In a major blow for the Prime Minister, Damian McBride quit his post as a senior Downing Street adviser after landing the Government in a row over the messages sent to another prominent Labour figure about the private lives of senior Conservatives. Mr McBrides position became untenable after high-level calls for him to be sacked. Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, said that Mr McBride had brought shame on the Labour Party by planning a smear campaign against Mr Cameron.
Downing Street issued a statement saying that Mr McBride had resigned. A spokesman said it was Mr Browns view that there was "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind".
Mr McBride had earlier apologised for the "juvenile and inappropriate" comments and insisted that no one else at No 10 had been involved. But the row showed little signs of abating as details emerged of the emails contents.
They were sent from Mr McBrides high-security Downing Street account to Derek Draper, a former Labour spin doctor who runs a Left-wing website. They contained a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the personal lives of Tory MPs including Mr Cameron and George Osborne, the shadow chancellor.
The emails were obtained by Paul Staines, a Tory blogger who runs an internet site called Guido Fawkes. They were offered to newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, which declined to buy them. However, several other newspapers were preparing to publish the material. Before Mr McBride announced his resignation, Mr Clarke had said: "Damian McBride has no place in 10 Downing Street. His actions bring shame to the Labour Party and he should be dismissed immediately."
The Tories accused Downing Street of engaging in the "politics of the gutter". Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said the claims were "blatant lies". He said: "This whole episode has been quite disgraceful. This resignation is a clear admission that Gordon Browns team at No 10 were involved in a deliberate attempt to spread unpleasant false rumours about opposition politicians."
Tory officials were concerned about publication of the emails, and some Conservative MPs named in them took legal advice. Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said: "I know what is in the email about me and it is 100 per cent untrue and slanderous. I want an apology from Gordon Brown because one of his civil servants, paid for by taxpayers money, has been trying to destroy me.
"How low can Downing Street stoop? How desperate are they to cling on to power? They say its a bit of a joke but it is taxpayers money and my career and my reputation are not a joke either."
Mr McBride had been in charge of strategic planning at No 10 since last October, when he was moved from his position as Mr Browns spokesman. A source close to Mr McBride said that he and Mr Draper were simply "knocking around ideas" for a blog which never got off the ground. However, the Tories claimed that the emails were indicative of a wider attempt by Labour to undermine the Conservatives by attacking Mr Cameron personally.
Mr McBride said he was "shocked and appalled" at the way his emails had been leaked.
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party has vowed to work against the use of English in education and computers in new projects. While these are pitched as populist measures abolition of "expensive education in English" would allegedly create a level playing field for all and less use of computers would generate jobs the steps are being viewed with alarm as they have the potential to drag back the country by years.
Releasing the party manifesto here on Saturday, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav dwelt on his pet anti-English theme. The manifesto says that if a new government were to be formed with SP's support, it would work to abolish schools providing expensive education in English in other words, virtually every public school regarded among the country's top schools. Interestingly, Mulayam Singh's two sons have gone to such schools.
While speaking to reporters, Mulayam Singh said he was against "the compulsory use of English language in education, administration and judiciary". He said SP favoured the national language, Hindi, and regional languages. To give his anti-top grade education a populist spin, he said his party was in favour of free education for girls until graduation.
On computers, Mulayam said their use was leading to unemployment. He added that wherever work can be done by hand, computers would be abolished. As everything was done by hand until the advent of computers, the step, if taken to its logical conclusion, could lead to the scrapping of almost all computers. Later, it was clarified that less use of computers would be enforced only in new projects again, something that could put new projects at a disadvantage vis-a-vis older ones.
Not just these, the SP has also come out against mechanized farming, arguing against agricultural machines. Harvesters, Mulayam said, would snatch jobs from poor labourers during the harvesting season which, he claimed, gave employment for six months. The manifesto adds that after tractors were introduced, the bovine population has been coming down. Instead of ploughing land, bullocks and calves were going to slaughter houses.
Although SP has had close ties with the corporate world, its manifesto advocates bringing corporate salaries on par with government pay. Taking a leaf from the Left, Mulayam said at present, the economy was benefiting just a handful who had control over capital. He also opposed forward trading and said if a government was formed with SP's support, it would work to cut back if not abolish stock trading and mall culture.
The SP manifesto released on Saturday has pledged free agriculture facilities to farmers apart from loan at the rate of 4%, no forced acquisition of land and steep hike in minimum support price of crops.
And though Mulayam supported the nuclear deal, his manifesto has opposed American dominance in UN. Advocating friendly ties with neighbours, Mulayam said, "If a government comes to power with our support, we will ensure that action is taken against communal powers and attack terrorism at its roots".
Interestingly, Mulayam, who is facing CBI inquiry for having disproportionate assets, said that government should seize assets of people having excess wealth.
Mulayam had something for Muslims and Muslim clerics as well for the past 15 years, visas to Muslims students from Bangladesh, Lanka, Afghanistan, Middle East and European countries for studying at the Islamic education centre of Darul-Uloom-Deoband in UP were not being issued, he said. He assured that if a government was formed with SP support, visa rules would be relaxed. He also promised implementation of the Sachar panel recommendations. He also advocated quota for Muslims, backward and SC/ST in IITs, IIMs.
On tackling cross-border terrorism, the SP chief said that as long as physical barriers divided India from Pakistan and Bangladesh, terrorism would flourish. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister harped on his pet theme of a confederation of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Accusing the previous governments of promoting forward trading, share market and the mall and multiplex culture in the country, Mr. Singh said the SP-supported government at the Centre would either reverse the trend or impose a ban on it.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Although SP has had close ties with the corporate world, its manifesto advocates bringing corporate salaries on par with government pay.
Phueching amazing! A page ripped right out of the Obama play book.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
