UK Government does more mean less ?

From a diverse range of sources it appears that the Brown Gubment payroll has swelled even more ..

1.There are now 121 ministers, whips or law officers.

2. The eager beaver crew has also got bigger Paul Waugh says ( adding in 5 backbenchers with titles as regional ministers' assistants and 2 who are "government representatives" (ie, "envoys"), 44% of the all Labour MPs have an official government post of some kind.

3. After his shuffle the Brown Cabinet has 23 members ...another 10 ministers have the right to attend on some or all occasions.

4. Canny Scot at saving the bawbees Brown has secured the services of 13 ministers or whips working without a ministerial salary.


The indefatigable and glamorous Torygraph hackette Rosa Prince ( see pic) tells us she has been truffling around the 15 members of the 2001 Labour intake who signed the letter calling for Tony Blair to shuffle off his immortal coil and let Gordy take on the heavy responsibilities of state.

Well their loyalty has been rewarded ;
Chris Bryant - Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons
Tom Watson - Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (described by Tony as "disloyal, discourteous and wrong" for signing the letter urging him to go.)
Sion Simon - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Wayne David - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Wales Office
Ian Lucas - Assistant Government Whip
Hywel Francis - Chairman, Welsh Affairs Select Committee
Mark Tami - Assistant Government Whip
Kevan Jones - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence
Mark Lazarowicz - Special representative of the Prime Minister on carbon trading working with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Ann McKechin - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scotland Office - and one time romatically linked with Kelvinside MP Gorgeous George Galloway.

Chris Mole - Assistant Government Whip

Which leaves Khalid Mahmood, ***Jim Sheridan, David Wright, David Hamilton still waiting for the phone to ring.

*** he took the seat from geoff (now unbelievably Lord Rooker) who sponsors the Improving The Prospects Of People Living In Areas Of Multiple Deprivation In England and he chairs the chairs the Project Advisory Group a member of which is Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs (Oxford First) who is the Director of the Barrow-Cadbury Trust (and a Sikh)- she is also a member of the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands . She also stood against Mr Khalid ( a community development officer ) as a Labour Party candidate and lost amongst tales of vote rigging and was said in scurrilpous articles to be a bedmate of the noble Lord.

Labour's Perry Barr branch executive committee voted to continue campaigning to have the selection of Khalid (a Kashmiri Muslim) over-turned and to force an investigation into an unusually large number of postal votes cast in Mr Mahmood's favour.

Almost half the 290 members in Handsworth ward, a Mahmood stronghold, applied for a postal vote - a virtually unprecedented percentage in constituency selection meetings.

Pre-election complaints against Mahmood included his sudden disappearance from Birmingham for over a year shortly after first being elected city councillor, and the mysterious and unexplained collapse of the council-backed British Kashmiri Association with huge debts in 1994.
see also Khalid Mahmood: A long-term embarrassment for Labour

Mr Mahmood is probably not ministerial material under Gordon. But watch out for the rise and rise of Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs (pic)

Gerry McCann meets Alberto Gonzalez .. who told the Truth ?

Greta Van Susteran met Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine McCann on FOX News "On the Record today" Read the full transcript here.

US readers will be fascinated to hear how Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez fills his day when he's not being called a lying bastard to his face by Members of Congress.

MCCANN: I'm very pleased to say that the Attorney General took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to meet with us today. And we had a 40 minute meeting, and we talked about these very issues, about how we can advance legislation.

And, I think importantly, Madeleine's disappearance has already created some discussion at the G-8 summit recently. (!!! ?)So it's becoming more topical. At least the public will know consider the issues, and that's something that we need to capitalize. There is a window of opportunity here to affect change for the better.

And, of course, Kate and I are both hopeful that the publicity surrounding this and our tie-ins (?) with the National Center and International Center for Missing and Exploited Children keep Madeleine's profile high and increases the chances of us finding her.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did the Attorney General Gonzales, did you get the sense that he knew about your daughter's disappearance before the meeting was set up?

MCCANN: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: He knew about it.

This was on the day that at a grilling in Congress, Senior democrat SEN. Arlen "One Bullet" Specter , (Penn) said about his evidence ...

" The chairman has already said that the committee is going to review your testimony very carefully to see if — if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable."

Senator J D Rockefeller accused Gonzalez of committing perjury and others urged the Attorney General to correct his testimony, vaguely warning of legal action.One senator asked him flatly why he insists on staying on the job. Gonzalez said that's a good question, but he had to decide whether it would be better to leave or stay and try to fix the problems.

See The Washington Post today Wednesday, July 25, 2007; Page A14

Credibility Collapse
Once again, Alberto Gonzales is unable to offer straight answers to simple questions.
"I don't trust you."
"What credibility is left for you?"

UPDATE Thursday 5.00pm 26th July 2007

Mr McCann was due to meet Britain's ambassador in Washington yesterday and will then return to Portugal. No audience with the First lady then.