Paliamentary Priveledge is Incomprehensible and Reduced to Satire.

It may be because I spend too much time reading satirical takes on the news, but this BBC article on the Parliamentary Priveledge Affair reads just like something by the Daily Mash.

A few choice quotes include:

Mr Johnson told the BBC people wanted to see MPs treated like everyone else.

Implicitely interwoven in this is the presumption MPs are not, of course, like everyone else.

"They are entitled to a fair trial and the public... would be aghast if they thought there was some special get out of jail card for Parliamentarians."

When, of course, there is.

"The Bill of Rights was intended to secure freedom of speech, the freedom of speech of members of parliament to speak freely rather than be at threat from an over-powerful monarch at the time."

Perhaps this reporter has a sense of humour?

There is, of course, an additional irony in Cameron lambasting Brown over the row

He is quick to jump on the bandwagon of public outrage over expenses when it suits him, yet he woulld not consider the grave issues within his own party on non domiciles or donations.

One has to wonder if he would be on the band wagon so quick if it had been a majority of his own MPs that were charged with fraud.

Aggressive and robust enquiries continue into Lord Ashcroft's donations and yet we are still without a complete answer.

The Russians have an idiom for corruption;

"The fish rots from the head down"

This is a wonderful way to describe it, and sadly, it does not only apply to the Conservative Party but to a vast amount of business and public holdings accross the country. But that's another story.

Well done Cameron.

Today you have managed to identify a potential policy that may distract from your Conservative MPs moat and bell tower fiasco.

While I applaud the policy that will state that all MPs should the residents of the United Kingdom and pay the respective taxes, my memory is not so sure as to forget the extremes of the expenses scandal, nor the lack of social responsibility and the rich, and in particular the Conservative party, show.

If you were serious on making a "fairer society" then you would have embraced the Liberal Democrat policies of raising aCapital Gains tax, you would not be insisting that older people required sheltered accommodation they would have to fork out of their own pockets, you would have straightforward proposals on reforming the expenses scandals, you would be supporting the taxation on the bankers and insisting on further changes to our society to prevent the rich getting richer and the poor staying poor.

Stop providing us with bite sized headlines intended to distract from your own party's failings and attempts to distract from the real news.

Didgi get ripped off Britain?

Not content with plunging the country into recession, finding every excuse to invent stealth taxes, failure to get petrol prices down or get any one jobs or anyone off benefits and allowing MPs to claim blue murder on expenses, now Brown reckons we, the struggling public, should "levy an extra 50p a month" to fund the digital era.

Any savy reader of new reforms to social policy will be aware of how important this alleged digital era is being forced into every area and box possible. The "Wellform" legislation encourages the use of pc at family learning days to stop children in underacheiving families from not catching up with their class mates. It encourages flat screen tv advertising in sink estates. Internet access in public services.

What planet is Labour on? Are they not aware of rising unemployment figures? How about rising burglary and vandalism figures?

So while we are being confused by new Employment Support Allowance processes, we must not expect the flat screen tvs to be stolen or vandalised by families trying to pay the extra 50p a month for the digital era?

The MPs expenses issue was a collection of evidence showing how out of touch politicians are with the real world. This is simply more fuel for an already unhappy public.

Paper Selling Politics

Having watched the media campaign on MPs expenses are like a rubbernecker at a car accident, the last five days have been like a horror film. By Rob Zombie.


We have seen unfathomable expense claims, from gold monogrammed well covers to packets of ginger nuts. A montage of quotes about "being within the rules" and the media equivalent of a social revolt.


Then, we've seen a predictable fallout within Parliament. Resignations approximately every 12 hours, interspersed with defences of the Prime Minister, public opinion and pitiful triage attempts by civil servants. we may as well have industrial metal running over the top, how about March of the Pigs by Nine Inch Nails?


Is Mandelson's e-mail debacle today is the icing on the top, a Spielberg ending or a circular reference to the earlier e-mail scandal this year with Guido Fawkes?


Or is this a cleverly executed plan by Brown himself to attempts to make politics the forefront of people's minds and not the MPs expenses?!! (of course the final analogy for this is a poorly written and ludicrously plotted Dan Brown movie).


On that note, naturally Tom Hanks should play Peter Mandelson in the film, an unconvincing Brutus planning Caesar's death.

Is there a media black out on North Korea?

I have been away at a wedding without Internet access and dubious radio coverage. The last i heard was this.

Now all I can find is rehash stories.

I would have assumed this was slightly more news worthy than Alistair Darling and the tedious and banal obsession with BGT.

Ah the great joy of speculation

Why on earth do we have a Chancellor who cannot manage his own money?

The relentless contention of the MP Expenses is wearing thin, but with each new publication of the Telegraph I do wonder what they have as the grande finale?

Blears having cheekbone implants to make her look more chipmunk like?

Cameron buying self help books on Politics for Dummies?

Brown in Psychiatric help for issues with assertiveness and inability to trust his decisions?

Abominable Lack of Suffering

MP's expenses are leaving a bitter taste in everyone's mouths this week.

Not least of all the MPs who realise how much they could have got away with claiming if they'd followed their colleague's examples.

If Brown valued his job, or, if Cameron really wanted to be elected, they would be up in public forum [NOT YouTube] apologising to the public and giving ideas of how this could be reconciled.

They would be pleading to understand the bitter betrayal of public trust at a time when more than 2 million are unemployed and the financial crisis is moss on a rolling stone.

They would be identifying the suffering off those on pensions, those in chronic debt, those with no career or job prospects, those who are living hand to mouth because of fuel price rises.

The list of people suffering financial hardship at the hands of this government AND the shadow cabinet and their lack of empathy, compassion and commitment is unexhaustable. The expenses issue is a cherry on the cake off the suffering of the British public at the hands of their MPs. And the images of an antique fireplace is the epitome of this.

I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
Elie Wiesel

Convinient Scepticism

Imagine the Youtube Video now... a synopsis of our Prime Minister dealing with issues that matter.


Last week:

Journalist: "So, Mr Brown, what do you plan to do about the ludicrous and unpopular MP Expenses issue?"

Brown: "Uh, lets focus on the Budget"

This week:

Journalist: "So, Mr Brown, what do you plan to do about the ludicrous and unpopular MP Expenses issue?"

Brown: "Uh, Swine Flu

Tomorrow:

Journalist: "So, Mr Brown, what do you plan to do about the ludicrous and unpopular MP Expenses issue?"

Brown: "Um, Earth quake"