UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron flops on the Letterman Show

Cameron on the Letterman Show. Picture: PA

New York, USA - David Cameron the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is in Manhattan to attend the UN world conference.

UK - Tory party shrouded in 'cash for access' SCANDAL

LONDON - David Cameron has published details of dinners in Downing Street in which donors who gave more than £50,000 to the Tory party were present. In total £18 million was donated to the party by ten donors over the last few months.

 The decision is a swift U-turn on a previous insistence that the meetings were a private matter for the prime minister and his family.

Yesterday, the  Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas resigned after being filmed by The Sunday Times apparently offering access to the prime minister, and crucially influence over policy, in return for donations of £250,000 a year. Cruddas urged reporters posing as wealth fund executives, to give more than £250,000 in return for direct face time with senior ministers.

Speaking in London on Monday afternoon, Cameron said in future the party would publish quarterly details of any meal attended by a Tory donor.

He said that since the election there had been three dinners in his Downing Street flat in which "significant donors" had been in attendance and it has since been revealed that there were 23 donors altogether.

Who came for dinner
On February 28, 2011, the prime minister ate with property millionaire donor David Rowland and his wife a regular donor, along with the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Andrew Feldman.
On November 2, 2011 there was a dinner with Henry Angest, the chairman and chief executive of the Arbuthnot Banking Group. City trader Michael Farmer and his wife were present as was Ian Taylor, the president of the oil trader Vito.
And on February 27, 2012, Cameron had a meal in his Downing Street flat with Michael Spencer, a Tory party donor and former party treasurer, and his partner.
The prime minister also said there had been an additional post-election dinner in which included donors to the party.
The meal, held on July 14, 2010, was inside No.10 Downing Street as the prime minister's private flat was being refurbished.
"None of these dinners were fund raising dinners and none of these were paid for by the taxpayer," he said.
The donors in attendance at the meal were: Anthony Bamford from JCB, hedge fund manager Michael Hintze, Tory peer Lord John Sainsbury, Andrew Feldman, Lansdowne Partners chief executive Paul Ruddock, Mike Farmer and city financier Michael Freeman.
Telegraph Media Group chief executive Murdoch Maclennan also attended the meal although is not believed to be a donor.

There will be a "full party inquiry" into how the Conservatives raise money to fund their campaigns led by Tory peer Lord Gold. The matter has been reported to the police.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is not satisfied with an internal Tory party review and has demanded independent inquiry. He told the Commons on Monday afternoon that "inquiry into the Conservative Party, by the Conservative Party, for the Conservative Party" was not good enough.
"This scandal speaks to the conduct and character of the prime minister and government, anything short of an independent inquiry will leave stain on this government and this prime minister," he said.
Miliband also accused Cameron of being "too ashamed" to come to the Commons himself to face MPs over the row and sending Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude instead.

How it all started
A few months ago a lobbyist boasted that she could get anyone access to the prime minister and senior ministers for a fee.

President Goodluck Jonathan in London for 'Somalia anti-terrorism meeting'

LONDON - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan was one of the dignitaties invited to the Thursday meeting on Somali in London. Worrisome activities of the Islamic fundamentalist, Boko Haram across some states in the northern part of the country was said to have influenced President Goodluck Jonathan's participation in the just concluded International Conference on Somalia.

 

President Jonathan was on a two-day working visit to United Kingdom from Wednesday, 22nd February to Thursday 23rd February, 2012 and attended the conference which was put together by the British Government to find peace and stability to the war-torn African country.

According to a statement, Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, said the president's participation was purely on a security point of view, especially when there are suspicions of links between the Boko Haram and Al-Shabab and similar terrorists organisations in the Maghreb-Sahelian region.

Jonathan was accompanied on this maiden visit to the UK as President by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi and other top government officials.

The international meeting took place to seek to resolve the political crisis in Somalia. However,  the local media in this East African nation has been awash with scepticism, referring to the efforts as a new system of re-colonising the country.

The country has been without an effective government since 1991. The meeting, hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron amid tight security, had representatives from global organsiations and over 50 governments, including  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Britain also invited representatives of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), as well as the presidents of the breakaway Somaliland, Puntland, and Galmudug, and the non-militant Islamist group Ahlu Sunnah Waljama'a (ASWJ).

But one of the country's most influential political leaders and future presidential candidate, Omar Abdirahman Mohamed has said that Britain wanted Somalia to have a "weak administration".

"The U.K. doesn't want Somalia to have its military reformed and it was the sole superpower that negated the lifting of the arms embargo on Somalia. This shows that the U.K. government is totally against the formation of a stable government and powerful military in Somalia," said Mohamed, who heads the Mogadishu-based Midnimo Political Party.

In 2008 U.K. law implemented various statutory instruments to enforce the arms embargo on Somalia. The embargo was first implemented on the country by the United Nations in 1992 after civil war broke out. It was partially lifted in 2007 to allow the importation of arms by the African Union Mission in Somalia.

"All Somalis are carefully watching the London conference and its outcome. Let the conference not be a conspiracy against the sovereignty of Somalia," Mohamed said.

An alleged "leaked" communiqué, apparently written for release after the talks, had been circulating here, fuelling speculation in this East African nation about the negative outcome of these talks.

One controversial point on the document, which is available online, refers to allegedly passing on the functions of government to a caretaker authority until the constitutional discussions are concluded. However, the point further explained that the country's constitution must be endorsed through a referendum or elected parliament.

The radio station Voice of the Peace said in its editorials that the U.K. was not looking for a lasting solution for Somalia.

Most newspapers including Kulmiye News and Xog-ogaal highlighted stories of locals who were concerned over Somalia becoming a colony once more.

One well-known elder, Ahmed Diriye, told local Radio Daljir earlier today that he did not believe that the London conference would have positive results for Somalia. "We know that Kenya (does not have a) powerful military and that was (because of the) U.K., and I am afraid that it wants Somalia to have only a police force," Diriye said.

The country's President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed denied this saying media reports were "rumours and baseless propaganda" intended to mislead the views of Somalis. Appearing on Channel 4 he said,  "There is no cause for concern over the sovereignty of the country. I can assure the Somali people that the London conference focused on the interest of Somalia and how the world community would help the country out of its long-existing hardships."

 

At the start of the conference, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, leader of the transitional government, said Somalis wanted to shake off "horrendous memories of the past", but feared the gathering might be just another diplomatic talking shop.

World leaders have pledged to boost support for measures to fight piracy, terrorism and political instability in Somalia, after a meeting in London.

In a final communique, the 55 countries and organisations gathered in London said they would:

• back the handover of power from the transitional government to an inclusive administration by August
• provide more support for African Union peacekeepers
• better co-ordinate humanitarian aid, shifting focus to long-term needs
• crack down on piracy by expanding on agreements to bring suspects to trial in countries away from Somalia

Various sources

David Cameron's back to work champion - Emma Harrison quits amid fraud allegations

LONDON - A4e a training company funded by the government  is at the centre of a police investigation and could be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) following the arrest of four of its former employees on suspicion of fraud.

The SFO also revealed that a former A4e subcontractor is being investigated in a separate police investigation and that the company has been at the heart of five serious investigations into financial irregularity since 2005.

It later emerged that the company, which is paid by the Government to find people paid jobs, forced unemployed clients to work for nothing in their own offices or face having their benefits stripped, it has emerged..

Now Mrs Harrison, 48, has told the Prime Minister that she intends to resign from her Government role.

She said: "I have asked to step aside from my voluntary role as Family Champion as I do not want the current media environment to distract from the very important work with troubled families.

A4e is paid by the Government to help the long term unemployed find jobs. The company receives payment for each person it finds a job for and employees were apparently paid a bonus each time they placed someone in work. However both payments are only made after someone has been employed for 13 weeks.
A4e say the police investigation centres solely on four former employees who are alleged to have falsely claimed people jobseekers had been placed in work.

But police sources say that the investigation goes wider than the four arrested people and is looking at the “wider practices” of the company. Officers have now spoken to a fifth employee about the allegations, but did not arrest the woman.
The police investigation is being overseen by Thames Valley Police, but Fiona Mactaggart MP has written to the SFO asking for an inquiry.

Sources said that the SFO’s resources would mean they would be well placed to take over the Thames Valley investigation.