“Events, my dear boy, events”.
It was, of course, former PM Harold Macmillan who used this memorable phrase, but Gordon Brown seems to be being driven by events rather than driving events.
What an extraordinary week. 25 million records lost by HM Revenue & Customs, the Northern Wreck statement in the House, England crashing out of EURO 2008 (Brown did not attend this event after campaign by The Sun), yet another foot and mouth disease leak from Pirbright … Law Officers, the Crown Prosecution Service supremo, Lord Goldsmith, the current Attorney-General and Solicitor General coming out against an extension of detention without charge powers and … Admiral Boyce and several former Chiefs of Staff making a concerted attack on Brown’s unsypmathetic attitude to the armed forces in the Lords this afternoon.
The Times reported on this: ” I tell you, these men do not mess around. They not only know the SAS, they are the SAS. It was only modesty, and possibly because they were wearing smart suits, that prevented them from abseiling in”
Puppet Chancellor Darling will, no doubt, be looking forward to the weekend tabloids and broadsheets. The phrase systemic failure is being used more and more in the media. It has become a buzz word. Cameron and Osborne circle like buzzards. The Conservatives are nine points ahead in the polls – their highest poll rating since 1992.
Perhaps the HMRC CDs will turn up pasted to the front of one of the tabloid Sundays as a freebie this weekend? Or maybe it will be this CD?
As I continue to suffer from the delusion that this is a law blog… Victorian Maiden has comment on the Law Officers attitude to detention without charge.. and a wry comment about Lord Goldsmith’s statement that he would have resigned had Blair succeeded in getting a 90 day period through. ‘Vinegar Vera’?…
Former PM James Callghan used the phrase “Crisis? What crisis?”….
The Times is suggesting that Gordon Brown has nipped off to Uganda attend the Commonwealth conference to escape for a few days…
In the meantime…. I cannot drink Rioja until Sunday (Infra)… now… some may say… that is a crisis.
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Fellow blogger (and ever vigilant) John Bolch over at Family Lore has a useful link for those of you who have children and may be worried about identity fraud.
I was talking to my firm’s IT specialist yesterday, and he couldn’t believe that HMRC had put such data on CD at all, let alone put the CDs in the post.
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