Goldsmith, Huhne and Balls; election expenses investigation started.

By scrubber | Published: July 23, 2010

I received an email today from the excellent Sunlight Centre for Open Politics, an organisation dedicated to transparency in politics.

The blog entry behind the email can be found here and the full email including a “donate” button can be found here. I’ve reproduced the email below, but I urge readers to go to the email page above and donate to this cause.

    Dear Sunlight Supporter,

    My name is Jim Waterson and I’m the new Research Analyst at the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics. We have this week begun a new investigation into the election spending of Zac Goldsmith, Chris Huhne and Ed Balls. We have reason to believe that there was irregular spending in all three of these tight campaigns.
    Read more...»

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Posted in Corruption, Ed Balls, General Election, MPs Expenses | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Britain exploits the mentally challenged…

By scrubber | Published: July 22, 2010

So says the excellent Matthew Wright, presenter of Channel 5’s Wright Stuff of Britain’s Got Talent. I kind of agree with him too, wondering how on earth they manage to find so many deluded people to expose themselves in front of millions. Most of them are utterly talentless, and clearly suffering from various types of mental illnesses and/or personality disorders. Even the talented ones, such as Susan Boyle, sometimes have their “funny little ways”, but I suppose every good omelette needs a few broken eggs, and I do rather enjoy watching BGT myself.

Most of the aspiring stars drift off back to their delusions in obscurity, but according to today’s Daily Mail (and a host of other papers, Sky News etc.) one contestant from last year’s BGT has decided that she was so “ridiculed in front of 20million viewers [that] the trio took away her ’self respect and dignity’ in order to boost the programme’s ratings and profit.” that she needs to sue them for a total of £2.55 million. Emma Amelia Pearl Czikai, 54, is seeking £300,000 for her injured feelings, compensation of £1million and loss of earnings of £1.25million, but claims she will donate all funds awarded to charity. Incredible.
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Posted in Broken Britain, Humour, Legal lunacy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Zac Goldsmith: what a twat.

By scrubber | Published: July 20, 2010

I’m in catch-up mode after a couple of weeks working away and quite over-whelmed with the sheer volume of crap falling around our ears worthy of a blog or two. This one stands out, and although a few days old, needs wide dissemination…

We’re all well used to politicians not answering questions, their evasion tactics, obfuscation and so on, as so brilliantly exemplified and employed by the previous Government. This is in a class of its own.

If Zac Goldsmith were my MP, I’d be pushing to have him deselected ASAP, and if I were Cameron, I’d drop him like a hot coal. What a 24-carat, ocean-going, tosser. What on earth was he thinking, and what on earth does he think this makes him look like? The mind boggles… This idiot is an MP? People voted for him? Give me strength…

UPDATE: There is a superb analysis of this faux-pas here. It is worthy of a visit for many reasons, 2 of which are:

The quote: “In politics, one moment can destroy a career, and whilst Zac’s moment on Channel 4 won’t destroy his, it will certainly stay with him for as long as he remains active in politics.” John Redwood and the Welsh Anthem, anyone?

and the video of Peter Ward of the British Dental Association; which is top.

There are some interesting comments including some from people who think Zac Goldsmith did really well…

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Posted in David Cameron, General Election, MPs Expenses, Parliament, Political Stupidity, Taxpayers' Money | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Coalition Government launches “Your Freedom” initiative.

By scrubber | Published: July 1, 2010

Today, as has been widely reported in the MSM, Nick Clegg launched the Coalition Government’s “Your Freedom” initiative, where they are asking us to tell them what laws we want repealed, where the Government is snooping too much, strangling us in red tape, and so on. All to the good on the face of it. I say “on the face of it” because I’m cynical about the delivery, especially given the sheer scale of the task. It may well be unfair to the new Government, but I can’t help remembering the petitions on the No10 website that were ignored, the Countryside March, the anti-Iraq War march, and so on: millions of people totally ignored.

There’s a new website for us to use to pass on our views, and I suggest anyone with strong views on something gets over there for a look, not least to see the short film of Nick Clegg introducing the initiative. I’ve included below some extracts from the front page, to give a flavour of what they’re looking for.
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Posted in Big Brother, Civil Liberties, Legal lunacy, Nanny State, New Labour, Police | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A steaming, confected, self-polishing jobbernowl.

By scrubber | Published: June 30, 2010

So says the excellent Quentin Letts of our over-promoted, self-important and out-of-his-depth Squeaker John Bercow.

I didn’t know what a jobbernowl was either, so I looked it up. Excellent! What a cracking choice of word.

Quentin’s article was inspired by the Junior Health Minister Simon Burns’ behaviour in the House of Commons yesterday during Health Questions.

Burns Simon.ashx

It seems that the Squeaker twice admonished Mr. Burns for being indistinct in his answers, and wished him to address his answers to the Dispatch Box in front of him rather than his supporters behind him. The Squeaker being the Squeaker couldn’t resist drawing himself up to his full (claimed) 5′6″ adding, in that peculiarly patronising way he has: “It’s a very simple point. I’ve made it to others, and they understood it.”

Mr Burns, being Mr. Burns went puce in an instant, and spewed forth a torrent of abuse which included the phrase “stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”, and apparently at one stage his hand even hovered some 4′ off the floor.
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Posted in John Bercow, Parliament | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The economic consequences of Mr. Brown

By scrubber | Published: June 29, 2010

My thanks to our blogging colleague Old Holborn for bringing our attention to the following youtube clip of a speech by Professor Stein Ringen, and thence, by extension, the rather longer version below it. The subject is a book by Professor Ringen called “The Economic Consequences of Mr Brown”: quite a subject…

The good Professor is quite right when he calls it a paradox. It certainly is, especially when he says that Labour weren’t incompetent, but that they made so many bad decisions. Er…

Nonetheless, well worth a watch, and a very interesting perspective on 13 wasted years and a whole bundle of wasted money. Enjoy:


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Posted in Broken Britain, Corruption, David Cameron, Economy, Gordon Brown, Ministerial incompetence, Nanny State, New Labour, Parliament, Taxpayers' Money, Technology, Tories | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Scroungers on £42k a year benefits because they’re better off not working

By DiamondGeezer | Published: June 29, 2010

Today’s instalment of why Britain is so totally screwed after 13 years of Labour administration is brought to us by thisismoney.co.uk. To summarise, Peter Davey and his wife Claire have seven children, with yet another one on the way, and have an ‘income’ of £815 per week (£42,500 pa) entirely in benefits. To put this in perspective, you’d need to earn about £61,500 pre-tax to get the same.

There are so many similar stories that I have given up reporting them, but the sheer affrontery of these two beggars belief even in this rotten system.

Mr. Davey used to work, but gave up because his family were better off on benefits.
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Posted in Broken Britain, Taxpayers' Money | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Sport! Who needs it?

By scrubber | Published: June 28, 2010

I hadn’t intended to write about football today, of all days. Frankly, I’d rather forget the appalling display I and about 20 million other people in the UK witnessed yesterday, but it’s hard to avoid. I’m really a rugby man, and I’d be quite happy to go back to reading the humourous texts flooding into my Nokia about the England team. However…

I think I’ll leave it to the LA Times to say what I think. The article’s worth a read, but this section sums it up for me:

    “The sad truth of the matter is that England’s players, with few exceptions, are an arrogant, ignorant and unpleasant lot. They are paid far too much by their Premier League clubs, where their true allegiance lies, and their ability individually and collectively in an England shirt does not match their swagger.

    It is not too much to say that the worthless and nationalistic English tabloids are reflected in the English team. It’s all about drinking, drugs, womanizing, gambling, fast cars and slow minds. Little England written large.”

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Posted in Education, Olympics, Sport | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Andrew Neal ambushes Diane Abbott

By scrubber | Published: June 25, 2010

I happened to catch This Week last night on the Beeb, and noticed that Diane Abbott had re-appeared next to Michael Portillo on the sofa. She’s been off campaigning for the Labour leadership, apparently.

Speaking personally, I have no major feelings either way on her, or her chances of winning the leadership. Frankly, I don’t care much either, except inasmuch as if either she or the dreadful Ed Balls wins, Labour will be lucky to ever see power again, which is a good thing. I have, however, not a lot of respect for her, believing her to be both a champagne socialist and a hypocrite.
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Posted in Ed Balls, MPs Expenses, New Labour, Parliament, Taxpayers' Money | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Woman not allowed to take dog on bus on religious grounds

By DiamondGeezer | Published: June 25, 2010

Instalment number two of ‘The World’s Gone Mad’ is this example, again from the Telegraph.

Judith Woods has twice in the last week been refused access to a bus because she wanted to take a dog with her. As far as my experience goes, you’re always allowed to take dogs on buses, unless they’re particularly poorly behaved, or wet and dirty. Or indeed if the bus company itself has a non-dog policy.

In both of these instances, however, she was refused access on religious grounds.
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Posted in Broken Britain, Legal lunacy, Nanny State | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment