Cameron misleads at PMQ’s AGAIN:
He told the Commons that Sir Alex had concluded he could not “usefully add” to the case. Sir Alex wrote in a letter to Mr Cameron: “The fact that there is an on-going judicial Inquiry probing and taking evidence under oath means that I do not believe that I could usefully add to the facts in this case though I remain available should circumstances change or new evidence emerge.”
Not a single Tory has given the full quote during the debate
This seems rather like Sir Humphrey telling Hacker he’s being “brave”. When I worked in the public sector you “noted” something your bosses did when you didn’t agree and didn’t want to be held in any way responsible.
The Lefties’ bonkers conspiracy theory that Murdoch is some kind of Bond villain has been unravelling fast this week.
It was never going to survive Gordon McMental’s bitter ravings at Leveson on Monday and now Dave knocking the stuffing out of Miliband BEFORE their nakedly political wheeze of a debate this afternoon.
All we’ve really learned so far is that whenever Dave is in deep trouble he can rely on McMental to say or do something that will bail him out.
Ed gets “stumped.” How much longer till he’s “run out”?
Or caught behind .
Any policies from Ed Miliband yet?
Harman at Leveson said she had been doing the rounds of the newspaper editors. Now what could be her real reason. Hypocritical cow.
Harman on her feet at the moment making heavy weather in attempting to land a blow on Hunt. Resorting to pissing into the wind.
Pathetic and a hypocrite.
“Not quite as clear cut as Dave made out,”
No kidding. At least Sir Alex now knows what he’s dealing with.
Are we clear when each of the letters was dated?
Yes, that’s right he’s going to outright contradict the Prime Minister when it’s not his position to!
Thanks for the response folks – both dated 13th of June!
How wonderfully ironic.
Alex Allan’s signature looks rather like the enfeebled scrawl of ‘Guido’ on (the original) Mr Fawkes’ confession…
Yes, that’s right, Cameron politicising the correspondence of a supposed arbiter of standards in government is really good for our country and it’s democracy….
Is there ANYTHING he wouldn’t say or do to get out of a ruling on Jeremy Hunt and the ministerial code? Answers on a postcard please…..