Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

Lee unfortunately couldn’t do the animation for this week, so you’re left with only my nasal dulcet tones and the script for this week’s Politalks to guide you through the Diana inquest, Darfur, studentification and the BAE corruption ruling.
Listen to this week’s Politalks:

It was the paparazzi and the driver, in the tunnel, with high-speed and [...]

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I wasn’t going to write about the Serious Fraud Office / BAE Systems High Court judgment last week*, but then Jo posted the thoughts of her BAE-employed friend on the case. In summary, they say that bribery is okay with non-democratic countries because everyone else is doing it and it’s the only way to safeguard [...]

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On top of the disclosure that anti-corruption investigations are direct causes of terrorism, a case against the government seeking to overturn the Serious Fraud Office’s decision to drop an inquiry into bribes paid to the Saudis by BAE Systems has thrown up another interesting revelation. According to Lord Justice Moses, the documents presented by the [...]

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Derek Conway’s Nixon-like declaration that he “is not a crook” in today’s Mail on Sunday, would ring slightly more true were it not for the fact that he is under investigation by the police for giving his son £40,000 of taxpayers’ money for doing precisely bugger all. For those in any doubt, this is fraud, [...]

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About two weeks ago, during a particularly robust Today programme interview, Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, denied allegations that public servants at the Greater London Authority were forced asked to politically campaign on his behalf during office hours (he defended political campaigning outside of this time). Well, in today’s Times, comes this:
Documents passed to The [...]

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Listen to this article:

Donations to political parties have reared their ugly, corrupted head once again, this time involving the walnut-coated Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain and Piers Fletcher-Dervish impersonator and Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. Actually, calling political donations “ugly” isn’t quite right. If anything, donations are the diamond-encrusted face-lifted darling of the political [...]

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From Iran and the US to something just a bit more local: Hertsmere Borough Council, situated in the delightful commuter belt county of Hertfordshire. As one might expect, the council is run by the Conservative Party (28 seats), with the Liberal Democrats as the main opposition (7 seats), and Labour (4 seats) not too far [...]

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