In an astonishing admission after the disclosure of the cover-up in yesterday's Independent, Tony Blair's official spokesman said MI6 decided not to tell the Hutton inquiry - set up to investigate the death of the government scientist David Kelly - that crucial intelligence on Saddam's chemical and biological weapons was unsound.

The security services, he said, felt it was "too sensitive'' to be made public. The head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, also decided not to tell Mr Blair. The Prime Minister's spokesman said Mr Blair only became aware of the withdrawal of the intelligence as a result of the inquiry by Lord Butler of Brockwell, which was delivered three days ago. -Independant UK - see Spin Genocide

Charles Clarke

Clarke is the former President of the National Union of Students who stood, he said, for civil liberties and social justice. He went on to become a right-wing Education Secretary in the Blair Reich and is now the Home Secretary who demands the right to decide who is put under house arrest without charge or trial. He also supported jailing people without charge or trial purely on his say-so until it was shown to be illegal. But give him time.

Thanks to David Icke.com for this section

Neil Kinnock

Cultivated his reputation as a 'fiery welsh radical', which, in fact, involved shouting very loudly and never using one word when 6,769 would do. He claimed to represent the poor and 'working classes', but went on to realise, like his European politician wife, that representing the system is far more profitable. Made a fortune as an appointed 'commissioner' to the European Union where he played a key role in removing staff who sought to expose its grotesque financial corruption. Ironically he did this after being given the job (in theory) of rooting out such corruption. He has now returned to the UK to become a member of the House of Lords, appointed by his master,Tony Blair. Baron Kinnock of Gross Hypocrisy once described the peers in the House of Lords as 'descendants of brigands, muggers, bribers and gangsters', and 'a bunch of Tories'. He should feel right at home.

Peter Hain

In the late 1960s he made his name leading the campaign to stop the visit to Britain of the cricket team from the then apartheid South Africa. He joined the UK Liberal Party, where he would never have experienced government, and switched to the Labour Party. Since then, in a series of ministerial posts under Blair, he has supported and campaigned for measures that fundamentally dismantle civil liberties. While supporting the new European constitution, which will centrally control Europe like never before, he called it merely a 'tidying up exercise'.

Government to tax the view from your house

By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor(Filed: 06/11/2005)

Having a nice view or living next door to a golf course are going to cost householders more in council tax under Labour plans.

Taxpayers are set to be charged hundreds of pounds extra a year if they are in a conservation area, next to an open space, have a swimming pool or tennis court or enjoy full or partial views of the sea, hills, mountains, lakes or rivers.

Extra charges are also expected to be levied on homes with more bedrooms than average, conservatories, large patios or gardens, roof terraces or balconies. Homes in "gated communities" will also face higher bills.

Official documents show that ministers are going to extraordinary lengths to build a detailed database of properties across England, with the intention of placing them in a higher council tax band.

Last night Caroline Spelman, the Tory local government secretary, described the proposed new regime as "more punishing than ever". She added: "This is the latest stealth tax - it's a tax on the view from your house rather than a fair charge for local services."

The charges will come in after a long-awaited revaluation of each property in England and will take into account the huge rises in property values since the last valuation in 1991. Earlier this year, ministers postponed the revaluation, which was originally set for 2007, fearing a backlash from middle-income voters in the South, who are expected to face the highest rises. However, MPs will tomorrow debate plans to let ministers begin the revaluation at a time of their choosing, and effectively without further parliamentary scrutiny.

Detailed documentation from John Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, shows that the exercise will cost at least £105 million. Of this, £45 million is going on a new "computer-assisted mass appraisal system" which will help officials to obtain specific details on every property in England.

Properties will be described in great detail using "value-significant codes" to make an assessment for revaluation. Some of the code descriptions, such as living on a "small plot" or on a "main or busy road", having a cesspit, not having street lighting or living near a radio mast or pylon, suggest that certain households will be moved down a band and face lower bills.

However, there are many more codes which appear to add value to a property, including some to denote four different sizes of balcony and roof terrace, living beside a park or on a quiet road or cul-de-sac, in a penthouse, or near convenient public transport.

A whole range of details - from "equestrian facilities" to patio size - will be tabulated. No fewer than 10 "value-significant codes" detail a range of possible views that a property can offer.

Analysis of the revaluation in Wales last year suggests that, in England, the owner of a benchmark Band D property will face an extra £267 on their bill if they go up one band and £534 if they go up two.

A Band D property is one valued in 1991 at between £68,001 and £88,000. Homes in other bands get bills which are proportionately higher or lower.

Miss Spelman said: "The new computer system has been designed to enable John Prescott's department to identify homes with garages, greenhouses, large patios or gardens, near a golf course or in a conservation area.

"These characteristics will then be used by Labour to increase council tax on homes by pushing them into a higher council tax band. This is just the latest stealth tax. It can only mean even higher taxes on hard-working families and pensioners, without any improvements in local services." - telegraph.co.uk

Mental Health Bill 'to cause thousands to be detained'

NINE times as many people as first thought will be forced to undergo compulsory mental health treatment under planned reforms in England and Wales, a new study claims.

The draft Mental Health Bill proposes allowing patients to be made to take medication and detained if necessary. The King's Fund study said that in 15 years as many as 13,000 could be placed under such orders, rather than the Government's 1450 figure. But the Government said the "flawed" study produced incorrect estimates. The bill was first introduced in 2002.

Under the 1983 Mental Health Act patients can be sectioned, but only if their condition is treatable. The new bill, which received 2000 objections when it was first unveiled, proposes allowing people to be forcibly treated to protect the public.

Campaigners say it will make it too easy to detain people who have mild personality disorders. - scotsman.com

PC thinking 'is harming society'

3 January 2006 - Britain's institutions are infected with political correctness which is damaging society, according to a book published by a right-wing think-tank. Civitas says political correctness has allowed the creation of "Muslim ghettos" which produce suicide bombers.

PC thinking now dominates schools, councils and the media, Anthony Browne says in The Retreat of Reason.

But Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said even the term ghetto was inflammatory.

Mr Browne, a journalist for the Times, said he had been motivated to write the report by the media's coverage of rises in the number of people with HIV. He said the rise in new infections since 1997 was down to increasing levels of HIV infected migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, but that political correctness had stopped the government tailoring public health policy to this. The author said PC views labelled some groups as victims, and banned dissent.

"By closing down debates, it restricts the ability of society to tackle the problems that face it," Mr Browne said.

Giving one example, he told BBC News that the issues behind the Bradford riots, where most of the rioters were Asian, had not been tackled because of political correctness. "It creates an atmosphere where it's almost impossible to actually say, look there are real issues going on here, there are real tensions going on here... "You have ghettoisation of the mind where people don't start trusting each other, where they don't know about the wider community, where actually their opportunities are damaged because they don't know about wider mainstream British society."

But Mr Bunglawala said he objected to the use of the word ghetto. "The very use of the word ghetto is deeply unfortunate. There's a historical pattern, when large scale immigration occurs people will tend to flock together... "You still have Jewish areas, you wouldn't describe them as ghettos, and you know the term itself is very inflammatory."

'Moral cowardice'

Mr Browne said "soft totalitarianism" had led to "moral cowardice" and "intellectual dishonesty". Political correctness once prevented overt discrimination but now "causes more harm than good", he said. It caused censorship as some views were being suppressed simply because they caused offence or aroused emotions such as hatred, he said. He said it had affected crime, education and community relations.

Terror impact

"The most overt racism, sexism and homophobia in Britain is now among the weakest groups, in ethnic minority communities, because their views are rarely challenged, as challenging them equates to oppressing them," Mr Browne added. Mr Browne said terrorism and the economic rise of India and China could see the end of political correctness. As Western democracies felt more vulnerable, their inhabitants would be "more hard-headed about the real benefits and drawbacks of Western civilisation", he said.

"The West will no longer feel inclined to indulge in self-loathing, but will seek to reaffirm its sense of identity." - BBC

Clear link between benefit dependency and deprivation

3 January 2006

New figures released today show a clear link between high numbers of people claiming incapacity benefit and deprivation.

And John Hutton, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has today written to 100 MPs across the country who represent the areas with the highest numbers of incapacity benefit claimants.

The letter has been sent ahead of planned reforms aimed at getting people off incapacity benefit and back to work.

In his letter, John Hutton tells MPs that we should not accept a system that "perpetuates hardship and denies people the opportunity to better their lives by accessing the world of work."

Although the government has made progress in reducing the number of new claimants, the reforms in the welfare green paper will break down the remaining barriers faced by people trying to get back to work. Incapacity benefit will be replaced with a new system that properly assesses what people can do and offers the right level of support to help them back into work. Those who truly cannot work will be given genuine protection.

The link between benefit dependency and deprivation is striking; research shows that nearly half of the most deprived areas in England, Wales and Scotland are in the hundred constituencies that have the largest numbers of incapacity benefit claimants. People who live in these constituencies are five times more likely to live in pockets of deprivation than those in the rest of the country. number10.gov.uk