Why automatic extradition of UK citizens is not a good idea

These extradition laws and the treaties we have with other countries should be repealed.

Let me know if you've heard similar stories.

Cameron interview: MP recall

Cameron is still dodging the question as to whether he'd hold a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all countries.

It is now obvious that he will not.

Stuart Wheeler bets Cameron £100,000 that he won't offer EU referendum

Stuart Wheeler has challenged David Cameron to accept a £100,000 bet that Cameron will renege on his pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Mr Wheeler, was booted out of the Conservative Party when he urged voters to back UKIP. He had been one of the largest donors to the Conservative Party, at one time donating £500,000.

Cameron has not given absolute assurance that he would hold a referendum of the Treaty is ratified by all EU nations and has not pledged to repeal it if it is.

Wheeler said: 'David Cameron is deceiving the British public over his EU referendum pledge.

'I am prepared to bet him or anyone else £100,000 that if the EU constitution has already become law by the time he comes to power he will not deliver.'

Read the full article in the Mail.

ICM Poll: Labour in 3rd place behind LibDems

• Labour is behind the LibDems for the first time since 1987 - 22 years
• 22% is the lowest level of support recorded for Labour since 1984.

Asked who they'd support in the local and European elections on 4th June:

1st: Con 29%
2nd: LibDem 20%
3rd: Lab 17% (down from 22.5%)
4th: Greens 11%
5th: UKIP 10%
6th: BNP 5%

Asked who was most damaged by the MPs' expenses scandal:

LibDems 2%
Conservatives 13%
Labour 54%

25% said that the three main parties had been equally damaged.

Asked when a general election should be held:

Now: 35%
Autumn 2009: 19%
2010: 39%

BBC takes political sides

Isn't the BBC supposed to be apolitical and fair to all parties, especially before an election?

Yes, I know they're biased lefties, but their blatant attack on UKIP on the Today programme should NOT go unchallenged.

Cameron wants MPs who broke law to be prosecuted

Morley faced the wrath of his constituents and looked beaten. He'll still be collecting his pay and perks until the general election, at which time he will received another dollop of taxpayer cash - a golden parachute. And then there's his pension.

Cameron wants MPs like Morley to be prosecuted. Should that happen, Morley would lose his seat and would cease to be funded by the taxpayer.

Bring it on.

Jon Snow interviews Bill Cash

Mother prosecuted for school application fraud

The Guardian reports:

Harrow council brings UK's first case of school application fraud:

A mother denied lying about her address to secure a place for her son at a popular primary school yesterday, in what lawyers said was a test court case.

Mrinal Patel, 41, is thought to be the first parent in the country to be taken to court for school application fraud.

Patel, who has three children, and works for a bank, appeared at Harrow magistrates court, north London, accused of fraud by false representation.

Abigail Smith, representing Harrow council, told the court it is alleged that Patel applied for a place at Pinner Park first school for her five-year-old son, Rhys, using her mother's address in January last year.

But council investigators found tax records placed her at a different residential address, two miles away from the popular school.

You couldn't make it up, could you?

Since when is caring for your son's education a crime?

Probably half of our politicians have been leeching from the taxpayer, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds - very likely fraudulently.

Isn't it astonishing that the likes of Darling, Blears, McNulty, Jackboot, Purnell and others have yet to have their collars felt and yet one or more of them is almost certainly guilty under the fraud and theft acts? And yet they remain in positions of power

If the powers that be see fit to prosecute Mrinal Patel for trying to get her son into the school of her choice, then the theiving troughers in the government should be prosecuted; there cannot be one law for the plebs and another for the ruling 'elite'.

The ruling elites are getting dangerously close to triggering a reaction approaching that caused by Ceauşescu's despotic rule.

Roger Wardle former head of the Serious Fraud Office, on possible charges against MPs:

Cons majority 168; Labour wipeout

ConservativeHome reports a massive Conservative majority in the general election, according to Populus. In the Euro elections, Labour is in 3rd place at 16% while UKIP is in 2nd place at 19%.

I suspect that both Labour and the LibDems will suffer greater losses in the EU elections than indicated by these polls - unless the postal votes are stored in cardboard ballot boxes, open to vote fraud. Nothing would surprise me; Labour has previous on voting fraud.

Brussels Laid Bare - EU corruption

UKIP Treasurer Marta Andreasen dared Lord Kinnock to attempt to ban her new book Brussels Laid Bare just days after its launch.

Marta, the former chief accountant for the EU, was sacked when she tried to expose EU waste. She questioned EU accounting practices and accountability and frequently clashed with the former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock who was an EU Commissioner at the time.

"I very much hope one of the drivers of the gravy train such as Lord Kinnock will try to ban this book," she said.

"Kinnock is blamed and shamed in the book but I don't think he'll have the nerve to try and stop it. I'm sure he has read it but, if he is clever, he'll try to ignore it."

At Andreason's book launch on Monday in Westminster, she urged every voter to read it before the European Elections on June 4.

Christopher Booker describes Brussels Laid Bare as "a chilling cross between two of Franz Kafka novels, The Trial and The Castle".

Read Christopher Booker's full review.

Should Amazon be out of stock, purchase Brussels Laid Bare here.

Marta Andreasen is standing as a UKIP MEP candidate on 4th June.

MPs request peerages

At least 52 Labour MPs, fearing a wipeout at the general election (should we have one), have requested peerages, reports the Guardian.

The list of requests should be published. Under no circumstances should any of the MPs implicated in the expenses scandal be considered for peerages, let alone granted them.

But then, the Brown government resurrected Mandy - twice disgraced and hounded from office - to be one of the movers and shakers in this moribund 'government'.

We have to assume that he will make the wrong choices and 'ennoble' the ignoble. He has form in this department.

MPs escape taxation on expenses: benefits in kind

Brian Friedman, a retired senior Ernst & Young tax partner, explains why MPs should pay tax on their expenses, fines for false or incomplete tax returns and shot be fired.

Here's something to send shivers down the spines of a few MPs. Under normal expenses rules, if a company pays for a capital asset, then it remains the property of the employer. Put simply, all those plasma TVs and duck houses and elephant lamps ought to belong to us, not to our MPs: when they get kicked out, deselected or retire, they should hand them back to the new intake.

As a senior partner, recently retired, at one of the Big Four accountancy firms, I like to think I know a thing or two about expenses and tax. But clearly, I don't know as much as I thought. In the case of Hazel Blears, I believed that, despite her kind offer to pay capital gains tax on the sale of her second home, the tax system didn't work like that. The taxman doesn't accept voluntary donations: if you try to pay tax where none is due, he will simply return your cheque. Either the minister submitted an incorrect tax return, in which case she should be liable for interest, and probably penalties, or the whole thing is a charade.

Then there are the other MPs who have offered to pay money back. If I robbed a bank, but handed over the loot when the police came knocking, they wouldn't just say thank you and walk away. If an employee fiddles his expenses, he will be dismissed, and quite likely prosecuted.

Why do our MPs think repaying the money is sufficient compensation? And why do they then think they can hang on until the next election and claim their generous resettlement allowance?

From a tax perspective, any expenses incorrectly claimed and subsequently repaid represent a beneficial loan. If the total is over £5,000, the MPs should be subject to tax on the notional interest arising – so the taxman should be charging interest and penalties on all those incorrect tax returns.

When you or I send in our returns, we make a declaration that our return is "correct and complete". We are warned that if we give false information, or conceal any part of our income or chargeable gains, we may be liable to penalties or prosecution.

In practice, what often happens when the taxman realises we have submitted an incorrect return is that HM Revenue & Customs gives us one last chance to come clean: our accountant must write a full report of anything else we would now like to declare, and we must sign a "Certificate of Full Disclosure". If HMRC then finds anything else untoward it gets angry – so angry that it will usually prosecute. If MPs had to review their returns and sign such a certificate, it would certainly focus their minds. If they could not or would not sign, why should we trust them with our votes?

Then there is something else that has had tax professionals spluttering over their morning coffee – the fact that Alistair Darling, and many of his ministerial colleagues, used their office allowances to pay for preparing their tax returns.

The idea that tax doesn't have to be taxing as long as you're an MP is galling on so many levels. First, it is an inappropriate use of their office allowance. Second, there are no grounds in tax legislation for these sums to be treated as tax-free. If there are any MPs who have been reimbursed for the cost of employing accountants through their allowances, and have not declared the amount they received as a benefit in kind – as Darling and others say they have – they will have submitted an incorrect tax return, and should be investigated by the Revenue.

Finally, the only reason that tax is this complex is because successive Chancellors have made it so: if even Mr Darling can't submit a tax return without specialist help, then perhaps now is the time for a radical simplification of our incoherent and archaic system.

You may be getting the sense by now that there is one law for them, and another for us. In fact, that's truer than you realise. Members of Parliament have created a special section of the tax code – Section 292 – which effectively ensures they receive less scrutiny than the rest of us, by exempting their overnight expenses from consideration.

We are still just scratching the surface of the way MPs have abused their allowances – any expenses investigator knows that mileage allowances tend to involve some pretty murky goings-on, and resettlement allowances, winding-down allowances and, above all, MPs' pensions seem to have been equally generous.

But while there are a host of ways to improve things in the medium term – the abolition of Section 292; receipts for all expenses; the establishment of serviced apartments for MPs near Westminster; the abolition of a second-home allowance; and no recruitment of relatives – the most important thing is to stop the rot.

First, MPs who fiddle their expenses should be fired, just as they would be if they worked for corporations. Second, all MPs should submit their tax returns to the fees office for scrutiny prior to submission, and should sign an annual declaration that their tax affairs are in order. Finally, all expenses claims should be suspended with immediate effect until a Certificate of Full Disclosure is submitted to the fees office. That is the simplest way of getting immediate results, and separating the rotten eggs from the rest.

This article appeared in the Telegraph.

MPs won't stand down before General Election: they'd lose severance pay

As if we hadn't guessed. MPs won't stand down before the general election because they'd lose severance pay.

NO to the Lisbon Treaty: Vote UKIP

If this were not such a critical juncture in British politics, I would cast my EU vote for the Conservatives - and Dan Hannan.

But I'll be voting for UKIP because the Conservative Party refuses to pledge that it will repeal the Lisbon Treaty, should it be ratified by all EU members by the time the Conservatives come to power.

If you're undecided about who to vote for, watch these videos:

The UK Independence Party has a wealth of videos, should you want to know more. Still undecided? Check out their vision, policies and manifesto.

Labour's burial, 4th June 2009

Imagery to warm your heart.

(Note to grave-diggers: Make sure those bolts are proofed).

Hat tip: Grumpy Old Twat.

Dan Hannan: totus porcus

At a time when the intellectual pygmies of this world, such as Jack Straw, pretend to have the answer to our broken politics - which Labour broke - Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell produce the solution that we all instinctively know to be right.

Contrast Straw's twisted logic and purported objectives for a British constitution with Dan's and Douglas's intellectually sharp and elegant logic, which characterises The Plan.

Straw's offerings are just what we have come to expect from this shabby Labour government - craven, dishonest and useless at best. At worst, Straw's proposed British Constitution would further destroy the freedoms of the individual and further empower the state. Under common law, the individual has a number of inalienable rights. Jack Straw seeks to override these rights such that any freedom not explicitly granted to the individual is implicitly disallowed. This amounts to a gross perversion of the freedoms that we have enjoyed over the centuries.

Straw's proposed constitution results in a curtailment of freedoms and an increase in state power while doing nothing to increase the accountability of the ruling 'elite'.

Today in the Telegraph, Dan Hannan describes Cameron's adoption of the ideas in book The Plan, co-authored by Dan and Douglas.

Dan argues that he will be returned to Brussels on June 5th precisely because he is a beneficiary of the party list system by which party whips have purloined power from the electorate.

Dan writes (my emphasis):

The solutions which David Cameron goes on to propose are drawn directly from that text, and from its sequel, The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain, which I co-authored with Douglas Carswell six months ago: local control over schools, housing and policing; fewer MPs; more power for councils; referendums, local and national; legislation by citizens' initiative; a shift in power from the executive and judicial branches of government to the legislature; weaker Whips; the end of the patronage powers enjoyed by the Prime Minister under Crown Prerogative; the appointment of public officials through open parliamentary hearings.

Six months ago, these ideas were widely dismissed as both abstruse ("no one is interested in constitutional reform") and impractical ("yes yes, Hannan, but back in the real world..."). The expenses revelations have made them seem not just pertinent, but urgent. David Cameron has spotted this and, with the decisiveness that has characterised his response to the allowances crisis, has adopted the agenda whole hog – totus porcus.

He reminds us that the corruption of politics will not be achievable while some MPs have what is essentially a job for life (my emphasis):

As long as 70 per cent of seats are safe, the only way for an MP to lose his job is to fall out with his party. That is the argument for open primaries, which will abolish the concept of a safe seat.

Read Dan's article.

Esther Rantzen to stand against Margaret Moran in Luton

Esther Rantzen has decided to challenge the troughing Margaret Moran for her Luton seat, if Moran is not deselected by the Labour Party.

Rantzen is a bit of an airhead and hardly an ideal candidate for MP but she is likely to attract votes from Labour supporters who want Moran out and have no wish to vote for another party.

Thankfully, Rantzen is unlikely to garner sufficient votes to win the election.

Moran (Labour) claimed £22,500 in expenses for treating dry rot at her Southampton property - 100 miles from her constituency and 80 miles from Westminster.

Cameron adopts The Plan by Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell

In a speech to the Open University in Milton Keynes today, Cameron has set out a raft of policies to reform government and make it more accountable to the people. Many of the policies amount to a direct adoption of ideas produced by Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell in their best-selling book The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain.

The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain clearly sets out their vision of a better Britain and it comes at just the right time, as I blogged a few days ago.


Not since the Winter of Discontent has the public been in such a lather over the state of the UK's economy and its politics. The public is in a murderous mood, after suffering 12 years under the worst two Prime Ministers in our history - Blair and Brown.

Cameron has judged the public mood accurately and should be handsomely rewarded in the polls.

Update: Dan Hannan calls on the Queen to dissolve Parliament.

Taxman to investigate MPs

Tax inspectors will be inquiring into the financial affairs of MPs to determine whether or not they owe HMRC tax on their expenses claims.

Among those to be investigated are ministers Alistair Darling, David Milliband Geoff Hoon, James Purnell, and Jackboot Smith due to their irregular claims on "office expenses" on which the rest of us are taxed. The Telegraph has exposed 9 people so far who have claimed for tax advice on expenses.

Under scrutiny will be claims for personal tax advice from accountants, household equipment, furniture and pot plants.

The HMRC also has concerns over the practice of MPs claiming back the cost of personal accountancy advice as a business expense.
According to the Telegraph, "MPs’ expenses claims have been under investigation for some years"!

How can an investigation into a handful of MPs have taken so long? Why has HMRC reached no conclusions as yet? HMRC manages to investigate the tax affairs of millions of people every year, but it takes several years to investigate a few MPs?















Update:

Jackboot Smith is to appear in court on 24th June in a private prosecution on charges of fraud for her expenses claims. Old Holborn is believed to have sought the prosecution.

See: FRAUD! Jackboot's main residence is Redditch

Citizens' Arrest: MPs targeted

Feisty blogger, Old Holborn, who started a demonstration near Parliament yesterday, plans to stage one or more citizens' arrests on 1st June 2009. Any MP who has pulled strings to evade arrest by the police should reconsider his or her position or be collared.







In the meantime, blogger Grumpy Old Twat issues an ultimatum to McMental, which will be ignored (unwisely) by the Prime Mentalist, no doubt.

MPs' Expenses: Google Earth view

Got to hand it to the Telegraph; it is playing a shrewd game. Today it published a Google Earth view of MPs' expenses claims.

Notice how it focuses on the Tories, even though Labour has by far the largest number of troughers and tops the list of MPs claiming as much as they can get away with.

Why is that?

For your convenience, here are the Telegraph's chosen MPs' properties to receive the Google Earth treatment - on one page.

Don't they live well at our expense?

A floating duck island, the equivalent of the Hilton for water fowl, formed part of an expenses claim by Sir Peter Viggers

Nick Clegg claimed for a small garden wall, which we can't identify in the picture, and repair of the path which snakes alongside his lawn

Sir Alan Haselhurst claimed more than £3,000 for the roof of his centuries old farmhouse to be retiled. He also submitted a bill for pea shingle for his drive

Greg Knight also wanted some help with his driveway, tidying up a path beside the smooth tarmac that gives access for his collection of classic cars

Repairs to a patio in her back garden were among Ruth Kelly's claims

Stewart Jackson was one of three Tory MPs who changed their minds about claims for swimming pool maintenance after they were contacted by the Telegraph

Douglas Hogg also backtracked on a claim for clearing his moat

In a more suburban setting, Clare Short asked taxpayers to contribute to her conservatory

Cutting the grass at David Davis' home is very expensive. He submitted the bills for maintaining his "paddock" to the House of Commons authorities

Anthony Steen sought help from the taxpayer to inspect 500 trees on his land

Now why doesn't the Telegraph provide shots of Labour homes?

Perhaps bloggers will fill this void!

Parliament: Gunpowder and fireworks

Old Holborn in gunpowder plot near Parliament this weekend:

Best reads and videos

We are failing the test of Civilisation - Iain Dale in the Guardian
Revolution in the air - Old Holborn (no mincer of words)
Tony's expenses they weren't shredded - Plato
My candidate for Speaker? Whoever says this - Dan Hannan
Make gov poverty history - Guido Fawkes

Supine Media shares blame for political rot

Iain Dale has written a very important piece in the Guardian on the erosion of liberties over the years and the rise of an overly-powerful government.

Governments throughout the ages have used variants of "threat to national security" as a device to scare people into accepting the state's grabbing of more power. Terrorism is an almost perfect 'threat' because it can never be proven to be defeated. We can never know whether or not the government is hyping up the existence of terrorism for the useful fear it engenders - because it can claim that for "national security" reasons, it cannot give us facts, lest it reveal its intelligence to 'the enemy'.

Fear is a device which can be milked by the government whenever it wishes to pass legislation or grab more power. How are we to know if an alleged threat is real, if we are not privy to the facts? This is where the media should come in.

The media and politicians seem to have overlooked a massive contributory factor to the fury engendered by the MPs' expenses saga - media silence.

For nearly a decade, I, and thousands of others, have been responding to articles in the DT and elsewhere crying out for the press to investigate and expose the shocking extent of the erosion of liberties and the burgeoning surveillance state. These clarion calls were the precursor to the anger that the country sees today - our frustration was overwhelming then. The fury kept building and building as the likes of McBride and his henchmen sought (probably) to silence the MSM and do their filthy bidding.

Now the volcano has erupted and murderously hot, sulfurous lava is making its inexorable way across the country, laying to waste any living thing which gets in its path. Politicians beware.

The media needs to examine its part in the destruction of trust we see all around us. The media should never be a government mouthpiece. If it does not represent truth, via diligent investigation and honest reporting, then it ceases to be a cog in the machinery of freedom-protection and a valve in the pressure cooker of despotic politics. It then becomes a cog in the machinery of a despotic state and does not deserve to use the word "journalism" to describe its work.

Dan Hannan predicts Tory victory in EU Elections

As Conservative Party workers and activists despair at the public's fury over sleaze, and newspapers foresee a hemorrhaging of voters from the big three to smaller parties, Dan Hannan predicts a good Tory win on June 4th.

He might be right. Over the past few months, both Dan and Douglas Carswell have electrified the political arena with their powerful logic and unmistakable integrity as they bashed together the heads of the venal, troughing MPs who have shamed the office they swore to uphold.

A timely book, co-authored by Dan and Douglas, The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain clearly sets out their vision of a better Britain and it is just what we need.



Still, Nigel Farage is upbeat, as he is sure to hoover up support from Labourites and Liberal voters, disaffected by their parties' refusal to stand by their manifesto pledges to offer a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Labour and the LibDems are surely aware that UKIP's ascendency is largely due to the referendum, immigration and big state issues. Were voters angry about the venality of MPs and political corruption alone, many would choose to spoil their ballot papers or not vote at all. All parties have seriously misjudged people's anger over loss of sovereignty. After all, permission to lead Britain was lent to politicians by the electorate for a limited term; it was not theirs to sign away for a greedily trousered 30 pieces of silver.

The truth will dawn on Labour and the LibDems after the votes have been counted, that they played a shabby EU game and have been deservedly and decisively cast out into the wilderness.

1984: Freedom is Slavery - a nightmare

George Orwell's wisdom has a bitter-sweet quality in today's world of spin and chicanery:

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

We are burdened by political correctness, we're told "black is white", when our eyes tell us otherwise. We live in a world of power gone mad and corruption borne of excessive power.

Libertarian US Congressman Ron Paul tears the veil from the eyes of his fellow Congressmen:



Our youth have grown up without knowledge of their own origins and history. That needs to be changed.

George Orwell's wise words might teach us about liberty, before our democracy is ground to dust and our freedoms with it.

Poignant Orwell quotes:

1984
- It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.

The Prevention of Literature (1946)
- From the totalitarian point of view, history is something to be created rather than learned.

- People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

1984
- Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.

1984
- If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

- Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

- Freedom is the right to say two plus two make four. If granted, all else follows.

- Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Animal Farm
- All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

1984
- In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane.

- Big Brother is watching you.

- On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

- Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

1984
- He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.

- If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

- No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is a thing that human beings must avoid.

- Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

1984
- Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

- If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

1984
- War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

1984
- One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

- Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.

1984
- Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

- The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

1984
- Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.

1984
- War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.

Second Thoughts on James Burnham
- The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

Taxman takes a bite out of Pringles

Three judges and a VAT tribunal decided that Pringles are crisps and not cakes. Who'd've thought it?!

Whereas foodstuffs generally are zero-rated by the VAT man, crisps are not. Proctor and Gamble had avoided paying VAT on Pringles by claiming they were cakes. Now they find they owe £100 million of unpaid VAT and £20 million per year from now on.

The Telegraph chews this over:

Pringles, the law has declared, are no longer cakes, but crisps. This has cost their makers £100 million in VAT. Last year, the law declared that Pringles were not crisps, but a cakey kind of thing. It is not so much that the judges are trying to have their cake and eat it, as that a crisp high court judgment is an appeal court's undercooked argument.

This question of VAT liability takes the biscuit for litigation. The proof of the Pringle is in the pleading. Lawyers have already had to argue that Marks and Spencer teacakes are indeed cake, and the makers of Jaffa cakes had to resort to law to prove that their chocolate-covered confections were not biscuits, which would have taken them into the luxury tax bracket. It all puts bread into lawyers' mouths, but it must make Marie Antoinette spin in her grave.

MPs: now it's your turn to go

Michael Martin was forced out of office by an angry mob of MPs and an outraged public. Not without substantial benefit, mind you. He takes with him an astonishing £1.4 million pension and a seat in the Lords.

One can only assume that this outrageously generous golden parachute was McMental's bribe to get Gorbals to go without dropping McMental in the sewage. Funny how all of us, apart from McMental himself, seem to pay heavily for his c*ck-ups. This is something we need to change.

If the powers that be imagine that the public is going to be satisfied with just getting rid of Gorbals Mick and a few unimportant Labour expendables, they are quite mistaken. The real scandal is that we have a cabinet loaded with expenses cheats some of whom ought to be in jail, rather than running the country into the ground.

I'm still MAD AS HELL and I want justice done!

We've endured an unaccountable executive for far too long. It really is time the swine fell on his, or someone else's sharp sword.

See Aaron Russo's "Mad as hell!" videos.

Dan Hannan defends national sovereignty

Dan Hannan scorns the EU's notion of national sovereignty and its disdain for the wishes of the people. He puts a compelling case for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty to the EU Parliament:

Speaker's to step down on 21st June 2009

Speaker Martin, in a statement to the House of Commons, announced that he will be relinquishing his role as Speaker on 21st June 2009 and that a new Speaker would be elected on 22nd June 2009.

One down, 100s to go ...

Watch his speech.

There was a failed attempt to oust Speaker Martin last year when he blocked a Freedom of Information request for full details of MPs' expenses.

Douglas Carswell, the hero in this piece, led a fearless, unprecedented campaign to rid the House of the Speaker and to clean up politics - and he won.

Met will not investigate leak to Telegraph in Expensesgate

The Met have decided not to investigate the leaks of MPs' expenses data to the Telegraph. Stung over accusations of political manipulation, the Met have seen sense.

This will be a further blow to Speaker Martin's shot authority.

Speaker Martin to resign today

Speaker Michael Martin is to resign today. He is expected to announce his resignation at 14:30 in the House of Commons.

I suspect he'll try to get away with stepping down at the General Election, in order to hang onto his generous salary and pension. Should he be so daft, he'll face another raft of moves against him, such as Douglas Carswell's Substantive Motion of no confidence in the Speaker, which would have to be permitted by Gordon Brown in order to be debated in the Commons. This would put Brown in an intolerable position because Brown had previously told the country that this is "not a matter for the Government". He'd be forced to admit that he was wrong, or lying.

Town Hall banned flying Union flag

The Telegraph reports that South Kesteven District Council has banned the Town Hall from flying the Union flag on Armed Forces Day because bureaucrats will not let anyone climb 8ft to reach the pole.

South Kesteven District Council, which maintains the Town Hall, says it is too risky to ask the site manager to climb a ladder and unfurl a flag.

Fausty thinks: If some daring, patriotic person would climb the pole in the dead of night and hoist the flag, Kesteven District Council will be forced to leave it there because it will be too "dangerous" to to bring it down.

Mad as hell!

Aaron Russo, film-maker, produced a great 9-part film Mad as Hell, which resonates today - spooky parallels.



















Aaron Russo was considered to be a "conspiracy theorist" in his day. Maybe he was; nevertheless, much of what he warned against has come to pass. Not just in America, but in Britain too.

Aaron Russo died of cancer on 24th August 2007.

Motion of No Confidence in Speaker Michael Martin

Lobby your MP to sign Douglas Carswell's Motion of No Confidence in Speaker Martin. Email him/her via TheyWorkForYou.com or telephone House of Commons on 020 7219 3000 and speak to your MP directly.

Douglas Carswell tabled a and Early Day Motion of No Confidence in Speaker Martin and urges him to resign.

Today, in the Speaker's statement to the House of Commons, he made it clear that he had no intention of resigning.

Several MPs raised points of order, telling Martin that he had lost the confidence of the House and that he should go.

Speaker Martin will not allow the Early Day Motion to be debated in the House and, advised by his clerks, told the House that in order to have a debate on the issue, a Substantive Motion would have to be tabled and that it was up to the government (McMental) to allow the motion.

Cameron petitions Brown to dissolve Parliament

Today, Cameron launched a petition addressed to Gordon Brown to dissolve Parliament.

"We, the undersigned, believe that the best way to sort out the problems facing Britain and to restore trust in our political system is for a dissolution of Parliament and a general election so that people can pass their verdict on MPs’ behaviour at the ballot box."

Sign it now!

Fausty's choice - top weekend articles

• Hurrah for the unlovable free press - John Lloyd, Financial Times
• Allowance system was founded on deception - Christopher Booker, Telegraph
• You've brought this House into disrepute. You must go - Douglas Carswell, Sunday Mail
• Only the Speaker can restore faith in Parliament. That is why Mr Martin must go - David Davis, Sunday Mail
• 'It's not a splash. It's Balls' - By Jane Merrick and Matthew Bell, Independent

Fausty has been so busy reading and assimilating info of late that she's not had the inclination to post her views. Fausty wonders how journalists, bloggers and various media types, like Iain Dale manage it.

Fausty is a new blogger - still learning the ropes.

Best quotes from MPs' expenses saga - Telegraph

The Telegraph publishes its Best quotes from the MPs'expenses investigation:

Shahid Malik: "I'm as straight as they come"
When: May 15, hours before standing down as Justice Minister

Andrew Mackay: “When it (the housing arrangement) was drawn to my attention my first reaction was that the right thing to do was to resign my post, which I did very first thing today with David.”
When: May 14, announcing that he was standing down as David Cameron's aide

Hazel Blears: “I have heard absolutely the outrage and the anger that the public feel about what has been going on. I would never do anything to let down the people that I represent and serve and that is the most important thing for me. It isn’t just enough to claim within the law, that is why I have decided to send to the inland revenue a cheque. "
When: May 12, after previously saying she had complied with the rules and done nothing wrong

Douglas Hogg: "I have never claimed for the moat, or for the piano tuning - the allegation that I did is incorrect. I never claimed for these and I never received any money."
When: May 13

Gordon Brown: “I want to apologise on behalf of politicians, on behalf of all parties, for what has happened.”
When: May 11

David Cameron: "Politicians have done things that are unethical and wrong. I don't care if they were within the rules - they were wrong"
When: May 12

Michael Martin to Kate Hoey: “I just say to you it’s easy to say to the press, 'This should not happen’. It’s a wee bit more difficult when you just don’t have to give quotes to the press and do nothing else. Some of us in this House have other responsibilities.”
When: May 11 in the House of Commons during announcement of review

Lembit Opik: "I may have been within the rules. It's equivocal. I asked them about it (claiming back a £40 court summons) and they said they would have to look into it. The one thing they (the Telegraph) have been trying to get me to pay back may not have been wrong."
He said he had written a cheque anyway "rather than waste the Fees Office's time".
When: May 13

Peter Mandelson: "Perhaps we need not more people looking round more corners but the same people looking round more corners more thoroughly to avoid the small things detracting from the big things the Prime Minister is getting right."
When: May 9

John Maples, who declared the RAC club as his main home: “I believe that everything I have claimed on the ACA has been a properly incurred property-related expense and that I can produce receipts for almost everything.”
When: May 13

Chris Huhne: “My aim on second home claims has always been to avoid controversy, which is why they are 17 per cent of the allowable maximum and rank me as 580th out of the 620 MPs entitled to claim the allowance.”
When: May 12

Andrew George: "This story's main allegation appears to be that I have a London flat that is sometimes visited by my daughter, who lives elsewhere in London."
When: May 13

Nick Clegg: "Do I think this was a train crash waiting to happen? Yes, clearly it was. What we are seeing now is the unravelling of a system that thrived in the shadows"
When: May 13

Dan Hannan on Gordon Brown "word cloud"

Here is a word cloud of Dan Hannan's savaging speech directed at McMental in the EU Parliament.


















A word cloud is a 'picture' of words, giving greater prominence to those that appear more frequently in a text, such as a speech or transcript.

Labour loses donors while £18.9m in debt

The Guardian reports that Labour has lost the support of major donors due to the MPs' expenses scandals:

Anthony Bailey, the public relations "fixer" who introduced the £1m donor Mahmoud Khayami and has given more than £72,000 himself, said that he would not be donating to Labour and would not encourage others to do so. "The expenses stories are shameful. Anyone who is thought to have broken the law should be investigated by the police immediately," he said. "I have no intention of giving a single penny to Labour at this time, and I cannot see how I could introduce any of my contacts either."

Bailey, who claims to have raised £1.4m for the party over the past two years and sits on a government taskforce, added: "I can see many other donors withdrawing their support."

Read the full article.

Rumours have been circulating that Labour MPs were asked to claim expense so that they could donate to the Labour Party, mired in debt. I've not been able to find a source for this, but various bloggers have said that Ken Livingstone knew about the arrangement.

Update: Iain Dale has heard the rumour. View his comments.

In 2002, the Independent reported that "Labour MPs have been told to donate nearly £1,000 each to Millbank because the party's finances have slipped into the red by more than £6m." Back then, Labour's debt was £10 million. Now, it's twice that.

This fact adds a whisp of smoke ...

Do you have information that links the smoke with the fire?

Reduce the number of MPs and pay them more

Tim Devlin writes in the Telegraph:

SIR – In 1995, I tabled a joint motion in the Commons to reduce the cost of an intended pay rise for MPs.

Our idea was to reduce the number of MPs by a third, increase their taxable pay and do away with the additional cost allowance altogether.

By combining constituencies in groups of three, and only electing the two candidates with the most votes, the number of MPs would fall from 650 to 433. Salaries for those elected could be increased to £100,000. The taxpayer would save a lot of money overall.

Tim Devlin
MP, Stockton South, 1987-97
London EC4

This is an idea whose time has come. If we reduce the number of MPs, and increase their salaries as he suggests, we can do away with the ACA, which seems to invite corruption and which is probably time-consuming to police.

Update: MPs are paid £64K for working 60% of the year, which gives them a salary for each month worked of £8K. This translates to an annual salary of £106K were they to work every month of the year. Not so badly paid after all.

Britain's graduates inadequately educated

I'm constantly amazed by the lack of quality of the postings of alleged graduates. Most often, posters' grammar, spelling, punctuation and presentation would suggest that they'd received a sub-standard education.

We all err, but the current crop of 'graduates' makes me fear for the future. Here's an example, purloined from a Telegraph comment:

I am a low income worker , a graduate , an honourable person. I am disapointed. We all knew that MP's were second to estate agents and far a trust is concerned, but after this I am supprised that the general public dont rise up and march on the commons demanding the whole lot be fired and a newly elected government be formed. I pay more than a third of my income tothe government and I have to pay for 16k sterio systems and nonexistant mortgages when I strugle to be able to take my family abroad or even in this country on holiday each year. I want to stand in front of these fat pigs in there little boys room known as the commons and discrace each and everyone of them in public view. We had the remnants of a democracy that has now been distroyed by greed and selfishness. For one all should lose the right to a state funded pension for years of service due to years of theft. And for those that did get expenses i wouldnt be surprised if they didnt even pay the correct income tax on those expenses as a benefit in kind. For this they should face the wrath of english law. Part of me wanted to become a candidate but now every party is morally tainted and there are non I would wish to represent. It is now time to call the new election and prevent any current politition which is tainted in the slightest from running for a seat even if they are high up in government . even if they are in the cabinet. They should no more be alowed to steal money from the mouths of my family in the name of greed.

If they refuse then the people will speak and march on them.

The queen should demand the disbanding of parliment and put faith back in the publics hands by calling for a new govenment.

While I've highlighted the most obvious errors (including some punctuation and grammatical errors and logic errors), the above piece has so many, that I've ignored the trivial.

This comment is so poorly constructed that had it been subject to examination in my day (1970s), it would've been branded a "fail".

Is this not a glaring example of the failures of the government, which has purloined absolute power over educational establishments over the last 12 years?

Does Ed Balls have no shame?

Lisbon Treaty - your last chance to stop it

Straw drops plans for secret inquests without juries

Woohoo! Err, for now.

Be vigilant. Jack Straw wants you to believe that he's dropped plans for secret inquests without juries. What these plans resurface as innocuous-looking clauses scattered over a number of bills - which will doubtless be rushed through parliament.

The Telegraph reports:

In a Commons written statement, Mr Straw said that despite earlier Government concessions, it was clear the move still did not command the necessary cross party support.

Where it is not possible to proceed with an inquest under existing arrangements, the Government will consider establishing an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 instead.

Plans to exclude relatives and reporters from parts of some inquests were dropped from counter-terrorism legislation after fierce opposition last year.

But non-jury inquests were revived in the Coroners and Justice Bill this year to cover cases involving sensitive information.

We need to keep an eye on any Coroners and Justice Bill amendments. Last time Straw tried to sneak in clauses to the bill which had nothing to do with its alleged intent. No2ID galvanised voters to contact their MPs to draw attention to the clauses, causing them to be stripped from the bill.

No2ID warned:

NO2ID has been warning since 2006/7 about the stated intentions of government "to overcome current barriers to information sharing within the public sector" [1]. Now the Ministry of Justice has launched an extraordinary coup. It is about to convert the Data Protection Act into its exact opposite, a means for any government department to obtain and use any information however it likes.

Hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill [2] is one clause (cl.152) amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to make 'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.

This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body.

The Database State is now a direct threat not a theory.

Quite apart from the powers in the Identity Cards Act, if Information Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build an early version of the National Identity Register. But the powers apply to any information, not just official information. They would permit data trafficking between government agencies and private companies - your medical records are firmly in their sights - and even with foreign governments.

References:

1) Joining the dots on 'data sharing'
2) Coroners & Justice Bill

Remain vigilant. Government will take whatever powers you agree to relinquish. Don't relinquish your power - your rights - to any government of any persuasion, lest you ultimately relinquish your freedom.

Alan Duncan gets a new gardner for free

Venomous Balls - expenses fiddle

After being rumbled by the Telegraph for an expenses fiddle by Balls and Cooper, Balls exudes venom. I wonder if it was aimed at a particular journalist, or all of them in general.




The Telegraph reports:

At one point, Miss Cooper and Mr Balls, the Children’s Secretary and a close ally of Gordon Brown, had their expenses docked, after each submitted two monthly claims for mortgage interest of nearly £1,300.

At the time, their mortgage statements showed the interest-only element of their mortgage stood at £733.

Officials also warned them that they had submitted the same claim, for the month of July 2006, twice.

Hmmm. That sounds like they tried to get away with double-claiming but were refused by the Fees Office.

The public can prosecute MPs

I don't like to post full articles, but the Daily Mail today published information I've been searching for all week. That is, the right of ordinary citizens to bring a prosecution, where the police and CPS do not wish to.

Here it is:

Under ancient common law, an individual has a right to bring a criminal to justice in the courts if the state authorities fail to do so.

Private prosecutions are expensive, difficult to organise and involve producing a high level of proof to persuade a court that an accused can be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

But, occasionally, in cases of public scandal, they are effective in bringing great wrongdoing to light.

And if a private prosecution acquires momentum, then the Crown Prosecution Service may step in to put the legal action on to an official basis.

A private prosecution is brought when members of the public feel let down by the police or the CPS when apparently criminal behaviour is allowed to pass without investigation.

Scotland Yard is showing no inclination to involve its officers at Westminster in pursuit of what looks to the public like blatant instances of fraud.

Fraud carries a maximum sentence of ten years jail and - or - an unlimited fine.

False accounting carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

A private prosecution begins in a magistrates court. It can be brought by anyone who wants to see an act of injustice righted.

They do not need to be the victim. A magistrate is, at the first stage, asked for a summons against the accused to answer the charge.

The court will ask for evidence of the crime. If the prosecution is to proceed, the case will be sent to a Crown Court for a jury trial.

Several eventualities could prevent that happening in the MPs' expenses case.

One possibility is that Commons authorities could rule that the matter falls within the bounds of Parliamentary privilege and may not be tried in the courts.

Any such ruling would risk stoking up even greater public anger.

Commons authorities would also be asked to make evidence of expenses claims available.

They have already promised to publish basic information in June.

But they may still try to withold vital information that has so far been regarded as private, in particular vital material about addresses used by MPs.

There might also be a move to ask a High Court judge rather than a magistrate to rule on whether a private prosecution attempt can go to a full trial.

Major private prosecutions in recent times include that by the parents of Stephen Lawrence.

They brought a case against youths they believed responsible for the 1993 murder of their 18-year-old son.

The case collapsed when identification evidence was ruled inadmissable, but the campaign attracted support from the public which grew angry over the failures of the police investigation.

After a coroner ruled in 1997 that Stephen was the victim of an unlawful killing, the Daily Mail named five youths as his murderers.

Private Prosecutions by Taxpayers' Alliance and Daily Mail

The Daily Mail will join forces with the Taxpayers' Alliance "to bring to justice MPs whose flagrant abuse of expenses has shamed Britain".

Yesterday, the Taxpayers' Alliance said it would privately prosecute MPs if the police and the Crown Prosecution Service remain uninterested in calling them to justice.

Shock YouGov Poll - Landslide for Tories

The Sun's YouGov poll shows:

Conservatives on 41%,
Labour on 22%
LibDems on 19%
UKIP on 19% (up 12 points)

So LibDems are level-pegging with UKIP and just 3 points behind Labour.

The Sun claims that "Chancellor Alistair Darling, justice secretary Jack Straw, defence supremo John Hutton and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would all be sent packing".

Assuming that the Tories can maintain this lead, the Sun calculates that it would have a majority of 152 in a general election. But with more revelations on MPs expenses out this week, almost anything can happen to the political landscape.