It's not for no reason he is known in some circles as Peter Vain

The vanity of Peter Hain is well known. A man barely able to pass a mirror without taking a second glance at himself, never afraid to chase a headline, gets some column inches or turn up for the opening of an envelope, he is everything that gives politicians a bad name.

Take the brazen way he used the Young Liberals to get himself well known before jumping ship to Labour, a classic sign of a man without political principles, obsessed only with power and himself. This has been my own personal opinion for some years, based on what people in the Westminster bubble tell me and from what us written and said about him. Some might have accused me of showing political bias, but surely Peter Hain's statement today shows that he is a man of very few principles.

It appears Peter Hain thinks forgetting to declare £100,000 is just an oversight. Let's get it in to perspective, we are talking about £100,000, not a few hundred quid. I wonder if Hain had been made Chancellor, a job he had eyed in the past, if he would have allowed the Treasury to view people who fail to disclose £100,000 of income as "an oversight".

As it is, it shows almost comedic levels of incompetence from a Minister who has responsibility for two government departments. Gordon Brown is stuck between a rock and a hard place because if Hain goes, so should Harman and probably Wendy Alexander in Scotland because they too have had problems with donations in recent months. But if they stay, he is left saddled with useless ministers who refuse to face up to when they have broken the rules.

I said it because I wanted votes. I never expected to actually win and have to act on it !

I may be putting words in to Harriett Harman's mouth, but it appears that after agreeing with Jon Cruddas at hustings for the Labour Deputy Leadership, when he suggested that an apology was needed for Iraq, she is now trying to deny that was what she meant.

Isn't it a classic case of never expecting to win or is it simply a fact that you can't trust anyone in the Labour leadership these days ?

Why we need the BBC - Thanks to Sky News for pointing it out

MP's, bloggers, politicians, journalists, The Daily Mail and anyone with the slightest hint of paranoia about them has it it for the BBC these days. The Corporation's wish to have a 24 hour news service to rival that of CNN and Sky has often been ridiculed by these people who claim that there is no need for a state run news channel when we have alternative media groups who will do the job.

However, Sky news today showed us exactly why we need the BBC.

In what was a clear attempt to embarrass the BBC and show how useless they were, Sky news went with the exclusive story that Alan Johnston had won the race to be deputy leader of the Labour Party. They went with this story for the best part of an hour in what appeared at the time to be an amazing scoop over the BBC.

What transpired though was that Alan Johnston didn't win. Instead, he was beaten by the rather hopeless figure of Harriett Harman.

So well done and thanks Sky News. We know you want to show the BBC up and that in order to win over advertisers you have to show viewers that you offer something the BBC don't. And you certainly did that today.

You show us all that you report gossip, rumour and lies, not facts. I guess with Sky being part of Rupert Murdoch's empire, we shouldn't be surprised.

At least we know that nobody likes Peter Hain

Whilst rumour, counter rumour and spin goes on over the attempt by Gordon Brown to get Lib Dem peers in to the cabinet, there is one thing all bloggers seem to agree on. That being that Peter Hain is obviously not top of the list to keep hi Northern Ireland job.
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When The Thunder Dragon, Dizzy and Labour Watch all agree that it puts a large question mark over the future of Labour Deputy Leadership outsider Peter Hain.

Perhaps it will give him more time to spend with his sunbed ?

It might have been more ironic had a Lib Dem took the job, perhaps David Laws, then the "Orange man" could have been replaced by an "Orange Booker"

Why should it comes as a surprise that Peter Hain is a user of people, lacks principles and now appears to lack friends

Peter Hain, it appears, is not actually that well liked. He may well be Minister of State for Wales, and Northern Ireland, but with a Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly in place, being Minister for Wales and Northern Ireland are hardly the most onerous jobs in the world and really is more of titles that a jobs of work.

This tells me much about Peter Hain already.

Next we have the fact that he has enemies, with John Reid being one of them. The press and other bloggers have made much of the fact that Peter Hain is now being shown up to be a hypocrite and a liar for disowning the Police Powers order that he so openly supported just a few months ago. His pledge also to tax the rich more highly seems completely at odds with what he has said in recent months and has also angered Gordon Brown.

It seems that Hain's vanity, his obsession with making himself look and sound good to the Labour Party Membership have shown him up to his colleagues as being a liar and a liability. the Telegraph makes the point well HERE.

The fact is that liberal minded people and those who are Liberal in the political sense, know all too well what a user and a hypocrite Peter Hain is. he came to Britain under extreme circumstances yes, fleeing the apartheid regime in South Africa. But he joined the Young Liberals and turned them, or at least tried to, in to an anti apartheid organisation. It is doubtful that he at any point shared any ideology with the Liberal Party, he just used them.

So what does Mr Hainto next ? Does he work for the Liberal Party ? Does he work for a Liberal Government ? No, at the best moment for him, he jumps ship to the Labour party. After all, its easier in the Labour Party. More money, more activists, less like hard work. And eventually, Peter Hain makes it in to government.

Personally, I think it is great that Peter Hain has finally been shown up for the hypocrite that he is. It is just a shame it has taken so long for Peter Hain's cabinet colleagues to see him for what he is.

Lib Dems highlight Ruth kelly's incompetence - What about Harriet Harman ?

Well done to the Lib Dems for highlighting in a thorough report the utter incompetence of Ruth Kelly in her 12 months as Communities Secretary. The only problem is, we knew it already.

The problem with going for Ruth Kelly is, to put it simply, that she is bloody useless, everyone knows it, voters, opposition MP's, even the Labour Party, yet somehow she keeps her job. Attacking her is going for an easy target.

The other thing that comes to mind is how similar a track record she has to Harriet Harman. Harriet Harman was, in Blair's first term, an extraordinarily useless Minister, presiding over debacles, cock-ups and failing services whilst always following the party line and hiding behind the spin generated from Number 10 (incidentally, this is the same spin she now denounces - hypocrite ?). It wasn't for nothing that Harriet Harman was also known as "Harriet Harmthem". Yet because Harman went away, hid in the back benches for some time people have forgotten how useless she was and now, she's a candidate for Labour Deputy Leader.

Perhaps Ruth Kelly should take a leaf out of Harman's book, perhaps she should also spend more time in her constituency. Looking at Ruth Kelly's majority, it seems she isn't long for the Commons anyway.

Alan Johnson is right - What charitable functions do private schools provide ?

It may be a case of him flexing his left wing credentials for the Labour Deputy leadership race, but Alan Johnson raises some good points when he argues that private schools should do more to justify their charitable status.

In some parts of the country private schools sits close to state schools who have limited games and PE facilities, yet in many case the state school are never allowed access to the private school's fields to use. This would in the first case be a simple way private schools could provide a service, but they could go further. Alan Johnson also suggest secondments, more twinning of schools and sharing staff expertise.

I'm not having a pop at private schools, but they see, to have inherited the title of "charity" whilst never seeming to have earned it. In the same way as hereditary peerages have gone, so should an hereditary right to charitable status, unless it has been earned.

More like April "Taking the Piss" Day

The Eastern Daily Press reported yesterday on their website that Dr Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, is urging Charles Clarke, Labour MP for Norwich South to stand for the Labour Leadership.

This would be funny were it not for the fact that it is well known, and I have heard this from Labour Councillors, Lib Dems, journalists and two Norfolk MP's that Ian Gibson and Charles Clarke cannot and do not get on at all. Indeed, mutual loathing might be a more appropriate description of their relationship, so I am led to believe.

Any news of this kind, assuming that it is not an April fool prank has to be seen therefore as Ian Gibson taking the piss out of Clarke in a big way.

They would say that, wouldn't they ?

A surprising statement from Deputy Leadership hopefuls Alan Johnston, Harriett Harman and Hilary Benn ? Apparently Gordon Brown, their would be boss and the man you wouldn't want to make an enemy of if he becomes Prime Minister, which looks likely, is not a Stalinist control freak after all.

They would say that, wouldn't they ?

Labour Deputy Leadership hopeful John Cruddas backs Lib Dem policy over Trident ?

Make your own mind up, but THIS looks remarkably like our party's policy.

Its best summed up as "Let's not rush things, let's make the right decision, let's have a mature debate".