AND ANOTHER THINGÖ
A couple of interesting dust-stirrers blew up on the news this morning. The first of them is likely to cause fresh problems for a government increasingly beleaguered over Iraq - which will give pleasure to those who collect ironies since it appears to arise directly from attempts to evade further pressure.
The pleasingly named Katherine Gun, formerly employed by the government eavesdropping centre, GCHQ, has had charges against her under the Official Secrets Act dropped. Given that she had stated several times that she was proud of revealing the fact that the United States had asked the British government to listen in on transmissions between those members of the United Nations Security Council that were critical of the war proposals, this throwing in of the towel comes as quite a shock. The Crown Prosecution Serviceís decision not to proceed against Ms Gun for leaking details of the secret email can only inflame criticism of an administration whose original coating of Teflon has worn very thin in recent months.
The particular fear that motivated this dramatic move arose, of course, from the fact that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith (he of the extremely dubious advice concerning the legality of the war), Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, & Tony Blair would almost certainly have been required to testify had the case proceeded.
Whilst its abandonment is excellent news for Katherine Gun, coming as it does a year after her arrest, it should expose the government to attacks in press & parliament every bit as virulent as they would have received in court. With the BBC still smarting from the hiding it took from the Hutton Report, a certain sharpening of knives in Bush House might not be entirely surprising. Certainly immediate reactions from parliamentary colleagues in all three parties can have brought Tony Blair little comfort.
However, comfort may come from an unexpected quarter. Arch-critic of the war & Labour Party loose cannon by self-appointment, Clare Short has drawn righteous fire with her assertion that during the months leading up to the war the government sanctioned eavesdropping on Kofi Annan. Claiming that whilst serving as a Cabinet member she had read transcripts of Annanís telephone conversations, she went on to say: ìIndeed, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war, thinking: 'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this, and people will see what he and I are saying'."
Now, this particular feline disturbance amongst the pigeons might provide Untouchable Tony with just enough time to prepare a case. The least it will accomplish in the short term is distraction & the masters & mistresses of spin who have run things for a long time now in the Downing Street front office will make full use of the next 48 hours.
The wisest counsel is, as ever, patience. The mills of God, we are told, grind slow but they grind exceeding small. If the focussed indignation of those who opposed the war from the start is married to attention to detail, organised effort & sheer tenacity then the mills of justice, slow though they are, might yet grind equally small.
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If youíre Chinese, in the UK & are being ruthlessly exploited by those vampires who prey on frightened immigrants, you have just been name checked by MP for Congleton, Anne Winterton. She stunned a Tory after-dinner audience into silence with a gag about the 20 Chinese cockle pickers who recently drowned in Morecambe Bay. Having already lost her Shadow Cabinet post of Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs because of the injudicious observation at a rugby club dinner that Pakistanis are ëten a pennyí, youíd have thought she might have picked up a tip or two about public speaking etiquette. But it would seem that not only has the lesson not been learned, sheís subsequently compounded the felony by refusing to apologise for this latest witticism. Which does little for Leader of the Opposition Michael Howardís attempts last week to represent the Tory Party as in the front line against racism when he roundly condemned Britainís Nazis in Suits, the British National Party.
