Mea Culpa? Hmmmm, Is that an Aussie pop star?.

Another day, another nest of bumbling NuLabour Ministers trying to squirm their way out of the blame game for yet another ‘trifling oversight’. Just what does it take for a Minister from this shambolic administration to do a Carrington & Luce and fall on their swords?

For those too young to remember, Lord Carrington and Richard Luce, both from the Foreign Office were the last Government Ministers to admit a cock up, admit they’d made a mistake and insisted upon resignation. That’s right, bloody amazing isn’t it, Ministers actually owning up to a mistake then actually taking responsibility by resigning. Mind you that was 24 years ago in 1982 for God’s sake.

They weren’t hounded out by the media, they weren’t sacrificed by Margaret Thatcher, they just ‘went’…. As Lord Carrington said at the time, "I had to insist to Margaret (Thatcher) that she accept my resignation – I made a mistake, the Argentine Navy invaded the Falkland Islands. My department misread the signals and I as Foreign Secretary was head of that department - therefore it was my responsibility. I must do the honourable thing and insist on my resignation being accepted" Luce said much the same thing.

Since then, our Ministers have been just superb, apparently. And when they do make a small mistake, a simple declaration of responsibility will suffice – without the resignation obviously. Yesterday, we saw sweaty, Philsbury doughboy, Charles Clarke, stonewalling away for all he was worth on ‘freedlagsnotdeportedgate’. No, he didn’t think he should resign – and yes, he thought he should stay and ‘sort out the mess’….

His apprentice, the obnoxious Tony McNulty threw humility to the wind and declared he would not entertain resignation. Nutter McNulty got a bit tetchy when the interviewer asked him what he thought might actually warrant a resignation…..

Both Clarke and McNulty evidently reckon that having alien murderers, child molesters, rapists and drug traffickers strolling around the country is a real vote winner. Me? I’ll just put this little fiasco into my bumper big box of calamitous and incompetent acts committed by NuLabour Ministers. And when I say ‘bumper big’ I mean, ‘bumper big’…..

p.s. – Note to Doughboy and Tetchy McNutter….. taking ‘responsibility’ means not blaming underlings within the department and not looking for convenient scapegoats. On this occasion, ‘taking responsibility’ means doing the right thing, in the words of Lord Carrington, ‘the honourable thing’ and insist on resignation…. The trouble is, I don’t think you two guys, and the rest of the Cabinet knows what ‘honour’ means….