So what is going on at Rover?

It seems a little strange that four years after the event,the Industry secretary announces that there will be an investigation into the collapse of Rover after all.

In a written statement to the House,it was announced that the Serious fraud office will examine the events of 2005 and the period when the four businessmen were allowed to buy the company from BMW for £10.

At the time of the deal an alternative was on the table from the Alchemy group who proposed a greatly slimmed down company which would concentrate on luxury car production.

The problem being that it would have resulted in huge job losses both directly at the plant and in the thousands that were indirectly employed.

Not surprisingly the government came out on the side of the so called "Phoenix four" who now accused of irregularities but who in a statement blame the while thing on the government wanting to cover up its own irregularities.

The surprise in all this is the amount of time that it has taken to announce the enquiry and that the administrators,Price WaterhouseCoopers cleared the four of any irregularities.

Also the government offered to support the group when it looked like administration was on the cards

Quangos may not be under attack after all

David Cameron assault on quangos may not be all it seems.

The BBC's Nick Robinson explains after he took a call from Central Office

They have called to say that Mr Cameron's speech was not, as I reported, called "Bonfire of the Quangos" but called instead "People Power - Reforming Quangos".
What's more they point to their leader saying: "it would be far too simplistic for me to stand here and announce some kind of 'Bonfire of the Quangos.' People have heard that kind of talk many times before, and seen little to show for it."

The wink that changed history

Michael Meyers writes a good piece in Slate today reflecting on events 20 years agp in Bucharest as the leaders of the Warsaw pact countries came together for what was to be a swansong meeting.

He writes that

This day, however, the hunted was one of their own: reformist Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth, whose determination to bring democracy and free markets to his country threatened them all. And so, in the interests of self-preservation, the satraps of the Warsaw Pact marshaled their forces. The goal: a classically Commie "fraternal intervention" of the sort the world had seen before—Hungary in 1956 and Prague in 1968. Only one man stood between them and their quarry. His name: Mikhail Gorbachev.

and it was a simple gesture

As Ceausescu and the others ranted on, calling for armed intervention in Hungary, Nemeth glanced across at the Soviet leader. Their eyes met, and Gorbachev … winked.

Within six months the Warsaw pact was effectively dead and Ceausescu was syanding in front of a firing squad

Monday's papers

Differing headlines in the papers this morning.

The Independent reports that

City accountancy firms are putting proposals to investment banks that would see high-earning bankers avoid the full impact of the new top rate of income tax on their bonuses.

According to the Telegraph,Police officers are spending an increasing amount of their time on paperwork, despite the Government's claim to have cut the burden of red tape,

The Times has learnt that health records could be transferred to Google or Microsoft under a Tory government.

Patients will be given the option of moving their medical notes to private companies after the Conservatives said that they would replace Labour’s “centrally determined and unresponsive national IT system”.

The Guardian reports that

Former Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal attempt to prevent the US courts from destroying crucial evidence that he says proves he was abused while being held at the detention camp,

Coffee may well stave off Alzheimers is the lead in the Express and finally the Mail continues its campaign to prevent the deportation of Gary Nckinnon as it reports that

The Home Secretary has been warned by his own adviser on terror laws not to allow the extradition of autistic computer hacker Gary McKinnon.

U turns define the Brown charactor and his government

Quite a stinging attack on the PM from Steve Richards in the Independent this morning who writes that

The U-turn is the most vivid and unflattering metaphor in British politics. Leaders are fearful of any association with the image, one that suggests they are weakly, pathetically turning back from their previously declared destination.

The fact that Gordon Brown has now performed several of which the Post Office is only the latest

cast an illuminating light on a government and the prime minister at its head. Brown's U-turns are particularly revealing and in my view explain why he totters precariously, slumped in the polls and the victim already of two attempted internal coups.

and

show that Brown has never acquired a clear voice of his own as Prime Minister and has failed to break away from his complicated past.

Friday's papers

The death of the highest ranking soldier since the Falklands conflict is the lead in both the Telegraph and the Times this morning.

Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, 40, the commanding officer of the Welsh Guards, died after his Viking armoured vehicle was blown up by a substantial roadside bomb that killed another British soldier and wounded six others.

says the Telegraph

The Times adds that

The colonel, who commanded the 1st Welsh Guards for less than a year, had been visiting troops engaged in an operation codenamed Panchai Palang (Panther’s Claw). He was described as a born leader destined for the top.

The Express reports that

By the end of next month the number of new cases of swine flu will be running at more than 100,000 a day and the Government admitted it is powerless to contain the spread of the bug.

The Independent leads with the words of Alsitair Darling whom the paper says has warned bankers to stop backsliding into their bad http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6812228409396013160old ways

the Chancellor declared in an interview with The Independent: "There are people who are too complacent in my view. They need to be brought back to earth."

The Mail reignites the case of Gary McKinnon asking Why are our MPs doing nothing to help Asperger's victim Gary?

He is described as

is a harmless computer nerd obsessed with proving the existence of 'little green men'.
Yet the U.S. authorities insist the British UFO fanatic is a 'cyber-terrorist' who hacked into top-secret Pentagon and NASA computers.

According to the Guardian

One of Britain's biggest online paedophile inquiries is to be challenged in the court of appeal amid allegations from campaigners that hundreds of men have been wrongly convicted in a mass miscarriage of justice.

Finally the Sun continues its headlines on Michael Jackson reporting that

MICHAEL Jackson's memorial service is set to be the Greatest Show On Earth... just as the superstar had predicted.
Up to a MILLION people are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles on Tuesday - with 750 million more watching on TV.

Some dramatic cuts

With the political world's attention focused now on public spending,this morning's Independent comes up with some solutions to the crisis for whichever party wins the next election.

Its team of writers came up with this list:

1.Aircraft-carrier project could sink without trace

2.Pensioners could be hit with means tests for allowances

3.Raise top up fees to £5000

4.Make cuts in health now before feast turns to famine

5.Derail the high speed rail link

6.Srap ID cards and look at ending jury trials

Thursday's papers

The Times leads with the story that

Passengers face years of overcrowded trains and dilapidated rolling stock as plans to expand and upgrade the network are cancelled or put on hold.
A series of big projects are in grave doubt after the collapse of the highest-earning franchise exposed a deepening hole in the rail budget.

A similar theme in the Guardian which reports that

A leaked industry memo seen by the Guardian warned of "looming spending cuts" on major transport projects after Department for Transport officials described the consequences of restoring order to public finances. There are now fears that major schemes could be delayed, reduced or scrapped in an expenditure freeze

Meanwhile the Telegraph looks at another consequence of spending cutbacks as it says that

Student grants and loans will be frozen next year, while tuition fees rise, sparking warnings of financial misery for thousands of undergraduates.

adding that

The announcement was described as a "kick in the teeth" for the record number of young people applying to university because of the dire state of the job market.

An utter lack of remorse last night condemned Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs to an almost certain death behind bars.

reports the Mail

Jack Straw ruled that - despite the Parole Board saying the frail 79-year-old was safe to be released - he must stay in jail.

The Sun continues to probe the leagcy of Miohael Jackson,as it reports that

MICHAEL Jackson's 500million-dollar will names Supremes singing legend Diana Ross as his children's potential guardian, it was revealed yesterday.
The will leaves his ex-wife Debbie Rowe - mother of two of the children

Finally the Independent reports that

Scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people.

John Prescott on the nationalisation of National Express

"Now all the staff are smiling"

It's Mandelson v Osborne time again

This should make for an interesting PMQ's.

Peter Mandelson has just released a statement about George Osborne's allegations yesterday

“There is a very unattractive pattern of behaviour that is starting to emerge with George Osborne, of innuendo in pursuit of a smear.
Yesterday George Osborne issued a very serious allegation that the Prime Minister had intervened to deny the opposition of information they were entitled to. This claim has been flatly denied by the Cabinet Secretary. I suggest George Osborne withdraws this deliberate untruth to avoid embarrassing his leader at Prime Minister’s Questions today”

via Paul Waugh

Are we returning to Yachtgate?

An uncertain elevation

There is much dismay over the possibilty that Michael Martin may be elevated to the Lords.

Dizzy sums it up well

Imagine, if you will, that an Executive board member of a FTSE 100 company was found to have been presiding over a massive accounting misdemeanor in the company, that meant most of the staff were constantly taking the Michael (no pun intended) and submitting dodgy claims for taxis, food, and other expenses from the company.
Imagine too that this Executive board member decided that given his position in the whole mess he should resign. Now imagine if he resigned and he was suddenly made a non-Executive director of the same company by the Managing Director. Meanwhile, in the lower ranks of the company the others caught up by a scandal were looking for new work and packing up their desks in disgrace.

A return to British Rail

I hope that the announcement this morning of the government's decision to take the East coast train line back under its control could herald the start of a gradual re nationalisation of the lines.

Labour's decision not to return the trains to the public sector was a big mistake when they came to power.

We now have a situation where companies have bid far too much for the current round of franchises,putting all their efforts in collecting revenue and starving the infrastructure of much needed investment.

National Express' decision to overbid for the lucrative East Coast line forced it to promise to pay £2b over eight years,a decision which has resulted in the resignation of its chief executive and facing a take over bid from First.

This is not the way to run our transport infrastructure