By ©Muhammad Haque

London 0415 Hrs GMT Friday 10 November 2006

Updating Khoodeelaar! demand for truthful answers to still unanswered questions about why Crossrail company was paid £100 Million of public money first published in December 2005

This is being republished with a note on 10 November 2006, almost a year after the analysis was first published by Khoodeelaar! on the internet.

This is being published again in view of the fact that for almost 12 months since we raised the questions and asked for answers, neither the UK Department fro Transport nor the formally set up Crossrail company nor anyone else who ahs been involved in promoting the Crossrail hole Bill has provided the answers to the question: What is the money being spent on?

It will note [see below the full texts of my original comments as published on 21 December 2005] that when the then Secretary of State allowed the allocation of the £100 to the Crossrail company [CLRL, Cross London rail Links Limited] he did so with a bland statement that included this:

“It will also allow CLRL, working with the Department and TfL, to do necessary research and planning before the Crossrail scheme can enter its next phase of development. …... Money spent properly now will see its reward later in a better planned, better designed and therefore better value for money final scheme.

But that does not mean that resource is unlimited. The grants I am announcing today will allow CLRL to make a start on a detailed programme of work for the development of Crossrail. My department will continue to monitor expenditure on the project to ensure best value as the bill continues through parliament. These grants will be paid to CLRL by my department under section 6 of the Railways Act 2005. "

The question is: who is being paid how much for what and under what law?
Or rather, what legal authority? If the Crossrail Bill is still in Parliament, being 'debated' and 'scrutinised' then it follows that the project which is only proposed and not legal yet, cannot be treated as if the Bill is already an Act of Parliament.

If the Bill is not an Act of Parliament then nothing contained in it can be treated as if it is part of an Act of Parliament.

Yet here is £100 million of public money that has been allocated to a company which is allowed to use the money as if it is private money. That is to say, Crossrail is not publishing the facts of what it is spending the money on. Therefore the public cannot see whether the expenditure is justified or not. Whether money is being used to good purpose. Whether there is abuse of the funds. Whether there is the best results sought for the good of society or whether the contracts are being made to benefit secretive and secret interests under covers of the Crossrail project.


Full texts of the Muhammad Haque comments 21 December 2005 on the Crossrail company being allowed £100 million of new public funding and on the absurdity of having a Crossrail Bill Select committee in the UK House of Commons
Tony Blair flouts UK Parliament and aids Big Business assault on London E1
Tony Blair flouts UK Parliament and aids Big Business assault on London E1

Blair gives Crossrail hole plan pushers £100 Million of public cash to [packet and to spend on spin and dubious deals. BRICK LANE LONDON E1 AREA NO TO CROSSRAIL HOLE ATTACKS Campaign focus on the Facts Of Another Crass Payment by Tony Blair To the big business interests, Crossrail Promoters, of £100 Million Of Public Cash! Blaire’s Transport front man Alistair Darling Shows Two Fingers to ‘Parliamentary accountability’ and to the MPs Select Committee on the Crossrail hole Bill’

!© Muhammad Haque / CBRUK/KHOODEELAAR 2005The Brick Lane And Whitechapel London E1 Area Campaign Against The Crossrail Hole Bill 2005 has learnt that despite being asked to show evidence in justification for allocating one hundred £million to the Crossrail promoters, secretary of state for transport Alistair darling mp has failed to do so. The only ‘evidence’ is contained in the ‘HOUSE OF LORDS’ statement made by Alistair darling’s co-minister described in the ‘house of lords Hansard’ as ‘lord Davies of Oldham’. The Davies is quoted in the Hansard as having made the utterances (see further down) confirming the payment .Our associated voluntary organisation for audit of public cash allocations and powers peoples audit on 15 December 2005 asked the department for transport to provide a breakdown on the alleged use by Crossrail promoters of this latest £100 million of public cash. The constitutional law points at this stage include this - what is the point of setting up a select committee of mps to ‘scrutinise’ the contents and the full implications on all the affected communities and peoples of the Crossrail bill (the scrutiny is said to be scheduled to start in January 2006) when the government is making such a huge sum of public money available to the promoters? It is not implied flouting of the House of Commons. It is not suspected flouting of the House of Commons. It is open defiance of any existence of any legitimate say on the party of the whole of House of Commons. For every select committee is constitutionally in being with the authority of the whole House of Commons and thus of the UK parliament. The fact that an MPs’ ‘SELECT COMMITTEE’ has been set up to examine the Crossrail hole BILL and the fact that that Bill is not yet in the statute book means that the government is acting unconstitutionally and illegally in paying any public cash at this stage to the very parties and interests whose plans and whose alleged reasoning are yet to be examined and given any verdict bon by the Mps’ SELECT COMMITTEE. Unless of course Blair is saying to all the innocent believers in ‘the sovereignty of the Brutish Parliament that he doesn't give a damn about any mps select committee. Just as Alistair Darling is saying two fingers to the same small group of mps that has been listed as members of the committee that will scrutinise the Crossrail bill staring in January!!!! The Khoodeelaar! (BRICK LANE LONDON E1 AREA NO TO CROSSRAIL HOLE ATTACKS) Campaign stated as far back as 19 July 2005 that the MPs ‘debate’ held as part of the formality to give the procedural second reading to the Crossrail hole bill was no more than mere formality. That the so-called debate was a sham. That the UK HOUSE OF COMMONS was not being treated by the vast majority of MPs themselves as the democratic forum, to speak freely on behalf of the electors and for the people far less to tell the truth. We are not thrilled today [Wednesday 21 December 2005] to report that the latest display of a £100 Million abuse by Tony Blair’ group of their access to and the ‘political’ control of the executive in the British parliamentary system will do nothing at all to assist any future spin by anyone – whether nominally academic or brazenly careerist – who would seek to substantiate any claim to the effect that ‘our democratic parliamentary system works and it is respected by our elected holders of the most powerful offices in the land’![We shall continue this analysis]FOR NOW, HERE IS WHAT ALISTAIR DARLING’S CO-MINISTER HAD TO SAY IN THE ‘HOUSE OF LORDS’:-“My right honourable friend the secretary of state for transport (Alistair darling) has made the following ministerial statement. I am today making an additional £100 million available for the further development of Crossrail. This money will be used by cross London rail links (CLRL the company held jointly by the department and TfL to assist them with promotion of the Crossrail bill to provide proper support to the project as we take the Crossrail hybrid bill through parliament over this period. It will also allow CLRL, working with the Department and TfL, to do necessary research and planning before the Crossrail scheme can enter its next phase of development. The case for Crossrail is clear and the government have long said that they are committed to the scheme. This is a further sign of that commitment. This is a complex long-term project but important features are being determined at this stage. Money spent properly now will see its reward later in a better planned, better designed and therefore better value for money final scheme. But that does not mean that resource is unlimited. The grants I am announcing today will allow CLRL to make a start on a detailed programme of work for the development of Crossrail. My department will continue to monitor expenditure on the project to ensure best value as the bill continues through parliament. These grants will be paid to CLRL by my department under section 6 of the Railways Act 2005. ” The word “Whitechapel” was not included in the description of the Khoodeelaar! Camapgn when this item was first published in December 2005