If Smith wants to get on with the job, she’ll have to face the press first

Rhoda Klapp

It's a shame that it took a couple of porn movies to motivate most of the media on this one. The problem is that they are all crooks, who don't know right from wrong and who apply a different set of rules to themselves than say HMRC do to the rest of us. How do HoC rules override the tax man? If she (or any of the second home cheats) gets an income boost from their allowances, is it not taxable, no matter what the HoC rules say? Can I see their tax returns please.

True Blue

However, it would be better for the Conservatives if this appalling specimen remained as Home Secretary until the election next year. There's not much more damage she can do in that time having seriously eroded our civil liberties and drastically increased state power already. The Tories should hope that she is left in place, damaged , deluded and ridiculous.

Ken

"talk of a job swap between Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears"

...from pigsticking bad to blinking disaster.

Munificent joy!

Wherever dullard Smith goes she will be plagued by porn, just slither away quickly lady for the sake of your children.

C Powell

Rhoda raises an important issue. These are not expenses allowable under IR rules so are MPs paying tax on their allowances and, if not, why not and how? (I've asked this question in the past BTW and have never received an answer. Perhaps a journalist would like to do some real investigation for a change and find out.)

As for Smith, she is a disgrace to her office - and has been for some time. But given the appalling laws she introduces and/or defends when she is working (ID cards, 42-day detention, spying on everyone's emails/telephone calls/internet use - Oh the delicious irony of it all! - and all the other laws destroying our civil liberties) I'd much rather she remained in office, wounded and pretty much unable to do anything since what she does do is so destructive of our society. (Of course, better by far, would be for the whole stinking lot of them to be booted out at the earliest opportunity.)

jules

last week she was warning about a dirty bomb attack.

at the weekend she is attacked by dirty movies.

today they arrest 5 for a G20 explosives plot.

is this a convenient move to change the focus from her husband's explosions to others to take off the heat???

Wily Trout

I think this will go down a storm with English lavatory humour. Imagine the sound effects and gestures that are going to greet her everywhere.

Trafalgar

Part of the problem is that she is so bloody po-faced about the whole affair. Agreeing to pay back £7.98. I mean really!

Far better to have responded by saying that she has given him a clip round the ear, is donating a few hundred quid to charity, and has enlisted her husband in the London marathon to raise funds for a women's charity and that donations are welcome from Richard Desmond.

That would have taken the sting out of it. Where's Alistair Campbell when you need him?

Verity

I see that now a group of MPs, Labour, of course, are demanding that the police be called in to find who blew the whistle on Jaqui's husband.

So now exposing corruption is to be treated as a crime.

I trust whoever blew the whistle will be hounded down and send to a re-education camp - these days known as "diversity training".

Hereford

See this link for the full Dirty Bomb story:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/dirty-bombs-not-that-dirty%2c-claims-smith-200903301671/

jules

or was the expenses claim leaked by team brown to distract from the fact that he has backed down so spectacularly on his global new deal at the G20???

he can say she is resigning to spend time with the family so it is not a reflection on his judgement/his government but purely a "personal matter".

at the same time he gets rid of a political liability in the cabinet and allows for a reshuffle which would see darling moved and replaced with someone who will do what they are told by brown for the PBR.

or am i just being cynical??

Death or Tory

These rumours are a bit of light relief, no?...

James Purnell?, Hazel Blears? as Home Secretary?

Ha, ha, ha, ha....

TrevorsDen

Hazel Blears for Home Secretary !!?

Surely this would be a case of Brown saying stuff you to the British public?

But the point is that it is inconceivable that Smith can be cleared of her 'second home' scam.
This would throw the 'watchdog' into utter contempt.

Smith is barely competent to be an MP let alone a minister. She is shown to be a pygmy and it does not say much for Brown that he appointed her as Home Secretary. Oh and she was only selected through an all woman short list.

Tiberius

Shouldn't someone confront Brown that he's "doing nothing" over his lame Home Secretary?

mac

Sic transit gloria mundi. So, should we place her with RAB in that club of premiers-we-never-had, James?

A fanciful notion? Try this opinion, offered only last June by that clever BBC chap:

" . . . journalists such as the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, began to speculate that she could be Brown's successor."

(www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jacqui-smith-mrs-sensible- 842179.html)

Joanna Jay

No MP really needs a basic salary of more than £30,000 a year, plus the option - for those whose constituency is outside the M25 - of a bog-standard furnished flat in a subsidized inner-London high-rise...!!!

Assistants could be afforded from salary while the remaining £33,500 (current -per MP) would provide adequate party election funding...!!!

OH YES IT COULD...!!!

Liz Brown

more revolving chairs - the sub prime mentalist simply doesn't get it - an out of control Prime Minister in charge of an out of control Government

JONNY

Is that to be the same James Purnell as Home Secretary? I'm wondering.
The wee chappie who looks as if he's been sculpted out of Brylcreem.
Oh Goodee.

Hawkeye

Blears as Home Secretary?

I'm going to claim for the injury I received when I fell off my chair laughing at that one!

Madasafish

Well it's clealry on law for MPs and another one for the people who pay for MPs.

In any other walk of life, she would have been dismissed without pay for gross misconduct ( claiming for porn ).

Nicholas

"Getting on with the job" is a New Labour euphemism for "I've been found with my hand in the till but please move on to another story so the fuss about my corrupt New Labour ways can blow over". The BBC of course delight in repeating the phrase ad nauseum. And their other commie/Common Purpose allies (like Lyon) are equally quick to cover their arses.

With the watchdogs, including the Stasi ACPO, now integral components of the wholly corrupt (on so many levels) New Labour regime, who is going to rid us of these evil, lying, scheming charlatans? We need a Tyler, Kett or Walesa to lead a popular movement for the restoration of truth and justice in this country. I fear it ain't going to come from the other side of the Commons.

George Laird

Dear James

I like a good scandal as much as the next person, however Pornogate is a matter for personal laughter and ridicule.

There is no upside for Smith to face the press and do a Princess Diana type sob story.

If she says that there were two people in this marriage and a pay per view channel, the howls of laughter would be ringing in her ears.

Who is going to want to do such a tacky and seedy interview anyway?

The person would have two options, comedy or death by a thousand cuts.

Is she going to go on Jonathan Ross and pretend to be "one of the boys"?

Will questions be raised about "home entertainment".

As much as this is a great LBH story, it is just a titbit, pardon the pun.

Finally; Smith as Michael Portillo has previously stated on This Week is the worse Home Secretary in living memory; she should have been removed previously on that basis.

The woman is a fool.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

David Ossitt

A number of the comments above suggest that she should be left where she is; so as to do as much damage as possible to labour I agree.

But I would like to ask; why she hasn't dismissed her husband from his job, we know the answer to that question and she knows we know.

On paper he is being payed to be her (whatever title she has given him) but he is realy a house husband and WE pay him £40,000 so that she can swan around pretending to be our Home Secretary.

There will be a reckoning; let us hope that there is not too much blood shed.

drakes drum

Hazel Blears was a very popular Police Minister! She has a very good feel for what the people are thinking. She will be the next Labour leader!!

Do not underestimate the little Chipmunk...never forget she is loved by Iain Dale!!!

George Laird

Dear Drakes drum

Hazel Blears for leader of the Labour Party?

She more or less comes last in leadership election contests.

The only way that she could become leader is if everyone else who is suitable immediately died in a Battlestar Galactica type Nuclear explosion.

She is a nugget!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Verity

I agree that it will not come from the other side of the Commons, Nicholas. But it may come from the ghastly European Parliament in the person of Daniel Hannan or the forthright Nigel Farage.

jon dee

Anyone listening to Eddie Mair on BBC pm., could be forgiven for thinking they were being spun to by a government spokesman minimising the expenses problem.

Pro-Labour bias coupled with a soft uninterrupted inteview with a complacent Labour MP did not represent the current public mood.

Snide references to the tabloids are no defence for a disgraceful situation to which the BBC should add its disgust to that of its audience.

Susan Hill

It would be a good laugh were it not that the country is facing the biggest number of unemployed for decades, the PM and former Chancellor has borrowed us into bankruptcy, people`s pensions have been decimated and their savings rendered worthless, businesses are folding and people and companies going into receivership daily...oh, and Pakistan has or will shortly have nuclear bombs, our children are uneducated and our hospital wards ( with some honourable exceptions ) would disgrace most veterinary practices.
How long before not the usual rent-a-rabble but ordinary middle class tolerant law-abiding middle England takes to the streets ?

ken adams

They're all at it! Stealing from the tax payer, bonking their secretaries, watching porn at our expense. How can any UK politician whatever the brand, have any credidbility again. One step closer to a dictatorship and the end of our political system. if you dont believe this, read the history books!

Ken

What we know now is just the tip of a very big iceberg. they're all at it; stealing from the taxpayers purse - why have the police not made immediate arrests (or are they in the pockets of the politicians as well) - whatching porn movies as a legitimate goverment expense - bonking their secretaries. One step closer to the end of our political system and its replacement by a dictatorship. if you don't believe this, read the history books!

john miller

Ha! I'm going to give up commenting! Hazel Blears for Home Secretary! Her only qualification being that no one has yet found out whether she claims porn films on expenses.

Good job dear old Peter Cook is dead - he would have despaired of satire with this mob around.

peter

Dictatorships are not as bad as our politicians would scare you into believing. Ask anyone who has lived in Greece- People there are regreting the replacement of the last dictatorship with a goverment that is almost as stinking and corrupt as ours

bill

Why not scrap all second homes and have some travelodge type chalets inside the houses of parliament, comprising a desk, PC, secure phone, bathroom and of course a SINGLE bed! think how much this would save! it woul eliminate the need for expensive personal transport and police security

Fergus Pickering

I am sure the divine Hazel does not watch porn films. The very idea. And why should she NOT be PM. Where e'er she walks, cool gales shall fan the glade. The same could not be said of the present incumbent, nor his predecessor, both of whom leave a nasty smell. Rotten fish, I think it is.

George Laird

Dear Bill

Singles beds?

Surely that is a joke?

What next someone to tuck them in at night?

Sex patrols in the corridors?

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Alf Tupper

I am not a fan of the present Home Sec'.

My feelings on all this legal pilfering by MPs, is unprintable.

However, I would place all of our MPs above the disgusting baseness being displayed by the reporters I heard on the radio, accosting JS as she left her home this morning.

There is a way to bring news to the public, to call to account public figures, but surely this is not it?

TGF UKIP

There are several points here.

First of all, James, as this has grown and grown I would hope that it has taught all you Speccie hacks a lesson. Remember, You very sniffily deliberately chose not to cover the original Smith second home issue, you very deliberately chose not to cover McNulty, you very deliberately chose not to cover Griffiths and of course you wanted to go nowhere near Spelman lest it upset your beloved Dave. Politics in the media age at least, though I suspect in all other ages too, is about the personal and when the oh so highbrow Speccie chooses to ignore the personal stories it does nowt for its political credibility or authority.

Secondly, the concentration on the Smith porn movies is detracting from the bigger Smith story on expenses. Other items, included dining room table, antique fireplace, sofa bed not to mention the famous bathroom plug. In other words the cow was furnishing her main home at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. And how many other MPs including, no doubt, many Tories are doing precisely the same.

Thirdly, there has been no mention from the Speccie hacks so far of the role of The Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards, John Lyon. As the Screws (at newsofthe world.co.uk) revealed yesterday he cleared the lying rat Griffiths without even asking the Screws for any of its obviously voluminous evidence. Is any Coffee Houser in any serious doubt that he's going to clear Smith? We could have a Coffee House competition on this - who do Coffee Housers think is the biggest Labour patsy - Martin, Lyon or whichever crook is currently running Labour's Electoral-Fixing Commission.

Finally, to get proper and amusing coverage of all this (including how lefty of leftists MP for Leyton Harry Cohen is milking taxpayers by having nominated a caravan as his main home) Coffee Housers should, of course, visit Guido at order-order.com

Tim Carpenter LPUK

Jacqui Smith has form on avoiding the press. The original second home sec scandal saw her totally avoid speaking about it and the MSM to their shame just rolled over and let her get away with it.

Alf Tupper

'ARE unprintable'

Have I gone all red or is it a pigment of my imagination?

oldtimer

Others have noted that J Smith`s husband apologised to her - not to us, the poor bloody taxpayers who pay for all this. Typical!

The apology over the original "a good day to bury bad news" was for getting found out and exposed - not for the underlying offence itself. You have to listen carefully to this lot - they are very slippery customers.

Slumdog Millionaire won an Oscar. Coffee Housers need to come up with a commensurate award for Scumbag MPs. The Home Secretary should be in there with a good chance of success.

Verity

Alf Tupper - Ha ha!

MIchael Booth

Well it is pointless writing to the Home Office or home Secretary in person to complain cos nobody bothers to reply, even when you ask a direct question. Such is the contempt in which Joe Voting Public are held. We deserve better.