January 2010 Archives

It would be wrong to even begin to try and imagine what the families of the two children sadistically tortured in Yorkshire have been through during the last 18 months.

The attacks inflicted on a nine-year-old and a 11-year-old boy by two brothers, aged just 10 and 11, are said to be so horrific that it is impossible to report them in a way which wouldn't offend.

For the parents of the two victims of such torture and sexual humiliation, Friday's court verdict - indefinite custodial sentences for the brothers - is only the beginning. Somehow, the parents of the victims have to try and rebuild the shattered lives of their youngsters.

Some people just don't know when to shut up. Geoff Hoon is one such person.

Back on Wednesday, when he was busy plotting to bring down Gordon Brown, he was keen to stress that this wasn't personal against Gordon Brown, it was about getting everything in the open once and for all.

He insisted it wasn't about toppling Brown, but sorting out the rumours once and for all.

If that was the case, he'd have shut up after his pitiful interview on Newsnight on Wednesday when it had become clear that he simply didn't have any support.

Sadly, that isn't the case, which is why he is out in tomorrow's papers revealing that Gordon Brown vetoed the call for more military equipment in Afghanistan while chancellor.

Whether this is true or not will emerge in the next week or so, I suspect. But given this is coming from the man who had convinced himself there were lots of MPs ready to rebel against Brown, I think we are entitled to treat what he is saying with some doubt.

If it is true, then Brown has some real questions to answer. But so does Hoon. As defence secretary, his main responsibility is to make sure troops are well equipped. If he can't get the money he needs, he's failing to do his job to convince the chancellor, and therefore failing to do his job.

But it's odd that it didn't bother Hoon so much at the time that he felt the need to go public about it, is it? Just as much as George Osborne is playing politics with soldiers, so it appears, is Geoff Hoon. But the difference between Osborne and Hoon is that Osborne has never been in a position to help troops. Hoon has - and he failed. Only now, when it suits his political motives, does he see fit to accuse Brown of not helping troops. It'd be shameful, if the man had the ability to feel shame.

One of the strangest pictures of the week I saw was the one in the Daily Telegraph which showed George Osborne eating in an Army mess in Afghanistan.

With him was William Hague. I can understand why Hague was there. He is, after all, the foreign secretary in waiting. But Osborne, presumably the chancellor in a Tory government? When was the last time the current chancellor, Alistair Darling, went out to spend time with our troops?

The line from Osborne's people is that the shadow chancellor wanted to see what life was really like on the front line to help determine spending policies on defence.

Now safely back in Britain - how David Cameron must be relieved that his weak link is back at his side - Osborne has promised that the children of every dead soldier will get university bursaries, a move which will cost £1.5million a year.

In other words, peanuts in the great scheme of things. That doesn't make it the wrong thing to do, but at a time when there's a hole of around £30bn in the Tories spending plans, it seems a little odd that Osborne is finding time to announce such small figures.

There is, of course, only one reason for Osborne's pledge to introduce these bursaries on the first day of a Tory government. And only one reason he felt the need to accompany Hague out to Afghanistan.

Yes, the general election campaign. Given the snow, and given Hoon and Hewitt's laughable coup attempt, it's no wonder Cameron's election war footing had been forgotten.

And it's important that defence spending is a key issue. But there's a difference between promising to support our troops and using them as a photo opportunity, and, indeed, conjuring up cheap policies on the back of fatalities in war.

Osborne is an important man. He needed protection and security. His visit will have been a distraction and a commitment our stretched troops didn't need. All for the sake of a photo opportunity.

If he really wants to be the man who cares for our troops, he needs to stop using them to show the Tory softer side, and start working out, in public, how he'll ensure they have the best equipment and be able to get on with their job without political distractions.

It didn't need a trip to the badlands of Afghanistan to find out what troops felt they wanted - there are tens of thousands of troops back home who'd happily have told him. But that's not as a good a photo opportunity is it? And certainly not a photo opportunity you can guarantee just for your favourite newspaper, the Daily Telegraph?

George, get on with your job and let our troops get on with theirs.

JANUARY 6, 2009: A date which might go down in political history for one of two reasons. Hindsight in June may tell it is was the day that Gordon Brown's - and Labour's - fragile fightback against David Cameron was scuppered from within.

Or maybe we'll look back at today in years to come and cite it as the date the world's most pathetic and shallow political coup was staged.

One thing is for sure. Today was the day we saw the true colours of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt. Two failed ministers, smarting at the sidelines of politics, seem by their actions to be telling us that if they can't run Labour, then Labour shouldn't be in Government.

Their credibility couldn't have been more damaged if they'd decided to hold hands and march across the floor to join the opposition parties.

This pair aren't thick. Their actions today - reminding the public of the division in Labour just at the time when Cameron seemed to be cracking and Brown was hitting form - appear to be the actions of stupid people, but they aren't. They knew what they were doing. But they clearly think the rest of us are stupid.

So David Cameron is the man to save the NHS. After announcing a new announcement a day, every day, until the general election, Cameron started off on the NHS.

Usual stuff fell from his mouth. Less central control, fewer targets, more power to the people.

But Cameron also seems to contradict himself. He promises to reward those parts of the NHS in poor areas which improve the most, but says he'll do away with targets. But those in the NHS say that it's not the targets which cause the problems, but the management of the statistics and data which need to be collected to compare with the national targets.