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Charles Clarke

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Not in the Face

10:38 / 03.05.06

Personally i think he should go because his response to the problem is now to make the existing laws harsher and less flexible rather than address the problems within the system - presumably non-Uk citizens who are under threat of deportation will still be allowed to argue that they shouldn't be deported, meaning a whole process of assessment and decision would be gone through in any case leading to people being released while the case was decided (and so the flaws in the system to track them could continue) or unfairly kept in prison.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:10 / 03.05.06

if one of those murderers kills someone, or the paedophile attacks a child then he should resign immediately and not 'allow' Tony to talk him down

How about killing a copper?

I know this is slightly different, as as far as I know the guy WAS considered for deportation and it was ruled against, but this news hasn't really come at the best of times for Charlie, has it?

sdv (non-human)

12:36 / 03.05.06

nina/all

No I don't think that Clarke can or should be removed on the basis of 'not doing his job' or on the basis that he is implementing standard neo-liberal policies. Where is the failure in the latter ? If he is removed because of these (non)-events do you imagine that the successor will not be even worse ? The former is merely a moral panic over migrants and refugees who commit criminal acts and who we already know cannot be so simply deported from the UK merely because they have been released from jail. That the panic is showing the underlying racism and classism of these two arms of the spectacle (state and media) is obvious enough.

The concept of deportation is justified by the neo-liberal state on the basis that there is a significant difference between citizens and non-citizens, but surely in these days of globalization and the EC, nobody can imagine that the act of deportation can be a legitimate action.

so then clarke should be neither sacked nor resign... both would be pointless..

14:02 / 03.05.06

I reckon all those people preparing to vote BNP tomorrow, whether because they are daft racists or because they want to make a protest vote against the Blair administration, might not agree. And all those who simply said they were going to vote BNP while in the pub but weren't planning to really now probably will.

Makes you wonder about the timing of this "revelation".

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:05 / 03.05.06

To argue that Clarke shouldn't be made to take responsibility for his actions because 'he'll just be replaced by someone else who's worse' is ridiculous. You're advocating a system when no-one has to take responsibility for anything. I could decide, as part of my job, to chop the tops off the heads of children and feast on the goo inside. Let's see how your argument placates their parents shall we?

(And my understanding of neo-liberalism is that's primarily an economic system. How are you using it in this case please?)

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:09 / 05.05.06

Clarke sacked in reshuffle, is bitter, turns down offer another job, goes back to backbenches.

Six awful words: the new Home Secretary is John Reid.

11:15 / 05.05.06

Who else did you expect?

sdv (non-human)

11:37 / 05.05.06

John Reid... (yuk)

Neo-liberalism is not primarily an economic system, but rather an ideology that is supported by an understanding of the society, the economic system. In this sense neo-liberalism is the child/descendent of the ideologies of liberalism and conservatism that are the main ideologies of western capitalism. To consider neo-liberalism as merely about the economic is to be unable to see that the neo-liberal counter-reformation (roughly 1979 onwards) was an ideological shift as much if not more than an economic change.

Blair's new labour is in the tradition of conservatism and liberalism, placing an emphasis on neo-liberal economics and neo-liberal social ideologies...

anyway that in brief is what I was referring to....

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:43 / 05.05.06

Prescott's been stripped of his briefs?

Oh, hang on...

Tryphena Absent

12:38 / 05.05.06

Six awful words: the new Home Secretary is John Reid.

Who else did you expect?

I've been telling Flyboy that Reid was going to be the next Home Secretary since the 24th April. Did he listen?!

Clearly not.

sdv (non-human)

17:38 / 05.05.06

and then there is the new foriegn minister... i really didn't know that Straw... did anyone imagine that he'd be sacked ?

19:06 / 05.05.06

Well Margaret Beckett's pretty much bound to be disaster. I mean a pig could do a better job, a hamster, anything. Really if this situation's allowed to continue, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the UK's international standing's in the toilet by Christmas

Our Lady Has Left the Building

20:09 / 05.05.06

Where is it at the moment then?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:40 / 05.05.06

Queuing uncomfortably on the landing, waiting for America to finish its really big poo.

22:34 / 05.05.06

Apologies if this has been done to death elsewhere (if so I messed it), but Ganesh's comment upthread was picked up by the Guardian print edition in its "what the web is saying" column last week. I thought that was rather impressive. Bravo Ganesh!

Wow. I didn't see this, and I'm faintly paranoid about being quoted. I don't s'pose I'm quoted anywhere linkable, am I?

22:51 / 05.05.06

I've been telling Flyboy that Reid was going to be the next Home Secretary since the 24th April. Did he listen?!

Clearly not.

Yeah, 'cause if Flyboy had only listened, he could've stopped it from happening. With faceknives. Or faceshootingness. Or something. Tchoh!

I share your irritation, but am semi-consoled by the fact that Reid appearing on The Today Show regularly as Home Secretary at least means I'm likely to get up in time for work, as I reflexively hurl myself across the room to gnaw the radio...

Tryphena Absent

15:04 / 07.05.06

Really I was just asking where the surprise was. There wasn't another person in the cabinet who could be appointed to be Home Secretary. None of the others who are senior enough to take on the position are capable of dealing with it except possibly Brown. Quite apart from the power issues surrounding that idea Gordon Brown doesn't really have the experience to be HS. Blair's run out of Home Secretaries. My comment wasn't based around the idea that it could have been stopped, it's based around the idea that Reid as Home Secretary was inevitable because Clarke had screwed up.

I think Blair's going to regret this decision despite it being the only really viable one. Reid's quite capable of going against the preferred line, it will be interesting to see what he does with the job, although probably interesting in an awful and appalling way.

20:58 / 07.05.06

Six awful words: the new Home Secretary is John Reid.

Seven - or the Sheeda will win.

05:00 / 18.05.06

Ohforgod'ssake.

And.

"Those people, in my view, should be deported irrespective of any claim that they have that the country to which they are going back may not be safe."

Isn't that, erm, kinda illegal under the Refugee Convention?

05:02 / 18.05.06

(Sorry - it's not, of course, our sadly departed Charles Clarke, but this seemed the best place for it as a continuation of the "What are these shady foreign criminals doing in our country?!!1!" theme...)

06:37 / 18.05.06

Just to expand on the above post:

Link 1 is Blair annoucing that they'll "cast aside previous government commitments not to send people to states where they could face inhumane treatment."

and Link #2 is Tony McNulty, an immigration minister saying that it will take 10 years to deport all the illegal immigrants.

18:20 / 19.05.06

Ganesh on being quoted in the Guardian:
> Wow. I didn't see this, and I'm faintly paranoid about being
> quoted. I don't s'pose I'm quoted anywhere linkable, am I?
Blimey. I'm surprised no-one else noticed and that it hasn't been utterly done to death - part of the Barbelith reticence I suppose. Page 2 of the Guardian has that section called "from the web" or something, and your quote was the lead one in that issue. It was, IIRC, an anonymous quote, merely credited to Barbelith.com. Sadly, I can find no trace on the web - anyone know if any site keeps PDFs of the papers? The Guardian's site isn't very helpful...

13:36 / 20.05.06

Link 1 is Blair annoucing that they'll "cast aside previous government commitments not to send people to states where they could face inhumane treatment."

Let's try and look on the bright side though - as a noted human rights lawyer, presumably Cherie is no longer at home to 'little Tony.'

Actually, it's not hard to picture him using that in parliamentary speech - 'My wife no longer has sex with me, and that's how much I believe in this legislation!'

I don't suppose he'll be going anywhere straight away, or that whatever replaces him is going to be any better, but still, Mr T's terrible public humiliation, and subsequent, bloody, hounding from office has got to be in the post now, surely?

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