Hot waters

Ahhh yesssss....the capture of 15 Naval personnel in Iraqi/Iranian waters.

In the argument against holding our elected representatives to account for lying, much noise has been made by legal types - "Where's the loss incurred because of the lie ? If there's no loss, what are you holding them to account for exactly ?"

When our elected representatives are perceived as anything other than honest, Foreign Affairs are precisely where "the people" suffer "a loss".

Blair says we were in Iraqi waters, the Iranians say bollocks.

It would be nice to think that when the PM says "our lads were in Iraqi territorial waters" you could bet your life they were (after all, that's what "our lads" are doing).

It would be nice to think that in the face of such a clear denial, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki would feel ridiculous even questioning our PM's integrity.

It would be nice to think the UN and international allies would see Mottaki as ridiculous because he questioned our Prime Minister's integrity.

The foreign minister of Iran can put doubt in our minds, the minds of the UN and our international allies over anything our Prime Minister says for two reasons ;

1) The current governments track record.

2) The Belgrano.

The glory days of Thatcher and the Belgrano come 2nd in our series "Great Political porkies" of our time.

Hours after the Peruvian-brokered peace plan landed in London, Thatcher (cigar in mouth) said to the Argentinians, "If you don't stop that naval vessel coming toward the Falklands, I'm going to blow it out of the fucking water."

The Argentinians replied, "What the hell are you talking about ? We're sailing away from the islands. "

Thatcher said, "No you're not." and promptly blew them out of the fucking water.

In fact the Belgrano was sailing away from the Falklands.

She went on to lie in Parliament and on national TV about the incident.

Clive Ponting, a senior Ministry of Defence civil servant, was increasingly frustrated both by Whitehall's misuse of secrecy and by the way the Navy was using the Falklands experience to try to roll back the 1981 defence review, In July 1984, he gave Tam Dalyell MP documents to show how he and the Foreign Affairs Select Committee that was enquiring into the affair were being misled.

Clive was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act (later) acquitted but civil service career effectively over.

P.S. Freedom of Information request into the Belgrano sinking was refused in June 2005

Great Political Porkies of Our Time (Pt 1)

There's a few people out there who've said this is little more than an exercise in Blair bashing. There are also a few who've dared us to give examples of misleading/misrepresentative statements/lies.

In an effort to show we're not anti-Blair, we're anti-lying, our first example harks back to the heady halcyon days when Thatcher was little more than a coiffured pimple on Jim Callaghan's bum. This also serves as a great example of how hard it is to legally pin down a lie when you're dealing with wily politicians.

Believe it or not, VAT is a relatively new concept, originally introduced in the 40's it became known as the Value Added Tax we now love so dearly in 1973. As stealth taxes go, it's a cracker. Every purchase you make as a consumer gives 17.5% of its value to Gordon Brown and Co. That means if you work an 8 hour day, five days a week - last Friday, you spent 7 out of 8 hours working for the government (and that's after they've taken a bite out of your salary for income tax and N.I.). If you're paying income tax at 40%, you're working for the government nearly 3 out of 5 days a week .

In Callaghan's day, Britain had one of the highest rates of income tax in the world but VAT was at 8%. Thatcher tabled a motion for a vote of no-confidence in Callaghan's Labour Government and by one vote forced a general election.

In the run up to the election Thatcher promised income Tax cuts, "Bollocks" said Callaghan (bear with me, I'm paraphrasing here), "You can only afford to cut income tax if you double the rate of VAT".

Thatcher's response was steadfast - "We will not double it !"

Thatcher won the election in May and in June, Geoffrey Howe's first budget upped VAT to 15%. Now that's not doubling it. Technically Thatcher didn't lie.

The recent spat between Dominic Lawson and George Osborne (Shadow Chancellor) over Osborne's denial that Thatcher promised tax cuts in the '79 manifesto is a decent example of Orwell's Ministry of Truth in action. An inconvenient truth and the politicians re-write history.

Here's the cutting from the '79 manifesto.


Would Thatcher have been caught by our "Misrepresentation of the People Act " ? And if not - should she have been ?

Thatcher and Maurice Frankel ??? Out-takes, behind the Freedom of Information Act

Amazingly, Thatcher was one of the first to push for the Freedom of Information Act as a Private Members Bill. Maurice Frankel shows us the files detailing behind the scenes bickering, fears, chicanery, negotiations and horse-trading that goes on. Also, the low-down on the current proposed gov't ammendments to the Act etc. Very rough and ready edit.