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George Osborne – Man – Mouse or Tory Rat – The Man Who Would Be King

October 1 2011; George Osborne: from the Bullingdon club to the heart of government

When George Osborne was 17, he took part in a school debate on nuclear disarmament. He was then an A-level politics student at St Paul’s in London, one of England’s leading public schools. On the day of the debate, a crowd of sixth-formers gathered to listen. Osborne, already perhaps displaying latent right-wing sympathies, was to argue in favour of the nuclear deterrent. On the opposing side, his classmate Sam Bain would put the case for the CND. But as Osborne rose to speak, a rugby teacher came into the classroom to say he was required to play in a match. Osborne rushed out, leaving the notes of his speech behind. “Some guy in the audience read it out and he won pretty unanimously,” recalls Bain now. “So basically, I failed to win a debate against him even though he wasn’t there.”

For Bain the humiliation was not entirely unexpected. Even as an adolescent, Osborne seemed preternaturally composed, somehow older than his contemporaries and with a clear idea of where he was heading and of the kind of person he wanted to become.

“We were 17, and at that point he was grown-up in a way that no one else was in our year,” recalls Bain, who went on to co-create Channel 4’s Peep Show and the new student comedy Fresh Meat. “He looked and behaved like a man who had already decided what he was going to do with his life.”

The story of how that teenager went on to become the youngest chancellor of the exchequer in 120 years is an intriguing one. It contains many surprising elements, including tales of riotous debauchery, allegations of electoral malpractice in student politics and, at one point, an intimate encounter with the pop star Geri Halliwell – more of which later. But in many ways Osborne at 40 still retains the essence of Osborne at 17. Those who work for him now remark on his exceptional political brain, on his ability to out-think his opponents with strokes of tactical genius, to present even the most dense economic argument with an eye to what will make the next day’s headlines and to know, deep down in his bones, what will win over a crowd.

“I remember many times when we were faced with a tricky political problem and there’d be a light bulb moment,” says Conservative MP Matthew Hancock, who was Osborne’s economic adviser and chief of staff until last year. “There’s nobody else I’ve ever met where that moment was so obvious – his entire face would light up and he’d say: ‘No, we’ll do it like this.’ And it was always a really brilliant idea. He’s very creative.”

Yet for all that he inspires loyalty among those who work for him, Osborne has enough self-knowledge to realise that his public persona is fatally lacking. On television he comes across as stilted, lacking David Cameron’s easy bonhomie and banter. In parliament his youthful features – a plump, pale face; foppish dark hair – only serve to underline the impression that he is an overgrown public schoolboy not quite up to the job of steering the country through a devastating financial crisis. His privileged upbringing – Osborne is the eldest son of Sir Peter Osborne, the 17th holder of a hereditary baronetcy and the co-founder of wallpaper designers Osborne & Little – adds to the tabloid caricature of a toff with a trust fund. His mouth, according to one commentator, “is curled into a permanent sneer so it looks as if he’s laughing when he announces yet more cuts to public services”.

Unhelpfully, he is forever dogged by two infamous photographs from his past: the first, taken in 1992, depicts Osborne as a latter-day Sebastian Flyte, resplendent in tails and a blue bow tie as a member of Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club; the second, taken a few years later, shows him grinning inanely with his arm flung casually around the shoulders of escort Natalie Rowe, surrounded by empty bottles of wine and what might or might not be a line of cocaine on the table in front of him. Those two images have reinforced – unfairly or otherwise – an overriding public sense of Osborne as a dilettante possessed of a healthy sense of entitlement. At a time when he is championing a series of swingeing austerity measures, Osborne is only too aware that such a preconception is unfortunate.

As a consequence he carefully rations his public appearances – a tactic that has earned him the nickname of “the submarine” among Tory staffers. “He stays underwater for a long time and when he appears he prepares impeccably,” explains Janan Ganesh, the political correspondent for the Economist who is currently writing a biography of Osborne. “He’s very open in private that he will – in his words – ‘never be a man of the people’. It’s a combination of material privilege and more superficial stuff, like the way he looks and sounds… During the past election campaign, for instance, he was not visible. That was because he knew he was more of an asset behind the scenes.”

Osborne at 17 could win a school debate without having to appear in person, but simply by having someone else read out his cleverly structured arguments. Twenty-three years later, as chancellor of the exchequer, that same strategy has been successfully refined and redeployed, albeit on a rather larger scale.

For Sam Bain, Osborne’s erstwhile debating partner, there is a feeling of inevitability about his classmate’s rise to power. “I certainly feel very old now looking at him as chancellor, but thinking about how he got there, it does make sense,” he says. “You probably have to be working at it for 20 years or more to achieve that. It does speak of someone who is very single-minded, and whether or not you agree with his politics, that’s a pretty extraordinary thing.”

To those who have observed his ascent from the outside, Osborne has always seemed to know exactly where he was going. Friends say that he is adamant that there was no steady teleological process – after graduating with a 2:1 in modern history from Magdalen College, Oxford, he toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist and pursued a number of dead-end jobs (at one point refolding towels in Selfridge’s) before a friend mentioned there was a vacancy in the research department of Conservative Central Office. From there he rose to become political secretary and speechwriter to William Hague before getting elected Conservative MP for Tatton in 2001 and then being appointed shadow chancellor by Michael Howard at the precocious age of 33.

Anyone looking at that inexorable rise would be forgiven for thinking Osborne had a masterplan. “Actually at every step [of his career], he had massive doubt,” says one friend. “It was: ‘What the hell am I going to do next?'”

Although there might have been doubt beneath the surface, superficially he seemed ambitious from the off. During the early days of Cameron’s opposition, employees at Conservative Central Office remember that Osborne’s professional style was markedly different from that of the leader’s. Whereas Cameron would come in each morning bluff and cheerful, greeting everyone by name, Osborne would walk straight to his office without a word and close the door.

“Osborne comes from this clever, entitled background; he’s got this ‘born to rule’ attitude,” says one peer. “He’s sharp, but he’s not as clever as Cameron.”

The Cameron-Osborne partnership has always been close – they are godfathers to each other’s children – in large part because of their differing strengths. Whereas Cameron is the public face of the party and the embodiment of a broad ideological vision, Osborne is the arch-tactician, the political chess player who delights in the game. He is in some ways the purest (and, some might say, the most terrifying) form of politician: driven not by any specific ideology but by the thrill of the chase, the exercise of statecraft and by ambition itself. “For him, politics is the biggest toy in the playground,” says one acquaintance.

“His first thought is: what is the politics of this, both internal and external?” says a former adviser. “It’s a great strength, but it can also be a weakness. There are plenty of times in politics where the right thing to do is not the politically correct thing to do. I think George is put on the spot in interviews when people say to him: ‘Why are you in politics? How do you want this country to be?’ That shines a telling light on him as a person and a thinker. His wiring is political and that means it is contextual, so his answer would depend on the prevailing political mood.”

Occasionally his obsession with day-to-day tactics rather than an overarching strategy has led to criticism within the Tory ranks. During the 2010 election campaign, which Osborne was masterminding, he produced a “Top Tory of the Day” T-shirt for any staffer who came up with the cleverest publicity coup. “He loves that kind of stuff,” says one political commentator. “He can put doing over your opponent ahead of the need for an underlying vision.”

His Liberal Democrat colleagues in the coalition government talk darkly of Treasury briefings against them, always carried out by underlings rather than Osborne himself, who is careful to remain charming in person. “Of course it’s partly Treasury arrogance – the institutional inability to give any other department credit,” says Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott, who quit as a House of Lords Treasury spokesman earlier this year in protest at Osborne’s failure to take strong enough action on bank bonuses. “Osborne is a very, very clever operator. He’s got a real eye for the political main chance.”

And yet Cameron – who is five years older than his chancellor – has been canny enough to harness this to his own advantage: he already has the advice of Steve Hilton (Cameron’s director of strategy) for blue-sky thoughts about Big Societies and the like. Osborne, by contrast, provides the hard-headed calculation. He also has more liberal instincts than Cameron on issues such as abortion and gay adoption. A low-tax, small-state Conservative, he is said to find some of Cameron’s money-guzzling social and environmental initiatives baffling. And Osborne can be radical: as a new backbencher, he proposed that the royal family should pay rent for Kensington Palace. It is for these reasons, says Ganesh, that “Cameron absolutely counts on him”. They are a complementary partnership.

Unlike Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, whose alleged gentlemen’s agreement in 1994 over who would stand for the leadership became part of New Labour political mythology, Osborne insists he struck no such bargain. “There was no deal over the rabbit polenta,” he said in an interview six years ago with the Daily Telegraph. That, of course, does not mean he has no ambitions for the leadership – quite the contrary.

“To be a politician at that level, you have to take yourself very seriously and believe you can be leader,” says a former Conservative MP who used to work for Osborne. “But I think they learned a lesson from the Blair-Brown years. And that was: never, ever let it happen to us. They are genuinely brothers-in-arms. They’ve always both just put winning at the top of their list, even if their outlooks and priorities are different.”

The door between No 10 and the Treasury at No 11 is always open – in stark contrast to some previous regimes – and the prime minister trusts Osborne enough to allow him to chair the daily 4pm strategy meeting with Cameron’s inner team if he is away.

“They were always very close,” says one former Conservative cabinet minister, “but David was always clearly the dominant figure in that partnership. When I first met George and David for discussions, George would be silent. He would occasionally chip in, but it was evident that there was a lack of assertiveness and self-confidence. I think that’s changed. He’s grown in stature very encouragingly, because he needed to if he was going to be effective.”

How would his lack of confidence manifest itself? “You’d notice it. There was a certain nervousness.”

Again, there is a disparity here between the public and private Osborne. In public he comes across as being almost too confident for his own good; smoothly assured that his deficit-reduction plan is the right course of action even though almost no other western nation has followed suit and some economists continue to predict fiscal measures will cause sluggish growth and high unemployment for decades.

According to one senior adviser: “That’s when his political instincts come straight through and he says: ‘OK, I’m going to take some flak for this; I’ll fight my corner.’ I’ve not seen any impression of any particular gloominess. He’s not often shy of political jousting.” He is also well-regarded on the international stage, counting Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, and US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner among his admirers (not bad for someone who used to have a beginner’s guide to economics in his office).

In private, however, there are signs that his self-assurance in parliament is something of an act. At parties he often appears uncomfortable and guarded, as though constantly on the lookout for a potential conversational banana skin. People who meet him outside the House of Commons find him difficult to connect with. “There’s an emotional distance there,” says one. “Everyone who works with him says he’s so charming, but I must admit I’ve always found him rather charmless.”

And it is true that in the corridors of power it is difficult to find anyone with a bad word to say about him on a personal level. Even his most strident critics admit he is likeable, even if his policies aren’t.

In coalition he has, according to one Liberal Democrat, been “a courteous colleague. He’s a very smooth operator”. After the election Osborne made a point of going to business secretary Vince Cable’s office to introduce himself, even though it is customary for the more junior minister to make the effort. “He is always polite, quick and very sharp,” says one Liberal Democrat. This in spite of the fact that, according to one Conservative peer, Osborne finds the constraints of coalition “extremely irksome”. His relationship with Cable is said to be good – at least on the surface – but, says the Lib Dem: “We have to warn Vince about Osborne, because when someone’s being nice to him he lets his guard drop.”

Within his close team of young advisers – chief of staff Rupert Harrison, special advisers Eleanor Shawcross and Ramesh Chhabra are all in their late 20s or early 30s – he inspires almost fanatical loyalty. They are keen to stress his quick wit and dark, acerbic humour (although the best Osborne joke I heard was his remark during a Christmas party attended by the rapper 50 Cent. He is said to have quipped to guests: “That’s Mr Cent to you”), his sympathetic attitude to mothers who need to knock off early if their child is ill and his willingness to give career advice to up-and-coming politicos.

Time and again I am told that “the worst thing you can do in a meeting with George is not to speak your mind”. No one I talk to has ever seen him get angry, which suggests a remarkable level of self-control. “No, I’ve never seen him lose it,” says Hancock. “He gets passionate about things, but that’s different.” There is certainly no phone throwing these days in No 11.

“The people who work for him say that Osborne is young enough to remember what it was like to have a boss,” says Ganesh. “People say he’s considerate, and as a result of this he engenders a lot of residual personal loyalty. He’s developed a parliamentary following – MPs like Greg Hands, Claire Perry, Matt Hancock – all of whom worked for Osborne at some stage and who have retained their former loyalty.”

If he ever did decide to stand for leader, an Osbornite cabal would already be in place.

Osborne was born in 1971, the eldest of four brothers in a liberal-leaning, bohemian family. His mother, Felicity Loxton-Peacock, was a former debutante turned anti-Vietnam protester who eventually switched to voting Conservative after Margaret Thatcher became leader. His father, also liberal-minded, set up the family wallpaper business around the kitchen table in Notting Hill. It was, Osborne has said in the past, “a metropolitan upbringing [rather] than a landed, shire-county upbringing” of the kind David Cameron enjoyed.

The fact that he turned out a Tory is a cause of some amusement among his extended family. His brothers – Adam, Benedict and Theo – have all followed less conventional paths. Adam Osborne is a doctor who was suspended from the General Medical Council for six months last year after improperly prescribing drugs to a cocaine-addicted escort. He converted to Islam to marry his wife Rahala in 2009. Benedict is a graphic designer, while Theo runs an online bookmaking company.

As a child Osborne was, by his own admission, “the most sensible out of all the kids. I was extremely well behaved.” His love of learning earned him the nickname “Knowledge” from his siblings.

In reality the name his parents gave him was Gideon, which he famously chose to drop at the age of 13 for the more straightforward George (his grandfather’s name) because “life was easier as a George”. Some of his classmates at St Paul’s believe Osborne made the change in order to sound less exotic and “more prime ministerial”. “It certainly falls in with my profile of someone who was already thinking about his image,” says one.

At school he was clearly bright, but not especially popular. His personal tutor Mike Seigel remembers him as “one of the most talented students I came across in a quarter of a century. He had a determination to do well.” Osborne went on to Oxford, where he edited the university magazine Isis in 1992 and produced a special edition partially printed on hemp paper to indicate the importance of “green issues”.

Unlike his future boss William Hague, who had graduated from Magdalen a decade before, Osborne did not get involved in the Oxford Union. But as a 19-year-old he did stand for the post of Entertainments Representative in his college junior common room (JCR) along with a friend. It was here, perhaps, amid the cut-price beer and freshers’ high jinks, that he got his first taste for politics. In fact his electioneering was so enthusiastic his rival for the position wrote a letter of complaint to the JCR vice president outlining Osborne’s underhand tactics.

The letter, dated 15 November 1990, reads: “I wish to lodge a complaint concerning electorate malpractice on the part of Messrs George Osborne and [the friend] on three counts, namely:

1 The dissemination of five different wordings of posters, instead of the mandatory two.

2 The posting of the above on places other than noticeboards, such as doors and walls.

3 The attempt on the part of Mr Osborne to pervert the democratic process by electioneering in the JCR.

I would urge that these matters be considered with a view to possible disqualification.”

The complaint is signed by RD Harding, who went on to win the election. Rupert Harding, who now works at a language school in Finland, is rather embarrassed by the strident tone of his letter. “I have little to no recollection of the campaign,” he says. “Perverting the democratic process I think meant going up to people after Neighbours and asking them to vote for him.” Osborne was, in any case, roundly defeated at the hustings.

At Oxford, Osborne’s contemporaries remember him as one of a clique of “braying public schoolboys”. His friends saw a different side – “My recollection of George is that he was a nice bloke, quite approachable, shy and very bright,” says one – but his membership of the notorious Bullingdon Club did little to dampen the perception of elitism. Infamous for its riotous behaviour, the society is open only to sons of aristocratic families or the super-rich. The initiation process was to down a bottle of tequila while standing on a table. That immortal Bullingdon photo would come back to haunt him.

The goings-on of the Bullingdon are extremely secretive, but one of Osborne’s contemporaries, who has never spoken to the press, told me what happened after that photograph of Osborne, standing imperious in bow tie and tails, was taken. “We got on a double-decker bus and drove to Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire,” he says. “It started to get really out of control. I remember a guest being comatose on the lawn, being tended to by a butler who was applying cold towels to his forehead, trying to bring him round. One of the guys got into a fist fight because he was Italian and a football match was on and there’d been some racial taunting. Plates had been thrown. As usual, it escalated. It was a group of young, testosterone- and alcohol-fuelled men, many of whom don’t ever have to work. I think George was mildly alarmed. He was enjoying the food and wine, enjoying watching the football, and I just remember him looking at me with raised eyebrows at what was going on. I never saw him take drugs.”

On a different occasion with Osborne also present, he remembers one Bullingdon member “trying to snort lines of coke from the top of an open-top bus and the bus was speeding along so it kept blowing away. I said to him: ‘You’re stupid. It’s blowing away,’ and his response was: ‘I can afford it.'”

Another time Osborne and the other Bullingdon members went for a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Berkshire where, coincidentally, the comedian Lenny Henry was having dinner with his then-wife Dawn French. “We interrupted the whole evening,” the source says. “A couple of the boys started getting obnoxious and talking about their family wealth and Henry said: ‘Actually, sod off.’ Then there was a slight altercation when a member put a cigar out on someone else’s lapel and it turned into a fight and furniture was broken. It was horrible, horrible. We used to smash everything up and then pay a cheque, saying: ‘It’s OK; we can pay for it.’ It was pretty shocking.”

How did an undergraduate who supposedly smashed up furniture and downed tequila get from there to become chancellor of the exchequer? “In a sense there’s no difference between the Bullingdon George and the chancellor George: they both simply wanted to be the best,” explains one former colleague. “Being the best at Oxford, in his eyes, meant joining the Bullingdon.”

Osborne has remained understandably tight-lipped about his youthful excesses, insisting, even when the photograph of him with vice-girl Natalie Rowe emerged in 2005, that MPs are entitled to have lived a life pre-politics. But it certainly appears from this account that Osborne liked to cut loose and have a good time. And it seems an element of that has stayed with him, despite the guardedness he is now careful to assume in public. When I ask a senior coalition colleague how Osborne made the transition from party animal to sober-minded politician, the reply comes: “I don’t think anyone’s ever believed he’s sober. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to relive the youth he never had.”

A few years ago, at the wedding of his brother-in-law Toby Howell (Osborne’s author wife, Frances, is the daughter of Conservative peer Lord Howell and the couple have two children, Luke, 10, and Liberty, eight), Osborne was, according to onlookers, encouraged to play a game of “pass the ice cube” with fellow guests. Osborne gamely agreed and is said to have found himself mouth-to-mouth with the pop star Geri Halliwell, who was there as the girlfriend of Henry Beckwith, the son of a millionaire property developer. Posterity does not record the reaction of either party. By all accounts, Frances would have taken it in good part. “She’s very much her own woman,” says an acquaintance. “They both lead quite independent lives.”

More seriously, Osborne’s taste for the high life also led to one of the worst errors of his political career. In October 2008, it was claimed that Osborne had tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska while holidaying on the oligarch’s yacht with Peter Mandelson off the coast of Corfu. Such a move would have been a violation of the law against political donations by foreign citizens. A formal complaint was made to the Electoral Commission. Although the Commission rejected the claims and Osborne has always strongly denied the allegations, he was astute enough to know that it did not look good.

“He learned the lesson of his folly in Corfu,” says one former chancellor of the episode. “It was obviously very silly. But the important thing was not that he did it but that he learned his lesson and that will prevent him from doing something stupid in future.”

When Natalie Rowe gave an interview last month to the Australian news channel ABC in which she claimed Osborne had taken cocaine with her, the chancellor seemed unperturbed. He did not comment on the allegations, even when there was speculation that Osborne remained so indebted to the then News of the World editor Andy Coulson for not making too much of the Rowe story when it first broke six years ago that he recommended him to Cameron as his director of communications.

“He definitely thinks he’s silly to have done some of those things,” says one of Osborne’s close associates. “But it does speak to his deep self-confidence that he’s always assumed he’ll be running the country and none of this breaks his stride.”

From the school debating team to the Bullingdon and all the way to No 11, Osborne has always wanted to be the best. If this means the next logical step is to become prime minister, it would be foolish to underestimate his determination to get there. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/01/george-osborne-bullingdon-club-government

Cameron & Boris – The Early years Revisited

September 26 2009; The Bullingdon Boys – When Boris met Dave

Two years ago, a photograph of the 1987 Bullingdon Club emerged. It showed a bunch of elegant, arrogant and carefully coiffured teenagers wearing tailcoats and bow ties; it seemed like a curious snapshot from Britain’s high Victorian era. So it was a shock to discover that this photo was in fact taken in the mid-Eighties, a time more synonymous with Wham!, Beverly Hills Cop and the miners’ strike. If you looked closely, you recognized the blond seated in the front row staring defiantly into the camera as Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. Look harder, you’d spot the man most likely to be leading the country next year: David Cameron, a handsome youth staring dreamily into the distance.

But what was the Bullingdon Club? What drove the generation that spawned today’s two most powerful Conservative politicians in the country? And how had they been shaped by a background of Eton, Oxford and secret societies?

In Washington we tracked down U.S. political consultant Frank Luntz, who helped Johnson gain the presidency of the Oxford Union and years later worked on Cameron’s Tory leadership bid. Luntz witnessed the extraordinary birth of Johnson the Machiavellian politician. Aware of how unfashionable it was to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, and having failed to win the presidency once, Johnson presented himself as an environmentalist and even let it be known that he was aligned with the then-popular Social Democrat Party. ‘I’d never seen anyone speak like him,’ said Luntz. ‘There was a candid quality to him. I initially thought it was an act, because I’d never seen it in anyone before.’ Johnson thrived at the Union but he also coveted the presidency of the Bullingdon, which would have given him the ultimate stamp of social approval.

The Bullingdon was founded in 1780, originally as a hunting and cricket club. From the beginning its name was synonymous with excessive drinking and a competitive destructiveness, and membership has always been by invitation only and known for being, for most, prohibitively expensive (costs include a bespoke set of tails, outrageously lavish dinners and a charge against expected damages). Past ‘Bullers’ include Edward VII, Edward VIII, John Profumo and Alan Clark. The club was also satirized by Evelyn Waugh as ‘the Bollinger’ in Decline And Fall. ‘I was awoken from a deep sleep by a dozen men in tailcoats, who smashed up my furniture, books, hi-fi., everything… I was completely dazed’

Three of the boys in the 1987 picture had titled parents, and Cameron is fifth cousin twice removed from the Queen. But in spite of his ‘poshest chap in the land’ schtick, Johnson is not so well connected. He’s a scholarship boy from a bohemian background, and while he was reportedly always at the heart of ‘the Buller’, he never won its presidency. Luckily he was a very bright boy and his father, Stanley, was always extremely zealous in seeking out scholarships and prizes for him, without which Eton, Oxford and the Bullingdon would have proved out of reach. At Eton he shone brightly but also gained a reputation for complacency and procrastination. Cameron, two years behind him, would have been aware of Johnson but this awareness is unlikely to have been reciprocated. At Oxford the two again crossed paths – and this time Johnson must have become familiar with the future Tory leader.

From the beginning, the Club’s name was synonymous with excessive drinking and a competitive destructiveness, and membership has always been by invitation only By getting elected into the Buller, Johnson pulled off another feat of social climbing and, once in, he threw himself into the ritualized drinking with gusto. Drunken destruction was a trademark of the Buller and trashing bedrooms was the standard form of initiation. Radek Sikorski, now Poland’s Foreign Minister, recounted an extraordinary story of Johnson leading a troop of Bullers into his room in the dead of night. ‘I was awoken from a deep sleep by a dozen men in tailcoats, who smashed up my furniture, books, hi-fi, everything,’ he said. ‘I was completely dazed. Then Boris shook my hand and said, “Congratulations, you’ve been elected!”‘ Johnson (whose nickname at Eton had been ‘the Berserker’) was the quintessential Buller.

But Cameron was harder to pin down – more likely to shirk than ‘berserk’. Photos from the time show him to be an elegant man, and a touch aloof. We tracked down one of his Oxford girlfriends, Francesca Ferguson, to her home in Switzerland. ‘He was a tall, intelligent, fit guy,’ she remembers. ‘I fancied him!’ She said that one time she brought him home to meet her father and her German mother. Cameron gave them a Monty Python record, which, unbeknown to him, included a famously bad-taste Hitler and Goebbels sketch in which the two Nazi leaders have taken over a B&B in Minehead after the war. When Francesca’s family insisted on immediately playing the record, Cameron apparently doubled over in embarrassment. Yet somehow he was able to charm his way back into the family’s affections so nimbly that Francesca’s mother predicted his political rise. ‘My mother said to me, “He’ll be Prime Minister one day…” In fact she thought the episode was hysterical, and still does.’ No one else suspected Cameron might one day be PM.

According to his best friend at the time Giles Andreae, better known as creator of the best-selling ‘Purple Ronnie’ cartoon character, Cameron was hard-working but showed no interest in politics. They spent most of their time on the sofa watching daytime TV. ‘We’d watch Neighbours and Going For Gold, and then go for a pint and a game of darts once we’d finished our work,’ he said.

Johnson and Cameron’s political rivalry is every bit as defining of the next ten years as was the Brown-Blair one of the past decade Cameron had almost been thrown out of Eton for smoking cannabis. Perhaps it was this drug-related scrape that meant he kept his head down at Oxford. Or perhaps he just had a blood-borne assurance that he belonged to a grander narrative. As he prepared to leave Oxford with his First in PPE he applied for jobs in banking and management consultancy..and the Conservative Research Department.

On the day of his interview Tory Central Office received a phone call from Buckingham Palace saying that they were about to meet an exceptional young man. It’s unclear who made the call but among the suspects is Captain Sir Alastair Aird, then Equerry to the Queen Mother and husband of Fiona Aird, Cameron’s godmother. Cameron believes it was Aird who made the call; Aird himself denies it. Whatever the truth, it seems that Cameron’s blue-blood connections did him no harm. Perhaps the most revealing snapshot of Cameron at Oxford is not, ultimately, the photograph of him in his Bullingdon finery but the image of him kicking back on the sofa watching daytime TV. He didn’t need to try too hard, and his lack of obvious ambition may be his biggest weapon. Oxford alumnus Toby Young says, ‘Cameron very consciously didn’t just hang out with other old Etonians but mixed a lot with other people. That’s probably what makes him such an effective leader today.’

Johnson always wore his ambition to be prime minister on his sleeve. Yet he’s likely to be pipped to the top job by someone he’s known most of his life but probably didn’t suspect was a contender until quite recently. This is a political rivalry every bit as defining of the next ten years as was the Brown-Blair one of the past decade. And it all started more than 20 years ago with the photo, when Boris met Dave. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1215635/Our-Boys-Bullingdon-The-early-years-David-Cameron-Boris-Johnson.html

The Sins of Osborne’s Brother – Google’s “Right To Be Forgotten” Ruling Buries The Information

Updated go to: https://caltonjock.com/2016/02/09/dr-adam-mohammed-osborne-sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll/

Know Thine Enemy – Nat Rothschild, Jo Johnson & Osborne – Closing in on Downing Street

Nat Rothschild and best mate Jo Johnson Getting a grip on things. A general election throws up many opportunities.

April 26 2013; Boris and Jo: A sibling rivalry to eclipse the Milibands

Ever since one certain flamboyant blond became London Mayor, speculation has been incessant (and, of course, regularly fuelled by the man himself) that it wouldn’t be long before a Johnson moves into No 10 Downing Street. But few people expected that rather than Boris Johnson himself, his little-known younger brother, Jo, would get there first. Indeed, the 41-year-old’s appointment as the head of David Cameron’s policy unit took most people in Westminster by surprise.

The promotion of the old Etonian (‘Johnson Minimus’ in the posh school’s parlance), an MP for only three years, was the idea of Chancellor George Osborne. Apart from harnessing Jo’s strategic skills in a bid to make the Tories more popular, the move is seen as a mischievous ruse to rein in Boris, who makes no secret of the fact he wants to succeed Cameron as Tory leader. The thinking is that if his brother is part of Team Cameron, Boris won’t want to be seen as a critic.

This is a classic piece of Osborne devilry. As a colleague says: ‘He hopes that although Jo’s presence in Downing Street will wind up Boris, it will make it more difficult for him to criticize the Government.’ But it is a huge gamble that could easily backfire – not merely for political reasons but also because of the fact that family loyalty is a double-edged sword when it comes to the Johnson clan. For not only are they fiercely competitive with the rest of the world, they are fiercely competitive with each other. Indeed, cradle-reared competitiveness has been a hallmark of Johnson family life. So a great danger for Cameron and Osborne is that little Jo’s appointment will consume big brother Boris with jealousy and propel him to even more Machiavellian tactics to muscle his way in to No 10.

As Boris’s biographer Andrew Gimson says, the childhood of the two Johnson boys (and their sister Rachel and other brother Leo) was one of ‘cut-throat meal-time quizzes, fearsome ping-pong matches, height, weight and blondeness contests’. But equally, the family has a formidable clan loyalty – so some fear there is the risk that Jo might even help Boris achieve his once self-proclaimed ambition to be ‘world king’. As one friend of Jo’s says: ‘Cameron and Osborne may think his first loyalty will be to them but they may find to their cost that it is to the Johnson clan.’

Indeed, many Tory MPs believe that Jo is more likely than Boris to become Prime Minister. One backbencher says: ‘He’s is brighter than Boris, he’s nicer than Boris, he’s got less personal baggage than Boris. It could be David and Ed all over again.’ Although politically inexperienced, Jo is undoubtedly very clever, with a first-class degree in Modern History from Oxford as well as two further degrees from European universities. His friends love to point out that the fluent French speaker has more qualifications than Boris. Of course, as the youngest of the Johnson clan, he had a great deal of catching up to do in the wake of Boris, now 48, journalist Rachel, 47, and entrepreneur Leo, 45.

After three lucrative years as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank, he joined the Financial Times – working in Paris and South East Asia before editing the influential finance column, Lex (a previous incumbent being Nigel Lawson). He eventually turned to politics and was selected by the Tories to fight the seat of Orpington, which he won in 2010. His parliamentary career has been unremarkable, as he has risen from being an effective member of the Public Accounts Committee to junior whip.

Diffident to the point of shy, the only things he appears to have in common with Boris are his genes and blonde hair. No showman, he’ll never appear on TV’s Have I Got News For You or get himself stuck on a zipwire. He’s sanguine about living in the shadow of his celebrity brother, who has 685,000 followers on Twitter to his own 3,500.

Although Jo, like Boris, was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club (a drinking society known for its wanton acts of drunken vandalism, and numbering Oxford’s wealthiest undergraduates among its members), he has strong links with the Left through his marriage.

His wife is Amelia Gentleman, the Guardian’s trenchantly left-wing social affairs correspondent. Her father is the brilliant artist David Gentleman, best known for being the most prolific designer of stamps in the Post Office’s history and for his platform-length mural at the Charing Cross Tube station in London.

Amelia (who went to St Paul’s, one of Britain’s leading private schools) and Jo have two children and a conventionally happy marriage that is the antidote to Boris’s scandal-strewn love life. As one of Cameron’s so-called ‘modernisers’, Jo will use his role in the No 10 policy unit to give the PM’s image a sharper political edge and develop radical ideas for a government widely thought to have run out of intellectual steam.

Among his key interests are the benefits of Britain forging stronger economic and strategic links with India. Unlike Cameron, though, he believes that the Government should cancel its controversial £250million annual aid package to the country. Such views will clearly infuriate Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems, who believe that the policy unit should serve the interests of the Coalition rather than just the Conservative Party.

Labour will undoubtedly try to exploit Jo Johnson’s links with Boris, as well as depicting him as utterly out of touch with the struggles and aspirations of ordinary voters. Only the eagle-eyed will have spotted Jo in embarrassing published photos of ‘The Buller’, wearing the members’ uniform of Georgian tailcoats.

He is standing proudly in a group which includes a young George Osborne. Labour will surely also highlight the fact that Cameron’s revamped policy unit team includes two more Old Etonians: Hereford MP Jesse Norman, who is also the former director of an investment bank, and bungling Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin.

For the non-partisan observer, however, the most intriguing tensions are not political but familial. The father of the Johnson clan, Stanley, is unrepentant about having created a competitive atmosphere among the four siblings and has described Boris as ‘the great prodigious tree in the rainforest, in the shade of which the smaller trees must either perish or struggle to find their own place in the sun’.

With typical self-promotion, sister Rachel reacted to Jo’s appointment with a tweet, saying that she’s waiting for ‘her telephone call from 10 Downing Street’. For his part, an irritated Boris (who is now not an MP, remember) is already being ribbed that his ‘little brother’ got to Downing Street first. The risk for him is that Jo will become accustomed to being in No 10.

If David Cameron loses the next election he will surely step down as Tory leader. Any ensuing battle between Johnson Maximus and Johnson Minimus would make the act of fratricide between the Milibands seem by comparison like an exercise in brotherly love. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2314934/BoJo-JoJo-How-Boris-younger-brother-Jo-Johnson-Minimus-sibling-rivalry-eclipse-Milibands.html

April 27 2013; Jo Johnson almost got thrown out of Oxford for leaking riot to Boris’s paper

When Boris Johnson’s younger brother Jo was given a plum 10 Downing Street job by David Cameron, the political commentators were agreed, Jo is a much more strait-laced figure than the London Mayor. But new revelations from his Oxford University days have shown a more risk-taking side to ‘Johnson Minimus’ – including a claim that he was threatened with expulsion from his college for selling a story to the national newspaper where Boris worked. He also showed flashes of his brother’s rakishness in a review of the university’s party scene which included a picture of amphetamine powder, complete with the caption: ‘The solution?’

Mr Cameron shocked Westminster last week by appointing 41-year-old Jo as head of his policy unit. The promotion prompted headlines about Jo becoming the ‘first Johnson into No 10’, with profile writers noting that although both men attended Eton and Oxford, only Jo – the more ‘sensible’ of the two – won a first-class degree. But according to a 1992 edition of the student newspaper Cherwell, Jo had more of a buccaneering image at the time.

In a piece written to mark Jo’s appointment as editor of Isis, a rival publication, Cherwell described Jo as a ‘Nat-ite’, a reference to his friendship with banker Nat Rothschild: Jo was famously pictured with Rothschild and George Osborne in a 1993 Bullingdon Club photograph unearthed by The Mail on Sunday.

The Cherwell article, written at the start of Jo’s second year as a Balliol history student, describes him as a ‘Rothschild crony’. It says: ‘His crowning glory was an article he penned for the Daily Torygraph over the summer about the New College Ball … a 100-word piece shuffled into the corner of the Peterborough column.’ According to Cherwell, Jo told the Telegraph that ‘class war loonies’ who had disrupted the rival ball were Balliol students, triggering a furious reaction.

April 27 2013; A contest between my two boys? That sounds like tremendous fun! Says Father Stanley Johnson

Stanley Johnson got the news late because he spilled wine on his phone. Now a proud father celebrates his son Jo’s new job in No10. A Johnson in No 10! I did a sudden double-take when I saw the front-page headlines. Jo had telephoned me a couple of days earlier to say that some kind of move was under discussion, but I certainly hadn’t been expecting front-page news. The BBC had the story too.

My son’s appointment to head the Downing Street Policy Unit didn’t lead the news, but it was not far off. My mobile phone didn’t ring much that morning but that was only because I had spilt a glass of wine over it the night before. As the youngest of the Johnson clan, Jo had a great deal of catching up to do in the wake of Boris, now 48, journalist Rachel, 47, and entrepreneur Leo, 45.

At 11am when I had finally got a substitute from the helpful O2 shop in Camden Town (thank you Nigel Izuchi from Nigeria!), I had a stack of missed calls and voice mails. My first reaction was a purely personal one. I split up with my first wife, Charlotte – Jo’s mother – at the end of 1978 when he was seven. I have never sought to minimise the impact divorce has on a young family and I do not do so now.

It would be absurd to pretend that young children do not feel a cataclysmic shock when their parents go their separate ways. As a father, one has obviously a sense of pride when a child shines in his or her chosen career. In the case of my children, I say to myself: ‘I jolly well did let them down. But they seem to have come through anyway, thank God.’ I particularly feel that in the case of Jo, the youngest of my first four children.

Charlotte, a brilliant painter, had not been particularly well during Jo’s early years. I had perhaps done more ‘parenting’ in Jo’s case, than I had in the case of his older siblings Boris, Rachel and Leo. I can certainly remember quite often reading Jo to sleep in those early years in Brussels when I was working for the European Commission. (And I discovered the Fisher-Price tape-player. You could switch it on and leave it by the bed, while you answered the phone or poured yourself a drink!) When did Jo first begin to surprise me? When did I say to myself: ‘Wow, this kid has really got something’?

I can remember the moment very clearly. It was in July 1994 when he had just finished his last year at Oxford. I was living in Oxford at the time but Jo had already left, so he asked me if I would go to look at the exam results which would be posted on a certain day. I duly looked at the list of third class degrees first. Jo’s name didn’t appear. ‘That’s a relief,’ I said to myself, ‘at least he’s got a second.’ I looked at the seconds. No Jo. ‘Oh dear!’ I said to myself, ‘has he got a fourth?’ When finally I discovered Jo’s name among the firsts, I have to admit I did an Osborne. Not a total Osborne. But a definite puckering-up.

I never really knew Jo was seriously interested in politics until one night I got a text message saying he had been selected as the Conservative candidate for Orpington by one vote on the sixth ballot. And when, on Election night on May 6, 2010, the brilliant electors of Orpington tripled the Conservative majority to over 17,000, and Jo stepped forward on to the rostrum to thank them, I have to admit that I had another of those Osborne moments. I felt much the same this week when I saw those headlines.

It may be a bit odd for a father to take to the pages of a Sunday newspaper to congratulate his son on a spectacular achievement but what the hell! I raise my glass. Jo may have started late in the political stakes, but he has certainly come on fast. Jo Johnson worked for the Financial Times – once the europhiles’ favourite paper and attended a school for the children of eurocrats. As one of Cameron’s so-called ‘modernisers’, Jo Johnson, will use his role in the No 10 policy unit to give the PM’s image a sharper political edge.

The PM and Mr Johnson met today at Downing Street, but Jo’s appointment as the head of David Cameron’s policy unit took most people in Westminster by surprise. Over the last few days, some more fanciful commentators have been speculating about a possible Bo-jo v Jo-jo contest. Is that going to happen in some distant future? Frankly, I haven’t the faintest idea. But if it did, I am sure that – from a spectator point of view at least – it would be tremendous fun.

We Johnsons, as I keep on reading nowadays, are ‘famously competitive’. In my view, Jo, as an MP head of the policy unit with ministerial rank, has a chance to contribute to the major regeneration of Conservative fortunes which could, I believe, now be in prospect. Yes, we will lose seats in next week’s local elections but that was always on the cards, given how well we did last time.

More to the point is the fact the Conservatives, at this point in the electoral cycle, could be much further behind than they are. But what will it take to bring the party together into a coherent, unstoppable force between now and May 2015? The key thing will be actually to listen to the voice of the traditional Conservative voters.

I spent almost 20 years on European issues. It’s time to lance the boil one way or another. Bill Cash’s call for a referendum now – that is, before the next Election – makes a lot of sense. At the very least there is surely a strong case for getting the legislation providing for a referendum through Parliament before the next Election.

Jo may be a ‘European’. He grew up in Brussels, went to school there, and holds degrees from two European universities, as well as Oxford. But that doesn’t mean he’s a fanatic European. Jo, obtained a First from Oxford, is a fluent French speaker has more qualifications than Boris. I’ve canvassed with him in Orpington. I’ve spoken at the Orpington Ladies Lunch Club! It’s quite clear to me that traditional Conservative loyalists in Orpington and around the country are troubled, to put it mildly, at the current state of the relationships between Britain and Europe.

Jo is astute enough to see that finally making good on David Cameron’s ‘cast-iron guarantee’ of a referendum is politically wise as well as intellectually coherent. There are other things the new policy team might want to take another long, hard look at. Have we really got immigration under control? How many Conservative voters does planning Minister Nick Boles lose each day in his mad rush to concrete over the green fields? Why do we need all those new houses, if not because the previous government simply let immigration run riot?

Why, for that matter, do we need the HS2? Aren’t there other, far better things to spend £30 billion on … and counting? And, while I’m about it, what about the mad EU biofuel directive which is leading to the destruction of rain-forests all over the world? And Jo’s wife, Amelia Gentleman, is an award-winning reporter for The Guardian, so I doubt if she shares my opinion. But Jo has a cool head and a logical mind. He is trained to see beyond the breakfast table.

Much has been made of the Conservatives’ need to ‘reconnect’ with their roots. That, as far as I can understand, is one of the things Jo will have to promote in his new role. Does this all sound pretty serious? Does it sound too serious? In politics, as in real life, a good sense of humour can go a long way. So is Jo going to be funny enough? If you have any doubts, just click on to YouTube and watch Jo’s maiden speech in the House of Commons on June 27, 2010, a few weeks after the General Election and the formation of the Coalition Government.

Jo begins by saying: ‘Anyone hoping that I will enliven proceedings in the manner of one of my elder brothers is likely to be sadly disappointed.’ He goes on to read out a quote from Private Eye. ‘He could not be more different to Boris. It is as though the humour gene by-passed Jo altogether and he inherited only the ambition gene!’ I was in the chamber that day and I heard the loud laughs that greeted that remark.

But Jo turned the joke into a serious point, saying: ‘It is absolutely fair comment, but I don’t really apologise for the humourectomy, nor indeed for any hint of ambition that you might detect. ‘For these are serious times and politicians need to be ambitious when the country is in such a mess. ‘History will not forgive us if we flannel around in this house for the next five years and fail to pick the economy up off the floor where it is at the present.’ Watch this space!

Circle Holdings PLC Abandon Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust Contract – Taxpayer To Take Back All Responsibilities

Faced with the usual winter headache of much increased use of A & E bringing with it pressure on bed use and staff the usual suspects, (politicians) are abusing the Service in Scotland, kicking it around the media and in parliament like a football. It would be to the credit of the aforementioned if they would keep mum for a time. providing support where required, allowing the Service to get through what is always a difficult few weeks.

Contrast the Health Service in Scotland with it’s much troubled and abused sister organization in England. Emergency measures are in place all over the country due to privatization measures introduced piecemeal over the past 4 years.

Today a Private healthcare Provider has defaulted on it’s contract and handed an entire Trust back to the government. Now that is what I would classify as a disastrous situation.

January 9 2015 NHS privatization in sick bay as Circle pulls out of Cambridgeshire hospital

The experiment to privatize parts of the NHS has been dealt a blow as the company running Britain’s only privatised general hospital said it was handing it back to the taxpayer due to government spending cuts and the unprecedented increase of A&E patients. Circle shares plunged 16.5% to 50.25p on the news, which comes as a savage blow to the reputation of the company led by Steve Melton.

Stock market-quoted Circle Holdings took over the running of the troubled Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust in early 2012 after a tender process started by the previous Labour government. But it has since been harshly criticized by the health regulator for serious failings including condemnations of cases where “staff treat patients in an undignified and emotionally abusive manner”, failure to follow hand washing guidance and failing to lock away medicines from the reach of patients.

Circle today blamed its decision to hand back the keys on the “significant changes in the operational landscape for NHS hospitals” since the tender process began in 2009. It said this included “unprecedented increases in accident and emergency attendances, insufficient care places for patients awaiting discharge, and funding levels that have not kept pace with demand”.

It added that conditions have “significantly worsened in recent weeks”, meaning it faced making increased investment beyond the £4.8 million it had already put in “aggregate support payments”. Under the drafting of the Circle contract, it is allowed to terminate the franchise if these payments go beyond £5 million. Amid state funding cuts of more than 10%, Circle faced making “substantial” extra investment for the foreseeable future, it said.

Chairman Michael Kirkwood said: “It is with regret and after considerable thought we make this announcement. The board has unanimously concluded that current conditions in the healthcare economy and regulatory environment are unsustainable for a franchise operator.”

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/nhs-privatisation-in-sick-bay-as-circle-pulls-out-of-cambridgeshire-hospital-9966939.html

Libya – Ghaddafi – Blair – Lockerbie – Al-Meghri – Rothschild – Ghaddfi’s Son – Mandelson – The True Story

osborne (2) Osborne MoS2 Template Master Bullindon Club

August 10 2009; From Libya to London – The World of a Wild Child Turned Power – Broker. The Financier Nat Rothschild is at The Centre of a Web of International Intrigue

Once again, the name of Nat Rothschild has emerged at the centre of web of intrigue, with questions over his links to Libya, his friendship with Peter Mandelson and his alleged role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Indeed, his name seems to be linked with almost every influential, rich and powerful person on the globe, from billionaires to presidents and royalty. But it wasn’t always like that.

For years Nat Rothschild appeared destined to be yet another scion of the rich and famous who had it all and blew it all – mainly through partying. At some point in the mid-1990s he underwent an almost Damascene conversion into a responsible financier, who managed to channel his gambling instincts into money-making investments for a hedge fund. As his skills in handling investments helped turn the Atticus hedge fund into a multi-billion pound concern, so his personal stock rose – in the 13 years he has been with Atticus he has built up his own multimillion pound fortune, quite apart from the £500m he is expected to inherit one day from his father, Jacob, the fourth Baron Rothschild. He has also become an increasingly influential figure not just in the world of finance but in political circles.

Influence is something deeply familiar to the Rothschilds, whose banking concerns have been a force in Europe for two centuries, but for the member of the Bullingdon Club who once rolled an occupied portable loo down a slope, it seemed an unlikely future. Instead of partying with models and socialites, these days he is more likely to be found hob-nobbing with some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. His sphere of influence, it has been revealed, now extends even into Libya, which during the 1980s and 1990s was reviled as a terrorist state. Seif Gaddafi, President Muammar Gaddafi’s son, was the guest of honour at a party held by the financier in New York in 2008 and this year he allowed his home in Corfu to be the venue for a meeting between the Libyan and Lord Mandelson.

The meeting took place earlier this month, just a week before it emerged that the Scottish executive was considering the release from prison of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. Lord Mandelson accepted that Megrahi’s name came up in the discussions but he strongly denied any suggestion he interfered in the decision to release the prisoner.

Nat Rothschild’s interests are further thought to overlap with those of Seif Gaddafi in Montenegro, where he has been linked to investments in the £500m Porto Montenegro project, which is intended to give the country a leading marina. Gaddafi is thought to be keen, signing up to a range of deals in Montenegro to benefit Libya.

Prior to winning friends in Tripoli, the former wild child had built up enviable contacts and deals with Russian oligarchs. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, is reported to be one of Rothschild’s closest friends and he has been appointed as an adviser to Oleg Deripaska, the owner of Rusal, which became the biggest aluminium company in the world as part of a merger deal with two other companies that Rothschild helped to put together.

Deripaska, described as Russia’s richest man and the Kremlin’s favourite oligarch, had a fortune estimated at more than £16bn in 2007 and is believed to be close to Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister.

It was Deripaska whom George Osborne, the Conservative front-bencher, was said to have spoken to about a £50,000 donation to the Tory party. The MP admitted he discussed a donation but denied asking for or receiving any money. The row blew up when Mr Rothschild accused Mr Osborne of approaching the oligarch for a donation. He is thought to have been prompted by a breach of etiquette on the MP’s part by leaking the story of Lord Mandelson meeting the oligarch on a yacht – the two politicians were Rothschild’s guests. The row soured a friendship between the MP and the financier which dated back to contemporary membership of the Bullingdon Club.

Mr Rothschild’s success in recent years has come as a surprise to many who knew him in his wilder days. Peter Munk, the founder and chairman of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer, recalled meeting the future fifth Baron Rothschild in the lobby of a London hotel in 2001. The financier was hoping to persuade Mr Munk to invest in Atticus but failed to impress at first hearing. “He did not carry the halo of being the future of the family. I wanted to get rid of the boy,” said the gold producer who now has him on his own advisory board. It is thought that as a young man Nat Rothschild was intimidated by the prospect of having to live up to the achievements of his father and ancestors. Now, he is seen as a man who may well set new high standards for his family. Mr Munk added: “This kid is special. It’s back to when they [the Rothschilds] were ruling the world.” “He is one of the few sons of great men who has enhanced the family stature and created his own wealth,” said Charles Phillips, who supervised him when he worked at the investment firm Gleacher & Co.

Nat Rothschild

Spheres of influence: Rothschilds connections: Business associates:

Oleg Deripaska: The Russian oligarch owns Rusal, the world’s biggest aluminium company. Rothschild has won a position as an adviser to Deripaska and one of his select inner circle.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi: Investment interests thought to overlap in Montenegro. He recently hosted a party with guests including Rothschild Prince Albert of Monaco and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Roland Rudd: Atticus employed Finsbury, which is run by Rudd, as its PR firm. Rudd is a friend of Lord Mandelson and Oleg Deripaska is another of Finsbury’s clients.

Timothy Barakett: The founder of the hedge fund Atticus took on Rothchild in 1995. The two have never looked back. Atticus is now a multi-billion concern and its success has enabled Rothschild to make his own fortune instead of relying on his father’s money.

Friends:

Roman Abramovich: The Russian oligarch and billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club is a close friend of Rothschild. It was through Abramovich that Rothschild met Deripaska.

Peter Mandelson: The depth of the friendship is uncertain but Lord Mandelson has been linked to Rothchild on several fronts, including as a guest at his Corfu home.

George Osborne: Having known each other for years relations soured when Rothschild accused him of seeking donations for the Conservative Party from a Russian oligarch.

Matthew Freud: Rothschild was a guest at the 40th birthday party that Freud, the PR guru, threw for his wife, Elisabeth, Daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in Corfu last year.

Love Interests:

Annabelle Neilson: Rothschild married the model and friend of Kate Moss at a ceremony in Las Vagas after eloping. The marriage lasted less than three years, with a divorce being agreed in 1997.

Petrina Khashoggi: The daughter of Jonathan Aitken, Ivanka Trump, the socialite and businesswoman daughter of Ivana and Donald Trump, and the actress Natalie Portman are among the women Rothschild has dated. Princess Florence von Preussen: The great great granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, is the latest woman to be romantically linked to the financier. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/from-libya-to-london-the-world-of-a-wild-child-turned-powerbroker-1776482.html

August 17 2009; Mandelson Met Gaddafi’s Son Before Lockerbie Bomber Move

Lord Mandelson met Colonel Gaddafi’s son at a Corfu villa only a week before the announcement that the perpetrator of the Lockerbie bombing could be released from prison. Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, widely seen as the Libyan leader’s most likely successor, was a fellow guest of the Rothschild family at its Greek property a fortnight ago in a wider annual gathering of powerful friends. Stays by the two men overlapped by only one night, according to Lord Mandelson’s spokesman. He said the pair spoke only briefly but they did discuss Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrah. “There was a fleeting conversation about the prisoner; Peter was completely unsighted on the subject,” he said.

It was only one week later that news emerged that Mr Megrah could get an early release on compassionate grounds because he is suffering from terminal cancer. Lord Mandelson said through his spokesman that he had had no involvement in the decision and only learnt of it through the BBC. Mr Megrah’s possible release was a decision entirely for the Scottish government rather than London. “It was entirely coincidental,” the spokesman said.

The government is likely to portray the meeting as unexceptional because relations between the UK and Libya have normalised in recent years. It was in 2003 that Muammer Gaddafi surrendered his weapons of mass destruction programmes and helped deliver the Lockerbie bombing suspects for trial. In November 2008 he agreed a $1.8bn (£1.1bn) compensation package for bomb victims.

Libya’s role as a large oil producer, with the potential for much greater mineral discoveries in the future, has made it a magnet for international business – including British oil companies. “Libya is . . . very much back in the mainstream of international affairs,” the British ambassador to Libya, Sir Vincent Fean, said this summer.

However, news of the meeting could renew questions about Lord Mandelson’s affinity for rich and powerful individuals and his ability to create controversy. Seif Gaddafi antagonized relatives of some of the 270 Lockerbie victims last year when he said in a BBC interview that they were “very greedy” and “trading with the blood of their sons and daughters”. 501 of 2845 https://archive.org/stream/ABCNews19781979/Libya-FT-2007-to-2012-b.txt

al-Megrahi at the time of his arrest for the Lockerbie bombing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi

August 17 2009; Mandelson Sends Signals From Corfu

The business secretary used his summer break to convey contempt for his critics, By returning to the Rothschild family’s estate in Corfu for his summer break a fortnight ago, Lord Mandelson was making a characteristically defiant gesture. The veiled riposte to critics who question the company he sometimes likes to keep seemed to reinforce his intensifying sense of purpose and confidence as Labour’s most effective operator. As Matthew D’Ancona wrote in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph: “It was a positive crowd-pleaser showing that the old stager is still ready to please himself and the punters with a bit of old-fashioned New Labour ligging and poncing off rich folks.”

Last summer the business secretary’s holiday with his friend Nat Rothschild led to his stay on the yacht of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch – and raised questions about a potential conflict of interest. A dinner at the local “Taverna Agni” with George Osborne, shadow chancellor, also ended up in the newspapers – although it was Mr Osborne whose reputation took a temporary knock.

This summer, as Lord Mandelson was spotted once again flying to Greece, his spokesman declared: “Peter is not going to allow what happened last year to put him off Corfu. He is there for a week – but this time without Russians, yachts or George Osborne.” True, of course. But it was an apparently chance encounter with another character – this time the son of Muammer Gaddafi, the Libyan leader – which could reignite questions of the business secretary’s judgment. Such is the secrecy surrounding the annual shindig at the Rothschild’s luxurious £30m estate that most conversations stay -private.

But the Financial Times has been told of another conversation, between Saef Gaddafi and Lord Mandelson, which touched briefly on a more serious issue: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the man imprisoned for the Lockerbie bombing of 1988 that killed 270 people. The two men had met on at least one previous “official” occasion – a formal event in London.

Both are mutual friends of Nat Rothschild, co-founder of the Atticus hedge funds and an international socialite. Mr Rothschild hosted a party for the Libya powerbroker at his New York townhouse last autumn – although Lord Mandelson was not present.

But the conversation’s timing, days before news of Mr Megrahi’s possible release, is an unfortunate coincidence for the business secretary. Feelings are running high on Mr Megrahi, with the US state department stating flatly last week that he should “spend the rest of his time in jail.” It could be seized upon by those who believe the British government is overly keen to improve relations with Libya because of the north African state’s large oil reserves. Asked if the two men discussed the oil industry, Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said: “[In] the context of this party, discussions on bilateral relationships cannot be very extensive.”

Lord Mandelson Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi,

August 22 2009; Lord Mandelson Faces Fresh Questions Over His Links to Libya Following the Decision to Free the Lockerbie Bomber.

The Business Secretary denied that the Government had done a deal to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 terrorist atrocity that claimed 270 lives. However, his claims were contradicted by Saif Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, in a conversation with Megrahi as the pair flew home from Glasgow. In a transcript obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Gaddafi tells Megrahi: “You were on the table in all commercial, oil and gas agreements that we supervised in that period. You were on the table in all British interests when it came to Libya, and I personally supervised this matter.

Also, during the visits of the previous prime minister, Tony Blair.”Downing Street confirmed last night that Gordon Brown had discussed the possible release of Megrahi with Colonel Gaddafi when the two men met on the fringes of the G8 summit in Italy last month. A letter the Prime Minister sent to the Libyans, dated last Thursday, the day of the release, said: “When we met I stressed that, should the Scottish Executive decide that Megrahi can return to Libya, this should be a purely private, family occasion.”

Libya’s talk of trade deals has shone the spotlight on Lord Mandelson, who is facing mounting questions over his links with Mr Gaddafi, 37, the man widely tipped as his country’s next leader. An investigation has disclosed that the Business Secretary’s controversial businessmen friends, Oleg Deripaska and Nat Rothschild, have a closer relationship with Mr Gaddafi than has so far been publicly known. Earlier this summer Mr Gaddafi hosted a birthday party at a resort where Mr Deripaska, a billionaire Russian oligarch, and Mr Rothschild, a wealthy British financier, held a business meeting the following morning. The 37th birthday celebrations took place in Montenegro, a tiny country whose interests have been championed by Lord Mandelson and where Mr Deripaska and Mr Rothschild have substantial business interests. Late last year Mr Rothschild hosted a party in honour of Mr Gaddafi in New York.

Lord Mandelson has met the Libyan at least twice in the past four months. Last week he admitted to a “fleeting” discussion with Mr Gaddafi about the convicted Lockerbie bomber at the Rothschilds’ family estate in Corfu. It came just days before it emerged that preparations were being made for Megrahi’s release and raised questions from opposition politicians.

Douglas Carswell, the Tory MP, said yesterday that the public would wonder whether Lord Mandelson had “once again” allowed his private life to mix with controversial decisions made in his role as Business Secretary. Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, demanded greater transparency over the Government’s role in the release. “The evidence is mounting that there was far more to the release of Megrahi than simply a judicial decision based on compassion,” he said.

Yet Saif Gaddafi said in his conversation with Megrahi, which was filmed for broadcast on Libyan television: “Frankly, we did a lot of work, secret and public, which involved all parties and took years. The work was constant to get your release.” The Business Secretary has denied acting improperly and his spokesman said claims of a conflict of interest were “farcical”, adding: “People are reading far too much into this.”

Colonel Gaddafi heaped further embarrassment on Britain by praising “my friend” Gordon Brown and his government for their part in securing Megrahi’s freedom. It also emerged that a Foreign Office minister had written to the Scottish government in what critics claimed was an attempt to put pressure on Scotland to set Megrahi free. Ivan Lewis, the minister responsible for Libya, wrote to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, less than three weeks before Megrahi was freed. He is said to have explained that there was no legal reason not to accede to Libya’s request to transfer him into its custody under the terms of a treaty agreed between Tony Blair and Colonel Gadaffi in 2007.

Whilst confirming the letter, the Foreign Office last night insisted that it was only an explanation of the legal position, which Mr Lewis had given in response to a letter requesting clarification of the Treaty from Mr MacAskill. “Ivan Lewis reiterated our understanding of the legal situation. It is absolute rubbish to suggest that this letter provided any encouragement to transfer Megrahi to Libya.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/6073631/Lockerbie-bomber-Lord-Mandelson-faces-new-questions-over-Libya-links.html

Lord Mandelson

23 August 2009; Mandelson Denies Release Linked To Deal

Lord Mandelson has dismissed claims the release of the Lockerbie bomber is linked to a trade deal – as the head of the FBI has slammed the Scottish government. The trade deal claims were made by the son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, Seif al Islam, in a television interview filmed as Abdel Baset al Megrahi was flown home. He said: “In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table. “All British interests were linked to the release of Abdel Baset al Megrahi.” The claim was rejected by the Foreign Office, and was followed by an angry response from the Business Secretary. “It’s not only completely wrong to make such a suggestion it’s also quite offensive,” Lord Mandelson said. He said he had met Colonel Gaddafi twice in the past year, and on both occasions he had raised the issue of Megrahi. “They had the same response from me as they would have had from any other member of the Government. The issue of the prisoner’s release was entirely a matter for the Scottish Justice Minister,” Lord Mandelson said. “That is how it was left, that is how it was well understood.”

Meanwhile, head of the FBI Robert Mueller, who as a US Justice Department lawyer led the investigation into the 1988 bombing, said the decision to release Megrahi made a “mockery of justice”. His comments came in a letter written to Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, the man who made the decision to the release the bomber. In Libya, Colonel Gaddafi met Megrahi and praised the Scottish authorities for their “courage” in releasing him. He thanked his country’s “friends” in the Scottish Nationalist Party for the early release on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi is suffering from terminal cancer and is said to have less than three months to live. According to the Libyan official news agency Jana, he said: “I congratulate (the Scottish authorities) on their courage and for having proved their independence despite the unacceptable and unreasonable pressures they faced.”The British and US governments have expressed outrage at the “hero’s welcome” Megrahi received on returning to Libya.

Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the attack, which killed 270 people in the air and on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie. He has always denied involvement in the bombing and has told The Times he will produce new information that will prove his innocence. http://news.sky.com/story/718710/mandelson-denies-release-linked-to-deal

ap_saif_al_islam_gadhafi_ll_111221_wmain Seif al Islam Gaddafi

August 24 2009 The Libyan Despot’s Son, The Rothschilds and Other Questions For Lord Mandelson

The Rothschild villa on Corfu and the oligarch-rich coast of tiny Montenegro have once more hosted what could easily be mistaken as a Mandelson – orchestrated salon of mutual backscratching. The despot’s son, a Corfu soiree and yet more questions for the Fixer Supreme. Mutual connections, ‘chance’ meetings and social back channels are often what make the diplomatic and economic worlds go round. But Lord Mandelson’s Adriatic vacations with his rich friends are in danger of becoming an annual cause celebre. Last summer they resulted in ‘ Yachtgate’ – his vicious spat with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne over what was said on their high seas holiday in Corfu with controversial Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

This year the Business Secretary faces growing speculation over his part in the release last week of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people. The backdrop to this fresh controversy is a very familiar matrix of exotic faces and locations. We have the involvement of Mr Deripaska, the Russian oil and metals baron, and British financier Nat Rothschild – two Mandelson cronies who were also central to Yachtgate.

But the crucial new figure this year is that of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, second son of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, whom he is widely expected to succeed.

Lord Mandelson denies that he had any influence over Megrahi’s release and triumphal return home, which has so infuriated the United States. But he has already had to admit that the matter was discussed at least once in private with the urbane Saif, who then declared on Libyan TV. ‘In all commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain Megrahi was always on the negotiating table.’

It is worth remembering that last year it took some little time before Lord Mandelson admitted that he had known Mr Deripaska for at least two years longer than his office had previously let on. Will the forgetful Business Secretary have to make similar admissions this time round?

There is no doubt that Saif is the coming man on the Libyan scene and already an international player in both politics and business. If his one-time pariah father has managed a remarkable rehabilitation in the West – thanks in no small part to the 44billion barrels of oil as yet untapped on Libyan territory – then the London School of Economics educated Saif, who has exhibited as an artist, appears to be the regime’s more palatable future. And it is a future which offers immensely lucrative trade deals for the UK – one hint of the emerging relationship between Libya and Britain came with the news this weekend that Saif has just purchased a £10m mansion in Hampstead, North London.

Saif’s official role is that of running a Tripoli – based family charitable foundation. Last year he foreswore any active part in Libyan public life. He declared that democracy was the only way forward and that North African politics – Libya aside – was a ‘ forest of dictatorships’.

Such noble utterances are greeted with skepticism by Libyan dissidents. It is difficult to tell the truth about what Saif’s true politics and intentions are,’ says Ashour Shamis, a leading London-based Libyan opposition activist. ‘Saif says he wants a new beginning and for the country to be run with more freedom. We shall see. Do not forget that in Libya there is no opposition, only Gaddafi and his sons. They treat Libya as their own possession. Its assets belong to their family. ‘Saif is not rebelling against this regime. He is part of it. I place no credence in his saying that he has no interest in succeeding his father.’

Another Libyan exile was even more cynical: ‘Saif is his father’s son. The idea that anything dramatic will change under him is laughable. He is very good at presenting himself as a reformer and blaming the excesses for people around his father. But I for one do not believe him.’ Saif is not the only son of a head of state to appear in this circle of friends. Our own Prince Andrew, the UK’s special trade envoy, is a friend of his, having met him on a number of occasions in private and public capacities.

Saif has also been a guest at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The Gaddafi family are particularly keen to nuture this connection it seems. Another boost for them on the global stage. And what a small world it is. In March this year, Andrew went to Montenegro to open the new British embassy there. During the trip he took time out to be shown round the £500m Porto Montenegro marina which is being developed on the coast near Tivat. Two of the main investors in the project are Mr Deripaska and his financial adviser Mr Rothschild. Indeed, the former’s business interests make him the largest private employer in Montenegro.

Early last year, when he was still EU Trade Commissioner and not yet ennobled, Peter Mandelson announced that he had secured a bilateral agreement with the tiny Adriatic nation. ‘Today’s signature is an important milestone,’ he declared at the time. Montenegro’s progress toward becoming a reliable world trading partner had been ‘ remarkable’. Mr Deripaska must have been delighted. It later emerged that during Lord Mandelson’s tenure as commissioner, there had also been two cuts in EU aluminium import tariffs, which has benefitted Mr Deripaska’s company Rusal – the EU’s biggest importer of the raw metal – by tens of millions of pounds a year.

In June this year what was described as the most lavish celebration ever held in the Adriatic took place near the Tivat marina. Saif Gaddafi had chosen the Splendid hotel in Becici as the location for his 37th birthday party. Among the guests, who flew in on a fleet of a dozen or more private jets, were Prince Albert of Monaco, Mr Deripaska and Mr Rothschild. Saif is said to be interested in investing in Montenegro. Presumably he and Mr Deripaska had plenty to talk about – the Russian also controls the oil company Russneft and Libya is looking for foreign investors in the energy industry. Business and pleasure combined in one ostentatious display.

August came and the Mandelson circus arrived back on Corfu. Displaying his trademark rhino hide, he brushed off the 2008 imbroglio and returned once again as a guest at the Rothschild villa. No Mr Deripaska this time. But sharing the Rothschild hospitality for 24 hours of his holiday was someone with the potential to be equally if not more controversial: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. Lord Mandelson has admitted to having met the despot’s son at least once before, in May this year. On Corfu they chatted. And, inevitably, the subject of Megrahi came up. Within the month the convicted mass murderer was free and being welcomed at Tripoli airport by a jubilant Saif.

We are asked to believe by the Foreign Office that there were no linked trade deals, and no input by Lord Mandelson. Unfortunately experience has taught us to be more than a little circumspect about the Business Secretary’s declarations. His soiree with Saif on Corfu, at a time when the Megrahi affair was about to reach a crisis, leaves too many questions unanswered from the fixer supreme.

For the moment there is only one clear beneficiary of the affair: Saif’s father. ‘Gaddafi is reaching a crescendo of success as he approaches his 40th anniversary,’ says Mr Shamis. ‘He is the chairman of the African Union, has visited most of the European and world capitals that were once closed to him and now he has freed Megrahi. He has achieved most of the things he wanted to do. ‘Lord Mandelson and other politicians in the West have fallen completely into his lap.’ http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=5297

August 29 2009; Lord Mandelson Accused of Secretly Lobbying For The Interests of Libya at The Time of The Alleged Prisoner-For-Oil Deal With Britain.

Informed sources say that, nearly a year after Lord Mandelson stepped down as European Trade Commissioner to return to the Cabinet, he continued to push personally for a new and quick European Union (EU) trade deal with Libya. The persistence of his lobbying on Baroness Ashton, his successor as Trade Commissioner, is said to have alarmed officials at the EU headquarters. “Mandelson has been putting Ashton under pressure to give something quicker to Libya,” said one European official close to the trade talks.

The Business Secretary has however strongly denied the allegation. Lord Mandelson’s growing links to Libya can be revealed just days after Saif Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son, insisted that freedom for the Lockerbie bomber was directly linked to lucrative deals in the North African country for British firms.

It has been revealed that Mr Gaddafi last week repeated his earlier claim that Megrahi’s release was always “on the table” during talks about trade agreements. Deals included a £545 million deal for BP. Last night there was more evidence to support this theory as it emerged that the British government had decided in 2007 that it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to pave the way for his return to Libya.

Letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, which show the government was abandoning its attempt to prevent Megrahi from serving out his sentence in his home country. The decision was taken after discussions between Libya and BP over the multi-million pound oil exploration deal hit difficulties.

Fresh information comes to light

The Business Secretary, Gordon Brown’s right-hand man, faced fresh calls yesterday to “come clean” over his links to Mr Gaddafi and Libya. The country was a pariah nation until six years ago when, in return for a lifting of economic sanctions, it accepted responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, above Lockerbie, in December 1988.

On February 27 2008, Lord Mandelson, as Trade Commissioner, proposed that the EU should start negotiations for a “Framework Agreement”, to develop trade and other links, with Libya. He said: “An ambitious Free Trade Agreement would intensify co-operation between the EU and Libya on trade and economic issues and would further strengthen and deepen our relationship.” Such an agreement usually takes up to 10 years to arrange.

In June of this year, British officials lobbied other EU member states to give interim trade breaks to Libya by scrapping tariffs on certain textiles and engineering products. In Montenegro, where Mr Deripaska and Nat Rothschild, two of Lord Mandelson’s most wealthy and controversial associates, have invested, their £500-million new marina project is on the site of a shipyard that had Libyan links. After the Porto Montenegro marina project, in which Mr Deripaska, Mr Rothschild and others have invested millions, was launched in 2007, some 100 workers from the former government shipyard on which it is being built were transferred to Libya. The workers had previously been overhauling Libyan warships.

The heat is on Lord Mandelson, the Prime Minister and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, this weekend after William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, demanded answers over their conduct. “If there was no UK government involvement in the decision to release Megrahi then Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson should have no objection to releasing details of the government’s dealings with Libya,” he said.

The 24-hectare marina site in Montenegro was sold to Peter Munk, the Canadian mining tycoon, for a reported price of only £3.2 million in a deal personally overseen by Milo Dukanovic, Montenegro’s controversial prime minister. Mr Gaddafi, who was a guest of Mr Rothschild at his villa in Corfu earlier this summer at the same time as Lord Mandelson, was actively promoting Libyan business interests in Montenegro, which is aggressively courting high-profile foreign investors.

During his time as EU Trade Commissioner in Brussels, Lord Mandelson championed the cause of Montenegro, supporting its entry into the World Trade Organisation and ending EU trade tariffs on the country’s largest export, aluminum. That move benefited Lord Mandelson’s friend Mr Deripaska, who bought Montenegro’s former state aluminum plant.

27 November 2009; Peter Mandelson’s Closeness to Gaddafi’s Son ‘Is Sickening’

Lord Mandelson should use his friendship with the son of Colonel Gaddafi to help negotiate compensation for people injured by IRA bombs, a victims’ campaigner has said. Willie Frazer, who lost his father and two uncles during the Troubles, said he was “sickened” by reports that the former Northern Ireland Secretary of State had attended a shooting party with Saif al-Islam Gadaffi in England earlier this week. He said: “At the minute, at the very least it is distasteful for that man, Lord Mandelson, to be affiliating himself with Colonel Gaddafi. “Has he forgotten what happened to British citizens and British victims? Until that’s dealt with there should be some respect for the people that have lost their lives and given their lives for the defence of British cities.”

Lord Mandelson and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi reportedly met at Lord Rothschild’s villa in Corfu, days before the announcement earlier this year that Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was to be freed on compassionate grounds. Saif Gaddafi later accompanied the dying terrorist back to Libya. A Conservative frontbencher said victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism would be “sick to the stomach” at reports of the country house social event. Conservative Scotland spokesman Ben Wallace said: “The hundreds of victims of Libyan Semtex will be sick to the stomach to see Lord Mandelson gallivanting around the countryside with Gaddafi’s son.” http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/peter-mandelsons-closeness-to-gaddafis-son-is-sickening-28504340.html

Jack Straw

August 31 2009; Home Secretary Jack Straw Letter Rekindles Megrahi Row – Opposition MPs Call For An Inquiry

The government dropped an attempt to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from its prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya two years ago after resistance from Tripoli, it emerged yesterday. Jack Straw, justice secretary, decided it was in the UK’s “overwhelming interests” to agree to Libyan calls for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to be included in the deal. In a letter, Mr Straw wrote: “The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [PTA] should be in the standard form and not mention any [specific] individual.”

Within six weeks of the decision on December 19 2007, Libya had ratified an exploration deal for oil and gas made with BP seven months earlier.

Mr Straw said yesterday that the decision was “academic” to this month’s release of Mr Megrahi, which was taken by the Scottish executive on humanitarian grounds outside the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA). But the disclosure, made in letters to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, and leaked to a Sunday newspaper, prompted a strong reaction from opposition MPs yesterday, who said the government should hold an inquiry into the affair.

Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said the letters were evidence that the government had been talking to the Libyans about Mr Megrahi with a view to safeguarding Britain’s commercial interests. Document 552 of 2845 https://archive.org/stream/ABCNews19781979/Libya-FT-2007-to-2012-b.txt

September 2 2009; Oil Helps Grease Improvement In Relationship

The surge in Libya’s oil exports to the UK coincided with Britain becoming a net importer of oil since 2005. Mr Blair’s meeting with Colonel Muammer Gaddafi in March 2004, followed by a second visit in 2007, helped cement Libya’s re-admission into the international community. For oil companies the company that has the most riding on Libya is BP. The deal it signed in 2007 gave it a huge area to explore, and it plans to start drilling wells next year, but any discoveries are unlikely to result in production until late in the next decade. Document 555 of 2845 https://archive.org/stream/ABCNews19781979/Libya-FT-2007-to-2012-b.txt

June 5 2010; Tony Blair Our Very Special Adviser by Dictator Gaddafi’s Son

Tony Blair has become an adviser to Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator’s son has sensationally claimed. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said the former prime minister has secured a consultancy role with a state fund that manages the country’s £65billion of oil wealth. In an exclusive interview, Saif described Mr Blair as a ‘personal family friend’ of the Libyan leader and said he had visited the country ‘many, many times’ since leaving Downing Street three years ago. Personal friends? If true, the claims will plunge Mr Blair – now a Middle East peace envoy – into a fresh row over potential conflicts of interest between his public and private roles.

His business affairs have attracted widespread controversy because they are deliberately shrouded in secrecy. Last night, families of the 270 Lockerbie victims accused Mr Blair of breaking bread with people who ‘have blood on their hands’. They have in the past raised questions about Mr Blair’s relationship with Colonel Gaddafi especially over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya that paved the way for the return of the Lockerbie bomber last year.

Saif made clear that the agreement – drawn up when Mr Blair was prime minister – was key to creating a ‘special relationship’ between Britain and Libya. Saif suggested Mr Blair was involved in ‘Africa projects’ with his father, alleging: ‘He also has some consultancy role with the Libyan Investment Authority.’ Mr Blair was adamant last night he had no relationship whatsoever with the LIA. However he is advising several firms seeking a slice of the massive revenues from Libya’s oil reserves.

Saif, speaking in his private suite in Mayfair’s five star Connaught Hotel, said: ‘Tony Blair has an excellent relationship with my father. ‘For us, he is a personal family friend. I first met him around four years ago at Number 10. Since then I’ve met him several times in Libya where he stays with my father. He has come to Libya many, many times. ‘He’s adviser to the LIA, the Libyan Investment Authority. He has some consultancy role.’ Saif defended Mr Blair’s right to exploit his contacts in Libya. ‘Many people are unhappy with him [Blair] because of Iraq,’ he said. ‘It’s much easier to deal with the LIA than the Middle East. Tony Blair has the right to earn money. ‘It’s a good thing to be a businessman.

The LIA is ready to talk to anybody who wants to do business in Libya.’ Last night, Mr Blair’s spokesman said: ‘Tony Blair does not have any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the government of Lybia. But sources close to the Gaddafi family said Saif – tipped to succeed his father as leader of his country – stands by his comments.

Colonel Gaddafi is understood to be on first name terms with Mr Blair, who saw his work in Libya as one of the great foreign policy successes of his premiership. Mr Blair has always insisted he played no role in the return of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, who was sent home last August by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after doctors wrongly said he had only three months to live. But Saif said Megrahi’s release was ‘always on the negotiating table’ in discussions about ‘ commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain’.

Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, told the Mail: ‘If this is true, I guess this is Tony Blair’s reward from the Libyan government for what he has done. It’s important for world peace that Libya is brought back into the community of nations but that doesn’t mean that you have to honour people with blood on their hands.’

Saif, 37, was a key player in Libya’s bid to end its pariah status and renounce nuclear weapons. That decision led to Mr Blair’s trip to Tripoli in 2004, where he shook Colonel Gaddafi’s hand and declared a ‘new relationship’. The meeting led to lucrative Libyan oil contracts for Shell. A month before stepping down as PM, Mr Blair visited-Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli again at the same time that BP signed a $900million deal with the Libyan National Oil Company.

Saif said: ‘Libya has a special relationship with Britain.’ Since becoming a part-time Middle East peace envoy on leaving office in 2007, Mr Blair has exploited his contacts to amass a personal fortune in excess of £20million. He has a lucrative contract to advise JP Morgan, which pays him £2million a year. Part of his job for them is to develop banking opportunities in Libya. It is understood that British firms Mr Blair is linked to are also being given contracts to tap Libya’s massive natural resources, and to help rebuild the country’s outdated infrastructure.The details are sketchy because he has built a labyrinthine business empire of interlocking partnerships designed, it seems, to conceal the sources and scale of his income.

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, who chairs the all-party Commons committee on Libya, said Mr Blair should spend more time on his role as a Middle East envoy than allegedly exploiting his links with the Gaddafi family. He said: ‘Mr Blair has a very important job. It does concern me greatly that he seems to spend so much time with the Libyans, who are not key players in the Arab-Israeli conflict. ‘There should be greater transparency to ensure that Tony Blair is not using his current position and his previous position to assist his business interests.’

Sources close to Mr Blair said it was a matter of public record that he has visited Libya since leaving office, where he has discussed a range of issues. They said he fully supported the decision to integrate Libya back into the international community and is proud of the role he played in the process.

Saif Gaddafi sits at the centre of a remarkable social web that has ensnared both Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson. The men are bound together by their interests in Libyan business and their friendship with the multi-billionaire financiers of the Rothschild family. Lord Mandelson once remarked that he was ‘intensely relaxed’ about extreme wealth, a position he has justified ever since. It was only natural that he should share an interest in networking and wealth with one of the world’s oldest banking families.

But even the Rothschilds have probably never described him as a ‘killer of a man’. That was Saif Gaddafi’s take on the former Business Secretary. After Labour’s election defeat, Mr Gaddafi said: ‘It’s bad news for the UK that he left because he is a killer of a man. It’s a loss for the UK.’ The two men met briefly last summer at the secluded cliff top mansion compound of the Rothschild family on the holiday island of Corfu. Curiously, their stays overlapped by one night and came only a week before the announcement-that the perpetrator of the Lockerbie bombing could be released from prison. They ‘fleetingly’ discussed the fate of the bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi but Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said he was ‘ completely unsighted’ on the impending release.

Last November, Lord Mandelson spent more time in the company of Saif during a shooting weekend at Waddesdon Manor, Lord Rothschild’s mini-Versailles in Buckinghamshire. Cherie Blair was also a guest. Earlier this month, the former business secretary was seen zipping around the Swiss ski resort of Klosters in Nat Rothschild’s £250,000 Ferrari convertible. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284132/Tony-Blair-special-adviser-dictator-Gaddafis-son.html

September 19 2011; Blair Made Two Secret Visits to Gaddafi in Libya Before Lockerbie Bomber’s Release

Tony Blair held secret talks with Colonel Gaddafi in the months before the release of the Lockerbie bomber, letters and emails uncovered in war-torn Tripoli reveal. After he stepped down as Prime Minister, Mr Blair was twice flown to Libya on a Gaddafi private jet. He visited the dictator in June 2008 and April 2009, when Libya was threatening to cut all business ties with Britain if Abdelbaset al-Megrahi stayed in a Scottish jail. At one of his encounters, Mr Blair took a billionaire U.S. businessman with him. The Libyans wanted to discuss a beach resort deal.

The revelation of the meetings will provoke further claims that Mr Blair worked behind the scenes on behalf of the tyrannical regime to get the bomber released. But despite admitting that Gaddafi brought up the issue of Megrahi, Mr Blair strenuously denied having anything to do with his release, saying it had always been solely a matter for the Scottish Executive.

Pam Dix, whose brother died in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, said: ‘The idea of Gaddafi paying for Mr Blair’s visits is deeply offensive. ‘These new meetings are disturbing, and details of what was discussed should be made public. I am astonished Tony Blair continued to have meetings like this out of office.’ The emails and letters, in which Gaddafi is referred to as ‘The Leader’, show that in 2008 and 2009, Mr Blair negotiated to fly to the Libyan capital from Sierra Leone, where he was promoting tourism, in a jet provided by Gaddafi.

One letter was written on June 2, 2008, by Gavin Mackay, from Mr Blair’s office, to Libya’s ambassador to the UK. It said: ‘Let me begin my [sic] saying that Mr Blair is delighted that The Leader is likely to be able to see him during the afternoon of June 10, and he is most grateful that the Libyan authorities have kindly offered an aircraft to take him from Freetown to Tripoli and back to London.’

Another letter shows that Mr Blair took billionaire Tim Collins to the April 2009 meeting. Mr Blair’s events organiser Victoria Gould wrote to the British ambassador in Tripoli, Sir Vincent Fean, to ask whether the former PM could stay at his residence. She wrote: ‘If we were able to stay at the Residence, I know TB [Mr Blair] would be really grateful (as would we all).’ Sir Vincent wrote back: ‘Just to confirm that the residence is at your disposal.’

A week later, Miss Gould wrote in an email: ‘We have asked the Libyans to collect us from Sierra Leone and bring us to Libya. In terms of calls, if you could note that TB would like to do the following: a meeting with The Leader (partly 1:1 and partly with Tim Collins).’ The meeting came a day after Britain signed an agreement with Libya which paved the way for Megrahi’s release. This happened in August 2009 after doctors gave him three months to live because of cancer.

He is still alive. A spokesman for Mr Blair said: ‘The subjects of the conversations during Mr Blair’s occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union; but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up. ‘Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr Blair explained, as he always did, that it was not a decision for the UK Government but for the Scottish Executive. As we have made clear many times before, Tony Blair has never had any formal role, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he has no commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity.’ The former prime minister continues to have round-the-clock armed protection, and it is understood that Scotland Yard spent up to £20,000 during the trips to Libya. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038765/Tony-Blair-secret-meetings-Gaddafi-Lockerbie-bomber-release.html

August 4 2013; Tony Blair Assisted Colonel Gaddafi in £1bn Legal Dispute With Victims of a Libyan Terrorist Attack

Documents show that Gaddafi turned to Mr Blair after a US court ordered Libya to pay $1.5billion (£1billion) in damages to relatives of seven Americans killed when a bomb exploded on a Paris-bound passenger jet in west Africa. According to the email, Mr Blair approached President George W Bush after promising the Libyan leader that he would intervene in the case. Mr Bush subsequently signed the Libyan Claims Resolution Act in August 2008, which invalidated the $1.5billion award made by the court.

UTA Flight 772 from Chad was blown up on Sept 19, 1989, by Libyan intelligence services, killing all 170 passengers. The attack took place nine months after Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie killing 270 people. The relatives of UTA Flight 772 had won the billion-pound court case in January 2008 after a seven-year legal battle, causing serious difficulties for the Libyan regime in the US. The ruling meant the proceeds of Libyan business deals, mainly in oil and gas but including other investments, could be seized in the US.

Mr Blair’s involvement in the case is outlined in an email obtained by The Sunday Telegraph. The document was written by Sir Vincent Fean, the then British ambassador to Libya, and was sent to Mr Blair’s aides on June 8, 2008, two days before Mr Blair met Gaddafi in Libya. It was one of at least six private trips made by Mr Blair to Libya after he quit as prime minister in June 2007. The first trip to meet Gaddafi was made in February 2008. The previous month a US federal court had made the $1.5billion award to Flight 772 victims. The email written by Sir Vincent outlines points for Mr Blair to raise in his meeting with Gaddafi. It also shows that a key aide to Mr Blair had met with a senior US diplomat to discuss the Flight 772 case.

Sir Vincent wrote: “On USA/Libya, TB should explain what he said to President Bush (and what Banner [a Blair aide] said to Welch [a US diplomat]) to keep his promise to Col Q [Gaddafi] to intervene after the President allowed US courts to attach Libyan assets.” The memo went on: “He [Blair] could express satisfaction at the progress made in talks between the US and Libya to reach a Govt to Govt solution to all the legal/compensation issues outstanding from the 1980s. It would be good to get these issues resolved, and move on. The right framework is being created. HMG is not involved in the talks, although some British citizens might be affected by them (Lockerbie, plus some UK Northern Irish litigants going to US courts seeking compensation from Libya for IRA terrorist acts funded/fuelled by Libya).”

The memo reveals that Nick Banner, Mr Blair’s chief of staff in his role as Middle East peace envoy, had spoken to David Welch, the US official who was negotiating with the Libyans over compensation for victims of terrorism. The American lawyer who had won the court order in January 2008 only to have it made invalid by the act signed by Mr Bush said his clients had “got screwed”.

Stuart Newberger, a senior partner at the international law firm Crowell & Moring, said: “This case was thwarted by President Bush, who directed the State Department to negotiate a package deal that ended all Libyan-related terrorism cases, including my judgment. I had heard rumours about Blair’s involvement but this is the first time that role was confirmed.” He added: “I never considered this an honourable way to carry out diplomacy. It sent the wrong message to terrorist states – don’t worry about these lawsuits and judgments as the politicians will eventually fix it.”

Under the terms of the Libyan Claims Resolution Act, Libya made a one-off payment to victims of all Libyan state-sponsored terrorism including the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103, UTA Flight 772 and a Berlin discotheque. The payment, totalling $1.5billion, gave Libya immunity from all terrorism-related lawsuits. The relatives of victims of UTA 772 received about $ 100million, rather than the court award of $1.5billion. Relatives of victims of Pan Am 103 welcomed the agreement which saw them get the final instalment of compensation already agreed. The deal meant all victims of Libyan terrorism received the same award.

The Sunday Telegraph has also obtained a separate letter, sent on June 2 from Gavin Mackay – a Foreign Office official seconded to Mr Blair in his role as Middle East peace envoy at the Office of the Quarter Representative (OQR) – to Libya’s ambassador in London. The letter, on OQR-headed notepaper details Mr Blair’s gratitude that Libya is providing him with a private jet to fly him from Sierra Leone to Tripoli for a four-hour stopover and then on to the UK.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Foreign Secretary, expressed concern that the trip appeared to be arranged through Mr Blair’s public role as Middle East envoy. He said: “Unless Mr Blair can come up with a convincing explanation as to why the Quartet secretariat should have been involved in this visit, it would indeed be a reason for legitimate and serious criticism.”

A spokesman for Tony Blair said: “The only conversation he ever had with regard to this matter was to give a general view that it was in the interests of both Libya and the USA to resolve those issues in a fair manner and move on.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10220684/Tony-Blair-helped-Colonel-Gaddafi-in-1bn-legal-row.html

Scottish Labour Party – Bridging the gap – Jim i’ll Fix It

1. Scottish Labour Implement their biggest shake-up in 100 years in a bid to take the fight to the SNP

a. Devolution of power to the Scottish party has been agreed. The changes will re-orient the Scottish Party to Holyrood, basing constituency parties on Holyrood boundaries rather than Westminster ones, uniting MPs and MSPs with a single leader focusing on Holyrood. An MP, if elected would be required to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament and when applicable take up the duties of First Minister. Details:

i. Establish and appoint an elected Leader, with powers to shape policy and plan strategy of the Scottish Labour Party.

ii. The leader to be selected from Labour parliamentarians elected in Scotland, with the provision that they commit to seek election as an MSP.

iii. Fully devolve, in all delegated Scottish matters, responsibility and authority to the Scottish Labour Party, including the rules for the Scottish Leadership election, local government processes and selections, and Scottish parliament selections.

iv. Restructure local parties in Scotland on the basis of Scottish Parliament seats, not Westminster seats removing, where applicable long-serving MPs and MSPs recruiting and training a new generation of “top notch” candidates.

v. Establish a political strategy board, meeting weekly, to develop and co-ordinate political strategy.

vi. Establish a new political base in Edinburgh.

vii. Forge close working links with the Scottish business community gaining their support raising vital funds for the party.

viii. Establish a communications team making full use of Party activists, IT systems, social media for campaigning and other media outlets.

b. Whilst the foregoing appears sound, a concern arises in that the new arrangements might concentrate over much power in the Leader. Addressing this a new executive team will be established, with powers over policy making, election strategy, hiring and firing key staff and setting policy in all devolved areas.

Cameron and UKIP in Trouble – European Membership is Irrevocable States Executive Commission

5 Jan 2015

EU spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said Monday that if the Greek elections call for a need to look again at the conditions of Athens’ membership within the 19-country eurozone, “we will deal with that once the Greek voters have cast their verdict.”

At the same time, she insisted that a full exit by Greece was not on the cards since the euro rules say that “membership is irrevocable.”

Some say that if the left-wing Syriza party wins the election in Greece, the new government may renege on the terms of the country’s bailout, possibly putting in question its euro membership.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aef_1420465517

Silence in Sin City Glasgow Part 5 – 2014 – 2015 City Council In Need of Clear Out

1. March 1 2014; Glasgow’s homeless hostel scandal. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/01/scotland-poverty-homeless-bellgrove-glasgow

a. The appalling conditions in the Bellgrove hotel are a horrifying reminder of how we treat our poorest and most defeated citizens. You walk past it on the way to Celtic Park on a match day, barely noticing it but knowing that it exists in the city’s folklore as a last-chance saloon. That though, doesn’t even begin to describe the reality of it. The squalor and deprivation witnessed in this place made me ashamed to be Glaswegian.

b. Without repeating the crushing detail of John Ferguson’s brilliant report, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/msps-condemn-slum-conditions-belgrove-3183637 the Bellgrove hotel is a place where men go to die, expiring in their own waste and choked by alcohol and drugs – 150 of them at any one time. This hellhole has a staff of two, presumably to keep the costs down. For the Bellgrove is a privately-run facility that rakes in several million pounds a year for the two city property magnates who own it. They make their money from the housing benefit these men receive each fortnight. Basically, the state hands over millions of pounds every year to this pair to keep its most embarrassing citizens away from polite society. “Don’t worry,” we say (and it is you and I) “keep them in as much filth as you like, we won’t be asking any questions.”

2. March 10 2014; Is the East End of Glasgow the NEW West End of Glasgow? http://athousandflowers.net/2014/03/10/is-the-east-end-of-glasgow-the-new-west-end-of-glasgow/

a. Take a stroll around the east end of Glasgow and it quickly becomes apparent that big changes are afoot – the roads are being resurfaced, new buildings are springing up as quickly as others are torn down, the park railings are getting a new brush of paint (Limmy will be delighted) and even the stations are getting wifi. There’s a sense of urgency about it all as well, with the much feted Commonwealth Games now just a few months away.

3. May 6 2014; Huge bill on fact-finding foreign tours. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/spt-chiefs-ran-up-38000-bill-on-fact-finding-foreign-tours-162347n.24133541

a. Bosses at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, (SPT) ran up hotel and travel bills totalling £38,000 while on two fact-finding trips. A seven-strong team from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, headed by chief executive Gordon MacLennan, travelled to Canada and Europe to check out companies bidding for lucrative contracts to upgrade the Subway. The first trip in December involved visits to Canada, Spain and London while the second in February took them to Denmark, Switzerland and Austria. In 2010, then chief executive Ron Culley quit in the wake of a £120,000 expenses and travel scandal. The sum does not include the cost of expenses incurred during the visits.

4. July 25 2014; Frank McAveety chosen as Scottish Labour’s candidate in Glasgow Shettleston.

a. Councillor Frank McAveety is to contest the Glasgow Shettleston Scottish Parliament seat for Scottish Labour in 2016. McAveety, who represents the Shettleston ward on Glasgow City Council, was selected by local members at a meeting in Bridgeton last night. He said: ‘It is an absolute honour to have been selected as Scottish Labour’s candidate for Glasgow Shettleston. http://www.margaretcurran.org/frank_mcaveety_chosen_as_scottish_labour_s_candidate_in_glasgow_shettleston

Comment: Unbelievable. He just wont go away

5. August 14 2014; Glasgow City Council flog Victoria Park online http://athousandflowers.net/2014/08/14/glasgow-city-council-up-a-gumtree-as-they-flog-victoria-park-online/

a. After recovering from the hangover of the Games, Glasgow City Council appear to be back on form with a vengeance this week; announcing the details of their plans to use Compulsory Purchase Orders to expand Buchanan Galleries or “the Buchanan Quarter” as nobody calls it (we’re running out of how many quarters the council thinks they can fit into their (w)hole) into an event bigger mass of glass and shopping. Today we learned that their alleged consultation over what to do with the playing fields in Victoria Park entered the “putting it on Gumtree” phase.

6. November 21 2014; Lolitican of the Year: Ten Gordon Matheson fails since 2013 http://athousandflowers.net/2014/11/21/lolitican-of-the-year-ten-gordon-matheson-fails-since-2013/

a. Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson was last night crowned “Scottish Local Politician of the Year” at the Herald’s annual awards ceremony. Since the event was held in Edinburgh, we thought it only fair to have a celebration right here in Gordon’s hometown. So we are delighted to welcome our good pal Nicki Minaj, to present the Excellent Matheson Award to A Thousand Flowers Lolitician of the Year, wee Gordo. Details of ten of his greatest cock-up’s from 2013. View the article.

7. December 14 2014; Audit Scotland investigating corruption involving the Celtic SLA at The Lennoxtown Initiative https://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/audit-scotland-investigating-corruption-involving-the-celtic-sla-at-the-lennoxtown-initiative/

a. I kept this back to allow Audit Scotland unimpeded time to do their investigation without being hassled by phone threats. This was issued well before the EU ‘cleared’ the State Aid against Celtic PLC for the Glasgow Celtic Council land transactions but has been sat on patiently. The reply above from Audit Scotland acknowledges that they are investigating the use of charity, The Lennoxtown Initiative, to hide and funnel payments back to Celtic PLC using the Celtic SLA and whether NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC), East Dunbartonshire Council (EDC) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) performed their duties as public authorities in keeping track of the funds donated to The Lennoxtown Intiative and whether ‘value for money’ was obtained. Many other excellent expose’ articles on this blog.

8. January 1 2015; £500k pay-off to Glasgow ‘poverty campaigner’ http://www.scot-buzz.co.uk/politics/strange-case-%C2%A3500k-pay-glasgow-%E2%80%98poverty-campaigner%E2%80%99

a. Never let it be said that Glasgow lacks enterprise where it matters…The city has been rocked again by a scandal over the approval by Labour Councillors of a £500,000 “golden goodbye” to the former chief executive of the Glasgow East Regeneration Agency – a charity set up to alleviate poverty in one of the most deprived areas of the city. The exit package for Ronnie Saez comprised a “severance payment” of £42,000 and a £470,000 addition to his pension, which included a discretionary £208,000. The pension top-up is said to have come from a budget pot earmarked for the redevelopment of a school in Dalmarnock, a deprivation black spot. GERA was a registered charity, with a prime goal “to relieve and/or prevent poverty particularly among residents of East Glasgow”.

b. Three of the five GERA directors who approved the Saez deal were Labour city Councillors. They included James Coleman, a former deputy council leader who was the chair of the agency; the vice-chair Councillor Catherine McMaster; and George Redmond, who signed off the accounts. A subsequent report by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator said the pay-out amounted to “misconduct” and was “wholly unacceptable”.

c. Sadly, this will confirm for many the governance of Glasgow as a dubious and shady old pals’ act. Given the need for vigilance over the disbursement of public funds and the activities of agencies registered as charities, the council must act swiftly and decisively to clear up the appalling impression left by this episode.

9. January 3 2015; Updated article A Scottish test for Ed Miliband this week – http://www.scot-buzz.co.uk/business-economy/scottish-test-ed-miliband-week

a. The UK’s five richest families have more cash between them than the poorest 20 per cent of the entire population – some 12.6 million people. (Though note that none of the Big Five are Scottish.)

Silence in Sin City Glasgow Part 4 – 2013 A Year of Misconduct and Scandal

1. January 18 2013; City Council leader’s future in doubt over sex act http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/fears-for-glasgow-council-leaders-future-over-sex-act.19955589

a. Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson, 46, was apprehended by officers after they witnessed him carrying out the act in a car on the city’s south side. The council confirmed police reported the matter to the procurator fiscal but it has been decided no further action will be taken.

b. Comment

i. David: I’m not disagreeing with you about the facts concerning the case. I wasn’t there either. However, when you take into account the amount of scandals that seem to be flowing out of Glasgow City Council concerning corruption, strange goings on behind closed doors, police warning Labour leaders about cocaine, money going missing, dubious payments to people connected to the labour party and NO convictions it makes one think that there is something going on. The fact that NO one has appeared in court suggests that the ‘establishment’ doesn’t want this to happen. If that is the case then the whole system is corrupt to the core and is in need of a drastic make-over, and that is not going to happen under this current system. Just to add, according to news updates, that it seems that Mr. Matheson, himself, has admitted that he was involved in an illegal sex act so, I say again, why wasn’t he brought to justice? http://wingsoverscotland.com/bread-and-circuses/

2. January 18 2013; John Mason MSP – weekly video blog: Labour’s misconduct with public money https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LUsl9cYNYo

a. SNP MSP John Mason exposure of Councillors Coleman and Redmond requesting that they be removed from charities and boards, on which they represent Glasgow City Council.

3. January 21 2013 Council u-turns and abandons £15m George Square transformation

a. Glasgow City Council today bowed to popular demand and abandoned its widely condemned plan to spend £15m on transforming George Square. Leader Gordon Matheson said the city’s civic heart would now undergo a substantial facelift rather than a radical redesign. Details of the facelift are to be announced later, but it will include retaining the statues and grassed areas, and replacing the red tarmac.

4. January 23 2013; Architect attacks council over George Square fiasco

a. The acclaimed architect who won the ill-fated competition to redesign Glasgow’s George Square has accused the council’s leadership of incompetence and attempting to bully him out of the process. John McAslan attacked officials at Glasgow City Council as “not that bright” after they pulled the plug on the £15 million plans, despite spending in excess of £100,000 on the initiative. He said the debacle had given the local authority an unwelcome reputation among the world’s architecture and design community.

5. January 26 2013 Matheson scraps George Square revamp. http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/matheson-told-the-judges-this-is-the-winning-design-after-they-disagreed-he-announced-the-whole-project-

a. The Labour leader of Glasgow City Council told his fellow judges which design should win the competition to revamp the city’s George Square at the outset of the judging process, two independent council sources have told the Sunday Herald. And when the judges instead picked a design that Gordon Matheson strongly disliked, he scrapped the project in what the sources described as “a fit of pique”.

6. January 26 2013 Architect goes public on square http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/architect-goes-public-on-square.20021715

a. The acclaimed architect behind the scheme chosen for the redesign of George Square in Glasgow is planning to meet the public following the rejection of his plans by the council. John McAslan has demanded a meeting with city council leader Gordon Matheson after the council effectively scrapped the George Square competition. Mr McAslan, whose practice won the £15 million contest to revamp the square, accused Mr Matheson of playing political games. Now he plans to meet people in George Square to discuss what they want from the square following the council move.

7. March 31 2013; Thousands march and say ‘Axe the bedroom tax.’

a. The biggest protest rally Glasgow has seen in years had more than 3000 people marching from Glasgow Green to George Square, united in their opposition to the bedroom tax. Seasoned campaigners, families with their children and baby buggies, trade unionists, people in a wide variety of mobility carts and folk walking their dogs, took more than an hour to wend their way to the city centre. Many of them shouting: ‘Axe the tax.’ Facing the City Chambers, a series of speakers explained why their campaign was part of a wide strategy to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

b. Labour MP Ann McKechin, MSP Frank McAveety and Glasgow City Councillor George Redmond were among the group who marched. Arriving in George Square, Westminster MP Ann McKechin said to this website’s reporter: ‘I’m not surprised at this turnout. People are shocked by the scale of this unfair and unjust tax. The Westminster government doesn’t understand the full impact it will have.’

c. But Labour politicians were castigated by different speakers. Said one: ‘They might have marched near the front but it is inconsistent with what they are doing to the families they are victimising in the learning disability community in Glasgow. Glasgow City Council has these families on its hit list by closing three of the seven day centres they use.’ Campaigners against the closure of Glasgow’s day centres were out in force. Another speaker put it more bluntly: ‘Glasgow City Council should be ashamed of themselves. They have influence and power. They should tell all Housing Associations in Glasgow and Glasgow Housing Association that there must be no evictions in the city. We need to know who’s side they are on.’ http://www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk/tag/msp-frank-mcaveety/

7. April 23 2013; Matheson should ‘consider his position. http://www.glasgowsnp.org/Council/SNP_Glasgow_City_Council_Group/_Labour_council_leader_Gordon_Matheson_should_%27consider_his_position%27/

a. SNP Group Leader of Glasgow City Council, Graeme Hendry has urged Labour Council Leader Gordon Matheson to consider his position following a series of alleged offences while investigations are underway. Councillor Matheson is to be investigated by the Major Crimes Unit over alleged misconduct during the £100,000 contest to redesign George Square. He has been accused of trying to breach procurement law and coerce officers to do so. Councillor Graeme Hendry said: “Councillor Matheson has been accused of some very serious offences and it is only right and proper they are investigated by all the appropriate organisations including the Police. “It would be appropriate for Matheson to consider his position in the Council due to the great embarrassment he has caused the city, and the damage he has done to the Council’s relationship with the business community. Check out the many links contained in the SNP Newsletter. Scary stuff. Even if only 50% is true the Labour run City Council ae dammed.

8. May 14, 2013 Eleven Tales From Glasgow’s Quality Council http://athousandflowers.net/2013/05/14/11-tales-from-glasgows-quality-council/

a. If New York is the city that never sleeps, Glasgow is the toon where some fly bastard is always up to something. The rot starts at the top, with the city council synonymous with corruption, cronyism and sheer incompetence. Labour have run the show for 60-odd years, almost as long as the Communist Party ran the Soviet Union, and all that power seems to have gone to their heads… alongside the cocaine (allegedly) (definitely true).

9. June 1 2013; SNP demands George Sq cash probe http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/snp-demands-george-sq-cash-probe.21228387

a. The SNP last night called for Audit Scotland to investigate the financial side of the George Square redesign contest after claims Glasgow City Council paid judges thousands of pounds in expenses without receipts. The spending watchdog is already looking at the £100,000 competition as part of its annual audit of the council’s management. The contest ended in farce earlier this year after Labour council leader Gordon Matheson announced the revamp of the square had been scrapped just minutes after the judging panel had picked a design he detested, and had ranked his preferred option fourth out of six. Now it has emerged that the council paid two of the four external judges £6000 on top of their fees as “expenses” without asking for any receipts to justify the expenditure.

10. October 6 2013; Rampant Corruption Exposed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPYWz3iGyec

a. Unedited i-phone interview with Arthur Gemmell who travelled from Scotland to join the UK protests outside Royal Courts of Injustice on 4th October 2013. Arthur provides extremely interesting information exposing rampant corruption rife throughout Scotland and in particular within Glasgow City Council. He exposes the tactics used to evade liability when caught out.

11. November 15 2013; Campaigners accuse Glasgow City Council of corruption http://www.sacc.org.uk/news/2013/campaigners-accuse-glasgow-city-council-corruption

a. The 100 Promises Campaign is the community campaign formed during the last local election to hold politicians to account. It took on the name when Labour was re-elected on the basis of its 100 Promises manifesto document.

b. The campaign has found corruption to be a barrier to the Council fulfilling its manifesto. After several occasions where corruption became a barrier to the Council enacting their promises the campaign decided to challenge this corruption.

c. The launch on Tuesday of the dossier will bring to light everything that the campaign has been made aware of. A press conference is being held in Johann Lamont’s constituency to draw attention to these issues at the highest level within Scottish Labour. Following the publication of the dossier, the dossier will be passed on to the police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTf8cZdMMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s5PmcW9y9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExcJcSGSJPY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ISV_l6YvvE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXRF_ta5P8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLiEsBaJM_U

12. November 24 2013; Celtic FC getting sucked into the Labour Party Co-operative Bank Scandal https://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/celtic-fc-getting-sucked-into-the-labour-party-co-operative-bank-scandal/

a. As well as the evolving local Glasgow scandal of Celtic receiving cheap land deals from a Scottish Labour controlled Glasgow City Council and Greater Glasgow Health Board. Celtic have been using that land as security to obtain cheap interest rate loans from the Labour riddled Co-operative Bank, most likely through former Chairman John Reid and Director Brian Wilson, both Labour party heavyweights. Now that’s what you call doubling up on corrupt leverage.

b. The Co-operative Bank, due the drug dealing antics of ex-chairman, ‘Crystal Methodist’ Paul Flowers, a Labour ex-Councillor, is soon to experience a forensic examination of it’s ‘policy’ of giving risky loans at low interest rates to Labour party connected entities. In 2006, when the Labour party was close to bankruptcy, the Co-Op Bank bailed the party out and in March this year gave them a loan of £1.2 million at the preferential low rate of 4%. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Finance/article1304380.ece

c. Compare this with Celtic’s Co-op Bank debt facility of £34 million at 1.5%. Celtic’s interest rate is ridiculously low and market loss-making. Obviously this has implications for UEFA’s FFP and SFA/SPFL, for both competitions, if Celtic has been seen to have been financially advantaged. Any investigation by either footballing body could involve the return of winnings, the cancelling of titles, loss of points and demotion for unfair advantages obtained during the period of the corruption. Celtic’s cheap Co-op Bank debt facility is still operating today.

13. November 28 2013; Co-op Bank slammed for dishing out £33m in cheap loans and overdrafts to Celtic Football Club http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2514682/Co-op-Bank-slammed-cheap-loans-Celtic-Football-Club.html

a. The Co-operative Bank has come under fire for dishing out £33.2million in cheap loans and overdrafts to Celtic Football Club, which was chaired by former Labour home secretary John Reid. MPs last night demanded an explanation for the rock bottom interest rates and accused the mutual of using the ‘hard-earned cash of millions of savers for political gain’. It is the latest twist in the row over the troubled lender’s links with the Labour Party.

b. Co-op’s hugely generous terms once again highlight the close links between the scandal-hit lender and the upper echelons of the Labour Party. The political connection has come under the spotlight after former Labour Councillor and former Co-op Bank chairman the Reverend Paul Flowers was caught out allegedly organising drug-fuelled orgies with rent boys.

See my post about the possible collapse of the Co-op Bank and the aftermath.

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