My Word is Gospel

Peter Hain 2006:

He said that there was "no way" Labour would introduce proportional representation (PR) in local elections.

Rhodri Morgan 2008:

“The only way in which this is going to happen is through proportional representation – a form of election which would, undoubtedly, improve our representation in counties such as Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Ynys Môn and Gwynedd,”

Peter Hain March 2007:

Asked by Plaid's Adam Price to clarify his position on a Labour-Plaid coalition, Mr Hain said: "I'm ruling it out.

Peter Hain 17th May 2007:

Asked by BBC Radio Wales whether his party could do a deal with Plaid or the Conservatives, Mr Hain replied "certainly not".

BBC July 2007:

Labour has voted by a big margin to back an historic coalition with Plaid Cymru in the Welsh assembly.

Adam Price 2007:

He (Hain) quite regularly takes a different view to those who actually make the decisions

Poll Ponderings

Next up is a new poll data for us to pore through. The Assembly Commission's huge poll asked people, once again, about their views on the Welsh Assembly, a Parliament and independence.

Andrew R T Davies will take a small fall from his high horse with the news that support for independence doubles in the under 24's, but much more interesting is the party by party data, but any pleasure Plaid will get from that would be cancelled out by the fact that the poll states that only 27% of their own voters want independence.

Peter Hain told us just last week that:

“Welsh Labour members – and even more Welsh Labour voters – are currently overwhelmingly against an early referendum, and I do not see that changing for some years to come.”

Some asked at the time where he got that piece of information from and it seems even more codswallop than before today as the poll discovers that only a third of Labour voters would vote No. 50% of Labour voters want a Parliament or independence. As I said last week, Peter Hain is nowhere near the wavelength that his party's members are on.

The most bizarre finding though is that 2% of Plaid voters want to scrap devolution all together. Do they know who they're voting for?!

Note: The call for a Yes campaign increased today with the launch of an online cross-party group calling for a referendum, see here. Not being a Facebookian myself I can't join but I hope you do!

Can Never Change His Spots

I didn't see the Politics Show today, but apparently Peter Hain appeared on the show and stated that he would argue against a referendum in Wales before 2011, even though the Welsh branch of his party had voted for one. His reasoning was that there was division in Labour about the subject and that without the support of the whole of Labour the referendum would be lost. In other words, instead of trying to convince his colleagues that a successful referendum would be good for Wales, instead of setting out to prove his colleagues wrong, Peter Hain wants to do exactly what he did in drafting the Government of Wales Act 2006 and put the unity of the Labour party before the good of Wales. I can't say I'm surprised, I just hope that Labour's Assembly group ignore the busted flush member for Neath.

The Double Century post!

Crackpot Coup

I guess there's no choice but to comment on this story today. According to the Mule senior Labour figures are getting very concerned about the lack of quality candidates for Rhodri's job once he retires. According to one such source:

They all have fundamental weaknesses and would probably not be considered for major promotion if they were members of the UK Parliament.

So what do these unnamed mystery but oh so important figure want to do about it. Apparently their plan is to either give Neath AM Gwenda Thomas a peerage to vacate her seat or convince ill Clwyd South AM Karen Sinclair to retire. They would then parachute in disgraced ex-Secretary of State Peter Hain or MEP Eluned Morgan to those seats so that they can take control of the party.

Hmm...Hands up who thinks this is a cunning plan of Baldrick proportions?

Firstly there's no guarantee that Neath nor Clwyd South would be retained in a by-election. In both seats Labour's majority is less than 2,000 with Plaid Cymru knocking on Neath's door and the Tories on Clwyd South's. While you could argue that having Peter Hain as a candidate would boost their majority (he has 12,000 majority for the parliamentary seat) he would struggle being in the limelight of a by-election so soon after his resignation from the Cabinet. As the Mule's source rightly points out:

In the case of Neath the national press and bloggers would have a field day with Peter Hain.

You bet we would!

Secondly it seems that these so -called "senior sources" assume that if Peter Hain or Eluned Morgan entered the Assembly Labour's AM's would warmly accept them as new leaders. How naive an assumption is that? Do they not see that inserting a "London man/woman" because of an apparent "fundamental weakness" in the current AM's would piss off those AM's enough that they chose their own leader anyway? Do these people not remember Alun Michael's fate? (I'm sure they do, wouldn't be surprised if the ex-First Minister himself was one of the people thinking these thoughts)

Let's be honest though, this is a far-fetched plan probably thought up by one or two deluded fools over in London. It will never happen and the Mule knows that. Why do they even bother printing this stuff?

The Final Curtain

So one last look at Peter Hain then, before we finally get to move on and start finding reasons for Murphy to quit!

The "tributes" to Hain keep on flooding in. Politicians are reserved, with the word Honourable mentioned 10 billion times by every Labour politician (Honourable would have been resigning once he realised his cock up, hanging on until the cops are called is far from honourable). The blogland is a little less diplomatic...

1. You should have done the 'honourable' thing right from the start you self-serving tangerine TWAT.

2. If there is one person I would cheerfully not lift a finger to help under any circumstances, it is Peter Hain

3. So farewell Peter Hain. Today British politics is a little cleaner without him

4. Let’s be fair, the bloke is a bit of a twat, a non-entity that has never really done anything of note.

Yes, this is the internet and you can find quotes saying absolutely anything if you look hard enough (Elvis is alive!), but I still think that my earlier analysis was right - the biggest reason for Hain's sudden career collapse has quite a lot to do with the fact that, whatever kind of person he is personally, is simply not liked by anyone watching him.

The general feeling down the pub today was the same, i.e. thank god the sell out prat is gone

What's in a Date?

Tomorrow is Santes Dwynwen Day, the Welsh "version" of St Valentine. it is a happy day, at least for those in a relationship - hardly happy for the Hen Ferchetan.

That makes today Santes Dwynwen Eve. January 24th. It lands slap bang in the middle of what so called scientist label the "saddest week of the year".

This is especially true if you happen to be a Cabinet Minister. Peter Hain, Peter Mandelson and Leon Brittan. Three high flying ministers, three resignations, one date, 24th January (2008, 2001, 1986).

Come next Santes Dwynwen Eve, the One Wales government should better hope there's no scandals lying about!

Update: (Add to that list Mr Prodi as well!)

Defence Rests

The Counsel for the Defence stays faithful to the last...

I believe this is the result of a nasty, vindictive witch-hunt against a decent, honourable politician. I believe this has been gone over in great detail, and there's not a speck of sleaze found in the affair.

What he's guilty of is being dilatory in making what are perfectly legal contributions.

And of course Clause 12, Schedule 7 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 - but what's a crime between friends eh?!

Goodbye Mr H.

Peter Hain hs resigned his Cabinet jobs following the Electoral Commission's announcement that they were referring his "indiscretions" to the Police.

Gordie has accepted the resignation, saying that he understood Hain's desire to clear his name.

Game Over Mr Permatan. Now let's get on with proper politics.

Ringing Endorsment

A wonderful post by Dylan Jones-Evans today where he thanks Hain for quoting him in his own defence....

"She should applaud the statement that, 'the business sector in Wales seems to be going from strength to strength.' It was made by Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, the director of the national entrepreneurship observatory for Wales and Conservative candidate for Clwyd West in last year’s Assembly elections"

As the ex-candidate for Aberconwy points out, he never stood in Clwyd West! The best part though, is how Hain conviniently left out the rest of the article containing that quote:

"We have seen economic statistics which have yet again cemented our position at the bottom of the prosperity league table. Only two weeks ago, we found out that Wales now has its lowest ever prosperity level, at 77% of the UK average.“This dire economic statistic is compounded by the fact that we have the lowest mean gross weekly earnings for full-time adults in the UK and that the gap with the UK is growing"

Hardly ringing endorsment of Mr Permatan is it?!

Money Thoughts

Two questions regarding the whole Peter Hain mess,

Firstly, what happened to this story. Surely if it's true that two people who's money was given to Hain by the no thinking and tankless thinktank did not know about it until Hain reported to the Electoral Commission months later then that should be as big a disgrace as all of the other things he's done (or, more to the point, not done) .

The fact that both men later said they didn't mind the money going to Mr Permatan changes nothing, it was way too late, you're supposed to ask someone before you take their money.

Anyway, I suspect that I must be missing something here, has this BBC story been discredited since it was published? Have the two men said that actually, they were informed? Please let me know!

The second point is just something that's been bothering me regarding the whole donations saga we've had for the past 3months or so:

Hain's Deputy Leader Campaign Expenditure : £200,000

Welsh labour Assembly Campaign Expenditure: £254,447

How the hell is an internal party election worth nearly as much as the National Assembly elections?

What's Feeding the Media?

I thought it may be time to have a look at the media's contribution to Mr Permatan's continued vulnerability for the chop.

I have no doubt that Peter Hain should have resigned days ago. If the Labour government has done one thing to make my blood boil it is their recent (i.e. last 5 years) complete removal of the idea of ministerial and the acceptance that a minister (or Prime Minister) is justified in doing everything he can to hold on to office. Who remembers the days of Ron Davies, where the resignation letter was handed in before the media even knew there was a story!

Peter Hain is the latest minister to participate in this straw-clutching desperation, but what is quite surprising is the way the media have decided not to let him get away with it. While Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander managed to clutch the straw just long enough for the media to lose interest, this time they just won't let go of Mr Permatan. Hain is now on his 11th day of bad headlines, and there is no doubt that they will continue for some time to come. The question has to be asked, why?

Some have said that Gordie's washing of hands is to blame. Gordon Brown, while declaring full support for Hain, has said that his fate is the hands of the different enquiries. A pretty bizarre stance for the Prime Minister to say, but there we go, it gave the media a big sniff of a scalp. The argument is that it is due to the Prime Minister failing to give his 100% backing that Hain continues to be in trouble. This argument doesn't quite hold water when you remember the headlines when Harman was in trouble. Brown didn't give her his unequivocal backing either, saying that the donations to her could not be justified in any way.

So what other explanation can there be, because remember, Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander had both broken the law as well, Hain is not unique in the criminality of his (in)actions. I see two plausible explanations.

The first reason is that the media is being fed by admissions from Labourites that Hain's time is up. Some MP's are public about it, many are not. The reason for this is that there was a wide assumption before this scandal erupted that Hain was for the chop soon anyway. The consent seemed to have been that in the next Cabinet reshuffle, expected in the first quarter of the year, Hain would find himself either out of a job or seriously demoted (I assume that in the London media view, seriously demoted would mean "just" being the Welsh Secretary).

This puts Peter Hain in a very different position to Harman and Alexander. Unlike those two, Hain is expendable to Labour. Harman is the recently elected party deputy, Alexander is the recently elected leader in Scotland. Both replaced unpopular predecessors. If they resigned in shame, it would have thrown the party into turmoil. You will remember the feeling at the time that Labour was falling apart at the cracks. Hain's resignation would not leave the same hole, and Labour MP's know this. After all the turmoil and scandal both sides of the New Year, there must be a feeling within Labour that giving the media a scalp would put a line under the whole business and allow Brown to re-start his Premiership.

So yes, the media are being fed a bit more than with Harman, but that can't be the sole reason for their persistence. The other reason seems to be the simple fact that Hain is just not that likable. While many in Wales would have stronger words about him, both good and bad, on an UK level Hain, while not totally dis-liked, is certainly not liked. The numerous jokes about his Permatan shows that there has always been a feeling that Hain is, for some reason, not that popular. The reason most often given is his arrogance and aloofness.

.

An often-used example of this is his speech to the Welsh politician awards late last year when colleagues and media alike were disgusted by his attitude. But some of the jokes he said at that ceremony were both funny and often used in political circles anyway. I for one have used "Ieuan-Air" many times to describe the North-South Air link. Hain's problem was not his choice of jokes, but his choice of venue. The awards was a cross party event with political differences put aside for the night. Hain did not conform to this, and preferred to be very party political. And for me, that's the worst thing about Hain. He puts himself and Labour first, Wales second. He, like Brynle did the other day, prefers political point scoring to actually helping people. That's a political "quality" that goes down very poorly with both the media and the public.

And that seems to be Hain's downfall. his inevitable resignation/sacking/demotion, it is as much the fault of his £100,000 "memory lapse" as it is Labour's apparent acceptance to offer him as a sacrifice and the general feeling that Hain just isn't that nice a politician.

Update: Want an example of the arrogance that Hain is often accused of, here's a Hain quote from yesterday:

"I have a record in government second to none"

Move over Lloyd George, Churchill and Aneurin Bevan, King Peter is here!

Ok, I Failed

An interesting rumour doing the rounds concerning Rhodri Morgan: While happy enough to give his undying support to Mr Permatan in Welsh for the BBC, he apparently steadfastly refused to do the same in English. Is this a sign of the First Minister's new attitude towards the Welsh language following his tour of Welsh Wales? Or has the First Minister just realised along with everyone else that no-one watches Newyddion so he can say what he likes, while having to watch his step when talking to the English language media?

(Yes, i failed to refrain from talking about Hain for the day!)

Representing the Defence...

Paul Flynn MP, the man I'd usually describe as the sane wing of Welsh Labour, has rushed to the Welsh Secretary's defence. In the usual manner of those with little to back them up, he's decided to throw mud at all the other parties instead of actually giving reasons why Mr Permatan should stay. He brings up Welsh Labour's favorite subject, the adverts of the Plaid MP's along with the financial irregularity history of the other two parties.

The most intriguing part of this staunch defence though is this question:

Still no answer to my plea on what crime Peter has committed

On January 12th he took the same line, saying:

This time, Peter Hain will be found guilty of concentrating more on his jobs in Northern Ireland and Wales than on his personal affairs. He is also guilty of not keeping a firm check that others were doing their jobs properly. And that’s it.

And on January 11th

Please tell me who has been harmed, robbed, deceived, bribed, and corrupted by anything that Peter has done or not done? It is a hideous cock-up by others for which Peter must take the ultimate responsibility.

And on January 10th

I still do not know what dreadful crime he has committed

Well, since Mr Flynn is clearly too busy to check up himself, I'll save him the time. Let me introduce you to the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

Schedule 7 of this long-winded and direly boring Act deals with donations to individuals who are members of registered parties (e.g. Peter Hain) who engage in political activities such as
"promoting or procuring the election of any person to any position in, or to any committee of, the party" (e.g. internal election for Deputy leader) and any "controlled donations" they may receive to boost their political activities (e.g. £103,000).

The important part for Mr Flynn to read is clause 12 of the Schedule. To save him the time to go search himself, I'll quote it here:

(1) Where a report required to be delivered to the Commission under paragraph 10(1) or 11(1) is not delivered by the end of the period of 30 days mentioned in that provision...the regulated donee...is guilty of an offence.

So there you go Mr Flynn, the answer to all your questions. Whether Hain was careless, reckless, lazy, ignorant, incompetent or a sleazy corrupt liar it makes no difference, he has committed a crime - he is guilty of a criminal offence.
.
While I'm sure Mr Flynn will revert to his other tactic of late, the mud throwing at what he (hilariously) refers to as Plaid-gate or Osbourne's half a million, there is one (very) big difference. Both the Plaid MP's and George Osbourne asked for the advice of the Common's officers. Plaid were given permission to run the ads (although they should have known better even with that permission), Osbourne waited for advice on whether his money needed to be registered twice or just the once (which they had done).

Hain did not come out openly with this. The information was dragged out by the media, if it wasn't for Harriet and Wendy's indiscretions we would probably never have heard of this 100 grand. There's also the fact that neither Osbourne nor the plaid MP's committed a criminal offence, Hain did. And that's a BIG difference.

To end this piece on Mr Permatan, here's a wonderful quote from Peter Hain MP from 2005, when Plaid attacked him for having two Cabinet posts:

"If you look at what has been delivered over the last couple of years... nobody has been able to say any single duty or responsibility or procedure I haven't carried out,"

You know what Peter, I think we just found one!

More Pain for Hain

Hen Ferchetan has found damning evidence of further crimes committed by Mr Permatan himself. Even though his money mischiefs seem likely to end up as a police investigation, Hain is determined to build up the best (criminal) record he can. Here he is blatently ignoring the law on using a mobile while driving (fine, it's a bike, but who cares, still a funy photograph).

What happened? Did he try to copy Chamelion Dave in riding on his bike to work each day? Did he get lost? Who is he asking for directions?

What makes the photograph so great is that it is one of the most obvious set up of a photo I've ever seen. Are we really to believe that a photographer just happened to come across the Welsh Secretary working hard on his mobile, on a bike, in a forest, in a bloody suit!

The Guardian's leader is calling for Hain's head this morning while the Daily Express don't even come close to holding back . (Loving the Express' oh-so modest tagline "The World's Greatest Newspaper" - bollocks is it!). I did think Hain would survive until the investigations report back or Gordie has a reshuffle - now I'm not so sure. Betsan's odds of 11-8 on him going looks more and more attractive.


When the time comes for Hain to explain himself in front of the Electoral Commission, I'd suggest he takes this photo along as proof that he was working so hard he couldn't even go mountain biking in a suit without stopping to answer calls, let alone fill in a 7 page donations declaration form!

Permatan's Achievments

Back to my favorite subject of the Day, Mr Permatan himself. The clouds seem to be gathering darker and darker, so let's have a quick round up of his charge sheet:

1. Failed to disclose over a £100k worth of donations (more than half his total donations). Only did reveal them after the Labour donation scandals came to light.

2. To not even register donations he got from his own campaign manager, how do you forget that!

3. Took longer to find these 17 or so donations than it takes a top 100 company to make its annual accounts!

4. Took money from some obscure think tank that no-one has ever heard of, who don't have a website, who have never done any thinking or tanking and who were set up just in time for Hain's leadership bid.

5. To receive money from that think tank which came from people unaware that their money were going to Peter Hain.

6. To accept money from a man he knew to have once been in charge of a big drugs company which is currently being tried for a massive defrauding of the NHS to the tune of millions (the alleged fraud occurred on this guy's watch)

I still can't see Hain as a brazen criminal, but the level of incompetence there is pretty staggering. How does he still have a job?

Ha Ha Hain!

First of all, let's get the easy part out of the way. Peter Hain is now a criminal. I struggle to say those words without a bit of a giggle, but it's true. It may well have been an administrative error by his minions, it makes no difference. It's Hain's duty to register donations, and by not doing so he's broken the law.

Legal definitions aside though, is Hain a criminal or just totally incompetent? I'd suggest the latter. While I may be giving Hain the benefit of the doubt because he's a thoroughly likeable fellow who's charmed me into seeing him in a good light, but I suspect that my trust in his incompetence over criminality has more to do with the fact that I just can't see a single benefit for him in hiding them....well, apart from one.

One of his donors was the boss of Picture The Loans, he gave five grand. You all know Picture right, that annoying Geordie Mam screaming at her kids about some scooter and that fat prat's wife screaming out "ABOUT FOOTBALL" in that annoying high pitched voice! Now tell me, if you know a candidate was being supported by the person responsible for those nightmare-causing horrors of adverts would you vote for him? Of course not! Maybe Hain was saving his campaign by hiding the donations, if the world knew that Picture was behind him he'd have been embarrassed in the poll, coming behind people nobody had ever heard of before......oh wait a sec!

A quick look at Picture's website gives you a big smiling picture of Permatan, telling us how great Picture is - I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Picture called Hain.

"How much money do you want Peter?"

"Oh I didn't think about that, wait a sec"
(whisper to wife) "How much? £5,000?"
"Yeah, five grand will do please"

As a friend said the other day, there's a satire sketch in there somewhere, all it needs is someone to write it who, unlike me, actually can do humour! -

"Peter, Dad's found your donations!"

(a good footnote to all this, the scootah advert for picture is now banned due to it trying to portray getting a loan as an everyday event - big cheer for the ASA!)

Where does all this end? Hopefully in the resignation of Hain. While everyone commenting on his decline has to give the nod to his anti-apartheid times, that isn't the Hain of today. Today's Hain sells out to whatever cause he thinks gets him the vote. He also gives a big sop to his fellow Welsh MP's scared of losing their job to the expense of Wales. Hain isn't the voice of Wales in the cabinet, he's the voice of the cabinet in Wales.

That's why I want him sacked, doesn't quite explain why he should be sacked though. The answer to that is clear. The next time a guy gets brought to court for not declaring the fact that he had a job while claiming benefits, what's to stop him taking "the Hain Defence" and saying it was just an administrative error! Hain blames all this on concentrating too hard on his cabinet job. What a man eh! Cares so much for us, he doesn’t notice a £100k slipping down the back of the sofa!

Quick tip or you Peter, if you can't juggle more than one ball, don't join the circus.

Hain Who?

Where does someone start writing a blog? This is my first blog so the honest answer is I don't know. But I guess I should start with a bit of colour - how does orange suit you?

If you do not recognise Mr Permatan above, then I suggest you switch blogs, I doubt you'll find this one interesting enough - I hear there's an endless supply of blogs regarding the Rhydian vote controversy for you to pore over.

Yes, this is Peter Hain, the (unless already sacked/resigned) Secretary of State for Wales and chief of the Department of Works and Pensions. Not only does this guy run a whole country (or at least, thinks he runs a whole country) he also has control of the biggest budget around. Big job. Big responsibility - but not enough for Mr Permatan. He wanted a bigger job, he wanted to be Gordie Brown's second in command. Unfortunately for him, to get that job he had to have people vote for him. Needless to say, he didn't get it. In fact he came 5th, out of 6!

That should have been the end of this story. Mr Orange lives happily ever after, his burning ambition for power being fulfilled by cabinet roles of ever increasing responsibility. Unluckily for Hain, his Labour friends got stuck in some sticky waters regarding illegal donations.

Hain was a side story in the whole pre-Christmas fracas - his minor failure to register a £5,000 donation hardly registering when compared to Wendy Alexander and Harriet Harman. By now though, it seems that what Hain explains as administrative errors amounts to a bit more than £5,000 - the full sum was actually £103,156.75.

Seeing as how the amount he HAD legally registered was about £80,000, the extra £100k is a pretty big omission! What's more, two of the guys who were listed as donating to Hain didn't actually know they'd donated! They'd given their cash to some think tank (one that no-one knows about and mysteriously appeared just in time for Hain's campaign!) and had no idea it eventually went to Hain.

So, what the hell is going on?