Another rat who has abandoned the ship, Hazel Blears resigned yesterday, James Purnell today Bravo ! at this rate the rats are departing faster from Parliament than the newspapers can keep up with the very latest resignation. Good. At least it won't be necessary to burn down that beautiful building to get them all out from there. Robert, at this rate, your dream about not having a government will finally become true !
A few months ago, Belgium did not have a government for several months and most people did not even noticed it. Belgium carried on working as usual. The trains were on time, the schools were open, every one went to work as if nothing had happened. When you think about it, Parliament takes a few months holiday every single year and the rest of us do not even notice it either. Maybe it will be cheaper for the tax payer if all the politicians took a permanent holiday. They won't be missed. Besides, the laws are designed only for their own comfort and convenience, not for the rest of the people. The only thing is, if the Labour government goes out now. It will serve as a smoke screen in order to divert attention for not changing the crooked expenses system. That is the aim. We will have to see what will be the outcome of this election. I hope Labour comes out last, I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind voting for them, except their family and friends and also the quangos who stand to gain from it. This is a unique time the electorate has to really trash them and put them where they belong... in the bin.
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29 comments:
Hi Maria
This whole expenses thing is hugely entertaining. But even as the MPs clean up their act - or rather, tell us that they're cleaning up their act - the same old system applies. We have the party leaders telling their MPs things like "You can't stand again as an official party candidate" or "You'll have to pay that money back." Surely this is all wrong. In a properly functioning democracy, all this should be done on a bottom-up rather than a top-down basis. What should happen, is that when an MP gets into trouble over his expenses, his local consituency party should realise the mood of voters in the constituency, and then it should be the local party who tells the MP "You can't be our candidate again." Party leaders have too much power already, they shouldn't be getting more.
Hi Robert
There was talk about giving the power to people to vote their MPs out if there was disgraceful conduct. But with all these resignations and the reshuffle that is now taking place, all this is going to obscure the big issue of changing the expenses system and things will just remain the same. Tax inspectors who suggested investigating MPs were threatened with the sack, a whistle-blower claimed a few weeks ago, Mr. Thomas Casagrande, a former tax compliance officer with HM Revenue and Customs, said the MP's tax affairs were effectively "above the law" because senior managers refused to scrutinise them. He said that he had been shocked by their reluctance.
Hi Maria
Well, I suppose that with MPs from all parties involved, the taxmen know that they are going to be given a rough ride whether this lot stay in power or another lot get in.
I would be surprised if anyone was convicted on this. There might be one or two prosecutions, but I doubt if they'll be successful. Even if one or two are, it will be "slap on the wrist" punishments.
Hi Robert,
I think the public mood is incandescent with anger right now and if we do not see any heads rolling soon and proper prosecution with jail punishment for all the MP's evading taxes, no one is ever going to believe in their tattered credibility any more. This has been a real shock for everyone to learn, including myself and it is far more important than anything else at the moment. Politics is in crisis and Parliament has been discredited. I am lucky if I can get my hands on the Daily Telegraph as the public has been falling on it with vulture-like rapacity to follow the frenzy prompted by the news of another MP jumping off the ship or news about MPs handing back the money they have looted. This will not do. We need to see the guillotine, the drums and the tumbrells roll past as the head of another politician is held aloft. Nothing short of that will do.
Hi Maria
There was a good joke in a Carry On film, about the French Revolution. An aristocrat is about to be guillotined when a man rushes up with a letter for him. The aristocrat says "Put it in the basket, I'll read it later."
I hope you're right and the public do insist on a big change in the way the country is run.
Re the Telegraph, it is possible to read parts of it online, though I'm not certain if that can be done on the day of publication or whether there is a delay of a day or two before the issues are placed online.
Hi Robert,
Today, I'm extremely angry with the French. We were snubbed for D Day. That's gratitude for you. The plan for D Day was conceived here in Britain. Without that brilliant plan there would never have been a D Day at all, without the English the French would be speaking German. In each grave they only had French and American flags. So I suppose all the thousands of dead British soldiers in that cemetery were not there. That Sarkosy needs some history lessons the man is pure Merde !
Robert,
Maybe the letter for the aristocrat only had a litany of insults for him like Merde !
Hi Maria
Well, the French have never forgiven the Allies - particularly us - for liberating them. They don't like the Americans either, but I think at the moment they're trying to keep in with them.
I don't know why they try to keep in with the Americans when Obama's trip was clearly divisive. On the one hand, it was designed to separate the English from the French and on the other separate the Germans from everyone else, since visiting the concentration camps was really designed to shame them again. This current generation of Germans are sorry for what their ancestors did to the Jews and it really is not productive to continually blame them and bring back the sins of their fathers if we want to get over that shameful past for the sake of European harmony specially when the Americans are now jailing people without a trial and torturing them in Guantanamo, or having clandestine rendition trips with prisoners to countries where they know torture is practiced. That is the kettle calling the pot black ! pardon the pun.
Hi Maria
i tend to regard these big set piece speeches by politicians as fluff. The really important work goes on behind the scenes, mostly between the advisers of the respective leaders, though perhaps sometimes face to face relationships can play a crucial role, e.g. with Reagan and Gorbachov in the 1980s.
Hi Robert
Well, the thing is that Gordon Brown was not in the war, neither was Sarkosi nor Obama but the Queen was in her uniform performing her duties as a mechanic during WWII and so the British soldiers were quite rightly expecting to see her there, the Queen is, after all, our Head of State. This is why Gordon Brown was booed by the soldiers. She had more right to be there than those three politicians put together and the fact that she was not invited annoyed her. It was a clear snub not only for her but for the British soldiers who would have liked to see her rather than the unpopular Gordon Brown.
Maria, yes the Queen should have been invited. But I'm thinking that maybe we could take this a step further. I've long thought that the presence of politicians at the Remembrance Day service in London is a bit of an insult, and I would be happy if they were removed. I think if I were in charge I'd have a consultation with the surviving veterans and families, because if they wanted to keep the politicians then they should certainly have them, but if not, then we could get rid of these twisters who have no place in a solemn and patriotic ceremony.
Hi Robert,
I think that you are absolutely right. I do remember the 21 year old who was forcibly removed by 14 policemen no less, for the sin of mentioning the names of each soldier who had fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan followed by the tinker of a bell, in front of the cenotaph. It was her own way of showing her respects. Funnily enough, the odious Tony Blair appeared at the cenotaph two days later to lay down the poppy wreath ! The young woman was taken to court and she had to pay $100 as a fine. She had done nothing wrong. Where is the justice in that ?
Maria, some philosophers spend a lot of time pondering the question, why does the universe exist? To me, there is an even greater mystery : why does Tony Blair exist? I think the question is insoluble.
Robert, I believe in natural justice and one day, Tony Blair will pay for what he has done along with his henchmen.
The other sad thing is that the BNP got two MEP's I think the public who voted for them has not seen what they really stand for. These are racist dangerous thugs who blame all ills of society on immigrants, when in reality... its people like Gordon Brown who has given 360 billion of tax payers money to the bankers. The enemy is within. Blaming foreigners for all the ills of society, because they are a soft targets to blame, and cannot defend themselves its exactly what Hitler did with the Jewish people, but we do not seem to learn from history, so we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. (Espinoza)
Hi Maria
One way of looking at it, is Britain becoming more European! Far right parties have been elected in Europe for decades. We haven't yet got the far left parties, but who knows, maybe they'll be elected later on too.
Fascism started in Europe. Go back 70 years and large chunks of Europe were fascist.
Robert, we have a far right party who has won two seats at the European Parliament, namely: BNP stands for British National Party. One of their plans is to expatriate all those who are not British born from Britain and they do not accept a person of colour in their party. Everyone has to be white.
Franco in Spain was a fascist, so was Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who ended up hanged from a lamp pole and mauled by dogs. And Tony Blair was in my opinion a fascist government too. Or at least, he imposed all the same things here, like being imprisoned indefinetely without a trial with secret evidence, allowed Britain to be used for the rendition flights with prisoners to be taken to countries where we know torture is practiced. ID cards for all the population, spy cameras everywhere and during his time, they wanted to introduce chips in every car to have them monitored through satellite and the government is also keeping the DNA of every child being born in Britain. Anyone opposing the government can find their name registered under the terrorism act list.
Hi Maria
At one time this country had communist MPs. I'm just wondering now whether the Liberals would still like to see PR introduced. It would give them more power but it would certainly change politics in other ways too.
Robert, I hope not. I think all they have to do is to explain the advantages of being in Europe to win. Most people are terrified of being part of Europe and I blame the tabloids for that with scary stories of not being able to have our own varieties of apples or about how many millions are spent. Nothing about the great many advantages there are to be part of Europe.
On the face of it proportional representation is the fairest way,but taken to extremes it might make government impossible.The govt would have to be all things to all men.
Voting to rid the country of immigrants is all well and good in my book ....its why the bnp is gaining in popularity.That issue is disguising the fact that the bnp are just a gang of thugs and strong arm guys(and women).I dont believe the majority of the electorate can be trusted to vote sensibley..i really dont....look around you.For the majority ,the Sun newspaper tells them how to vote.Its appalling,and rather dangerous too.
Brownie,at the moment,has a degree of sympathy from me.I deplore socialism ,in all its forms...and brown,no matter what he says ,is a socialist.But he is getting the flak right now because of an economic situation that neither he nor anyone else can do anything much about.The country is bankrupt,he might have managed things better-but he is not the cause.He is also suffering from the expenses scandal fallout...but he isnt the cause of that either,although again,he might have managed the issue rather better than he has.Dishonesty is a fundamental flaw of human nature..its not unique to politicians.....not that that excuses their actions of course..it doesnt.
Im afraid that regardless of whether brown is kicked out or stays in...regardless of whether labour is voted out ,and the tories voted in,this country is in for a prolonged period of austerity..people have got to acceopt that,there is no real option.I personally believe a strong tory govt,adopting tory principles,in the manner of thatcherite policies,will put the country back on its feet quicker than labour policies will. However this will take at least a decade or more in my opinion(thats being optimistic)and in all probability when the recovery gathers speed it will lead to world war....history tells us this..repeatedly,and as mankind never learns ,its odds on it will occur.
The basic reason for this is that countries recovering from a recession such as this need to expand...they find after a while they cant expand any more within their own borders,and the ball starts rolling. Its not about money-its about as hitler called it "liebensraum"(prob spelt incorrectly) but which means "living room" and a whole host of things besides.
Hi Maria
We'll have to agree to disagree on the benefits of being in the EU.
Dougie, I'm the opposaite : I don't trust MPs to vote sensibly. They vote according to the will of their leader. Once MPs have retired, or gone to the House of Lords, or are convinced they'll never ever achieve the slightest advancement or promotion, you find them speaking their minds and saying all kinds of interesting things.
MPs don't live on the same planet as us. Bertrand Russell once said that he had no doubt that a machine could be designed which would be much more intelligent than the human brain, but that he didn't think such machines should have the vote, because they don't feel pleasure or pain. With MPs, they don't even have the intelligence.
Re war, if you look at the period between 1945 and now, you will see that no world wars have occurred, Dougie.
Robert,
The years between 1945 to now have witnessed no world wars tis true..though some may say wars today are fought by proxy.But.....the world hasnt witnessed a recession of this degree since 1929.Thats how hitler came to rule germany.etc etc etc..
And yes you are right we cant trust mps to vote with the welfare of britain in mind...tho i wouldnt say they are as dumb as the majority of the electiorate....mps vote for issues with their own self interest in mind...the voters vote for issues cos they know no better,merely relying on the theSun to tell them what is the right thing to do.(vote)
Hi Dougie
I have to agree that people are dumb to vote at all, and I wish they'd stop. Still, the turnout at the Euro elections was an all time low, so that's encouraging.
With Germany, there is simply no parallel. We are not a young, insecure country with a chip on its shoulder. We haven't just been through four years of war ending in defeat. We haven't experienced devastating hyperinflation. We don't have a crummy constitution which provides for government by decree. We don't have strong fascist or communist parties. We don't have an unstable political system which requires coalitions to work. And finally, we are not a large country that can throw its weight around the way Germany did - although the Europeans are doing their best to create such a country.
Hi robert,
I think you misunderstood me..I didnt mean Britain was going to start a world war,as you quite rightly say we havent the clout to do such a thing.What i meant was SOMEONE will...take your pick from China...Russia...America...a possibly future organised european community....and remember with nuclear weapons (which every tinpot country seems to be getting ) size wont matter very much. Civilisation (for want of a better word)) is only a thin veneer..scratch the surface and neanderthal man lurks there still.
Funnily enough I didnt vote either ......I forgot all about the elections.......not that my vote matters.
Hi Dougie,
Voting to rid the country of immigrants you say is all well and good with you. The thing is.. the Anglo-saxos were at one point immigrants as well as the Vikings and the Romans. No one is really just from one place, except probably the Welsh and we know how they are... inter-breeding hasn't done much to their intelligence has it ?
About Brown. Wars are never cheap. Noticed how we haven't been told how the 10 years of war has cost us ? that is where the money has gone; and I say 10 years because I'm also counting Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan if you want to know where are money has gone there is your answer.
Brown has destroyed the economy of this country and on top of that he has borrowed billions of pounds which will have to be repaid through high taxation. Let's not forget that he also gave 640 billion pounds of tax payers money to the bankers who through incompetence drove their banks to the wall. In other words, Brown has rewarded failure. He is the cause of the bad economy today since he has been the chancellor for all of the many years of Blair's government. After he gave all those billions to the bankers we ceased to be on the league of trusted countries, in other words, we are now treated as a third world country.
I do agree that the British public is largely ignorant about politics, no one reads about it and they vote as though they are supporting a foot-ball team. They want their "team" to win.
Hi Dougie
No, I didn't think that Britain would start such a war. During the Cold War, both sides understood that they couldn't have a nuclear war because both would be destroyed. So when Soviet and US pilots found themselves fighting each other in Korea, both sides kept quiet about it.
I take your point that some loony tune like Jim Jong Il might start something nuclear, but I doubt it. There will of course always be wars of some kind.
I agree the veneer of civilisation is wafer thin, but I trust people more than I trust politicians.
I meant Kim Jong Il. "jim" was a typo, though it makes him sound a bit friendlier!
Hi Maria
The war has cost money,but its not by any stretch of the imagination the main cause of the financial woe.....the west has been living beyond its means for a long long time....Ive got no time for brown ,but im not going to blame him for everything..for instance he had no control over americas financial doings...
Immigration? well in anglo saxon times this country could no doubt do with the labour....but today? the country is allready overloaded..over populated...services are over stretched...etc..yet still the hordes pour in! a good perecentage come here because we are so stupid to pay them social security money,house them feed them and their grand parents great grandparents children etc......they get this money without paying one penny piece into the coffers......its a joke. why should i and others go to work to pay for a mob of layabouts?.....take them back to where they originated ,before they destroy this country completely is my opinion......shoot them if necessary...oh yes
Hi Dougie & Robert
Yes its true that Brown did not have control of the U.S. financial problems and that the U.S. sold us their toxic loans and this is how our major European banks got the U.S. malaise because we were sold dude debts from the U.S. housing market, where people over there, were being given loans which they simply could not repay because they lied in their mortgage applications, that is: They stated they earned a lot more money than they actually earned and the banks in the U.S. did not make the necessary checks to verify from their employers if that was true or not. So the U.S. banks were lending money even to a chimp if they filled in the papers.
And yes, for if you haven't noticed... we ARE in a WWIII since let's see how many countries are currently involved in this Middle East war. Take a look in the Google, even Germany has soldiers in Afghanistan ! the French, the Canadians, Spain, all the countries in Latin America to the exception of Mexico, East Europeans, Italians, Pakistanies, Saudi Arabia, there are more countries fighting in the Middle East now, than there were fighting during WWII !!! so I would say yes, we are in a Third World War already and its not cheap. The only ones making money out of these wars are the manufacturers of weapons. The ones who produce the tanks, the rifles, the airplanes, the grenades, the white phosphorous, the helicopters and all those implements that are vital to the soldiers. These merchants of weapons do not care how many soldiers die, so long as they make their profits. And who is the only entity who can purchase their weapons legally and in huge quantities ? The government. So sometimes they have to create wars in order to carry on selling their weapons. If wars stopped tomorrow, production would have to stop and they would lose money, so there have to be more wars, to carry on the business going.
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