Tittle-tattle

Horses for courses?

Labour MP Denis MacShane used the hospitality of The Observer extended by his old Oxford pal, editor Roger Alton, to proclaim the virtues of Nicolas Sarkozy and confide, a week before the second vote, that his success in the French presidential election was greatly desired in Downing Street. The prospect of a European constitution by the referendum-less back door was one of his reasons. Another was the prospect of a French foreign policy less critical of the United States under the wealthy French right-winger. No surprises there, of course, as MacShane’s career has been marked by strong pro- Ameri-canism. As a Foreign Office minister, he will be remembered for criticising Hugo Chavez in 2002 when US influence was at work in seeking to unseat the president of Venezuela. Where the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy is at work, MacShane is rarely far away (see Lobster 47). To complete the picture, we should also mention that MacShane is on the policy council of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) whose chair in the House of Lords is old MI6 hand Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale.

LFI

It proved to be a heavy security presence in Whitehall for an LFI event in April that caused the re-routing of a march to the Cenotaph of retired British service personnel seeking equity in pensions. Hundreds of veterans, some in wheelchairs, had assembled by the Ministry of Defence for their dignified lobbying of MPs, but a Lord Levy LFI fundraiser at the Banqueting Suite between the MoD and the Cenotaph was where the heavy police and Community Security Trust presence took precedence. LFI guest of honour was Gordon Brown. Seen scuttling up Whitehall to the party was MacShane’s fellow LFI policy council member Nick Brown, the still baby-faced former engineering union leader Lord Bill Jordan, and former Labour party chairman Lord Clarke of Hampstead. Eric Joyce MP, the former Army officer wheeled out to defend New Labour’s military interventions when ‘no minister is available’, serves on the MPs’ executive committee of LFI.

Mea culpas from some….

Chairing LFI these days is Jon Mendelsohn, the fund-raising lobbyist pal of Blair and Lord Levy, turned over by Greg Palast for influence-peddling way back at the start of New Labour’s reign. Mendelsohn’s old associate at lobbyists LLM, Neal Lawson, has now turned his hand to running Labour pressure group Compass whose slogan is ‘direction for the democratic left’. A recent Guardian column – like MacShane, Lawson enjoys the regular hospitality of Farringdon Road editorial space – was headlined ‘A decade of Blair has left the Labour party on its knees’. Lawson confesses: ‘I was a Blairite. Back in 1994, I believed he was serious about new politics, communities and Europe. More fool me.’

Similarly repentant noises come regularly now from Lawson’s former New Labour lobbyist pal Derek Draper, another target of muckraking journalist Palast in 1998. Draper – ‘stuffing my bank account at £250 an hour’ was his 1998 phrase recorded by Palast – was last seen in the Commons chairing a meeting of mental health charity Young Minds, protesting about the appalling psychological services available to children and young people 10 years into a Blair government.

…..but not others

No repentance though from Draper’s old lobbyist boss at Prima, Roger Liddle (see Lobster 36). The old SDP founder member, turned defence and Europe adviser to Blair in No 10, now sits in a top advisory position in the Brussels bureaucracy and on the board of Policy Network, the plaything of his old mate and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. Funding Policy Network is Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, and sitting alongside Liddle on the board are Third Way guru Lord Giddens, Lord Kinnock’s old kitchen cabinet pair, Patricia Hewitt and Charles Clarke, and the ubiquitous LFI chairman Jon Mendelsohn.

Liddle’s old SDP buddy Derek Scott was also able to make the transition to New Labour in time to land a job as economic adviser to Tony Blair for a few years at No 10 in 1997. What some might see as an application for a slot back there under Gordon Brown, Scott had his late April London Evening Standard article headlined: ‘Now Brown must let the rich get richer’.

D’ye ken John Browne?

Three days after Lord Browne stepped down as BP chief executive over revelations about his relationship with Jeff Chevalier, The Guardian published a ‘We stand by our friend John Browne’ letter signed by a assortment of powerful friends, including such wealthy New Labour backers (and the odd beneficiary) as Lord Ali, Lord Gavron, Lord Gould and his Random House wife Gail Rebuck and Lord Smith. Historian Peter Hennessy, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, writer William Shawcross and the Rothschilds were also signatories. Perhaps before giving their unqualified backing to Lord Browne they had failed to read all the High Court judgement of Mr Justice Eady in lifting the injunction on The Mail on Sunday earlier that week, permitting that paper to publish some of what Browne had successfully prevented appearing for many weeks. Here is an extract:

‘I am not prepared to make allowances for a “white lie” told to the court in circumstances such as these – especially by a man who prays in aid his reputation and distinction and refers to the various honours he has received under the present government, when asking the court to prefer his account of what took place.

‘It is ironic that the Claimant [Browne] should choose to tell this lie when he was maintaining that I should heavily discount the factual account of Mr Chevalier and also any evidence from him. A wholesale attack was being made on his credibility. It was said that he is a liar, unstable and adversely affected by dependence on alcohol and illegal drugs.’

In fact, said Mr Justice Eady, Mr Chevalier’s medical records, which he volunteered to the court, contained ‘virtually no support for the allegation of significant alcohol and drug dependence at the material time…It is thus clear that it is not only the Claimant’s willingness to tell a deliberate lie to the court, persisted in for about two weeks, that is relevant in assessing his own credibility and overall merits. So too is his willingness casually to “trash” the reputation of Mr Chevalier and to discredit him in the eyes of the court.’ In other words, Lord Browne had no compunction about smearing, under oath, the character of his former lover. This is not the first time other close associates of the Prime Minister have been caught at the same game. Margaret Hodge had to withdraw unfounded allegations about a victim of the Islington children’s homes abuse scandal when he went public with his experiences. Another former Islington councillor, James Purnell, was forced to withdraw unsubstantiated smears made against Liz Davies in a successful effort to prevent her standing for Parliament. Purnell is now a New Labour minister. The reputations of New Labour publicists are all of a piece with Browne’s tactics. His PR director at BP remains Anji Hunter, one of Blair’s oldest friends, for many years a key No 10 official and now spouse of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News political editor Adam Boulton.

The gong show

It will be interesting to see whether the departing Prime Minister finally arranges to drop by the White House to pick up the Medal of Freedom awarded him by President Bush several years ago. His loyal former defence secretary, Lord Robertson, collected his a while back (see Lobster 51), but apparently Blair was advised that his unpopularity over the Iraq War and other US sycophancy would only be increased by being seen having the gong pinned on his lapel while The Stars and Stripes played loudly in the background.