"It depends...." (on how long the cover-up holds)
Tony Blair (in NOTW): But it was important to get to the facts and see what people had been trying to do. I make no excuses for what happened, it was wrong and shouldn't have happened. The reason the problem was uncovered was because people started to make changes.
How very interesting...
The interview also contains a move from "total support" to "it depends"...
AP - Blair Won't Rule Out Nixing Clarke Support: Blair told the News of the World he believed Clarke should stay in his job to fix his department's problems but would not rule out changing his mind if one of those released was found to have committed a serious crime, the newspaper said. "I don't think I'm going to speculate," it quoted the prime minister as saying. "It depends on what happens, what the reasons are." Blair's office did not dispute the accuracy of the quotation but said it did not represent "the spirit of what he said." The prime minister fully supports Clarke and wants to keep him in his job, according to his office.
Well, let's see how long that lasts when yet more evidence comes to light showing that Clarke was primarily concerned about keeping his job rather than, say, dealing with the actual problem...
Independent - Home Office cover-up: The pressure on Charles Clarke to resign intensified last night following allegations that he tried to cover up the true scale of the threat posed by foreign prisoners wrongly released on to Britain's streets. The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that the Home Secretary withheld detailed information about the serious crimes committed by 79 convicted criminals who should have been deported following their release from British jails... With claims that public safety could have been jeopardised by the refusal to name the men being hunted, the IoS can reveal that a list of offenders passed by Mr Clarke to the Association of Chief Police Officers includes four kidnappers, two murderers, eight rapists, 13 sex offenders, two killers convicted of manslaughter and 50 violent offenders. Although Mr Clarke admitted on Friday that 13 of the "most serious offenders" had convictions for murder, manslaughter and child sex offences, he withheld the other crimes committed by the released foreigners. Five of the 79 have re-offended and two more are under investigation for alleged sex offences, one of whom was released after Mr Clarke was told about the scandal... With Tony Blair's government braced for further disclosures today about ministerial behaviour, David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said yesterday that at "every stage" the Government had battled to keep the true facts of the prisoner release crisis concealed. "The public can no longer have confidence in a Home Secretary who covers up the facts and particularly the facts of his own failure ... We have had to drag the numbers out of them." Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, added: "They are salami-slicing into the statistics. It's difficult for me to work out where cock-up ends and cover-up begins."
How very interesting...
The interview also contains a move from "total support" to "it depends"...
AP - Blair Won't Rule Out Nixing Clarke Support: Blair told the News of the World he believed Clarke should stay in his job to fix his department's problems but would not rule out changing his mind if one of those released was found to have committed a serious crime, the newspaper said. "I don't think I'm going to speculate," it quoted the prime minister as saying. "It depends on what happens, what the reasons are." Blair's office did not dispute the accuracy of the quotation but said it did not represent "the spirit of what he said." The prime minister fully supports Clarke and wants to keep him in his job, according to his office.
Well, let's see how long that lasts when yet more evidence comes to light showing that Clarke was primarily concerned about keeping his job rather than, say, dealing with the actual problem...
Independent - Home Office cover-up: The pressure on Charles Clarke to resign intensified last night following allegations that he tried to cover up the true scale of the threat posed by foreign prisoners wrongly released on to Britain's streets. The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that the Home Secretary withheld detailed information about the serious crimes committed by 79 convicted criminals who should have been deported following their release from British jails... With claims that public safety could have been jeopardised by the refusal to name the men being hunted, the IoS can reveal that a list of offenders passed by Mr Clarke to the Association of Chief Police Officers includes four kidnappers, two murderers, eight rapists, 13 sex offenders, two killers convicted of manslaughter and 50 violent offenders. Although Mr Clarke admitted on Friday that 13 of the "most serious offenders" had convictions for murder, manslaughter and child sex offences, he withheld the other crimes committed by the released foreigners. Five of the 79 have re-offended and two more are under investigation for alleged sex offences, one of whom was released after Mr Clarke was told about the scandal... With Tony Blair's government braced for further disclosures today about ministerial behaviour, David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said yesterday that at "every stage" the Government had battled to keep the true facts of the prisoner release crisis concealed. "The public can no longer have confidence in a Home Secretary who covers up the facts and particularly the facts of his own failure ... We have had to drag the numbers out of them." Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, added: "They are salami-slicing into the statistics. It's difficult for me to work out where cock-up ends and cover-up begins."
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