Breaking news has just suggested – possibly authoritatively, possibly even speculatively by the man himself – that David Blunkett may be the next former minister to be brought back into government by Gordon Brown. Mandelson is one thing, Blunkett is quite another. As Home Secretary David Blunkett has possibly the worst ever ministerial record for rushing through a flood of ‘hot shoe’ pieces of legislation.
He enacted a plethora of ill-thought and ill-written knee-jerk reactions to events from the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York to public concerns on immigration. Many of these laws brought our society perilously close to fascism – for example:
- the protester arrested and charged at the 2004 Labour Party Conference in Brighton under the 2000 Terrorism Act simply for walking around wearing an anti-Blair t-shirt
- the arrest, charge and conviction in late 2005 – under Section 132 of Blunkett’s Serious Organised Crime and Police Act – of Maya Evans, a twenty-five year-old cook from Hastings who had simply read aloud at London’s Cenotaph the names of those killed in Iraq by that date
- the police action – also using the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act – in destroying the small encampment in London’s Parliament Square of Brian Haw, the legendary anti-Iraq protester
Remember that this is also the man who, when a couple of small boys did what small boys do – rang a doorbell and ran away – used his powers as Home Secretary improperly in a private matter and had two policemen sent round to the school the boys attended. The bell in question belonged to his then mistress and the Home Secretary was peacocking his power to impress her.
Blunkett’s government career ended in disgrace with two resignations after ridicule over his ‘untidy’ personal life and after prolonged public anger at his indiscriminate eagerness to cash in on his position. He had made some unwise but profitable financial arrangements which were inconsistent with his responsibilities as a cabinet minister.
Blunkett was a dangerous minister with a wildly exaggerated sense of his own cosmic significance, a taste for self-publicity and a tendency to rash legislation that has damaged our social fabric and diminished crucial human rights. Responsible protest is an absolute sine qua non of democratic society.
Brown’s rush for self-preservation, masterminded – allegedly – by Alastair Campbell, looks like bringing back the worst of the Blair regime. Do we really want that?
An e-petition entitled ‘Drop any thought of bringing David Blunkett back into government’ has been submitted to the Downing Street website under the category ‘Government, politics and public administration’. If it is accepted and if you agree, please go to the e-petition website and sign this e-petition.
That’s terrible news. The man’s a complete and arrogant prat. Sad to say he comes from the city I was brought up in, Sheffield. He ruined that, turning a once proud and prosperous city into the Soviet Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire. He’s just a nasty piece of work, like some others on the fringes of this ‘government’, but if he gets back he’s a dangerous nobody with far too much power. I’ll sign the petition right now.
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I would sign the petition if I could find it.
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To Tony – glad you agree – and the many others who feel the same: the e-petition was submitted last night and acknowleged. There is some sort of ‘approval process’ which may or may not result in the petition being ‘allowed’. We don’t know whether Downing Street informs us if and when the petition has been published. But we’ll keep our eye on the situation very regularly and will report on it as soon as we know what’s happening. In the meantime, it would be great to hear from people on both sides of the matter, through this comments facility. And – Alastair Campbell – we’re familiar with your MO and if we start to get an orchestrated series of pro-Blunkett comments we and everyone will identify the fingerprints.
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