Just had this text message from a broadcast producer...
"I'm contacting you regarding a discussion tomorrow. The angle is who are worse - MPs or bankers?"
Is that really what this has come down to? I won't be taking part.
UPDATE: Just got a call from Sky asking if I would do Adam Boulton's paper review at 10.10am tomorrow with ... wait for it ... Nancy Dell 'Olio. Well, I had to say yes, didn't I?!
What about estate agents?
ReplyDeleteMPs.
ReplyDeleteBankers don't hold themselves out as anything other than amoral, hoping to reap large rewards from regulated economic activities.
MPs put themselves forward for election as the people most suited to represent us.
Most bankers will feel insulted at the slur.
ReplyDeleteMPs
ReplyDeleteThey haven't compared them to journalists yet so not quite at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteStill, any journalists turned MP turned merchant banker with a side line in the property market had better start volunteering at the local dogs home or something.
Which MP has the worst portfolio of previous jobs/current directorships?
Can't we just put "DIS" in front of the title of those that have been "at it" between now and the election
ReplyDeleteMost unlike you Iain! Do you have a prior commitment opening an envelope somewhere else? :-)
ReplyDeletewv: blessew - I kid you not!
After all the investigations guess how many will be prosecuted for fraud? Answer=NIL!
ReplyDeleteI fear this is an angle the government is trying to push via our usually unbiased, sarcasm intended, national broadcaster. It will backfire on No.10 as usual.
ReplyDeleteAs above comments have noted, the problem with this argument is that bankers, for the most part, do not preach to the public about moral virtues and collective responsibility, and then do the complete opposite.
This whole incident is quickly spiraling out of control!
That must have been the BBC.
ReplyDeletethe answer is easy - journalists.
ReplyDeleteThe other day a BBC person (Humphries? ... anyway ...) was asking Osborne how he could talk about austerity, given his own circumstance.
I thought this odd as the beeboid's boss earns some £600k a year.
BBC expenses are paid by the public. I wonder how they look.
It's already ben said but throwing the Speaker to the wolves whilst correct won't satisfy electors.
ReplyDeleteAnd lets not get carried away with dave's pr-he's one of the guilty ones.Dave holding up a mirror whilst hiding behind it doesn't cut it anymore.
Quite right to refuse. It's obviously MPs. How are they going to spin that out to make a programme?
ReplyDeleteMP's . . . AND . . . Bankers taking money from the public purse - like Fred the Shred.
ReplyDeleteThey are equally loathsome.
I think you should add a new category - those who STILL intend to vote for the CORRUPT Labour Party at the General Election.
They're either too stupid or they're also on the take.
According to Christopher Howse in the DT, of the many thousands of letters and emails pouring into the Telegraph's offices - more reader contact than at any time in the paper's 154 year history - about one in 300 thinks the DT has overdone things.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the bankers can sleep a bit easier at night.
MPs.
ReplyDeleteYou expect to be shalfed by Bankers
What can one say? The UK has imported from the EU the disease of moral corruption and it has infected a good portion of the populace.
ReplyDeleteI have been writing here and elsewhere about the dangers to the democratic process for the best part of two years. We have been denied an effective voice since most of our elected representatives are mentally corrupt and have no will or purpose of their own. I said "most" - not all. It is only the blogs that have started to empower the citizen in a real-time way. Previously we had to wait for years for new elections and even then the candidates were often foisted upon us so the choice was made by the establishment.
We really have had enough of the liberal left and their efforts to reform our society in the face of commonsense. That is why the BNP are making inroads - they offer apparent quick-fix answers to all of these problems.
So, who is more corrupt, the bankers or the politicians? The politicians - who were elected to SERVE their constituents. The bankers are there to serve their shareholders and that does not ascribe any degree of morality [although a little competence might have been welcome].
Members of Parliament.
ReplyDeleteYou expect to be shalfted by Bankers!
I bet Fred Goodwin is having a good chuckle now:-)
ReplyDeleteWill anybody be up in arms about the fat pensions paid to disgraced MPs when they are ousted from their position on the gravy train in Septembers GE?
(Well, I'm assuming this can't go on for much longer than this September - can it?)
Tuned into "Any Questions" to hear what Hunky Dunky had to say for himself.He's gone into hiding.The excuse was not believed!
ReplyDeleteIsn't there more variation within the groups than between the groups.
ReplyDeleteLike, there are good bankers and bad bankers and there are good MPs and bad MPs.
And the mean, the median, the best and the worse of either group are pretty unrepresentative of the whole group.
Who's worst? Lazy journalists.
He should have pitched: "Who is worse, MPs or debt collectors, benefits scroungers and estate agents?
ReplyDeleteUKIP Responds to the expenses row:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPSltXEemYI
Ah, of course: the standard lump-'em-all-together stance. It's not that dissimilar to the "when did you stop beating…?" question.
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, why not builders? After all, they're all cowboys aren't they? Oh, and all Muslims are murderous by nature, and all [etc]
You are very wise not to take part in that kind of programme!
The answer is very clearly Labour MPs.
ReplyDeleteThey allowed themselves to be brow beaten into crowning Gordon Brown their leader wiht no election after he destroyed our country with debt and New Labour's lies, spin and deceit lead to the low moral point we now find Parliament in.
They sold out our country for the Lisbon treaty - which they had all stood on a manifesto promise of a referendum on.
They have destroyed education to an extent that they can't even use the word in a government department's title any more.
They are either useless or gutless or shameless or perhaps all of them at the same time.
Iain
ReplyDeleteyou should take part and then ask him which is worse the MPs who fiddled expenses or the lobby Journalists who have refused to report it since 1997. ( and if they didn't know they should have !)
Start with that hypocritical little toad Martin Bell who has been oiling his way back on the airwaves. He sat in Parliament for 5 years and said nothing. He failed to call the executive to account even after Ecclestone and Vaz .Dimbleby attacks Ben Brogan on QT on why his articles "required courage" - I didn't exactly see Dimbleby lead the charge on the powers that be. He's too cosy with them.
Have a bit of fun - ask the journos why they think they have the moral high ground ? Ask them if their failure to lance the boil early only made it worse.
Sounds like the vacuous bollocks you get on BBC's pathetic "The big question".
ReplyDeleteMPs especially ones like the Liberal Democrats who are pious and two faced when caught and shout at angry voters on Channel 4 News! Indeed trying to make political capital out of it! Shameless!
ReplyDeleteThe Cash For Coronets racket and the two Lords suspended recently on the take for interfering with legislation. More fundamental than the grubby MP's fiddles.
ReplyDeleteMEPs.
Then MPs. They set themselves up and pass moralising legislation to make out lives a misery - now this.
Bankers are lost in the noise. They were singled out as a smoke screen for the part the government played in the financial fiasco.
Lawyers.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fair question. The inoportune short termism has to be viewed in the context of greed. MP's are and were truculent & disempowered by the same rules they hide their wallets behind.
ReplyDeleteI don't like lists.
WV: boolown - inflated lawn?
The whole of our Governing Elite is now seen to be totally corrupt.
ReplyDeleteThere is no difference in level of low-morality between the different branches. We can now trust no-one of our Rulers to tell the truth, or to be at all concerned with our needs.
Quis custodiet custodes?
There is only the Queen who could have the authority to keep an eye on them, and she is not allowed to.
A total mess!!
I agree Iain, it's a bit of a cheap way of getting viewers and very simplistic and unfair
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it has come to this.
ReplyDeleteI think also it's no bad thing to debate it - why some people take the short-term troughing option at the expense of others. I guess you feel somewhat embroiled in it as many of these MPs are either friends, or those in which you can see other good points. The fact is, this doesn't make any difference in terms of judging their actions.
The difference between bankers and MPs are that the former are more transparent about their motives and rewards.
On a scale of 1 - 100 based upon avarice and dishonesty I'd rate them:
ReplyDeleteBankers 1
MP's 100
Our politically correct MPs, always ready to give moral guidance (with laws / quangos and incompetence) when they are clearly AMORAL.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid MPs who didn't take part in the troughing, but didn't take part in stopping it, are also worthless to the country too.
I find it hard to believe that there are many MPs worth re-relecting.
Their editted claims aren't going to change my mind about who's troughing either.
Martin has to go - NOW
Last I heard, the taxpayer was rumoured to be paying for cleaning Brown's 'girlfriend' (at the time)'s flat.
Has this been proved false?
Why has it gone quiet?
Does this mean he will be de-selected too? I hope
MP's are putting themselves up for selection by the electorate to legislate over us; this gives them a privileged position, not above us not above the law but the privileged position of running the country. MP’s are meant to put the common good of the people before themselves.
ReplyDeleteBankers are there for 1 purpose only and that is to make a profit. They have no special status in society. We know the bankers work to put their interest first and the customer and society is secondary.
However that does not mean that bakers should not be held responsible for their actions and greed
So MP’s are worse as they have betrayed the people and we expect betrayal by bankers.
Bankers are in business for money. Regulators, who are supposed to keep the system honest, failed to put adequate checks and balances in place and actively turned a blind eye to the excessive lending.
ReplyDeleteGovernment is culpable here. Low interest rates were in Labour's interest:
* they could claim that the economy was growing (b*llocks),
* consumer purchases filled Treasury coffers and
* voters turned a blind eye to what Labour was doing behind the scenes, because they thought they were better off, so didn't care.
Government allowed these mega banking corporations to become too big to fail and gave them a cosy safety net - taxpayers' money. This meant that bankers could take all the risks they liked as there was no penalty for failure.
Which idiots dreamed up that scheme?
I'd say government and bankers were equally culpable and there should be prosecutions in each 'sector'. But we know this won't happen because banks and government are in each other's pockets and know whether the other's bodies are buried.
Same happened in America.
Piano wire and lampposts spring to mind.
Now would this be a certain show at 10:00 on BBC?
ReplyDeleteA show that's the BBC equivalent of the sun newspaper?
Find out tomorrow.
The answer is easy. Bankers are worse. Much worse.
ReplyDeleteTraffic wardens and MP's are the worse!
ReplyDeleteI hope somebody remembers that the media are revolting parasites soon.
ReplyDeleteExample: the BBC has refused repeated FOI requests for info of John Humphry et al's salary and conditions. It pains me to listen to them all pontificating on "fat cats' and sleaze when they are being paid millions form the public tit themselves.
In the words of Harry Hill,
ReplyDelete"There's only one way to find out - Fight!"
Well, it would make good telly, especially if the winner got to waterboard Ross.
The bankers bought the MP's, thus ensuring poor regulation that is one of the reasons we are in our current mess. I'm not a lawyer, but is the bribe giver lower than the bribe taker?
ReplyDeleteIn any case the fiscal crisis gathers steam, it looks like the autumn projection for economic collapse will be accurate. I wonder how angry people will be then?
You despair far to early Iain, the worst is yet to come.
They are clearly cut from the same cloth. Bankers have caused more damage, but MPs' breach of trust is the greater.
ReplyDeleteIt is an unfortunate consequence of trough-gate that the heat has been taken off bankers..which is just enough encouragement for those dangerous little piggies to misbehave again.
So why not take part Ian?
ReplyDeleteBoth are parasitical spongers!
Surely the shits that inhabit the world of political journalism come into the equation somewhere - you know the ones who knew all about how nasty Damian Mcbride is but were too intimidated to say.
ReplyDelete@Paul Halsall
ReplyDeleteI'm a banker ( in that I hold a management position in a bank)
Why am I worse? What right do you have to pass moral judgement on me or are you just steroetyping? If you are just stereotyping then you are the biggest hippocrit on here because you bleat and whine and grizzle that people who disagree with you steroetype you and your life style. You are a typical Labour party activist. Devoid of ideas, devoid of arguments, devoid of morals. You are a name caller and a bully. You know nothing about banks, the banking system, the rules and laws that your government passed and put in place that scrapped the safeguards that were in place.
You are a HOON
Jane B
They have no special status in society.
ReplyDeleteWHAT?
You can't be talking about the same BANKERS I talk about, there must be some mistake.
I grant you that the establishments bankers do not actually vote in the House of Commons on legislation.
However for any sizable amount of so called educated people, to believe that bankers, in the country that has dominated The International Banking system as this otherwise powerless rock, has for over 200 years.
Would be laughable, if it were not such a shamefully sad indication of the perfect mendacity and dishonesty of our educational system and MSM.
All actual historical and present day evidence indicates, that this country effectively IS A BANK, and we are its stock, servants, and future assets. As is the vast majority of the population of this entire globe, and its productive capacity.
When Gordon Brown says, that he had no choice other then to bail out the banking system. It is one of the only times the truth leaves his lips.
Atlas shrugged
I hope I'm not the first to say bankers are worse in general.
ReplyDeleteStill, you can't judge in swathes like that; some MPs are like some bankers--abusing a system for monetary gain.
But most MPs are like most bankers. They are doing their job despite the media and the public's knee-jerk slap-happy attitude.
It is time we took up the cross and RECLAIMED THE HOLY LAND FOR CHRISTENDOM!
ReplyDeleteONWARDS TO VICTORY! TO GLORY! TO JERUSALEM!
(Yes, I AM insane.)
Very cunning Iain! Going for a front page on the Sundays: "Dale Declines Interview"
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what was going to occupy them post-troughalypse.
Let me guess. Radio 5? Either the Stephen Nolan or Richard Bacon show!
ReplyDelete@Jane B.
ReplyDeleteWhatever I am, I am willing to say it in my own name.
And that's what counts.
*off to watch Eurovision*
ReplyDeleteDon't forget PR people - the lowest of the low
ReplyDeleteWhat goes round comes around. In this case somewhat quickly.
ReplyDeleteHave just listened to the terribly posh old leftie Tam Dalyell defending our purchase of his book-cases. A certain A.Campbell must be peeing his breeks.
Another outrageous case of "snoutminstering".
Ther can be no doubt.
ReplyDeleteMPs.
Bankers just are greedy.. and don't pretend to be anything else.
Politicians are "saving the world or lost wimmin or summit" or so they say: but they are just copying bankers. And are hypocrites.
MP's . . . AND . . . Bankers taking money from the public purse - like Fred the Shred.
ReplyDelete------------------
Well, the MPs gave the money to the bankers. If they didn't you wouldn't be arguing otherwise.
That's why its MPs who top the list. They've spent money on themselves like no tomorrow, and handed out even more to the bankers because they failed to regulate.
It still seems as if none of you MP's can grasp just how serious this is. You really don't get it at all, do you.
ReplyDeleteIt's far, far worse than the bankers. You work for the public and there is no way back for any of you after this.
There will be a massive backlash as many people on low wages decide to apply MP's standards of behaviour and claim/cheat wherever they can. And who would blame them.
Its time for a campaign to remove MPs and Bankers from the list of honourable professional people able to endorse or provide a reference for official documents like passports firearms certificates and the like.
ReplyDeleteReplace them with plummers and electricians. Far more trustworthy.
Don’t do it Iain - Nancy Dell'Olio?? And her claim to be able to comment on the stories of the day is what exactly? The cornuted ex-partner of an ex-England football manager. Brilliant. Bring on the empty pauses..
ReplyDeleteHas Tory Bear done his "EXCLUSIVE: Iain Dale turns down another media apperance shocker" post yet? ;-)
ReplyDeleteJane B.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
I'd vote for you ahead of Nadine any day.
Given "Gerald Kaufman claimed for an £8,000 Bang & Olufsen TV (rejected) and a £1,400 imported rug, while Tam Dalyell must take the biscuit for his £18,000 for booksheles, put in only two months before he retired from the Commons"
ReplyDeleteReading the above claims of these pompous asses, any day bankers!
This article stimulated me to write one too.
ReplyDeletehttp://cantankerous.co.uk/2009/05/16/expenses-are-only-a-symptom-not-the-cause-of-the-middle-class-tax-revolt/
Nancy's not bad looking in an over tanned, over made-up sort of way, but like Squiggle asks: What exactly are her qualifications to comment on current affairs?
ReplyDeleteI know you find it hard to resist the call of the Green Room, but I strongly advise that this is one to miss.