For the 3.2 people who actually read this blog (thanks Mam, Dad, Uncle George and little Tommy), the next 48 hours are going to be a bit thin on the ground with regards to posts. Family visitors from London mean a lot of entertaining, cooking and general hilarity. However, with a brother up from the Met we may have some juicy “Sweeney” like stories!
Talking of the police, John Reid, that weak and whammy head of the Home Office, intends to give the authorities increased powers to tackle terrorists plots and suspected activists. With measures equivalent to war time Britain or 1980’s Belfast, the stop and search powers will be strengthened to the degree whereby the suspicion of a crime need no longer exist. i.e. you could be stopped to merely ascertain who you were, where you have been and where you are going. If answers aren’t forth coming, you could be taken in for questioning. With the likes of CCTV, Google storing our search records, I.D. cards and now police powers more akin to Stalinist Russia or Hitler’s Germany, society faces the biggest threat ever to its civil liberties. Somewhere in heaven, George Orwell’s saying “I told you so”
A quick scan of the papers reveals the usual list of public funded scroungers! Dole wollers, gypsies, immigrants? No, politicians. Piggy Prescott just can’t keep his nose out of the trough. With holidays abroad on the pretext of anti slave presentations all being covered by the tax payer, big John is filling his boots to the brim before he disappears from the public gaze. He’s not the only one to milk the gravy train however. The Sunday Times carries a rather extensive piece on Derek Conway, a senior Tory MP who has better milking skills than an eighty year old shepherd. Not only does he have his wife on the payroll, but he lists his son as a “parliamentary secretary” to the tune of just under a grand a month. The problem is however, Conway junior is also a full time student at Newcastle University. Now either he is a very clever chip of the old block and he can do two jobs at once, or he’s pulling a flanker and topping up his beer grant. I favour the latter.
Such abuses of the expenses system no longer serve to amaze me, Conway is another name added to a very long list. What is more galling is the degree to which MP’s can recoup thousands of pounds without actually having to justify it. Travel expenses are unlimited, with Conway’s claims indicating he made 1000 trips between the Commons and his constituency. Whilst my geography isn’t degree standard, that’s a lot of time on the road. Where did he find the time to actually sit in Parliament and represent his members? The staggering figure however, is the £650 per month which can be claimed without receipts for food and petty cash. That’s £7800 per year tax free with not one receipt for an M and S Lobster wrap! Blood boiling yet, hair standing on end, veins on the temple starting to protrude? Then look away now, because these are the types of figures that our public elected representatives want to keep hidden from us. If the Freedom of Information amendment is passed, then this information will no longer be in the public domain.
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