What a day to be a news Editor !
The Prime Minister is interviewed by Plod for selling coronets for cash - at least he didn't get kidnapped by the Met, as his tennis partner the Tottering Toff of Totteridge !.. just sandbagged in an alleyway - believed to refer to Downing Street, an inaccessible throughfare in the heart of Government.
The Attorney General lies to the House of Lords claiming that the decision of the Serious Fraud Office into Britain's biggest defence company, BAE Systems and claims of a slush fund to ease the historic mega bucks Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia because he thought that a prosecution "could not be brought".
He defended such a gross intrusion into the legal process by the Government that it is in "the wider public interest" which he bleated," had to be balanced against the rule of law."
Which added to the failure to declare an invasion of Iraq as illegal, contrary to advice of his officers - who resigned over the matter, makes him the most corrupt and dishonest Attorney General this country has had. He should be impeached - a formal accusation of ‘wrongdoing’, where a public official is charged with improper conduct in public office - a high crime and misdemeanour beyond the reach of the law or which no other authority of the state will prosecute.
At stake is a massive order for the unwanted, out of date, rag bag of the Eurofighter or "Typhoon" which the Saudi's quite sensibly now don't want and BAE (shortly to be handed to Boeing on a silver salver) cannot sell. The Saudis are now deep in discussion with Dassault over an intitial 16 off Rafale C fighters. These have (unlike the Typhoon) the superb SPECTRA integrated electronic survival system with software-based virtual stealth technology. Which combined with the THALES RBE2 passive electronically scanned multi-mode radar (develeoped in France by Thales and EADS) leaves the Typhoon standing (as it did in competition for the Singapore order) although it appears both lost to the politically heavyweight Lockheed F - 15.
For background on Gulf Arms procurement go here
Gordon Brown's PFI liabilities have now been revealed in the fine print of the Treasury figures accompanying his December statement to have soared 11% in 9 months from £142.4bn in figures issued with the Budget to a heart stopping £158bn up a huge up by £15.6bn since March. Don't worry the grandchildren will be left to pay THAT bill.
On top of this scandal is growing over the vigorous pursuit of a Knighthood for Gordon's wealthy Jewish friend and New Labour benefactor Sir Ronald Cohen (The Electoral Commission records Sir Ronnie gave ( no fancy loans in those days) £100,000 in 2001, £200,000 in 2002 and £250,000 in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 ) Lord Patel has followed the fortunes of Sir Ronnie with interest and the reader is invited to search the archives for "Apax" - especially their interest in CETV , half of which they bought from Likudist Ronnie Lauder the Estee Lauder / Clique parfumier, obsessive Klimt and Scheile collector and is expected to bid for ITV any day. (Apax have already bid for ITV in a deal with Greg Dyke earlier this year which was withdrawn)
Lord Patel remarked Sunday, July 16 Political / Police skullduggery, censoring the blogs and Prime Minister Reid in waiting
Those anxious to understand who will take over from Lord Levy as Middle East savant and fund raiser might look no further than Egyptian-born Jewish multi-millionaire (run out of Egypt by Nasser 50 years ago) Lord Cohen of Apax Partners.
Such a close fiend of the mean Scot from Kirkcaldy (and no mean benefactor to Noo Labour who have been so helpful to the BVCA the Vulture capitalists Trade Union) who it is said was so anxious he recived a Knighthood - and no doubt assiduously promoted by his friend and Karaoke King the Toff from Totteridge.
Lord Patel is a great fan of Sir Ronnie and can however ascribe some of his great wealth by following his investment lead. Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) Bluetooth pioneers - launched May 03 at 220p by Apax Partners (and others) soared to above 1400p in June July this year - although they have catastrophically slumped since on a revenue warning in September to hover around 600p - a handy 300% growth since launch however. With 55% of the market they have launched their new 5th (!) generation Blue Core, a fully integrated 2.4 GHz radio, baseband and microcontroller on a single chipwhich will maintain their place at the cutting edge, Customers include Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Sharp, Motorola, IBM, Apple, NEC, Toshiba, RIM and Sony.
Vulture capitalists steer clear of hi-tech but this is one gold seam they have helped along very nicely thank you. A good time to buy.On top of this
we have the entertaining spectacle of Lord Plod (AKA Stevens of the Yard) telling us that after 3 years well paid work and ten years after her death, unrecorded by 11 CCTV cameras (which had been switched off at 9pm), her 1hr 45 minute ride over 4 miles to hosital, embalming, curious tale of blood samples, pregnancy tests, mysterious Place telephoned instructions, MI5 / MI6, US Secret agencies (9 of them), and Mystic Meg my old friend and lover the Princess of Wales died in a "tragic accident " ... which is probably marginally worse than a "non-tragic accident". King Fayed of Horrids still maintains however , despite the sterling work, expenditure of much money, time and effort by Lord Plod, that it was the "fuggin" Duke of "fuggin" Edinburgh who killed her .
Quite a day when a Senior ex Policeman makes and hits the headlines by declaring that the Queen's husband did not murder their daughter in law and mother of the future King.
More of this in a later post with some sensational news and amazing photos!
The Independent also is late, breaking the news that FO memos about Iraq have now been supplied in confidence to the House of Comons committees and are therefore privileged and can be quoted publicly. Now that should be very interesting - Mrs Wilmshurst strikes back.
Who would be the news Editor of Channel 4 News who show a wonderful acrobatic zooming, swooping, jet fighter aircraft (see pic) being put through it's paces (sans weapons and extra range fuel tanks) to illustrate the Saudi "Typhoon" deal story ... only to have to explain at the end of the news hour that the fillum was actually... er ... of the competing ...er .... (and highly distinctive)
French Rafale for which the Saudis and the French are about to announce an order. Sacré Bleue.
Madame Tussauds threw open their new waxworks on the Unter den Linden, Berlin to reporters ,but not to the public , today. Judging by the Der Speigel photographs, the realism of the figures is several times better than those in London.
Madame Tussauds (first seen in England in 1802) is now part of the Poole (mysterious place) based Merlin Entertainments who are majority owned by the Blackstone Group which was founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman , when the management company was IPO's last year the Chinese Government (AKA The China Development Bank, ) took 9.9% of the offering at a value of some US$7.8Bn (nominal share value US$29-31) which Tony Lueng out of Hong Kong oversees. (Shares closed at US$17.23 today so the Chinese are left nursing a bruising loss ... but not as much as the US$2.2 BN they put into Barclays at the same time.
