political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Great picture, how on EARTH are they still getting 20% in the polls ?
Pa Broon and the rest of the grubbing bastards are busily putting kippers behind the radiator, stuffing up what's left before in a weird scorched earth policy.
The longer this goes on, the longer it will take Leibour to recover.
26% in polls according to latest Populus, still down 2.
Just given up after watching 15 minutes of Question Time. Audience is in no mood to listen to the politicians, even if the political class is culpable.
60 minutes of ya boo hiss --- so what? is that a solution? Is that a serious ventilation of the issues??
But this is what you get when the QT chairman is as inept as the HoC Speaker.
There is a reason why we have got into this situation. Several. One is probably the labour whips encouraging it. One is the collapse of the wages structure of MPs. That does not make the expenses excusable ... but the reasons need to be understood. And the small but significant fraudulent claims should be prosecuted.
But why should the electorate the QT audience get worked up about a few thousand pounds of expenses - when the govt regularly waste countless billions of their money across a whole gammut of loony pointless inept projects??
Even now billions are /will be wasted on a raft of global warming measures. Do the public care? Just why ae the public sop supine on these issues yet get exercised over Gurkhas and expenses?
Of course its easy to go with the mob. But Joe Public had better grow up if he REALLY does not want to be fleeced.
trevorsden - I think you're right; people need to calm down and start thinking constructively. All this public 'anger' is wearily reminiscent of all that bloody Diana nonsense. Apart from anything else, we run the risk of ultimately letting a load of self serving celebrity independents like the horrible Esther Rantzen into parliament if we're not careful - we obviously need reform but also we need more grown up politics not less.
Luff is getting headlined buy the Telegraph to night. Maybe deservedly.
But Luff makes the point that a - he cannot keep 2 homes on his salary. Quite, that is what expenses are for. b - he was made to 'flip' his home on becoming a whip.
This last point seems to be valid. His claims may be excessive. This is important, but its not criminal, its a poor system.
But there are stories behind the headlines which are getting lost.
Hoon has behaved legally. The electorate might take a different view. But the issue is Brown using the expenses scams to bury a political opponent.
" At this stage, I am not at all clear the Tories will do as well as they think will."
That well may be true, but, of much, much greater certainty is that Labour are going to be toast, which at the end of the day is the matter of primary importance.
My goodness, I've just seen the Labour Party's PPB and I'm amazed that I've come through it mentally intact. It's awful, and has some droning voice and disingenuous attempt to apologise for the expenses scandal. They've really scraped the barrel with this one.
Looks to me like the BBC have a found a new anti-tory narrative - this duck pond stuff is getting beyond hysterical.
Hague was disappointing on QT tonight - the Tories have got to start showing some guts in defending themselves over this mess.
Labour gained a percentage point in the latest poll - incredible - considering what's been going on - and the Tories went down a point. That is worrying for the Tories. The words Tory and sleaze still resonate very strongly with the public.
This expenses stuff is starting to really hurt the Tories, and if that poll lead shrinks further, they could be in real trouble.
How can we have that when the publics actual involvment in the political process equates to electing a candidate once every five years to what is effectively an expensive and ineffectual EU town hall?
Direct Democracy would reinvigorate the electorate and transform the country,but as is pointed out time and again on this,and other blogs,the tories current pro EU stance is the biggest obstacle to real change.
Why is it so hard for some to understand this?
There is a huge ammount of talk in the press about reform for our democracy...it is only a matter of time until the electorate works out that the EU prevents it.And if the conservative party is to be on the right side of public opinion it MUST address the issue,and make the case for withdrawal.
Only 2% of people trust Politicians"The survey also reveals more people trust US President Barack Obama (24%) to run the country than Prime Minister Gordon Brown (6%), Conservative leader David Cameron (14%) or Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg (3%)"
Hazel Blears is definitely giving th voters a bit of "kiss my arse" with her posturing over the much acclaimed £13,000 cheque, have checked with HMR&C this is the fate of Hazel's cheque to them;
It lies in a dormant account untouched until a Tax Assessment Officer writes to her asking what tax year she thinks she owes this money for, then will follow a re-examination of all her tax submissions for that year P60s etc, she may be asked to refurbish some information again. If nothing has changed then the money will simply be treated as a credit against all future tax liabilities.
Where Hazel is being disingenuous is in not telling us and indeed showing us proof she has made her self liable for Capital Gains Tax on the sale of her London flat by writing to HMR&C letting them know she made a mistake in telling them it was her main home. It could well be the absence of such instruction to HMR&C and the blatant attempt to deceive the voters that moved Gordon to describe her action as; "totally unacceptable".
To be fair, it's not just Labour saying this (did you see last night's QT. After the wash is finished and we've had the final spin, there will be people on all parties who if not get away with murder, get away with GBH. Too many front bench people involved on all parties, large and small, which if they were all judged by this 'court of public opinion' they should not, not stand at the next election, but should immediately resign and force a bi-election.
This would not suit party politics and neither the government nor the opposition parties would be able to get any work in running the country done at all for 12 months. That would allow the nice people who graded those toxic assets as triple-a to grade the Govt. Bonds as rubbish.
The General Election should be called within the next week, during what is supposed to be the thieving bastards break for sometime in July so that the people going to the polls in the EU elections also know that there is going to be a GE soon afterwards as it may have consequences on their EU voting prefs.
A suicide would also be a good catalyst and I'd like their to be a nomination process for that.
26 comments:
Great picture, how on EARTH are they still getting 20% in the polls ?
Pa Broon and the rest of the grubbing bastards are busily putting kippers behind the radiator, stuffing up what's left before in a weird scorched earth policy.
The longer this goes on, the longer it will take Leibour to recover.
I can't take the suffering any more....
ELECTION NOW !!
At this stage, I am not at all clear the Tories will do as well as they think will.
26% in polls according to latest Populus, still down 2.
Just given up after watching 15 minutes of Question Time. Audience is in no mood to listen to the politicians, even if the political class is culpable.
60 minutes of ya boo hiss --- so what? is that a solution? Is that a serious ventilation of the issues??
But this is what you get when the QT chairman is as inept as the HoC Speaker.
There is a reason why we have got into this situation. Several. One is probably the labour whips encouraging it. One is the collapse of the wages structure of MPs.
That does not make the expenses excusable ... but the reasons need to be understood. And the small but significant fraudulent claims should be prosecuted.
But why should the electorate the QT audience get worked up about a few thousand pounds of expenses - when the govt regularly waste countless billions of their money across a whole gammut of loony pointless inept projects??
Even now billions are /will be wasted on a raft of global warming measures. Do the public care? Just why ae the public sop supine on these issues yet get exercised over Gurkhas and expenses?
Of course its easy to go with the mob. But Joe Public had better grow up if he REALLY does not want to be fleeced.
trevorsden - I think you're right; people need to calm down and start thinking constructively. All this public 'anger' is wearily reminiscent of all that bloody Diana nonsense. Apart from anything else, we run the risk of ultimately letting a load of self serving celebrity independents like the horrible Esther Rantzen into parliament if we're not careful - we obviously need reform but also we need more grown up politics not less.
cheek by jowl politics.
Apostate and trevorsden - you are both so right. Let's all grow up a little, and stop playing games.
'more grown up politics not less' Yes fair point.
Luff is getting headlined buy the Telegraph to night. Maybe deservedly.
But Luff makes the point that
a - he cannot keep 2 homes on his salary. Quite, that is what expenses are for.
b - he was made to 'flip' his home on becoming a whip.
This last point seems to be valid. His claims may be excessive. This is important, but its not criminal, its a poor system.
But there are stories behind the headlines which are getting lost.
Hoon has behaved legally. The electorate might take a different view. But the issue is Brown using the expenses scams to bury a political opponent.
Ian Gibson to possibly stand down.What is it about these Scots Labour bods that Norwich people found so attractive. As a UEA alumni you will know.
wv twistbltwistbl
That pic is too good to resist. Have just nicked it for my blog. Hope that's ok!
@ Paul Halsall said...
" At this stage, I am not at all clear the Tories will do as well as they think will."
That well may be true, but, of much, much greater certainty is that Labour are going to be toast, which at the end of the day is the matter of primary importance.
Ian Gibson.
An opportunity for a new MP in Norwich may be coming Iain ...
Get in there ... !
My goodness, I've just seen the Labour Party's PPB and I'm amazed that I've come through it mentally intact. It's awful, and has some droning voice and disingenuous attempt to apologise for the expenses scandal. They've really scraped the barrel with this one.
But Joe Public had better grow up
-------------------------
That would be a first in Labour controlled Britain!
How the Americans saw 'Scamalot'
Looks to me like the BBC have a found a new anti-tory narrative - this duck pond stuff is getting beyond hysterical.
Hague was disappointing on QT tonight - the Tories have got to start showing some guts in defending themselves over this mess.
Labour gained a percentage point in the latest poll - incredible - considering what's been going on - and the Tories went down a point. That is worrying for the Tories. The words Tory and sleaze still resonate very strongly with the public.
This expenses stuff is starting to really hurt the Tories, and if that poll lead shrinks further, they could be in real trouble.
Grown up politics?
How can we have that when the publics actual involvment in the political process equates to electing a candidate once every five years to what is effectively an expensive and ineffectual EU town hall?
Direct Democracy would reinvigorate the electorate and transform the country,but as is pointed out time and again on this,and other blogs,the tories current pro EU stance is the biggest obstacle to real change.
Why is it so hard for some to understand this?
There is a huge ammount of talk in the press about reform for our democracy...it is only a matter of time until the electorate works out that the EU prevents it.And if the conservative party is to be on the right side of public opinion it MUST address the issue,and make the case for withdrawal.
Next weeks QT is going to be VERY interesting.
Only 2% of people trust Politicians"The survey also reveals more people trust US President Barack Obama (24%) to run the country than Prime Minister Gordon Brown (6%), Conservative leader David Cameron (14%) or Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg (3%)"
"Great picture, how on EARTH are they still getting 20% in the polls ?"
The alternative.
Hazel Blears is definitely giving th voters a bit of "kiss my arse" with her posturing over the much acclaimed £13,000 cheque, have checked with HMR&C this is the fate of Hazel's cheque to them;
It lies in a dormant account untouched until a Tax Assessment Officer writes to her asking what tax year she thinks she owes this money for, then will follow a re-examination of all her tax submissions for that year P60s etc, she may be asked to refurbish some information again.
If nothing has changed then the money will simply be treated as a credit against all future tax liabilities.
Where Hazel is being disingenuous is in not telling us and indeed showing us proof she has made her self liable for Capital Gains Tax on the sale of her London flat by writing to HMR&C letting them know she made a mistake in telling them it was her main home.
It could well be the absence of such instruction to HMR&C and the blatant attempt to deceive the voters that moved Gordon to describe her action as; "totally unacceptable".
The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson left a £1.8bn surplus in 1997, this became a huge deficit of £93.2bn under NuLab in 2008.
Borrowing under NuLab has increased almost year on year since they came to power.
1997 £1.8bn surplus (Cons)
1998 -£17.3bn deficit (NuLab)
1999 -£21.7bn deficit (NuLab)
2000 -£24.8bn deficit (NuLab)
2001 -£21.9bn deficit (NuLab)
2002 -£16.5bn deficit (NuLab)
2003 -£18.5bn deficit (NuLab)
2004 -£25.0bn deficit (NuLab)
2005 -£32.5bn deficit (NuLab)
2006 -£45.0bn deficit (NuLab)
2007 -£89.3bn deficit (NuLab)
2008 -£93.2bn deficit (NuLab)
2009 -£175.0bn deficit (NuLab)
2010 -£173.0bn deficit (NuLab) est
2011 -£140.0bn deficit (NuLab) est
2012 -£118.0bn deficit (NuLab) est
Even without the banking crisis, the economy still would still be in very poor shape.
Ha! This leads to a great plug for our new feature:
Friday Propaganda! http://is.gd/CiR3
To be fair, it's not just Labour saying this (did you see last night's QT. After the wash is finished and we've had the final spin, there will be people on all parties who if not get away with murder, get away with GBH. Too many front bench people involved on all parties, large and small, which if they were all judged by this 'court of public opinion' they should not, not stand at the next election, but should immediately resign and force a bi-election.
This would not suit party politics and neither the government nor the opposition parties would be able to get any work in running the country done at all for 12 months. That would allow the nice people who graded those toxic assets as triple-a to grade the Govt. Bonds as rubbish.
The General Election should be called within the next week, during what is supposed to be the thieving bastards break for sometime in July so that the people going to the polls in the EU elections also know that there is going to be a GE soon afterwards as it may have consequences on their EU voting prefs.
A suicide would also be a good catalyst and I'd like their to be a nomination process for that.
Great pic btw.
Anyone else old enough to remember the old song sung to the tune of The Red Flag?:-
'The working class can kiss my arse,
I've got the foreman's job at last.
I'm out of work and on the dole,
you can stuff the red flag up your hole'.
How apposite, then, is your photograph for Brown's Britain in 2009. Who says things don't go full circle?
Dave S said... "The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson left a £1.8bn surplus in 1997."
Did no-one ever tell you - Margaret Thatcher left the government in 1990 and Nigel Lawson did so in 1989.
Good to see that the intellectual wing of the Conservative Party is still hard at work.
How many floating voters do these intellectual collossii beleive that they will win through this campaign?
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