Harman - Guy Fawkes' blog

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Harman Misleads the House

HARRIET4LEADER Sir George Young put the boot in to Harman earlier in an attempt to force Gordon to correct his mistake about Spain being in the G20 and thus Britain not being the last member country in the recession. As Guido comprehensively pointed out and even the left conceded was correct, Spain is not in the G20:

How many times does this have to be said? Yet Harman repeated the spin word for word – “Spain is in the G20+ – so the Prime Minister was absolutely right on that point.” Change the record love…

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Harman Denies Charges

The CPS statement said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute the Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP for the offences of driving without due care and attention and driving whilst using a handheld mobile telephone in relation to an incident on 3 July 2009.”

A spokesman for the Labour deputy leader said: “Ms Harman strongly refutes the allegations but is co-operating with police.”

Original story from early October was covered on the blog here.

Harman was on the mobile when she crashed into a parked car without stopping to leave her details. Under the 1988 Road Traffic Act, any driver involved in a collision with another vehicle is required by law to stop and give their name and address, as well as details of the vehicle’s owner and the vehicle’s registration. Not exactly Chappaquidick Bridge, but that she drove off telling a witness ‘I’m Harriet Harman – you know where you can get me…’ is a little high-handed…

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Government of Lawyers : Equality Before the Law?

Sunday Sleaze
harriet_car Another Labour minister and QC thinks the laws are for other people. Harman was on the mobile when she crashed into a parked car without stopping to leave her details. Under the 1988 Road Traffic Act, any driver involved in a collision with another vehicle is required by law to stop and give their name and address, as well as details of the vehicle’s owner and the vehicle’s registration. Not exactly Chappaquidick Bridge, but that she drove off telling a witness ‘I’m Harriet Harman – you know where you can get me…’ is a little high-handed…

target-baroness The other Labour minister and QC in legal difficulties is the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. She is now accused of flouting the tax laws; she had no written contract of employment with Lolo, her illegally employed Tongan cleaner, there is firm evidence that no tax was paid for at least 10 weeks and Lolo wasn’t given any wage slips as required by employment protection laws.

Clear breaches of employment law which imply that for a period of time she was effectively paying Lolo cash in hand…

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lose the Loser : Harriet 4 Leader!

HARRIET4LEADER CCHQ will be all a quiver at the news that Harriet is back on maneuvers, which she will no doubt deny later today if past performance is any guide. Her team of volunteers are polling Constituency Labour Party branches for their views on the party leader. Guido recognises push-polling when he sees it: party activists are being asked to rank Gordon and herself as to who is the “best person to sell the Labour Party” on a scale of 0 to 5.

It would be very, very interesting if the results “accidently” leaked…

Do you think that it might encourage the penny to drop in few places that she is better than their unelected party leader? Guido has decided to back her hopes and has come up with a campaign slogan for Harriet. If she was being honest she would campaign to: “lose the loser”.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Harman’s Response to Cameron’s Plan is Pathetic

After Dave wowed even Brown nosers like Sir Michael White and Steve Richards with his crackdown on Tory grandees and shadow cabinet troughers, Harman wrote to the chairman of the Member’s Allowance Committee proposing that he should set out a procedure whereby MPs might perhaps be asked nicely to repay claims that were outside the rules. Possibly. Not exactly a decisive response from the government.

The Member’s Allowance Committee is chaired by the Labour MP Don Touhig. It was he who led the Labour backbench revolt last July that threw out proposals for a full external audit of MPs’ expenses and an end to the “John Lewis list”. Does that fill you full of confidence?

Green Book Harman’s proposal is that if an MP has broken the rules they will have to repay the money. Guido’s view is that only the minimum expenses wholly necessary for the job should be allowable, however the cry of every single troughing MP from every single party is that “it was all within the rules”. So no one will have to pay anything back under Harman’s plan.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Knives are Out for Harman

Harriet is protesting that she is loyal and loudly asking “who is briefing against me?” The Brownies of course – that is their stock in trade. A little snippet appears in the FT under Sue Cameron’s byline – though the original author is undoubtedly a Brown henchman.

Harriet Harman (now there’s a woman who knows how to frighten the horses) will be introducing her equalities bill next month. Word is that she has asked her officials to ensure that there are some disabled people in the Commons gallery when the bill is launched, adding: “And it would help if some of them were black.”

That is a perfect example of the kind of poison so often dripped by Damian McBride. Detailed, probably true and obtained by one of his press officer snouts to damage Harman. Expect a lot more of that sort of thing if she keeps make leadership signals.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Harman Wants Brown to Sail Off into Sunset on "Lifeboat"

Jackie Ashley set the cat amongst the pigeons yesterday with this story:

In it she claimed that Gordon was being lined up for an international job as a super-regulator by Angela Merkel. Jackie said the story “comes from quite close to the inner core.” Like the Deputy-Leader’s office? From another member of the sisterhood? Ben Brogan is pointing the finger at Harriet Harman, claiming that “Brown was the victim of a botched spin operation by the party’s deputy leader amid signs that his authority is weakening.” Who better to be a caretaker leader if Gordon goes off into the sunset on a lifeboat or for ill-health reasons than the current deputy leader? She could hold the party together as it takes the inevitable punishment at the polls, performing the same role that Michael Howard did for the Tories. Labour could do worse…

Thursday, January 29, 2009

He-Man V Harman

Alan Duncan is the new Shadow Leader of the House, up against Harriet Harman. Those who complain that the Tories don’t attack hard enough (they don’t) will enjoy the exchange (Hansard) he had with her this morning.

There has been a sudden delay in the Political Parties and Elections Bill. Will the right hon. and learned Lady tell the House why that has happened? Given her close personal links with the aristocracy, is she not doubly ashamed by the apparent conduct of her four Labour colleagues in the Lords? May we also have a debate on cash for influence in this House? Does not the House of Lords pale into insignificance, given that, because more than 90% of the Labour party’s battleground funding comes from the trade unions, the party remains a wholly owned subsidiary of an interest group with its own policy agenda?…

The latest forecast from the International Monetary Fund suggests that, contrary to the Government’s mantra that the United Kingdom is well prepared to deal with the downturn, the UK is actually facing the worst recession in the world. Can we therefore at last have a debate in Government time to allow the House to express its lack of confidence in the Government’s handling of the economy, or is the Leader of the House worried that this is yet another issue that would leave the Prime Minister, as reported yesterday, “tearful and dewy-eyed”?

It would appear that the Prime Minister has lost confidence in his own Cabinet and, it would seem, even in himself. He has complained that his Cabinet members are ducking interviews and leaving him to look like the Minister for the recession, yet today, curiously, we have learned that Labour MPs have been instructed by the Whips not to talk about the economy at all. So who is going to win the parliamentary BAFTAs—the “Glumdog in Despair” in Downing street or the Basil Fawltys on the Back Benches shouting, “Don’t mention the recession”? Put simply, when is this country going to get honesty from the Prime Minister about the severity of our plight?

Fighting talk…

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Did Dale Bribe Labour MP Ann Moffat?

The cover of the Total Politics January edition depicts Harriet Harman as Wonder Woman. Which is ridiculous, because as any fool knows, ~~Crash~~ Flash Gordon’s partner was Dale Arden.

Trying to make a joke of the Prime Mentalists Freudian slip Harman has just told the house that she would “rather have Superman as our leader than their leader who is The Joker”. Immediately after that quip Ann Moffat chipped in “Wonder Woman does it again…”

So either Dale is paying for promotional product placement or the whole Labour Party is gripped with a delusion of superpowers.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Harman Attempting to Nobble Speaker

A weak Speaker is a terrible blight on parliament. In Speaker Martin we have the weakest Speaker in modern times. Harriet Harman is trying to push him around:

Dale has the scoop, Harriet Harman is convening a meeting of government, party and civil service figures, Jacqui Smith and Jack Straw, as well as Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, Jill Pay, the Serjeant at Arms and the Parliamentary Clerk, Malcolm Jack and a representative from the Speaker’s Office. Clearly they are trying to agree a fix. If it was a genuine attempt to resolve the situation honestly opposition parliamentarians would have been invited. Appropriately it leaked out.