As Tony rides off into the sunset and prepares to become a Catholic, I hope he's going to invest in a couple of kneepads for his First Confession. Because the number of Hail Marys which will be required to absolve HIS sins will be very great indeed.
One little bit of unfinished business from the Blair era is of course the scandal over BAe Systems, which is to be probed by the US Department of Justice over the 1985 Al-Yamamah arms deal - secret payments of £120 million a year for 10 years to Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan, who negotiated the contract.
A Serious Fraud Office investigation into the payments was halted last December on the orders of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who also stands down today. Today's Morning Star leads on calls by Labour MP John McDonnell forBrown to address this issue immediately. He says: "The US inquiry completely confirms that there should be an open and public inquiry here and I will be calling upon Gordon Brown to start this public inquiry when he takes over the premiership today."
A Serious Fraud Office investigation into the payments was halted last December on the orders of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who also stands down today. Today's Morning Star leads on calls by Labour MP John McDonnell forBrown to address this issue immediately. He says: "The US inquiry completely confirms that there should be an open and public inquiry here and I will be calling upon Gordon Brown to start this public inquiry when he takes over the premiership today."
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Has no-one got it yet? The Unions are about to come under their biggest onslaught since Thatcher.
Blair might have largely ignored the Unions, as he considered them basically irrelevant except when they were a bit annoying.
But Trade Unionism goes against the very ideology of Brown.
He is far closer to the Thatcherite concept of helping people to help themselves, and Trade Unions have no part in that - in much the same way as the Welfare State has little to do with the Brownite vision.
Solidarity with others, combining with others to act in concord against calamity isn't the Brown way. And he will undermine the Unions in the same way he has already undermined the Welfare State.
According to this kind of ideology a good worker is one who will keep out of trouble, but will take out his/her own insurance to protect them should things go wrong. And if they are unhappy with their pay / conditions / etc then they are free to take heir labour to another employer to seek better terms there.
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