From the Google cache of Dear Kitty ModBlog:
11/2/05 at 1:29PM
Mood: Thinking Playing: Hit the road Dave (and Tony and George)
After Tony Blair supported his scandal ridden minister David Blunkett to the hilt, today the BBC reports:
David Blunkett has said he is “deeply sorry” for the embarrassment he has caused Tony Blair, after he resigned as work and pensions secretary.
He said he was guilty of making a mistake on three occasions and was now “paying the price for it”.
Blair has even more things he should feel deeply sorry for than Blunkett.
A comment at UK Left Network on Blunkett‘s resignation: “Pity he can’t take his odious policies with him”.
See also here.
Blunkett‘s health policies: here.
An earlier entry from the Google cache:
UK: Blair government in Blunkett scandal
Date: 11/1/05 at 1:01PM
Mood: Looking Playing: Get up, Stand up, by Bob Marley
Not just the administration of George W. Bush in the USA is mired in scandals.
The same goes for the administration of Bush’s poodle in the Iraq war, global warming, and other, issues: Tony Blair in the United Kingdom.
Previous Blair scandals included those of his spin doctors Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.
And sexual scandals of Blair’s minister David Blunkett.
After resignation in shame, and recent re-appointment by Blair, Blunkett is back at it.
This time with a financial scandal:
Blair cabinet ally struggles to end furore over tech stock
01/11/2005
Carl de Souza LONDON (AFP) – British government minister David Blunkett, a comeback ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair, faced lingering doubts over his political future despite efforts to end a furore over his links with a technology firm.
Blunkett, the works and pensions secretary, said Monday he had asked the trustees of his sons’ holdings in DNA Bioscience to dispose of shares he had bought for them, and that they agreed to do so, but the opposition Conservatives were still calling on him to resign.
DNA Bioscience, in which Blunkett bought the shares in trust for his sons, is said to have been a potential bidder for a contract from the Child Support Agency, which is overseen by the works and pensions department. …
Blair’s government hoped that the statement would signal an end to the issue, less than a year after Blunkett was forced to resign as home secretary following revelations of his affair with a married US-born publisher. …
Blunkett stepped down as home secretary in December 2004 over his role in fast-tracking a resident’s visa for a Philippine nanny employed by his ex-lover Kimberly Fortier, the married publisher of the conservative Spectator magazine with whom he fathered a child.
The name Blunkett, also spelled Plunkett, is well known in the British isles.
In the seventeenth century, there was Irish Oliver Plunkett.
The British government had him killed.
He was beheaded.
His head is still in Saint Peter’s Church at Drogheda, Ireland, as a relic.
The Roman Catholic church made him a saint.
Extremely few people, apart from Blair, Bush, Karl Rove and Lewis Libby will consider David Blunkett a saint.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
NEWS LINE [Britain] lead article: Thursday May 19 2005
BLUNKETT TO PRESSURISE DISABLED
New Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett [infamously involved in scandal of illegality to please his then mistress; who also attacked his government colleagues] has said ‘as a nation, we need everyone who can work to work not just to fund services but to fund future pensions.’
Commenting on plans to ‘reform’ incapacity benefit he said he intends to ‘facilitate a return to employment’.
Public sector union UNISON yesterday cautioned against pressurising people into work.
A UNISON spokesman told News Line: ‘There are people drawing incapacity benefit who want to work. The problem is getting employers to change their policies and procedures, even giving interviews.
‘But once you are saying to people “we are going to stop your benefit if you haven’t found work” that’s putting people in a difficult position.
‘It’s not a case of not trying or people just sitting around.’
Blunkett claimed the majority of people currently claiming incapacity benefit wanted to be employed.
Blunkett added: ‘Work is actually good for you, not just because you earn a living and you’re independent and dignified but actually it’s good for you in terms of your health.’
Lorna Reith, Chief Executive, Disability Alliance, said of the government’s plans: ‘We are deeply concerned about the amount of power that could be given to officials in Jobcentre Plus offices.
‘Is the DWP seriously suggesting that junior Jobcentre Plus staff are to decide whether or not someone who’s had a mental breakdown is ready to start looking for work?
‘Or someone still undergoing chemotherapy [for cancer] should be ringing up employers?
‘We are appalled at the idea that people in this position would be penalised by having their benefit pegged at the poverty level of £55 per week.’
Blair and Blunkett want to see 80 per cent of people of working age in a job.
Blunkett said yesterday he didn’t ‘want a fight, with anybody, least of all the Disability Alliance’.
But he stressed: ‘It is absolutely crucial that we distinguish between those who can and cannot work.’
Disability Alliance’s Reith told News Line yesterday: ‘A lot of disabled people do want to work but they need help and support.
‘We’d like to hear what carrots and sticks the government has in mind for employers, because so far the whole concentration has been on disabled people who are not in work.
‘The prime minister was talking about respect. In our view, people make a contribution to society in many ways. It’s not just those in employment who deserve respect.
‘One thing they are not talking about is carers. If the carers were all in work, who will be doing the caring?!’
Mental health charity MIND said legislation was welcome ‘as long as the needs of individuals are at the forefront of any reform’.
The number of people out of work and claiming benefit rose by 8,100 to 839,400 in April, official figures show.
Jobs continued to be lost in manufacturing, which reached a record low of 3.23 million in the quarter to March, with 82,000 fewer people employed in manufacturing than in the same period a year ago.
These figures do not cover recent heavy job losses at MG Rover, IBM and Marconi.
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