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Good riddance you evil ****.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has resigned, which is probably a euphemism for “has been sacked”, over allegations that he used his power as Home Secretary to speed up visa applications of his mistress’ nanny and various other dubious things. (Sadly, he has not been sacked for his fairly successful attempts at abolishing the common law). David Carr will undoubtedly post a comment saying that things will be as bad or worse under a new Home Secretary / future Conservative Government / blah blah blah. He is probably right, but none the less, I salute the demise of this vile man.

51 comments to Good riddance you evil ****.

  • Exactly Michael.

    Shit, we might even see the bugger back in the government within a year a-la Mandelson/

    But, hey, it might only be an fleeting moment of joy before the grind continues but we should enjoy it none-the-less.

  • James Brown

    Well, my joy at the news was tempered by my nausea over his use of his “youngest son” and his tears on Sky.

    The man has no shame, no dignity left.

    I wonder if Kimberley could gain political asylum elsewhere for being chased by an ex Home Secretary?

    But thank F the guy’s gone.

  • Of course Blair will now sock it to the Tories by appointing an anti-ID card Home Secretary!

  • Things will be as bad or worse under a new Home Secretary / future Conservative Government / blah blah blah.

    I am probably right.

  • James

    Yes! Finally. I’ll be looking forward to how this affects the whole ID issue in the near term. Let’s hope it’ll be the Death Knell.

  • Richard Garner

    YES YES YES YES YES! I’m Gonna throw a party!!!!

  • Verity

    Needless to say, I join the general rejoicing that this nasty piece of work is gone, but look what Blair’s got replacing him. Another piece of rubbish.

    And on Blunkett, OK, people have affairs, but what kind of a man has unprotected sex with a married woman – for the entire duration of the affair? Something a little calculating there, to my mind …

  • I’ll see you all in the bar in ten minutes. David is right, things always get worse, which is why we should enjoy this news whilst we can.

  • Julian Taylor

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

    We got you, and your little dog too!

    (Everlasting thanks to Steven Pollard and Kimberly Quinn)

  • Verity

    Several people on Stephen Pollard’s blog have suggested he write a book on Blair next.

  • Susan

    Hopefully the Law to Exclude Islam From Criticism will go with Blunkett too.

    One can only dream.

  • Susan

    “Several people on Stephen Pollard’s blog have suggested he write a book on Blair next. ”

    From what ya’ll here have taught me about TB, I suspect that DB will be bought off with some cushy sinecure in Brussels.

  • Verity

    Susan, I don’t know. Mandelson was brought back into government twice after twice resigning in disgrace and was then bought off with the corrupt Brussels sinecure because he has known Blair for 30 years or so and knows where the bodies are buried. I don’t know how long Blunkett’s known him. He may be disposable.

  • Tim

    Oh come on! We were only ever going to tell him we had ID cards anyway.

  • GCooper

    Yes, add my name to the list. I let out a little cheer when I heard the news.

    David Carr is right, of course, but that’s no reason not to celebrate the demise of this insufferably arrogant bully.

  • Verity

    Exit snivelling. Warms the cockles of my heart.

  • ThePresentOccupier

    Ding, dong, the witch is dead. And good riddance to the evil shit.

    But will Clarke be any better?

  • This is great news and well worth celebrating. Blunkett’s arrogance and celebration of authoritarianism preceded his stint as Home Secretary. The previous occupant of the post, Jack “I’m not a Liberal” Straw, was already the most authoritarian Labour Home Secretary ever but Blunkett managed to put Straw in the shade. The key difference between him and his successor is that Blunkett had been quite clear prior to his appointment that he would take Straw’s new direction for Labour even further. The same can’t be said for Clarke

  • I couldn’t read this without adding my name to the general rejoicing. It’s the best news I’ve heard all day. I got the impression that the ID card was Blunkett’s baby (so to speak), so I’m optimistic that this will at least slow things down. Right, time to crack open a beer!

  • John K

    The sad thing is that the Conservatives now look like a complete bunch of cocks, having just jumped aboard the ID card bandwagon a day too soon. If the daft bastards had waited a day, they would have been in a position to stick the boot in the project on Monday. But Howard was too gutless, he was afraid that Phony Tony would be able to call him “soft on crime”. Soft in the head more like. I can only suppose Howard was so kind to Blunkett because there is some unofficial union of authoritarian ex-Home Secretaries.

    Still, the fall of Big Blunkett is good news. Rejoice!

  • More Bollinger anyone?

    And a pot noodle and a bowl of losealot for my friends…

  • I am waiting in anticpipation for the day that Blunkett joins Fathers 4 Justice. Despite the fact that I think they are way too cool for him I think it would provide endless entertainment. Plus it would be another great publicity stunt fo the guys.

  • While I didn’t agree with much of what he’s done, personally I have a lot of respect for the guy. Leaving aside the fact that he dragged himself up through an extremely difficult background, he was, from labors perspective a highly effective Home Secretary – responsible in part for putting Labor ahead of the Tories on home issues.

    Although a lot of people are critiscing him for not being “liberal” enough, I think this misses the point. His policies probably played well in the “conservative” labor heartlands i.e. oop north and without him, the labor government, from Salford, probably looks a little overloaded with islington latte lads. I expect that the Lib Dems, and BNP, are going to scent some opportunities here.

  • While I didn’t agree with much of what he’s done, personally I have a lot of respect for the guy. Leaving aside the fact that he dragged himself up through an extremely difficult background, he was, from labors perspective a highly effective Home Secretary – responsible in part for putting Labor ahead of the Tories on home issues.

    Although a lot of people are critiscing him for not being “liberal” enough, I think this misses the point. His policies probably played well in the “conservative” labor heartlands i.e. oop north and without him, the labor government, from Salford, probably looks a little overloaded with islington latte lads. I expect that the Lib Dems, and BNP, are going to scent some opportunities here.

  • BLUNKETT WILL GO
    For some time I have been convinced that one of the most dangerous men in politics is justifiably about to be thrown onto the scrapheap. For 20 years I have been very concerned about this man – with a bit of luck his ignominious dismissal will be an extra Christmas present.
    Posted by Cancergiggles 5 hours before demise

  • Steve P

    According to tonight’s BBC News Blunkett’s replacement, the knuckle-dragging Charles Clarke, is also “an enthusiastic supporter of the ID card scheme.”
    I’d keep the champagne on ice if I were you.

  • Verity

    More Bollinger anyone? Oh, yes, please, Guido!

    cessair – Fathers 4 Justice, hmmm, a novel approach, given that he is not the legal father of this boy despite the snivelling. But he’s not clever enough, imaginative enough or free-spirited enough to be allowed into that club.

    David Blunkett is a thoroughly nasty piece of work and people are blinded to this by his … uh … It was he who created the People’s Republic of S Yorkshire, which was probably also a nuclear-free zone.

    The man’s an obessive. He’s a controlling arsehole, as we can see from the fact that he had sex with a married women for three years without protection – hein? – and has ripped that family apart in the service of his ego. He fast-tracked a visa application, he shared secret US intelligence with his girlfriend’s parents to show how important he was, he bestowed on the publisher of The Spectator, who isn’t wanting for cash, railway tickets meant for MP’s spouses (not other people’s spouses) and then professed to have misunderstood the terms. Best yet, he used his office to call the police because schoolboys were knocking on ol’ Kimberley’s door and running away and it was, like, really, really annoying her.

    I was trying to think who I want to go next, but they’re such a grisly bunch, it’s hard to prioritise.

  • Anthony

    “Tony Blair described Mr Blunkett as a force for good in British politics who had ‘left government with his integrity intact.’ ”

    Doesn’t Blair mean (from his self-serving point of view): “…left office with the government’s integrity intact”?

    And what a pity it leaves so little else intact.

    As my excellent partner would say:

    “Good riddance to bad trash.”

  • If he had integrity he wouldn’t have got into this government,if he could have faked it Tony wouldn’t have tipped him the black spot.

  • GCooper

    Verity writes:

    “I was trying to think who I want to go next, but they’re such a grisly bunch, it’s hard to prioritise.”

    Mmmmm.. assuming Bliar is out of the running, how about Margaret “Enver” Hodge?

    No one with a heart could watch that nanny-state advocating, paedophile sheltering baggage slowly roasting over hot coals without feeling the proper Yuletide spirit!

  • Verity

    G Cooper – why exclude Blair, as though he’s an untouchable target?

    Blair’s been running on empty since he was in college. He’s been faking it for 30 years. He’s a dangerous little self-adoring jerk, and many in Britain have inexplicably taken him at his own estimation as an unconquerable force, but he’s weak. He has no moral fibre. He has no ideas. He has no thoughts other than “Look!”, which to me doesn’t count as national policy.

    The picture of him posing in his little track suit and blowing his little whistle was beyond funny.

  • While we’re compiling hit-lists of suitable victims, please spare a thought my my own alleged “representative”, the estimable Alan Milburn. (More here and here.) As slimy Nouveau Gauche weasels go, he’s easily on a par with the Bliars and Mandelbrots of this world. I would offer him my opinion personally but he’s hardly ever in the constituency.

  • Julian Taylor

    Regarding Alan MIlburn, there does happen to be a rather large skeleton in Mr Milburn’s closet which caused him recently to have to, “take time off to be with my wife and children” a phrase usually interpreted as “oh crap, the press are about to find out about me just as an election is coming up”.

    Suffice to say, some people should first check the age of a kid doing a summer schoool project in their office …

    Incidentally BBC Newsnight described Blunkett as being a “libertarian socialist” – some mistake surely?

  • GCooper

    Verity writes:

    ” why exclude Blair, as though he’s an untouchable target?”

    Oh, simply because he’s too obvious. Anyone who hasn’t got Bliar at the top of their list has completely lost the plot.

    And Milburn? Not a bad suggestion, I have to admit.

    Then again, given my druthers, I’d tie the lot of them in a sack and drop it in a well. Sadly, I’d say the same for the Tories, too, with only one or two exceptions.

  • Milburn claimed that he was having trouble balancing a busy job in Cabinet with his life with a family and young children. I would have thought that such a situation comes with the territory, and if he failed to realise that this would be the case (or if he failed to notice it in his previous Cabinet post), he’s too dim-witted to be a Cabinet minister anyway. He’s certainly not been spending any more time with the people who put him in office, not that that would have any effect anyway, as he has never voted against the Government.
    I wonder why it is Blair, not Milburn, who will be opening the new hospital in Milburn’s constituency next week.

  • Obviously, Blunkett was blind to the pitfalls of such behaviour. I just feel sorry for the dog…maybe they will strip him of the dog as part of his loss of office.

    Watching his demise is great fun however.

  • Personally I find Peter Hain to be the one who most turns my stomach.

  • Verity

    Why has no one mentioned that fat sweaty wart with his hands in your pockets, Gordon Brown. Not only is he a redistributionist and communist, he is – although this is a really, really tough call – perhaps the most repellent looking of all the denizens of the “government”. Just seeing his photograph sets my stomach a-churn and even when I hear him speak (no visual) a picture of that horrible mouth flapping around forces its way into my brain. G-a-a-a-gh!

    But B.Liar is still top choice, because if we got rid of that hissing, messianic little prig, the rest of the bundle of repellent little nonentities could have their heads lopped off fairly easily.

    Julian Taylor – the kid doing the summer project in his office – boy or girl?

  • “hissing, messianic little prig”

    Oh, yes!

    You’re right about the tough call though, Verity; there’s not one of them I’d trust to tell me the time, and half of them wouldn’t know it anyway. Just don’t get me started on Brown.

  • GCooper

    Paul Coulam writes:

    “Personally I find Peter Hain to be the one who most turns my stomach. ”

    Good choice! Hain’s appalling vanity and arrogance would make him dangerous, were it not for his inability to keep his mouth shut.

    While Verity says, of Bliar:

    “hissing, messianic little prig”

    Wonderful!

  • It’s just too bad Blunkett wasn’t dragged out of his office by a baying mob and hanged from the nearest tree; but I’ll settle for “resigned” if it means you Brits are never subjected to this little toad again.

    As for who else should be in the queue for the gibbet; I agree that the field is depressingly full.

    At the head should certainly be Blair and Brown, as the most egregious pricks. Call them 1.) and 1a.)

    Thereafter, I would suggest that the others (Milburn, Hain and yes, Howard) should be subjected to a lottery to determine who’s next.

    But if you want to see a bumper crop of would-be candidates for the rope, the statist turds in the U.S. Congress dwarf any number the Brits could put forward.

    We’re working on it, but it may take a little time…

  • JuliaM

    This is a terrible lack of seasonal goodwill to the poor beleagured ex-Minister. I feel like dedicating a special Christmas tune to him on my local radio station.

    It’s that time of year, after all. They SHOULD have a copy of Johnny Mathis’ ‘When a Child is Born’ to hand, don’t you think…….?

  • GCooper

    JuliaM writes:

    “They SHOULD have a copy of Johnny Mathis’ ‘When a Child is Born’ to hand, don’t you think…….?”

    Bravo!

    Waiter? A dish of cream for my friend, if you’d be so kind….

  • Julian Taylor

    It’s just too bad Blunkett wasn’t dragged out of his office by a baying mob and hanged from the nearest tree; but I’ll settle for “resigned” if it means you Brits are never subjected to this little toad again.

    Kim, we’d have LOVED to have seen that; we’d have held national lottery ticket ballots to have had that right and, yes, one of those horrendous scum I would have enjoyed seeing crucified publicly á la ‘Whoops Apocalypse’ is Peter “there are no terrorists in South Africa, only Freedom Fighters” Hain.

    Verity – don’t know. All I was told was ‘someone of schoolage’, which I take to mean as, presumably, below the age of sexual consent.

  • Verity

    Julian Taylor, well, I hope a journalist picks up on this. Maybe the kid’s reached the formal age of consent to contact Max Clifford by now?

    My goodness! Surely there can’t be any more socialist sleaze? Bernie Ecclestone, Peter Mandelson, the Hinduja brothers, Peter Mandelson again, Lakshmi Mittal, Blair’s kid lying face down in a pile of vomit in Leicester Square, Jack Straw’s son selling drugs, Peter Mandelson again, Cherie Blair and a couple of Bristols, and the endless string of repulsive Hodges and laughable Estelle Morrises, and Harriet Harmons and Diane Abbotts sending their children to private school to avoid the educational cesspit that Labour has created, and Peter Mandelson again, off to Europe, aka known as the Peoples’ Republic of Expenses and Pensionland, and the liar Stephen Byers, and former British Home Secretary, a post respected by the world for 200 years, mad Dave Blunkett, shredding a family with the power of his position and weeping like a betrayed schoolgirl on tv.

    The Conservatives are shivering in their skivvies. And incitement to commit a thought crime on Blair’s mad agenda.

    Get. out. now.

  • John K

    A horrible thought occurs to me. Now that Mad Mike Howard has decided that his vision of the British Dream is a police state (and looking back at his time as Minister of the Interior this is no great surprise), perhaps the best way to sink the slave card project is to vote Labour.

    Consider, if Labour win the next election, Phony Tony must be toast within 2 years. If Gordon Brown becomes PM there is every chance he will drop the slave cards, he appears to be against them on grounds of cost, and maybe even principle. If Mad Mike somehow becomes PM (and the chances are not exactly high) then he will have been elected on a slave card mandate and act accordingly.

    I did say it was a horrible thought.

  • Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dream. Perhaps if those Conservative (and other) MPs who oppose ID cards, intrusive government, excessive regulation, thieving rates of taxation, encouragement of sloth at the expense of endeavour, and the other many and varied manifestations of this corrupt, self-serving, morally-bankrupt and loathesome government would actually grow a pair, stand up and say so, and collaborate with like-thinkers, perhaps there might be some sort of electable alternative.
    I did say it was a dream.

  • GCooper

    Weasel Bearder writes:

    ” Perhaps if those Conservative (and other) MPs who oppose ID cards, intrusive government, excessive regulation, thieving rates of taxation, encouragement of sloth at the expense of endeavour, and the other many and varied manifestations of this corrupt, self-serving, morally-bankrupt and loathesome government would actually grow a pair, stand up and say so, and collaborate with like-thinkers, perhaps there might be some sort of electable alternative.”

    I think it’s called the UKIP.

  • GCooper: I suspect that you are correct, except that UKIP are electable by virtue only of their policies, not of their numerical support. Hence the ‘dream’ part, and the requirement for David Davies et al (including the lovely Boris) to exhibit some cojones.
    The current Government is in power at least partly because although ‘traditional’ Labour (ie, Socialism) has passed its expiry date, neither Old Labour nor New Labour could muster sufficient support individually. Combined, they can, and both display fine hypocrisy by riding on the coat-tails of the other. Surely the time has come for those Conservatives who feel their party slipping away from them to bite the bullet, stand up and be counted, and mix the final metaphor.

  • Verity

    Actually, G Cooper, I predict a huge surge in support of UKIP at the next election. If the Blair slithers back in, he will ban it.