Enough is enough

I have to say that I agree with  the sentiments expressed by Roger Helmer MEP when he says enough is enough on expenses. What do you think? Is it time to move on and start to rebuild some faith in democracy instead of certain papers relishing any chance to sell a few more copies by constanatly banging on about expenses?

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One very good man

Earlier in the year I went out and had a go at a youth (not a small child) who chucked what sounded like a rather large snowball at the window. I suspect my choice of language wasn’t the best given at first he denied throwing it, and then said he did it by accident. If memory serves me correctly I said, I’ve bollo**ed you and if you do it again I’ll bollo** your parents. Suffice to say on this ocassion nothing else has happened, although I suspect on the street we are regarded as somewhat strange as I am prepared to tell kids when they are doing something they shouldn’t, which is something parents seem unwilling or incapable of doing.

Yesterday I made a call for all honest hard working MPs to stand up and be counted. Today we learn that one MP has taken a stand against yobbos in his constituency, and not for the first time either!

Tobias isn’t the sort of chap you would want to pick a fight with. He isn’t the smallest of chaps. Even so, I think doing something like he has done takes guts and shows a real moral compass. Perhaps the press would like to talk about this sort of thing a bit more rather than the dreaded e-word when talking about of MPs!.

A few good men (and women)?

Ok that’s it. Ive had enough. I’ve heard enough. I am fed up of hearing about MPs and their expenses. So what if we put this in perspective. There are close to 650 MPs. They have apparently had to repay £500,000 of expenses even though some of the claims were within the rules.

Then you have one former boss of RBS who has paid back over £2 million, yet still have  a pension which is higher than the average person will earn in employment in a decade.

Then of course unemployment is higher than it has been since Labour came to power over a decade ago.

I made the point on Iain Dale’s radio show. Why isn’t there a group of MPs prepared to stand up and say look… we haven’t made dodgy claims, we aren’t on the take, and we are pretty decent people.

I guess the reason is that they fear that if enough digging is done they will be the next to be outed for perhaps making a legitimate claim that the moral minority think is wrong.

Of course those flipping houses or those claiming too much council tax (how exactly can you do that?) have no excuse. But it has gotten to the stage that a recent caller was bemoaning an MP who had claimed for a hands-free car kit on expenses. Well what’s wrong with that? I had one fitted to my car when I worked in the corporate world as it was necessary for the job. Are we saying that MPs cant claim for the likes of printers or a digital camera to do the job?

MPs and politicians have become an easy target. So much so that the Daily Mail were asking for 6 volunteers to go through the MPs expenses once online. Well done – lets just make people think all people in politics are corrupt.

But if we are going to do that, on the premise that its taxpayers money, well lets take a look at what people who work for councils claim, or what is claimed in the NHS.

I for one know that certain NHS consultants used to have Danish pastries provided at meetings on the taxpayer. Shall we do some digging on that? What about the expenses of Chief Executives of Councils? Or what about the expenses of every senior manager at Royal Mail. Shall I go on?

MPs are now easy targets. Maybe I am naive – but I still believe the majority of our elected representatives are honest and decent people. But please will some of them stand up and say so!

Meltdown

I chose that title as I’m currently baking in the Spanish sunshine on our balcony overlooking the harbour. It’s a tough life eh!

Sitting here I had some more thoughts about the County elections in Notts I was currently involved in. Take the division I stood in. We never expected to come close to winning but we wanted to at least make them work for it. The reason being it would make more winnable areas easier to take.

We won the targets. We won another division. Labour held a seat by just 60 votes and another by just over 100. Then in mine the 1000 votes for an ex labour councillor disappeared plus 1100 votes for the existing Labour councillor leading to their victory margin being slashed from 1400 to just over 280.

My ice cream may be in meltdown over here on my holidays, but I can’t get over how the Labour vote has gone into cataclysmic meltdown.

It only goes to show that even in the coalfield areas of the East Midlands Labour can no longer take people’s votes for granted!

If you ever needed a reason to vote against the Government…

This is it

Video about Brown's Cabinet?

How many more will “bite the dust”?

It's a bullseye!!

My opponent in Worksop was pictured in her election leaflet with one James Purnell. I wonder if he visited Worksop Labour Club?? Just a thought!