Peter Hain resigns from Cabinet

[muriel_volestrangler]

Peter Hain has quit the Cabinet after his deputy leader campaign donations were referred to the Met Police.

Mr Hain, work and pensions secretary and Wales secretary, said he had stood down so he could "clear my name".

He quit within minutes of the Electoral Commission saying that it had decided to refer the late declaration of £103,000 of donations to the police.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7206812.stm

Not surprised - the fake think tank always looked dodgy to me.

[T_i_B]

1. £103,000? Sounds like a waste of money to me!

If my memory serves me right, he didn't exacly set the DPM race alight.

[Greeby]

2. Na na na na, Na na na na

Hey Heyyyyy, Goodbye! :toast: :beer: :popcorn:

[LeftishBrit]

3. What a twit he turned out to be.

[T_i_B]

4. The leaderless soft left

Ultra-Blairite blogger Luke Akehurst may be a right old pillock, but he's got a point here about the state of the Labour left.

http://lukeakehurst.blogspot.com/2008/01/leaderless-soft-left.html

Peter Hain's resignation leaves the Tribunite "Soft Left" of the Labour Party without any real Cabinet level figurehead for the first time ever.

This is ironic at a time when Compass, the extra-parliamentary embodiment of the Soft Left tradition, is making a lot of noise in the wider party. Jon Cruddas' refusal to take ministerial office last year means they have a serious lack of presence at the heart of government.

The loss of Clare Short through political self-destruction, Robin Cook through tragic premature death and now Hain through bizarre campaign funding screw-up really means that the tradition of Nye Bevan and Harold Wilson lacks a top flight leader.

The same problem hit the Hard Left a decade or so ago - Benn too old, Livingstone not interested in the Commons, everyone else hating each other too much to emerge as a leading figure.

[non sociopath skin]

5. Yup. Sad to see a man I've always had some respect for ...

.... slithering down the plughole with the rest of NuLab's murky bathwater.

It really looks as if the Fat Cat/ Bastard - supporting Nulabbers will soon be making way for a government made up of the aforementioned Fat Cats and Bastards themselves.

Politics. Don't you just love 'em?

Pass me another bottle of absinthe, please, garcon.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

The Skin

[Morris Onions]

6. Never liked him. Oily & smug. Self satisfied and phoney