Tag Archives: Sadiq Khan

Remember Nazanin? After Tories forgot her, London’s Labour Mayor has called for her to be freed

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Fair play to Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Mayor of London, for bringing the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe back to public attention.

Nazanin, as you should well recall, is a charity worker who was jailed in 2016 on trumped-up charges of trying to engineer a “soft” revolt against the Iranian regime, when in fact she had been celebrating that country’s New Year with family members who live there.

Boris Johnson, as UK Foreign Secretary, made matters infinitely worse for her when he stupidly suggested that the Iranian authorities’ claims were right and she had been training journalists.

He travelled to Iran to try to secure Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release but instead only succeeded in promising to hand over nearly half a billion pounds that the UK had been withholding from Iran’s rulers since the 1970s.

I seem to recall that he expected to receive Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in return but that hasn’t happened. What a buffoon.

Today – December 26, 2018 – is her 40th birthday. Husband Richard Ratcliffe issued a joint statement with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to mark the date.

They said: “Nazanin has been wrongly detained in an Iranian prison for over two years. She has done nothing wrong, has broken no laws. The charges against her are completely false.

“She is innocent and should not be kept in prison, separated for so long from her family and her young daughter. While she’s imprisoned, Nazanin continues to suffer both physically and mentally.

“We, and indeed the whole country, know what a travesty of justice it is that Nazanin continues to be detained. Her case, and also those of other dual-nationality prisoners being wrongly held in Iran, have rightly attracted global interest and deep concern.

“London is home to a large Iranian community who make a valuable contribution to this great, diverse city. Together, we are united in calling on the Iranian authorities to release Nazanin immediately along with the others who are being wrongly detained, to allow them to return home and be reunited with their loved ones.”

The appeal –

– has attracted support on the social media:

The Iranian authorities will do whatever they want, of course.

They know they have a source of leverage against the UK government, and have already used it to their advantage.

The reminder that British political organisations have not forgotten her is welcome – even new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has raised the issue again with the Iranians.

But I think the UK will need a lot more leverage of its own before she is returned to her husband and family. Let us hope I am mistaken.

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Tories appoint RACIST as their new London mayoral candidate

Shaun Bailey: Conservative candidate for Islamophobia.

I know; what’s new? Zac Goldsmith’s campaign wasn’t exactly above reproach. Perhaps racists are all the Conservative Party has left?

Well, now we have Shaun Bailey, who thinks it’s fine to make Islamophobic comments about current London mayor Sadiq Khan, viz:

Here’s The Independent:

The Conservative candidate for London Mayor is at the centre of an Islamophobia row, after he shared a tweet that meant thousands of his followers saw a message referring to Labour’s Sadiq Khan as “mad mullah Khan of Londonistan”.

Shaun Bailey retweeted a post last year which had shared a picture of Mr Khan and a racist caption which also branded Labour as “anti-British”.

The Conservative Party told The Independent there is “no way” Mr Bailey would have seen the offensive caption on the picture before sharing the post, as to do so one must click to open it.

 

Oh, really? That seems incredible to me.

I mean, think about it: The Tories are saying the man they have chosen as their candidate to be Mayor of London is so stupid he doesn’t know how to look at a whole image in a tweet before passing it on to his followers!

Why would anybody vote for someone like that?

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t. He’s still angry about the Goldsmith campaign – and rightly so. Now he’s doubly angry because he knows the Tories have doubled down on the racism:

Mr Bailey, it seems, is still a user of the social media, as he tweeted his delight at whatever support he has received – providing a perfect opportunity for some of our more alert New Left Media representatives to ask the obvious:

I’m sure we’re all looking forward to the answer. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it!

But coverage of the negative reaction should not eclipse the fact that Mr Bailey does have at least one high-profile supporter – but you’re going to wince when you see who it is:

That’s right – Boris Johnson! The man who was unashamed to talk about “Piccaninnies with watermelon smiles”, among all his many other racisms!

Perhaps even worse is the fact that racist Mr Bailey – supported by racist Mr Johnson – was announced as Tory mayoral candidate on the same date racist Theresa May (Ms “Hostile Environment” herself) actually dared to lecture the United Nations about people who “exploit people’s fear and stoke intolerance and racism”.

I await the mainstream media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the clear and present racism that is running rife among the Conservative Party’s elected MPs and candidates for elected office.

That’s if they can fit it in around all the fake “anti-Semitism in the Labour Party” stories they’ve been writing, of course.

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London mayor boosts police taskforce after Tories make a shambles of law enforcement

Aren’t Londoners glad they ignored Zac Goldsmith’s Islamophobic claptrap about Sadiq Khan and elected the right man to be Mayor of London!

As shocking figures were released showing that crime has risen by 40 per cent after the Conservative government took nearly 30,000 police – and support – officers off the streets, Mr Khan has announced he is strengthening the city’s violent crime taskforce.

Admittedly, the change is temporary – 122 officers are being redirected from traffic duty for three months – but it is more than the Tories would do. They would be happier to see a continued, steady trickle of arrests for traffic violations (and the accompanying revenue from fines) than safer streets.

And let us not forget that Conservative rhetoric encourages violent crime – especially against Muslims.

Nationally – well, let’s watch Labour’s video on the subject:

Matt Thomas has some extra information:

In fact, the NAO has claimed the Home Office has no idea of the effect its swingeing cuts have had on policing across the UK. Perhaps this is the most damning fact of all.

Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said: “The financial sustainability of police forces and their ability to deliver effective services is reliant on the Home Office understanding national and local demands and allocating funds fairly.

“There are signs that forces are already experiencing financial strain and struggling to deliver effective services to the public. If the Home Office does not understand what is going on, it will not be able to direct resources to where they are needed, with the risk that the situation could get worse.”

Here’s one more fact for you: Among Conservative supporters, Home Secretary Sajid Javid is the most popular minister in the Cabinet. A recent ConservativeHome poll gave him a satisfaction rating of 61.9.

So he thinks he’s doing all right!

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Sick of Labour anti-Semitism? Let’s talk about Tory Islamophobia instead

After a week in which she desperately tried to steer the public discourse away from the racism in her own policies, it must have been disheartening for Theresa May to hear a former chair of the Conservative Party saying the following to Robert Peston on his Sunday morning show:

https://twitter.com/alexnunns/status/988037816469815296

Considering the way Parliament hosted a debate – in fact, more like an institutionalised slagging-off of Jeremy Corbyn – over the allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, at least one response was going to be obvious:

Well, there ought to be!

Believe it or not, though, the UK’s mainstream media seem keen – desperate, in fact – to sweep this under the carpet. Racism? Islamophobia? In the Conservative Party? The very thought!

At least, that seems to be the attitude.

I had to go to alleged Russian propoganda and fake news site RT to find a report on what Baroness Warsi told Peston viewers – and it was revealing:

“In light of the recent anti-Semitism row that has engulfed UK Labour, with wall-to-wall MSM broadcast, print, and social media coverage that has painted the issue as a “crisis” for the main opposition party, one may have thought this would have grabbed the attention of the media establishment.

“The reality? Cue the tumbleweed.

“Indeed, not even the presenter interviewing Baroness Warsi, Robert Peston, picked up the revelation to investigate the matter more fully.

“So, why the media silence? Could it be that the MSM are more focused on misdemeanors, perceived or otherwise, committed by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, as part of what some see as a concerted campaign to undermine his authority and weaken his standing as leader, for fear that one day he may become prime minister?

“Others may suggest that Islamophobia is not seen by a majority of the British media as such a terrible scourge on our society as anti-Semitism.

“Whatever the reason for the MSM blackout on Baroness Warsi’s admission, the concerns of many that large sections of the media apply lower moral standards to the Tories than to Labour, will not be adequately addressed while claims of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party are ignored.”

I have written on racism in the Conservative Party in the past – yes, even before the Windrush scandal – and it would be easy to link to those articles to show examples.

But I think it would be better to offer a Muslim’s view on Islamophobia. Here‘s Aleesha – some of you may already know her from her Twitter account; she also writes a blog, and this is some of what she has to say:

“As a young British Muslim woman involved in politics, I’ve seen the rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric in British politics, and nobody is acting on it, nobody is condemning it and quite frankly, it’s disgusting that our politicians can get away with it.

“Very recently, Conservative MP, Bob Blackman shared an islamophobic page and article on his Facebook and then apologised for it when he was called out. However, this isn’t the first time that Bob has endorsed the anti-Muslim sentiment, he previously retweeted anti-Muslim posts from Tommy Robinson, a notorious bigot. Moreover, Bob Blackman had also hosted an anti-Muslim extremist in Parliament, a man who praised the Rohingya genocide, called for genocide of Kashmiri Muslims and called for Islam to be “wiped out” from this planet. What annoys me most about all of this is the entire fact that it’s hardly made the news, just briefly and there’s hardly any outrage, and our MPs aren’t condemning it or calling it out. I’d at least expect our Muslim MPs to call it out regardless of political ideologies but all I see is silence. Just imagine for a second that Bob was a Labour MP, or imagine if, in this instance, it was another religion. Just imagine the outrage. The silence from Theresa May and the Tories and their inability to act on this speaks volumes.

“Bob Blackman’s islamophobia isn’t just one case in politics. There are many. One of which dates back to the London Mayoral elections, where Zac Goldsmith launched an islamophobic campaign against Sadiq Khan. The Tories didn’t act, nobody acted and Zac Goldsmith still remains as an MP for Richmond.

“Go to Sadiq Khan’s Twitter profile, browse through his Tweets and look at all of the replies to them. You will almost always see islamophobic and racial abuse tweeted to him.

“I’m also writing this just after reading a Tweet from the official EU Leave account that said Britain has an “exploding” Muslim population.

“Why is nobody acting? I have been blocked by Tory councillors and Tory MPs when I call islamophobia out. Why are these MPs and councillors supporting islamophobes? It makes me think that the Tory party has an actual problem with islamophobia, not to mention the dozens of times I’ve been religiously abused by Tories.

“Are we just going to ignore it? When will we give these cases the rightful outrage? Islamophobia is absolutely normalised in British politics and nobody is really doing anything about it. The silence from our politicians shows their inability to act and their legitimation/endorsement of these views. Are we going to act, or are we going to do nothing and let MPs like Bob Blackman host more extremists in Parliament?”

Consider Baroness Warsi’s words at the top of this article and the answer is clear – at least as far as the Conservatives are concerned.

Islamophobia? They love it!

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The Tories couldn’t be bothered to assess the impact of Brexit – so London Mayor Sadiq Khan did it for them

Topical: Carillion was a construction company, and has just crashed. Brexit would cause more job losses, it seems.

The predictions aren’t good – no wonder David Davis preferred to say he hadn’t done any research.

It’s better to look a complete fool than to have to admit this:

Isn’t it?

Try this:

Or this:

Not looking good, is it?

There’s more. Sadiq Khan tells us:

New independent economic analysis commissioned by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, indicates that a ‘no deal’ hard Brexit could lead to a lost decade or longer of significantly lower growth. The worst-case scenario could result in:

  • 500,000 fewer jobs
  • 87,000 fewer jobs in London by 2030
  • nearly £50bn UK-wide investment lost by 2030

Financial and professional services could be the hardest hit with 119,000 fewer jobs nationally. Other sectors reported include: science and technology (92,000 fewer jobs), construction (43,000 fewer jobs) and the creative sector (27,000 fewer jobs).

Even softer Brexit scenarios, like the UK remaining in the Single Market, but leaving the Customs Union after a transition period could still result in a 176,000 fewer jobs across the country.

The report also shows that London could suffer much less from Brexit than the rest of the country – increasing geographic inequalities across the UK.

A future trade relationship must be agreed between the Government and the EU by 27 October this year. The Mayor is warning that with just 10 months to go, time is running out.

In total, five scenarios were modelled by Cambridge Econometrics to illustrate the range of possible outcomes of the UK’s future relationship with the EU. These are:

  • Scenario 1 – A ‘close to status quo’ scenario where the UK remains part of both of the single market and customs union
  • Scenario 2 –  A scenario where the UK remains part of the single market, but not the customs union
  • Scenario 3 – A scenario where the UK remains part of the customs union, but not the single market
  • Scenario 4 –  A hard Brexit scenario in which trade between the UK and the EU falls under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules with a two-year transition period from March 2019
  • Scenario 5 – The same hard Brexit scenario but without a two-year transition period

For more information on each scenario – see the full report

What now?

A future trade relationship must be agreed between the Government and the EU by October this year. The Mayor is warning that with just 10 months to go, time is running out.

He said:

“I’ve released these impact assessments because the British people and our businesses have a right to know the likely impact on their lives and personal finances.

“This new analysis shows why the Government should now change its approach and negotiate a deal that enables us to remain in both the Single Market and the Customs Union.”

Source: Mayor warns hard Brexit could lead to ‘lost decade’ of growth and employment | London City Hall

It all dovetails very well with this opinion, too:

Whichever way you consider it, Brexit won’t be pleasant.

Fancy an alternative?

TSSA Union leader Manuel Cortes reckons Jeremy Corbyn – if elected prime minister – could keep the UK in a reformed European Union. That would be much better for all of us than the Tory Brexit we’re getting.

Ah, but there’s a big push to make us all believe that Mr Corbyn is a closet Brexiter at the moment. Lots of people you’ve never heard of, trying to be authoritative on Twitter.

Not really convincing, is it?

But then, neither is the left-wing ‘Leave’ argument.

Jeremy Corbyn knows this – you can be sure.

So you can be sure that Labour is only supporting Brexit because of the general belief that a tiny majority of the population wants it.

As soon as it becomes clear that this is no longer true, This Writer reckons Labour’s position will change.

That’s why Brexiters in positions of authority are determined to deny us the opportunity to give another opinion, informed as it would be by the facts that have come out since June, 2016.

But these things have a tendency to make themselves known – one way or another.

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Botswana shows how to stand up against bully Trump

Open mouth, insert boot: Donald Trump.

One of the smallest republics in Africa has set a shining example with a masterclass in how to stand up against international bullying, after US President Donald Trump reportedly spoke about immigration from – and I apologise for the language; it’s his word, not mine – “shithole” countries.

Mr Trump allegedly made the comment in a closed-door discussion with representatives of the DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – programme. It’s an Obama-originated initiative to allow people brought to the US illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in America.

The claim is that he said Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations are “shithole” countries.

Commenters have linked it with other comments attributed to Mr Trump – that Mexicans are “rapists”, Haitians “all have AIDS”, and Nigerians live in “huts”. Charming.

But it seems the government of Botswana went a little further – dragging the US ambassador to the southern African country to the presidential office and demanding that he clarify whether that country is regarded as a “shithole” by the US government.

I know some readers have disparaging opinions of Wikipedia, but This Writer would like to believe that site’s page on Botswana, which makes it clear that the country is far from the kind of place Mr Trump allegedly described:

Botswana … has maintained a strong tradition of stable representative democracy, with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections and the best perceived corruption ranking in Africa since at least 1998.

A mid-sized country of just over 2 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

Formerly one of the poorest countries in the world—with a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year in the late 1960s—Botswana has since transformed itself into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Botswana boasts a GDP per capita of about $18,825 per year as of 2015.

Here’s what Botswana did about Mr Trump:

The letter states:

The Government of Botswana today summoned the US Ambassador to Botswana to express its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by the President of the US, Donald Trump, when he referred to African countries and others as “shithole countries” during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakeers at the White House on Thursday 11 January 2018.

The Botswana Government has also enquired from the US Government through the Ambassador, to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a “shithole” country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US, and also that some of Botswana may wish to visit the US.

The Government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word, when talking about countries with whom the US has had cordial and mutually beneficial bilateral relations for so many years.

Botswana has accepted US citizens within her borders over the years and continues to host US guests and senior government officials, including a Congressional delegation that will come to Botswana at the end of this month; that is why we view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist.

Botswana calls on SADC [the South African Development Community], the African Union and all other progressive nations across the world to strongly condemn the remarks made by President Trump.

“Irresponsible, reprehensible and racist” – that view has been taken up by the United Nations.

The organisation’s Human Rights spokesperson Rupert Coleville said: “If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word you can use but ‘racist’.”

If only the UK government could bring itself to make such a principled stand.

But Theresa May has not built a reputation for principled action and has reportedly refused to condemn Mr Trump for his latest alleged rant.

For any opposition to Mr Trump, you have to visit the social media – which is perhaps appropriate as the President loves it so much – and the debate over his decision to cancel his State visit to the UK.

Mr Trump has claimed – well, we all know he can tweet for himself:

Oh, really? So it’s nothing to do with the recently-announced snub by Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle, who want former President Barack Obama to attend their wedding, rather than Mr Trump? That’s nice to know – if you believe it.

As for the US embassy – well:

Of course we all know there might be another explanation:

Among those who tweeted their support for Mr Trump’s decision was London Mayor Sadiq Khan, whose words prompted another Tory, well-known for putting his proverbial foot in his proverbial mouth, to do so yet again:

Yes – Boris Johnson stuck his oar in, tweeting obsequious support for Mr Trump. You have to wonder why, really.

Of course, he got short shrift from the British people:

That’s an opinion with which we can all agree.

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Labour’s ‘freedom of information’ plans are toothless

150302freedom-of-information

Labour’s promise to expand the reach of freedom of information (FoI) requests to cover private companies, such as G4S or Capita, in relation to their public service work will be meaningless as long as those companies, along with government departments, can use clever excuses to duck out of their responsibilities.

Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan, interviewed by The Guardian, said more and more public services, funded by taxpayers, are being run by private companies who are outside the scope of freedom of information.

That is why Labour will expand the reach of FoI requests, opening up up private contractors that run prisons, courtroom and health services to public scrutiny.

There’s only one problem: Government departments already have a range of excuses available, with which to bat away any inconvenient requests.

Just take a look at this article on the politics.co.uk website, detailing a few of these tricks. Vox Political‘s own FoI request for up-to-date statistics on the number of people who have died while going through the ESA claim or appeal process is currently stalled, having run into a ‘section 22’ exemption on the grounds that the information will be published at a future date.

It has not been made clear how far in the future this date may be, but, considering some of the requested information is now more than three years old, it seems likely that the Department for Work and Pensions is waiting for Hell to freeze over.

Here’s another article, from the Huffington Post, showing how even the simplest, easiest-to-answer requests are being rejected.

Why should we believe private companies will be any more open to examination than government departments?

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Tory restrictions on judicial review to be ended by a Labour government

Chequebook justice: Your unelected government wants to ensure that nobody can challenge its policies and decisions - by putting justice within the reach of only the wealthy.

Chequebook justice: Your unelected government has ensured that nobody can challenge its policies and decisions – by putting justice within the reach of only the wealthy.

Conservative Party changes that meant the public were effectively forbidden from questioning government decisions will be scrapped if Labour is elected in May, according to Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan.

David Cameron said an increase in judicial reviews during the current Parliament had delayed planning developments and deportations – ignoring the possibility that they may be justified.

Tory Justice Secretary Chris Grayling accused charities and left-wing campaigners of exploiting it to promote political agendas. He also ignored the possibility that the high number of successful actions brought by the public might indicate that the government had been making unjust choices.

Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Khan explained how the Conservative Party was willing to subvert the rule of law in order to cement unjust decisions in place and inflict their consequences (in terms of planning developments, for example) on people who cannot afford to stop them.

He said: “I’m really worried about the government’s attack on judicial review. When I was a lawyer, I used judicial review to challenge public authorities. When I became a minister, I accepted that judicial review was a pain in the backside; civil servants had to check and double-check. It may have been a nuisance but it’s a very important safeguard.

“So I will reverse all the changes the government has made. It’s important that the executive respects the powers citizens have to hold us to account.”

He said: “We need to give citizens the ability to challenge when they think there have been failings in decisions made by ministers, governments and councils. The new act … insulates power, makes us complacent and think that we can disregard procedural fairness, disregard consultation.

“If you are someone who wants to challenge power, you are now scared to do so. You are worried about your costs as a community group in challenging a public authority decision. That’s not the sort of country I want to live in.”

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Tory legal aid cuts may have fatally undermined access to justice

legal Aid

Labour’s Sadiq Khan has admitted that he cannot find the cash to reverse the cuts to legal aid inflicted by Conservative Justice Secretary (and legal ignoramus) Chris ‘Failing’ Grayling.

Grayling has forced the legal aid budget down by £600 million, in the face of huge opposition from lawyers, making it much harder for people who don’t have huge amounts of money to defend themselves if accused of a crime. People who do have such funds – the abominably rich and career criminals – will, of course, be able to pay for their defence and escape justice.

In short, Grayling has ensured that criminals will go free while the innocent are jailed.

Sacked: Dominic Grieve's reservations about Legal Aid cuts put him at adds with the Coalition government; it seems his concern over a planned attack on human rights led to his sacking.

Sacked: Dominic Grieve’s reservations about Legal Aid cuts put him at adds with the Coalition government; it seems his concern over a planned attack on human rights led to his sacking.

He has also ensured that a future Labour government will not be able to undo the damage – at least, not immediately. Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan has said Labour could not reinstate the money cut from legal aid by Grayling, but he did say Labour intends to make it easier for victims of domestic violence to obtain support from a lawyer.

“I speak to lawyers who say they have clients who come in to see them, say they have suffered abuse and are told they have to provide evidence,” he told The Guardian.

“The clients often leave the office and never return. That worries me. So I’m looking at what we can do to tackle this. If there was one legal aid change to reverse, this would be the one.”

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Dilemma for private bosses as Labour unveils transparency plan for public service work

An end to the corporate backhander? [Picture: This Is Money}

An end to the corporate backhander? [Picture: This Is Money}

A Labour government would make private companies who provide services at the taxpayers’ expense obey public sector transparency rules, it has been revealed.

The change means firms and charities that sell services to the state – for example, all the private companies now working in the NHS – would lose their right to commercial confidentiality.

The Freedom of Information Act would be extended to cover them and they would have to reveal their commercial secrets if a FoI request required them to do so.

If enacted, this is likely to be more effective in creating transparency of lobbying than the Parliamentary Bill of the same name that is currently working its way through Westminster.

The policy was revealed in a Sunday Times article which is paywall protected. Labour has yet to release an announcement on its website.

The article quotes shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan, who said: “More and more of our public services are being delivered by private companies and charities, out of reach of freedom of information. We must demand the same openness from them as we expect from government. It’s not on to let these organisations hide behind a veil of secrecy.”

Bravo.

The new policy comes after a 10-minute rule motion by Labour’s Grahame Morris began its journey through Parliament earlier this month. Such motions rarely get very far because the government of the day usually opposes them in the later stages and there is often too little time to complete the debate.

But these bills stimulate publicity for their cause, and it seems clear that the Labour leadership has taken this particular cause on board.

So it should – concerns are high that unfair advantages are being handed to, for example, the private healthcare companies, who are then able to hide the facts behind the veil of commercial confidentiality. Why should they be allowed to do this when they are providing a public service, funded by the citizens of the UK?

Existing NHS operators do not have the advantage of commercial confidentiality and must provide details of the way they operate if a FoI request is submitted to them. This makes them vulnerable during the bidding process for NHS contracts, as private operators can ask about the current providers’ operations and then undercut them to get the work.

Then there’s the so-called “revolving doors” practice, in which government advisors move to lucrative contracts in the private sector, often after providing advice that changes government policy in favour of their new employer. Mr Morris’s motion noted that “at least five former advisors to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are now working for lobbying firms with private healthcare clients”.

This is a corrupt practice – the firms gain an unfair advantage because they have, if you like, a spy in government manipulating affairs to their advantage. Nothing is done about this at the moment, nor will the Labour proposal change that situation – but we will all be able to see who the spies are.

It would probably be advisable for a future Labour government to put powers in place to reverse any change in the law due to corrupt advice intended to engineer a commercial advantage to a private company. Restricting the movement of government employees to other jobs would be problematic, but if it is known that any changes they effect will be reversed after such a move, then the exercise would become pointless.

Companies would not be able to pay a person to influence the government while they remained in the taxpayers’ employ, as this would be a clear case of bribery and corruption.

A previous VP article on this subject mentioned the idea of the level playing field – and Labour is to be praised for producing policies intended to restore that principle to government in the face of Conservative and Liberal Democrat efforts to skew the field in favour of their corporate chums.

And the corporates themselves? Well, their bosses are likely to be furious and it’s possible that all kinds of threats will come in Labour’s direction.

That’s fine. A Labour government can take any such complaint in stride by launching a programme to revise government tax strategy with regard to corporates, and bring any complaining company to the top of the list.