It is perfectly disgusting that a young man's body could remain undiscovered for three days in Watford Hospital. This is of course the main acute hospital for everyone in St Albans after the government closed down most of the departments at St Albans City Hospital and then reneged on its promise to build a new super-hospital at Hatfield. The body was found in a toilet. Allegedly it had an out-of-order notice on the door. But it is still difficult to comprehend that a proper cleaning regime would not have exposed the tragedy much sooner West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust is rightly ...
What is it with the expenses scandal and the smallest room? Already the revelations concerning John "two lavs" Prescott and John Reid's glittery black loo seat have left Telegraph readers with more wholly unnecessary images than the mind can comfortably encompass. We should probably be grateful that the only Lib Dem item of toilet accoutrement expenditure known thus far is a relatively inoffensive £9.99 toilet brush holder from Homebase. More alarmingly, we now have at least one offender in the matter of dodgy second home designation, Lord Rennard (health warning - NotW link): For peers to claim for second homes, ...
There's been a dispute in the Church of Scotland over the past few weeks about whether an openly gay minister, Scott Rennie, is allowed to take charge of a parish in Aberdeen. Although Scott is a fellow Lib Dem, I can't say I know him. But you can read his thought-provoking insight into the dispute over his appointment here. His appointment is to be the subject of a motion to the Church of Scotland General Assembly and this has been the subject of vigorous debate, including among MSPs. Among the politicians commenting has been Nationalist MSP Dave Thompson. According to ...
It's going to take me a little longer than I thought to get my thoughts together about Seaguy, so I'll be posting about that and Cerebus Archive tomorrow, instead of today. In the meantime, here's a Spotify playlist. This one's an a capella (almost entirely) collection, which happened by accident when I noticed the first [...]
The first opinion poll relating to the European elections since nominations closed appeared in today's Sunday Times. It makes interesting reading, though depressing for Labour and the Greens. In response to the question 'How will you vote in the June 4 European elections?', 37% said Conservative, 22% Labour, 19% Liberal Democrat and 7% UKIP. All the [...]
{loveprestwichweb.gif} On friday afternoon I attended the Festival Launch event at the Church Inn. Amidst Town crier, balloons being released, carnival queens et al politicians (yes myself included), said our "thank you's" to all those who had put so much hard work into getting this first Prestwich Festival off the ground, and wished everyone the best of luck for the forthcoming events. I particularly singled out Area Partnership Manager, Carran O'Grady, Ruth Shedwick and Organiser, David Curtis for all their involvement and commitment to ensuring Prestwich Festival actually happened! 35 days of events across Prestwich commence on Sunday 17th with ...
I can reveal - exclusively - the results of thrilling research that shows an overwhelmingly strong link between Beards in political life and the quality of political debate. Alix Mortimer explains: "In 1909, beards were almost synonymous with politicians - and typically the average politician used a vocabulary of over 10,000 words in their communications with the electorate. 100 years later, the beards are gone and the typical vocabulary of a beardless cabinet minister is down to about 10 words, including, "clearly", "wasn't" and "me" being the most commonly used words. This strong correlation proves conclusively that quality of political ...
When a lot of people arrive on this blog after searching for a particular name it usually means one of two things: either they have just appeared on television or they have died. Unfortunately, in the case of Ernest Millington, the latter explanation turns out to be the correct one. He has died at the age of 93. Millington was the last surviving MP who had sat before the 1945 general election. He won Chelmsford for Common Wealth in a wartime by-election and held it from them in 1945. He subsequently joined Labour, but lost his seat to the Tories ...
For a while I have been staring with admiration and bemusement at videos of a band called the Monks, taken from German television in the 1960s. An article by Alex Petridis in Friday's Guardian has explained what I have been looking at and inspired me to explore a little further. Petridis writes: The Monks were former GIs, stationed in West Germany, who had been transformed by a German management team from covers band the Torquays into the "anti-Beatles": dressed in cassocks, their heads shaved into tonsures, howling anti-war slogans over a primitive, feedback-riven "deconstructed" brand of rock, in which an ...
Today's Independent brings the news that a far-right activist linked to the murder of a prominent ANC activist, is one of a number of white South Africans who are helping the British National Party. Kemp seems happy enough to talk about himself as a South African and about other white South Africans. But surely this would upset [...]
This has been quite a busy weekend - after a busy week. I think I had at least one spell talking to residents in Southend every day until today. There were also a couple of radio interviews last week - one of which headed up news stories on Radio Southend on Friday. I also had a couple of public meetings. One was on the proposals to extend the runway at Southend Airport, at which I spoke from the audience. The second, on Friday evening, was organised by the PCS union, and dealt with Europe. I enjoyed this greatly - although ...
The man who I took to task Allan Duncan who is also the Tory shadow leader of the House of Commons was claiming thousands for gardening until the Parliamentary authorities stopped him according to a report. The report in the Telegraph that you can read my following the link. I think David Cameron should sack him from the front bench because a scandal like this could damage the Tory chances of getting into Downing Street if people like Allan Duncan are serving in the front bench. Maybe Cameron needs to put him in his place on the back bench but ...
Just seen that in the Telegraph tomorrow, Alan Duncan's claims for gardening are under scrutiny. This looks pretty bad to me. It seems that he was claiming for paying a gardener thousands of pounds for the upkeep of less than an acre at 16 hours per week. This seems to go far beyond what is needed to support his parliamentary work. Mr Duncan has set himself up for this after his very poor performance on Have I Got News For You a few weeks back where he came across as smarmy and arrogant when asked about this issue. What compounds ...
Welcome to the 116th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3rd-9th May 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. What must happen for the Lib Dems to overtake Labour? by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice. Three things, says I. 2. European Elections - London on Colin Ross's blog. The scores on the Euro doors: "The Conservatives will top the poll again, ...
All, {Gordon Brown} Lib Dem campaigners are keeping up the pressure on Gordon Brown to do the right thing for the Gurkhas. For many years, Brown and the Labour Government have treated retired Gurkha soldiers in a dreadful fashion. Some Gurkhas have even been deported by the Government they served. Following the successful Lib Dem vote in Parliament, Mr Brown should, at last, allow retired Gurkha soldiers to remain in the UK. Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg said, "The Lib Dems are proud to have backed the Gurkhas in their campaign." "If someone is willing to die for our country, ...
David James Smith - "Britain's foremost crime writer" - has an article about the aftermath of the outcry over child abuse on Jersey in today's Sunday Times: "We worked very hard to win the victims' confidence," [Lenny] Harper says of the Haut de la Garenne inquiry. "I think now they will feel that there is nothing that they can do."Jersey is claiming that I left with loads of documents, unused material that could be needed in court. I think they're saying that so that cases can be thrown out. I have offered to go to any court in the UK ...
Big news this weekend is the story about MP's expenses. I'm not going to comment on this except to point out that it's the publication of the expenses that is causing all of the angst. Councillors get an allowance. They can also claim expenses for a limited range of items. Mainly mileage incurred in attending meetings. No routine overnight stays in Carlisle, or second homes! If elected then I'll be happy for anyone to see my expense claims and will let the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald publish anything it wants to - down to the smallest receipt. Councillors expenses come ...
Multimedia message on 12seconds.tv Yesterday's weather did put a bit of a dampener on things at yesterday's annual Linlithgow Street fair. Setting up in the rain on an near deserted Main Street is not something I have done before, although on occasion we have taken down in the rain. So the actual number of residents we saw on this annual event was down on normal. As most of the people out and about were the people manning other stalls who we knew already. One highlight of the day was the cross party cooperation when the SNP's gazebo (the blue on ...
I have today launched my May 2009 update to West End Community Council. Issues covered include : • Riverside Drive - Homebase site • Wheelie Bins • Wimberley • Bollards at Taylor's Lane • Seagulls • Hotel planning application • Proposed Riverside Nature Park • HMO Policy • Richmond Terrace The Community Council meets next Tuesday (12th May) at 7pm in Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. You can download the Community Council Update by clicking on the headline above.
So I've been sat ploinked (YES IT'S A WORD) on a sofa today, browsing through obscuratum appleum on the laptop, and to make things interesting I've had Sky News on the television. Not watched it with the sound on before. Imagine then, my terror, when I heard: Coming up! How the recession is forcing us back to the land Terrifying pictures of a peasant digging in an allotment! Now, the recession's bad... and the debt we're building up to 'buy' our way out of it will act as the ultimate brake on future growth for a generation.. but forced back ...
Everything seemed to have gone a bit quiet on the Streetcar front - so I asked the Council for an update. The consultation on the sites for cars ended at the beginning of February (see my previous post: Streetcar comes to Stroud Green - at last). I got an update from officers a few days ago. The good news is that the Council has listened to the many residents that suggested moving the proposed bay for 2 cars from Stapleton Hall Road to the Oakfield Road bridge. The bad news for those keen to use the car club is that ...
With all the other stuff going on at the moment about MP's expenses, it seems to have slipped off the media's agenda but the "Please Go" petition asking Gordon Brown to resign is still there on the Downing Street petitions website. At the time of writing, the numbers have just gone past 56,000 which is almost double the next largest one. Brown is still an awful Prime Minister with no democratic legitimacy and if like me you think the time has come for him to go, please go and sign the petition. There have been some suspicions that not all ...
Coverage of the expense claims of MPs can be found in many places today - here, here and here... But if you want to understand more about 'flipping' to minimise capital gains tax then I recommend this post by Mark Lee on his Tax Advice Network blog.
Friday was a sitting day in the Lords, so it was the afternoon before I could head off for the weekend - to Chesterfield, home turf of my friend Paul Holmes who became its MP in 2001. Paul's victory in what had been considered a Labour heartland was spectacular enough, but since then we've gone on the control the Borough Council. In June they have elections to Derbyshire County Council, Labour for a quarter of a century, and predicted to go into no-overall-control next month. I spent some time with our candidates, learning about the big local issues, and talking ...
A slow start yesterday morning, as the ravages of jetlag were still impacting on Team Ros. Breakfast with the Holmes, plus cat interaction, before being dropped at Chesterfield station for the brief train ride to Derby, where we were met by Lucy Care, our PPC for the target seat of Derby North, and Ruth Sheldon, Executive Member for Adult Services on Derby City Council. Our first stop was 'Soundbites', an organic grocery store run as a workers' co-operative. Upstairs, we were shown into the office of 'Bike-It', part of Sustrans, where Mike spoke eloquently about their efforts to get children ...
Churches Together have issued a statement urging Christians to use their votes in the European Election on Thursday 4th June and, of couse, to vote for a party that is not the BNP. They point out that not voting at all would be helping the BNP, which is not an option for a Christian.
Flipping Tories are as bad as Labour - See Monday's Telegraph !
Hyde Road is now fully reopened. There is a very large and neat patch on the road, which shows the scale of the problem. So far, I haven't spotted water emerging from the points where it has been flowing over the last few months, so hopefully the leaks have been solved too. Credit must go to the people who managed to do such a massive repair in three days.
{Parking on double yellow lines} At last week's cabinet meeting, Bathwick Councillor Armand Edwards asked how many parking tickets had been issued outside Tesco. The answer? In the 6 months since the shop opened, only five tickets have been issued. Given that I once saw seven simultaneous infringements, less than one parking ticket per month is embarrassingly low. The loading bay in-front of the shop is not for parking, it has double yellow lines. Likewise, parking is banned from either side of the bridge as the road narrows, turns a corner and crests the bridge. As ever, I am harrying ...
Now thats what i call a hole. Thanks again to urban vision. Imagine what they could do if this LABOUR run council got it's act together. And funded the task of fixing these eye sores?
Don't You think Cllr Warmisham you should get this cleaned up you must see it every morning the residents of Pendlebury do and it's a flaming eye sore...
Well, what a race that was! Barrichello had a brilliant start, but couldn't make the car go fast enough to stay ahead of his team-mate. It's a shame, because he did so much to set up the car for the weekend and it would have been nice to see him rewarded with a win. Of course, it was in Brawn's interests to keep Jenson ahead in the championship and build as big a barrier as possible because this run of extraordinary good fortune can't last forever. I'm not sure I can quite get my head round Massa's fuel problem. Surely ...
Found in the Observer. What price loyalty? And a question for Mr Cameron and the Conservatives also in the Observer
The PPC for the Conservatives in Wallasey has been brave enough to stick her head above the parapet and criticse Government Ministers and Labour over MP's expenses and claims. But she should be aware that while the Daily Telegraph is highlighting the disgraceful and immoral behaviour of the Cabinet and Labour back benchers, the claims [...]
Dizzy has today posted a suggestion which, in the light of all the expenses shenanigans going on at the moment is perhaps timely. He suggests that it should be possible in certain circumstances for an MP to be called to stand for re-election in his/her consitituency using an electoral recall mechanism. I know that this sort of thing is done in the US. Indeed, as I recall it is the mechanism that was used to get Arnold Schwarzenegger in as Governor of California. The point of this sort of facility is to make sure that you cannot have a situation ...
Sun 10th
14:04
Perhaps i have been a little harsh on the BNP, and i think it's only fair to offer their candidate a...
As to the title of the post i would like to request that the BNP candidate submits a list of policy statments of which we can debate.I think it's only fair. Or perhaps he would allow me to put forward a set of key issues that reflect the present political arena. There effects on the people [...]
I haven't spotted anything so far about the part-time MP for Darlington, Alan Milburn, but one of the other local MPs, Ian Wright from Hartlepool, is revealed today as having claimed £1200 for bedding and electrical equipment for a second home he hadn't even bought yet. Respect, Ian! Vera Baird, meanwhile, MP for sunny Redcar, tried to claim for Christmas decorations, though the Commons
Will Pike is a young man in his late twenties. He is in a wheelchair and will be for the rest of his life. He was injured in the Mumbai terrorist attacks - and his story is in the Observer (Ned Temko)today because Will is campaigning for British victims of terrorism abroad to be given the same support and compensation as they would get if they had been injured here. Will isn't just doing this for himself. He is the worst injured of those hurt in Mumbai - but there are many others. I have written to Gordon Brown to ...
Never passing up the opportunity to keep the panic rolling, even as we're all angry about MPs expenses (scared and angry is good), the Telegraph brings us an update on Swine Flu. Over 2,200 confirmed cases in the US, apparently, and one person died in Canada. Of course, in line with the standard practice established by the media over the last few weeks, the Telegraph wouldn't dream of mentioning that normal, seasonal flu kills over 30,000 people in the US every single year (that's an average of nearly 100 people a day, though obviously skewed towards winter months - it's ...
Bahrain: Released human rights defender Jaafar Kadhim severely beaten Bahrain Center for Human Rights - May 10, 2009 The Bahrain Centre for human rights (BCHR) and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) are gravely concerned upon hearing that human rights defender Mr. Jaafar Kadhim was severely beaten after being abducted by 5-6 men in plain clothes. Jaafar Kadhim is currently at Salmania Public Hospital where he is being treated for severe injuries in the head; face and back (see photos). He told representatives of BCHR and BYSHR that on May 7, 2009at 20:45, while he was driving close ...
It is a while since I have put an advert on here. Over time (going backwards) I have posted Meerkats, Cactus Boy, Soviet imagery, Paddington (Marmite), the Cadbury Gorilla and PG Tips Monkey.One of my favourites of late is another "Glass and a Half Full Production" (actually by Fallon) the brilliant Cadbury Eyebrows. I know it has been around for a while, but it is genius.
{torystrike.jpg} So far in May, senior figures in the Foreign Office called into question Tory foreign policy to create an ultra right-wing group within the EU - joining know homophobic MEP, nice :S Then Tory MEP, Christopher Beazley, received a standing ovation from the European parliament for criticising David Cameron saying: The leader of my party, Mr David Cameron, has made a serious mistake. He thinks that by becoming anti-European in the House of Commons this will secure him the premiership of my country. I, as a British Conservative, reserve the right to object. If my party leader seeks to ...
There is a setting on some blog platforms which means that you can set the RSS feed of your blog to be just an extract, or even worse, just a url, rather than the whole post. I would like to KILL whoever invented this setting. There is nothing more frustrating when doing the netcast than clicking through from what looks like an initially promising first paragraph to find that it is, in fact, the ONLY paragraph, or that the post descends into lunacy shortly thereafter. If this happens once, I am much less likely to bother clicking through to see ...
Sun 10th
11:29First we had the jewish race in 39 and now we have the muslim race in 09 what's changed.
ARCHIVE Taken off BNP site.. What do i see, in 1939 the Nazi party used the Jews, they where persecuted and murdered in their millions. Today i see the growth of one more party who are using the religion and the colour of a persons skin to create hatred and fear. The tactics never change only the dates. [...]
Frankly there is just too much information out there to even begin to keep track of all the expense scandals surrounding MPs at the moment. I have said before that this mess is their own doing. If MPs had been more transparent and accountable earlier, not sought to block Freedom of Information requests and not looked like they had something to hide by trying to stipulate what could and could not be published then they would not now be facing at least another week's worth of revelations in the Daily Telegraph and all the consequences of that. It seems that ...
The Home Office civil servant who was sacked for leaking documents to Tory frontbencher Damian Green has been abandoned by the party despite the fact that he believes he was offered a job in return for his cooperation. The Observer reports that Christopher Galley was arrested and lost his Home Office position after leaking documents to Mr. Green, the shadow immigration minister: He says Green promised to look after him "if things went wrong". Last night a Conservative source said Green did "emphatically not" offer Galley a job. "It is just not true." The paper says that on 16 April, ...
There is an excellent comment in the thread attached to this Telegraph Matthew D'Ancona comment piece online today from "Mark" at 6:59am (no, it's not me!): MP's are now in the process of arguing ad infinitum about how to reform their expenses. And has been said numerous times, they are missing the point. There is a very simple way to reform MP's expenses and allowances. It is to put them on the same footing as everyone else in the country. HMRC have reams of guidelines as to what is allowable regarding allowances and rates such as pence per mile. Indeed, ...
Just when an election campaign is all getting on top of you, the Tories come along to cheer everyone up. This advert for Conservative candidate Linda Vijeh was being circulated, amid much hilarity, around the Lib Dem organisers this week. Apparently it featured on page 3 of a local newspaper in Dorset. Had the Tories finally gone mad, we speculated? Just what were they thinking in allowing one of their candidates to publish something like this? {Linda Vijeh} So this begs the question again: what are the Tories thinking? Are they trying to be really clever by associating the word ...
Here's my thinking, firstly they didnt stick out any promises in their manifesto document (what are they hiding?) but they then select a former city lawyer, who lives 6 miles away from Truro, and has a massive house in Mylor! Now the independent candidate isnt running (probably wanting to do something else), so that leaves me as the only local candidate who has any distinct policies, I know what Truro needs, and thats not another stereotypical councillor, if the tories are aspousing change, shouldnt they be supporting me?
If the allegations are true I'm utterly appalled that a Liberal Democrat should let the side down in such a way. Apparently he claimed a holiday home in Eastbourne was his `main residence` while he really lived in Vauxhall, was a member of the Residents association there and had parties there. I've always thought it was [...]
LABOUR HOLD 35 SEATS THE COMBINED OPPOSITION HOLD 24 AND ONE SEAT TO BE DECIDED. Never in the history of Salford Labour have they been in a position of losing outright control of this city.If the combined opposition, Liberal Democrat and Conservative can hold their present seats and between them gain seven more control of this city will fall [...]
Plaid Cymru's Ceredigion Parliamentary Candidate, Penri James does not like the Welsh Liberal Democrats. In fact he lost his Council seat to us in May 2008, a massive blow to his chances of regaining the constituency for his party at the next General Election. This may well explain the increasingly bizarre ramblings on his blog about the Welsh Liberal Democrats and our policies. The latest is an obvious attempt to cover-up his own embarrassment at Plaid Cymru's u-turn on student tuition fees in which he claims that the 'closest we have got to a comprehensive Liberal Democrat policy statement on ...
Courts are going soft on crime by allowing offenders to "renegotiate" the terms of their community sentences, the leader of Britain's police officers has warned. Sourch the telegraph Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, pointed to recent cases where criminals were allowed to change the terms of their curfews or unpaid work orders after they [...]
Sun 10th
09:42
....And the "Homes and Gardens" award for the most fastidious use of expenses goes to....
Kitty Ussher. She'd been living in a house for five years, but within 12 months of being elected she was onto the Commons authorities for a major refurbishment.Artex ceilings??!!!! They had to go. They had "three dimensional swirls" - aren't they the worst???!!! "This counts for 'dilapidations' in my book" she wrote.And "strange plumbing"?!! Who could live with that??!!!! I mean, there were "
The Labour MP, writing in a letter to the Commons Fees office in 2006 to explain why he should be allowed to claim £3,100 for a Sony 40 inch TV, said:From a natural justice perspective I feel a justifiable exception would be the fairest manner to deal with the current situation.
Sun 10th
09:34Gold: Does Gordon Brown's regret selling half of Britains' gold reserves 10 years ago?
A decade ago Gordon Brown started to sell-off Britain's gold reserves – at the time the price of gold was $282 an ounce, today it is $900-plus. Well he can put it on his CV with the rest of his cock ups... Source the Telegraph Price of gold since Britain sold half of its reserves in [...]
The possibility of Phil Woolas suing the Telegraph is receding into the distance like a herd of rhinoceri fleeing from a particularly nasty bush fire. The Telegraph seem to be secure with their details. Woolas appears to be using.....let's say.....an interesting defence. But his pleas that he is being "hung out to dry" for being too transparent are, ironically, true. He didn't have to submit
This is the third installment since Friday of sleaze cases since the Telegraph got hold of receipts that were leaked from Parliamentary Authorities. As their is still more cases to come hopefully I will just link to outside sources and keep updating as the day goes by if other cases do appear. A back bench MP paid for Remembrance day WREATHS with Parliamentary money as he claimed them back. His excuse was the Prime Minister's office pay for the PM to lay WREATHS and Parliament should pay for him. Its only £60 mate.Lib Dem Lord Rennard claims £41,000 for a ...
Perhaps the PM would like to extend this over the whole of the working population – you get paid to do a job, you get paid a bonus (if you are a banker or civil servant) for doing it and you also get paid for turning up to work. Yep a definite vote winner – [...]
A quick reminder / round-up of my Lib Dem colleagues on Haringey Council who are online themselves: Matt Davies (Fortis Green ward councillor) blogs at mattdaviesharingey.blogspot.com Karen Alexander (Harringay ward councillor) is on Twitter as @karenjalexander Neil Williams (Highgate ward councillor) blogs at neilwilliamslibdems.blogspot.com Fiyaz Mughal (Noel Park councillor) has a website at fiyazmughal.org.uk Richard Wilson (Stroud Green councillor) blogs at www.richardwilson.me.uk
450 babies under a month old die every single hour across the world. How many of these could be saved if Governments got together and took tough action against formula manufacturers who blatantly disregard the International Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes? These companies have been able to flout this Code for long enough to increase their own profits. This is about protecting women and babies across the world, including here, from false claims made by formula manufacturers. The UN rapped our Government as recently as last year for its failures in this regard. Remember the contaminated baby milk ...
1. Full disclosure and transparency of expenses now and in the future. 2. Expense rules to be set by an independent body, based on what the public would consider fair if they were doing the job. 3. Accept that MPs are no worse than the rest of us: if you took 650 random people and told them they can invent their own expenses regime, push it as far as it will go and no-one's ever going to find out, this is just what you'd get. Some good, some bad, some middling. Attack the bad ones, but don't lose sight that ...
After spending £158,000 on consultants KPMG, and proposing a loss of 380 jobs in its latest `Think Efficiency' document, it's good to know that the forever skint Salford City Council is right on the case. It's about to employ a new `Think Efficiency – Programme Manager' – salary, a mere £52,732 -£56,912! Perhaps the Think Efficiency [...]
12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 12th Aug 2008 700,000 pensioners are living in poverty because they are not getting the benefits they are entitled to, the Liberal Democrats have revealed. In a Parliamentary answer to the Liberal Democrats, the Government has disclosed that 700,000 pensioners would be lifted out of poverty if they claimed all [...]
Maybe we are all looking at this the wrong way round as I've fallen into the trap of assuming my constituency is my main place of work. Actually it is, but it wouldn't be were it not for the existence...
Let's be quite clear; there are genuine abuses and genuine scandals in the way MP's claim expenses. However, having said all that the slew of 'revelations' is fast descending into farce itself. The Daily Telegraph has been forced into a humiliating climbdown with regard to it's stories surrounding Gordon Brown. There has been some quite excellent blogging on this issue from Costigan Quist and Bernard Salmon but sadly, some bloggers seem intent recklessly on fanning the flames. They seem intent on claiming the moral high-ground, complaining loudly about the abuse of 'our money' etc, etc. Again, let's be honest, they ...
I didn't know whether to pity Labour MP Margaret Moran for her incredible stupidity in agreeing to be interviewed about her equally incredible expenses claims or to be angry that she has got away with such an incredible scam. She was certainly on the take today - she took the rope, lots of it, and well and truely hung herself on the BBC. We await the receipts to see if she charged the taxpayer
I'll be posting a short review of Seaguy and Cerebus Archive tomorrow (short version – both very different but great). There'll also be an announcement soon which will explain (some of ) the reason for the relative lack of posts this week. In the meantime, have some links... Over at The Factual Opinion they're doing a [...]
On Monday my first task will be to telephone my MP's office to make an appointment to see her next time she deigns to visit her constituency. Now, even if she is in the town I reckon my chances of an appointment are pretty slim. I have a friend who has been trying for ages to get an appointment to discuss asylum seekers and finds she is never available. But I will try, after all.......I do have something in common with Ms Moran - we are both "women of a certain age" born in the same year, but clearly not ...
