Ashcroft Should Come Clean
Labour is getting hammered for breaking the laws on political funding. Rightly so, there needs to be criminal prosecutions in order to make it clear that the laws are to be obeyed. The Tories are working around the laws, which may be legal, but it is slippery. It is also bad politics, slushing money through unincorporated associations is just not on any more. Ashcroft's tax arrangements are only a private matter if he is a private person.Ashcroft's influence on the Tories, like that of Lord Sainsbury for Labour, has been in the national interest. Billionaire Lord Sainsbury helped finance New Labour, dragging the Labour party from socialism towards an accommodation with the Thatcherite settlement and at the very least an acceptance of the market economy. Sainsbury financed progressive think tanks and pressure groups as well as the Labour party itself, to the betterment of the country. It was in the national interest to have a non-socialist alternative governing party to the Tories. Like Ashcroft he got stuck in rather than just sending £15 million plus of cheques.
Ashcroft has an equally involved approach, he has made an evidence based case to the Tories to change their game for the better. He has encouraged them, with financial incentives, to campaign professionally. He has pushed the party to appeal to the young aspirational middle classes once again, rather than just their core voters. It has got to be in the best interests of the country to have an opposition that is electorally competitive and appealing rather than ideologically marooned. Ashcroft is not a sinister Blofeld type character, he like Sainsbury has constructively used his wealth to better his party and (eventually) his country. But the increasing perception that Labour is trying to capitalise on is that he is a shadowy tycoon manipulating Cameron. It is in his own interests to come clean and it is definitely in the interests of the Tories that he comes clean - soon. If not people will be entitled to assume he has something to hide.
Politics in Britain suffers from a disconnect between cynical voters and disingenuous politicians. Any lack of clarity and the voters presume the worst - usually correctly. The money laundering, for that is what it is, endemic in British politics is just not acceptable. Every penny should be accounted for and sourced, whether it is Midlands business types or Muslim moguls. If they don't like the publicity than they shouldn't donate. Corruption is only possible in the shadows, in the sunshine we can see clearly, whatever reforms are made should be on the basis of total transparency. State funding is a lazy option, it also presumes that political campaigning is of such importance that it should be funded - it isn't. In Europe there is plenty of state-sourced funding corruption, it won't make things any better.
Politics is needlessly expensive, we don't need so much politics or so many politicians and their hangers on. Politicians need to be taken down a peg or two, having to raise money only from people who are prepared to openly support them might bring some much needed humility and make them more connected to voters. If people are too ashamed to openly support politicians, it is the politicians who need to improve their reputation.
131 comments:
Not quite OT, but obliquely, Plod also needs to be taken down a peg or two, particularly when they have become so much in one party's pocket as now. We need transparency in policing, and this means no more buggin's turn for the washed up graduates of Bramshill, but elected Chief Constables, who can have no interest in sticking their noses up pols' bums.
Well stated Guido!
Democracy stinks to high heaven.
People don't vote because they see it as pointless. One lot are just the same and as sleazy as the other.
They no longer serve their electorate and ARE above the law.
They call each other honourable so and so's whilst barging each other about to get their snouts in the trough.
They can never answer a straight question when asked.
Mother of all Parliaments! What utter rot.
Do they care about being held in such low esteem?
Nope! They are so far up each-others arse to see the truth or the sunshine.
Year on year it just keeps getting worse. To them it is just a game in which they feather their beds and the electorate can go fuck itself.
I see even Guido's been conned by Labour's furious attempts at distraction. Silly cunt.
Is it true that a certain multi-billionaire involved in wind-power, amongst other things, is about to make a large donation to the Labour Party?
Scary times ahead as Brown's economic miracle goes in to meltdown:
"A senior City figure tells us (Telegraph) that he expects 10 retail chains to go bust by Christmas Eve."
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=63179
I must be missing something - Ashcroft (along with many others, including some companies he owns)donates money to the Conservative Party. Midlands business-men also donate through a very long-established group that the Electoral Commission say they are entirely happy with. Each donation is duly declared to the Electoral Commission. So far, all seems open and proper.
The Conservative Party then takes the money and spends some of it in specific marginal constituencies - partly, no doubt, to counterbalance the vast resources incumbent MPs spend from our taxes on self promotion in the guise of 'communications'.
Labour get caught not declaring donations properly (or at all) and suddenly Ashcroft is at fault. How does that work?
As I said, I must be missing something along the way but it looks to me like a red-herrimg to mix-up the honest approach of Ashcroft and Tory donors and the strange accounting practices of Labour.
I have no idea as to the tax-status of Ashcroft but perfectly understand his decision not to comment. Whatever he says the next set of questions are already written so as to attempt to strip away his rights to privacy on matters than none of us normally publicise - eg - how much tax do you currently pay to HMG, how much last year, next year and so on.
Finally, as regards State funding of politics I vote "NO". If any party cannot find funds from its own supporters then it deserves to fail. If some supporters can only give £10 and others choose to give £10,000,000 then I for one am content provided that the current laws on declaration are observed. Do look up the annual return of The Lazy Toad on EC web-site for a refreshingly clear statement on Party funding!
There is a big difference here in that everyone knows Ashcroft has bank rolled the Conservatives for years. Who knew of Abrahams last month?
Also as the Tories are not in power there is little they are in a position to trade other than jam tomorrow.
It would also appear that the Tories are better at getting round the law with the Midlands Industrial Council and things like that. They are legal and the labour lot are squealing as their approach was just to ignore their own law.
I dont see why donors could not have some degree of privacy. The problem is that if anyone gives anything it is assumed you want something back. When I pay my subscription the National Trust I dont ask to have a week at one of their mansions, nor do I expect it, nor does any one think I am doing anything other than making a donation towards helping the national Trust do what it does.
If I make a subscription to any political party there is an assumption that I want something back. Laws changed. Planning permission, preferential treatment, knighthood or peerage. When you say I just support their aims and objectives and think the country is better with x party in control you are treated with contempt at best and hostility at worst.
So, would it make sense to have a system of payroll giving to the electoral commission with an indication of which party it is to go to. The Electoral Commission can run the checks as to the legality and suitability of the donation prior to passing it on.
The party need not know who made the donation or for how much. Not perfect I know, there are still ways around this - but it is a step in the right direction.
Guido, You've made the wrong comparison. Sainsbury is fine in every respect both by the letter and spirit of electoral law and his peerage (not considering cash for peerages for the moment) in relation to his tax affairs. Though Sainsbury no doubt employs some forms of legal tax avoidance as all really rich people do.
The real comparison is between Ronald Cohen and Lakshmi Mittal versus Ashcroft and Laidlaw. All their tax affairs are in question and though there is nothing illegal about their donations it rubs up against people's sense of fair play in which the principle that everyone pays taxes is a core issue.
Moreover Ashcroft and Laidlaw must normalise their tax affairs as part of the agreement in their elevation to the Lords. I hope they realise how much damage they are doing to the Conservative party. Though it must be a very difficult proposition, David Cameron must threaten to refuse their donations and strip Ashcroft of his position in the party if they don't fulfil the pledges they made to become peers. But I don't think he should do it until he gets Labour to concede on Union donations. Quid pro quo.
The big problem for the Conservatives isn't the raising of money it is the Boundary Commission who have institutionalised Labour bias in our electoral system. Tories won the popular vote in England but lost by 93 seats at the last general election. A Tory candidate needs thousands more votes to win a seat than a Labour one. In my view the Tories are legitimately playing the system by targeting money to marginal seats that have the biggest impact on the final result. At least one Labour MP said this weekend that they are disappointed that Labour HQ do not have similar strategy for distributing money and that they a simply jealous of the 'Ashcroft effect'.
Guido is good.
Bean has promised that the Government would do "everything in our power" to secure the freedom of the four security guards and one computer expert who were captured in Baghdad in May.
Slendid news! - but:
What has Bean been doing about this since May? What is he going to do now? What is everything in our power? If recent events had not occured, unlawful donations being one, would he even be bothering to comment?
A wee question about privacy and the like.
I know MPs declare expenses etc. and we know about other income in the register of interests and we know how much MPs pay is which means we we can sit down and work out how much tax they should be paying.
But do MPs actually declare the precise amount of tax they pay to the public? And if not why isn't that different to Ashcroft maintaining his financial privacy.
Also the comments about Tory donors compared to SECRET Labour ones are misplaced. We've been talking about Ashcroft for many years. He is no way anonymous.
45govt said...
Got the gun out again I see, family must be proud.
'Ashcroft's tax arrangements are only a private matter if he is a private person.'
No. Tax residency is a private matter full stop - and one that can change quickly. Tax status has nothing to do with legality of donations. A person can be out of the country for 15 years and still make personal donations legally if they are on the electoral register.
Labour MPs seem to be taking the approach of not criticising people breaking the law, but flinging mud at legitimate arrangements. The law that applies is the one enacted in 2000 not what Tom Watson would like it to be.
The tax status red herring is the thin end of the wedge. You think the Labour mob will evaporate if he reveals his tax status. To hell will they. Labour apologists are simply trying to hound him from continuing his legitimate political support.
Hitching your colours to this mast means you are joining a coalition of those who are vying for state funding. Ashcroft is entitled to remain silent and the Midlands Industrial Council (whose went far beyond what is required when they produced a list of their members) should continue to operate as endorsed by the Electoral Commission until a time when the law changes.
"Ashcroft's influence on the Tories, like that of Lord Sainsbury for Labour, has been in the national interest. Billionaire Lord Sainsbury helped finance New Labour, dragging the Labour party from socialism towards an accommodation with the Thatcherite settlement and at the very least an acceptance of the market economy."
I cannot believe that you wrote this. You are now looking at the fall-out of the collapse of the market economy. BANK COLLAPSE, HOUSE PRICE COLLAPSE, BANKRUPTCY BOTH PERSONAL AND BUSINESS AND THE SCREWING OF POPULATIONS BY CAPITALISTS. Who will be paying for the PFI debts NuLabour have created? It will be your children and your grandchildren.
the perspective i have on party funding is quite simple , cap it at 50k , allow business groups to contribute but declare sources , stop union direct funding (a pot of secure money nearly always leads to wonk policy)
then let the parties have the task of convincing the electorate that they will act within the remit of being an MP ie work towards the betterment of our country.
with a cap on funding they would have to convince us , the old argument that not expensing MPs correctly leads to fraud doesnt hold true , they are well expensed and still they have fiddles.
thats the problem of oberons new political class , what we are seeing is the need for the super MP , when in actual fact we need intellect and experience.
i dont blame the public for being cynical , how else can you feel when your Mp is so busy maintaing his image platform , mps have just become a third way shop front for business and lobby groups , they create the climate depending on if theres money in it, democracy is supposed to have representatives , i would have thought that meant reflecting peoples views , instead we find it representing superstate eutopias , outdated socialist ideologies , and big corporate schemeing that would have most people aghast.
this country will not right its self until Mps stop pissing around with our well thought out institutions ,
so if your reading gordon just why whould we be the victims of a phoney outdate marxist ideology that you didnt ask us if we wanted , why should anyone trust you.
It looks like you've swallowed Labour's red herring hook, line, and sinker, Guido, you stupid twat.
Get a grip soft lad.
Labour introduced current laws on political donations. Labour are breaking their own laws. Full stop. Got SFA to do with Ashcroft. Blind Alley. Are you joining forces with Fat Charlie Whelan. Is he your Sunday guest writer?
Stop trying to do zaNu Labour's dirty work for them Guido. They've got enough professional liars working for them in the BBC already.
Sainsbury financed progressive think tanks and pressure groups as well as the Labour party itself, to the betterment of the country.
BETTERMENT OF THE COUNTRY?
What drugs are you on today Guido?
Don't let the nasty people get to you Guido. We all think you're a very nice man, a very, very nice man. You normally delete posts that upset you pet, so what's stopping you today ? Delete them all brave fellow and remember, a vote for Gordon is a vote that counts, and a vote for the loon is a wasted vote.
Despot spotter
"Oberon"
king of the fairies
hahahahahhha
Just as the race relations industry needs racial conflict to keep mouths fed - so Guido needs sleaze.
Whilst this post may look like the actions of a man wresting defeat from the jaws of victory, Guido knows that he needs to keep Labour in charge if his anti-sleaze business is to contnue to thrive.
the Hitch said...
Go eat a bowl of lard fatty, and remember when the chest pains start it's no good asking the NHS for help, they don't treat people like you anymore, and a bloody good job too.
As far as I can see Ashcroft and Sainsbury are acting within the law.
When that Iranian bloke's donation came to light, last week, there wasn't much moaning about it, apart from the fact that it was a direct evasion and stank of humbug.
The Abrahams affair and the Wendy Alexander affair are different, in that it looks as if the law has been broken and there have been lies and curious lapses of memory. Members of a government which drew up the PPERA are pleading ignorance of it.
Labour are very keen to moan about Lord Cashcroft. It's rather like the captain of a tanker which ended up on the rocks, because of his negligence, trying to turn it into a diplomatic row over maritime safety standards, and hoping that he'll be overlooked in the fuss.
Deal with the matter in hand first of all, which is the lies and the breaking of the existing law, then consider the bigger picture of regulating donations.
There's also a difference between the government of the day taking dodgy donations, and an opposition party doing it.
Stop, stop, stop, children!
Don't you know that every time a naughty boy or girl says "why, I don't believe in state funding of political parties" a SpAd dies?
Praguetory said...
Still the silliest poster to appear on this fine blog. If I was Guido you would be the first to be banned. You are so bloody boring, and certainly not fit to comment on the words of this good man, god bless you Guido for showing you care.
10 more years
I could eat you for breakfast,
You pathetic old loser (+:
Fairie Politicke said...I don't believe in state funding of political parties" a SpAd dies ?
Was that the film with James Stewart ? Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it.
Guido
You got it all wrong
From Scotland
Someone said "If I was Guido you would be the first to be banned."
Favours banning things - check
Resorts to abuse - check
You're a Labour supporter and so I claim my share of your party's returned donations.
It's not a political necessity for Ashcroft's tax and domicile status to be public. It certainly is a political necessity that his affairs are strictly legal. To date, despite all the crawling over his affairs by Labour supporters, he has not put a foot wrong.
Frankly I don't think Ashcroft's contributions will have any effect on Conservative credibility, anyway. It's clear that sleaze and corruption dominates public perception of the Left.
True, there are many who proclaim that all politicians are the same. What's interesting about these people is they tend to be Labour supporters. Why might that be - apart from wishing to limit political damage caused by their own stupidity and arrogance by muddying the waters?
NuLab apparently are going to trot out the tired and thoroughly discredited Charlie Whelan as a muck-raker-in-chief. Whelan is well past it now, and can only - at best - balance out some of the dirt. He's no Karl Rove, and he's really not got the gravitas or ability which is required for this task. What's even more stupid is to announce that his task is to shovel the shit. How will that help to restore the perception of integrity which NuLab so desperately needs? What we can certainly expect to see arising from this appointment is an increase in the amount of crap being thrown around, but it will have minimal effect.
Nulabour have failed to understand that events have long overtaken them. Damage limitation by slurs (true or false) on the opposition will do little to help.
Praguetory said...You're a Labour supporter and so I claim my share of your party's returned donations.
Well you're not getting any because you are a boring old fart. Guido the nasty man is picking on me again. Guido's on our side now you know !
Chuck Unsworth said..Damage limitation by slurs (true or false) on the opposition will do little to help.
Wrong again Chucky, in a years time all this will be forgotten and Gordon will still win the next election. The voters lost interest in this story the day after it broke.
Is Charlie Whelan a chronic alcoholic? He certainly looks and acts like one IMHO.
'The voters lost interest in this story the day after it broke.'
That'll explain why Brown has an approval rating of 23%. One thing we can agree is that Brown should stay in post.
Things have gone a bit quiet haven't they, so I suppose it is time to start shitting on the Tories.
So lets think about who will vote Labour next time round:
175,000 pensioners who've lost their money thru' fake Govt guarantees?
the trainee doctors who don't have posts to go to?
the families of the military dead sacrificed to support Blair's ego?
the parents of children in failing schools?
the bereaved whose relations died of MRSA, clostridium difficile?
the small businesspeople drowning in floods of EU/Elf&Safety regulations?
Latest Yuletide Politics game.
Sample question.
You are, pensioner "ten more years" mike.
Do you?
1) Look in a mirror and say repeatedly,"you stupid cunt."
2) Wank yourself into a coma over a picture of Mr Bean and dream of what might of been?
3) Stab yourself.
If your answer was all three, award yourself 50 bonus points.
"Politicians need to ... raise money only from people who are prepared to openly support them".
So what else is new?
What I want to know is where to get my groceries.
1. Tesco -- bankrolls the crooks in office.
2. Sainsbury -- ditto.
3. Waitrose -- a commune, self-regarding and overpriced to boot.
4. Asda -- part of Walmart, aka the Evil Empire, bankrolls swivel-eyed fundos in the White House. Hence bankrolls the extremely curious way Blair got us sucked into the nightmare that is U.S. "foreign policy".
5. Morrisons -- as bad as Sainsbury & Tesco, it seems, in price-fixing and the like.
6. Co-op -- bankrolls the crooks etc. (go back to Item 1).
@ pensioners vote for gordon
You're not with this really, are you? If what you say is true, why has this story run and run? And why does the NuLab machine, in desperation, now want to wheel out Whelan?
More Horlicks, or would you prefer to take your afternoon nap, now?
Incidentally, are you offering your personal confirmation that we'll be having an election in a year's time? Did you get that from Gordon himself? If so, you'll maybe want to get a second opinion - for all sorts of things.
Or are you saying that we'll all have forgotten this round of sleaze? Well maybe, but the rate things are going it's a certainty that there will be another in a year's time, too. There's so much more to come out yet.
mike said...
"45govt said...
Got the gun out again I see, family must be proud."
Mike.. at least he has a family, and yes, we are proud.
Do you, and would they say the same.. I wonder?
dougal,
Millions whose banking details have gone walkabout in the HMRC lost disc fiasco.
Drivers who receive 2 million speeding tickets via speed cameras every year.
Give it another few months and there'll be the hundreds of thousands enjoying the pleasures of negative equity, or home repossession.
Is Fat Charlie and alcoholic?
Not sure.
Is Fat Charlie a friend of retired pornographer, manic depressive, alcoholic in remission, bully and self obseesed bloke about town,Alistair Campbell? No. Campbell wacked Fat Charlie who slunk off without putting up a fight.
That NuLab are talking of calling this two toxic lumps of amorphous protoplasm out of their forced and disgraced retirments tell you all you need to know about the state of Brown's mental health.
Does desperation have a smell, or is there something wrong with the Downing St drains?
One thing I don't understand with the canoe two thingy though.
They got the money - then they ran - why the fuck did they come back? Stupid feckers!
And whilst I am in rant-mode, Mr Brown, you promised to pay back my money, where the fuck is it?
Mr Darwin came back because he would rather be in gaol in Britain than at liberty in Panama.
Sensible man.
Who wrote that desperate New Labour propaganda shite at the top of this crappy thread? Charlie Whelan?
If it was you doing Brown's dirty work for him Guido, then write out 1,000 times:
I must not be a silly tit again....
These men paid the ultimate price for their country, killed in a plane shot down in Iraq, in January 2005.
Flt Lt David Stead
Flt Lt Andrew Smith
Master Engineer Gary Nicholson
Chief Technician Richard Brown
Flt Sgt Mark Gibson
Sgt Robert O'Connor
Cpl David Williams
Sqn Ldr Patrick Marshall
Acting L/Cpl Steven Jones
Their families will get no legal aid at a forthcoming inquest.
"The government let those men down and they're still letting them down now and I want the public to know that." states Sarah Chapman, sister of engineer Sgt Robert O'Connor.
Prime Minister/Secretary of State for Defence, is this right and just, is this how the Government treats its heroes/heroines and their families?
Sainsbury financed progressive think tanks and pressure groups as well as the Labour party itself, to the betterment of the country
Don't talk, surprisingly, such utter fucking shite.
That cunt Sainsbury profited massively, or at least his pet private projects did, out of the millions he gave to Labour. One example being the grants of tens of millions to his private science businesses.
"Ashcroft's influence on the Tories, like that of Lord Sainsbury for Labour, has been in the national interest"
I, too, find it hard to believe Guido wrote that.
Far better, surely, to have let Labour remain unelectable?
Even better still would have been the absence of some berk steering the Conservatives to the warmed-over 'one nation' twaddle we get from Cameron.
In other words, both men have done the country a great disservice.
Lest we forget, it's Labour who have accepted illegal donations, not the Tories nor the Lib Dems.
Anything else is just Labour spin to attempt to distract attention away from their wrongdoing.
It's sad to see you've fallen for Labour's tactics, Guido.
On a lighter note go read pollys latest drivel on crime and prisons even she is kicking gordon in the education secretarys.
It must be bad when even she turns on the cyclops and his trajic rocking horse.
labour are the sleazebags now, stupid said...
Who wrote that desperate New Labour propaganda shite at the top of this crappy thread? Charlie Whelan?
1) Labour have broken the law and should be punished accordingly, also that donations are an anathema to politics.
2) Billionaire Lord Sainsbury made the Labour party electable by changing it from Socialism to pseudo-Tory.
3) To counter this Ashcroft is making the real Tories more effective to be re-electable.
4) para 4 Argues against state-funding and for more openness and transparency with all political donations.
5) Guido concludes by stating that politics today is far too expensive, basically the trough is too small, so drastic pruning is necessary, and that to reconnect with voters politicians need to be more more open, honest and transparent.
That is my take on it, and Guido is allowed to have an opinion.
But , then again, he may be checking to see if us commenters are awake and not at the Christmas brandy already!
Old Soldier,
No legal aid for servicemen killed by NuLiebour?
Funny how the foreign terrorists/fake asylum seekers get all the legal aid they need and MORE!
This leftist scum in power thinks its OK to throw money at failed asylum seekers to fight being thrown out and they even throw money at convicted serious criminals/terrorists/rapists/paedophiles to help them stay in the UK!
The NuLiebour Quisling traitors deserve the rope!
Guido - for whatever doubtless well-intentioned reason, you've got this one all wrong. Maybe the Marguax is starting to addle your brains. It is in his own interests to come clean ... If not people will be entitled to assume he has something to hide.
So when did you stop beating your wife? Bollocks. Chuck Unsworth got it right:
It's not a political necessity for Ashcroft's tax and domicile status to be public. It certainly is a political necessity that his affairs are strictly legal.
Unless there is evidence to the contrary, why give legs to this familiar bit of NuLab spin?
Labour sont racaille et toute foutu.
leurs jours sont numérotés
Mike, 2.07, you are an utter cunt, a fact of which of course you are fully aware. For amusement I use what you like to call "the big gun" as my avatar, which illustrates my blogging or commenting persona. If you could find a picture of a vacuum, you could use that, you time expired, mouth-breathing, consumer of other people's money. Fuck off and die already, before we do of boredom.
On the subject of whether Labour possibly win the next election, the answer sadly is yes. Don't forget they introduced widespread postal ballots. This is wide open to corruption. A few people have been caught, but not many.
One common scam is that "community leaders" have all the ballot papers sent to their own homes, and they then fill them in en masse. These are usually for Labour, though sometimes Liberal.
Name a "progressive" think tank that Lord Sainsbury has funded. I think you mean centre-left.
Lord Sainsbury and his various business interests have received far more from the government in the form of government contracts/grants/taxpayers money than he has donated to the Labour Party.
He's basically bought himself a licence to print money.
This is most reasonably framed but ignores the elephant in the corner which is the whole rottenness of large party politics, of which funding is just one aspect. The idea of politics as a well-paid and pensioned, millionaire-level career is so fraught with conflicts of interest as to be, in a sensible society, laughed out of court.
Regardless of who greases the party palm, those who are in it for career interest will serve, first, the prime minster and the whips who might promote them to the millionaire club: secondly, whichever interests they are overtly or covertly supporting in return for considerations of one sort or another -farmers, car makers, pharmaceuticals - and from whom -a la Tebbit and Cunningham and Blunkett and countless others- they will expect lucrative "employment" post-retirement; thirdly their sewer mates in the press to whom they will leak and gossip and finally to the people whom they are elected to serve in a four-yearly festival of competitive promising. And of whom fewer and fewer believe a fucking word the thieving, lying, pimping cocksuckers ever say, never mind endorsing them by voting.
What exactly is it about this rotten nineteenth century dinosaur system that is so valuable that we simply must maintain it ?
Those close to politics and politicians claim some arcane knowledge, some special intellect that gifts them with the understanding, the nous, to be able to remedy the irremediable, it doesn't matter if "Lord" Ashcroft reveals his inside leg measurement to some select committee of cronies and pompous wankers, like pisshead Dr Wright, or the ludicrous Kauffmann, sitting in the House of Commons, bullying and pontificating, between heavily subsidised banquets and counting how much they can scam on housing allowances and travel expenses.
It ain't the funding. Its the whole rotten system. Like it says at the top of the blog.
Hold up the spinning mirrors and fan the smoke, in a vain attempt to hide the stench from the mess created by his blundering underlings in the North East and Scotland. All rise for the great Liberator of the people of Basra, the magnificant, the incorruptable McStalin Brown. [All stand, all cheer, mountainous applause, even louder acclamations, continues for 10 minutes.
Next week Mr McBean solves the mystery of Madeline McCann, saves Northern Crock, and announces that he has personally instructed the Electoral Commission to find that PHain, Harperson and Alexander i and ii have been cleared of wrongdoing.
Brown and his motley crew are announcing a lot of policy initiatives (substance-free bullshit) this weekend. Is there some awful story they wish to get off the headline news?
u miss the real point.
Audit MP's expenses - currently no receipt required if under £250; no problem with xmas shopping then.
Elected body to vet their bank accounts would stop all their abusive spending of public money and identify any little extras they receive, invite them back to the real world.
Dougal said " ... the bereaved whose relations died of MRSA, clostridium difficile?"
It didn't happen when we had a Conservative government.
45govt said...
"Mike, 2.07, ....you time expired, mouth-breathing ...."
Through what orifice do you breath?
cassandra said...
"Old Soldier,
No legal aid for servicemen killed by NuLiebour?
Funny how the foreign terrorists/fake asylum seekers get all the legal aid they need and MORE!"
It's only an INQUEST.
Anon @ 10.05
Under the Tories it was called Clostridium Facilis.
Labour seem to find everything difficult - even washing their hands. Though they're trying hard.
anon, 10.07 - my nostrils - and you?
I blame the BBC primarily for ALL of this bullshit.
Was the Hamilton affair so long ago we dont remember how the man and his wife were hounded from pillar to post for a whole six months up to and beyond the 1997 election?
Then of all things the BBC put up a candidate in Tatton to get an INNOCENT man thrown out of his seat.
All this for a few hundred quid and a few free nights at a posh hotel, for asking QUESTIONS. Which is what MPs are supposed to do anyway.
Hamilton was INNOCENT and still proclaims himself to be so, to this very day.
Hamilton was deliberately set up by Fayad the BBC and the Guardian Newspaper.
There is a whole books worth of evidence that proves this FACT beyond any reasonable doubt.
Can you imagine the fuss the BBC could be making about these obvious admitted Labour government crimes if they wished to do so?
Which begs the questions.
Does the secret agenda of a very few people that control the BBC have far more to do with the results of elections then absolutely anything else whatsoever?
Could it be that enough of the population are mind controlled by the BBC, that in effective REALITY it is the BBC that controls this country and not even our elected politicians the police or our judges?
Could it be that it has always been this way, and that we are so long term brainwashed, if not stupid, we seem incapable of understanding this OBVIOUS in your face, long term FACT of British life?
The BBC is not just part of the ESTABLISHMENT it is the part that keeps the establishment, ESTABLISHED. Which makes the BBC the most vital part of this countries ESTABLISHMENT.
Orwell knew not just what the BBC could turn out to be. He knew what the BBC was, and what it will end up doing to the British people unless we the people DESTROY it, before it destroys us.
The BBC is:
The Establishments way of keeping the general population in its place. Which is as far down the step free ladder as it is possible to keep us. While pretending very cleverly to be doing the exact opposite.
Thats the true nature of FASCIST STATE PROPAGANDA.
Wealthy, contented, happy, free people, with minds of their own, that all get on with each other are dangerous to the ESTABLISHMENT of ANY country.
This country is no exception to this Orwellian, should be written on tablets of granite, golden rule.
When I say the BBC is EVIL I mean the BBC is EVIL. I choose my very words carefully.
45 Govt
mike/anon/10 years more , is a pathetic cockstone with a small penis, but I really want to hold him down by the back of the neck and punish fuck him.
Shame that he would enjoy it.
You'd bring on his devoutly to be hoped for third (or is it fourth?) heart attack Hitch. Go for it!!
Hamilton was deliberately set up by Fayad the BBC and the Guardian Newspaper.
There is a whole books worth of evidence that proves this FACT beyond any reasonable doubt.
That's not the whole story either. Labour and the LibDums withdrew their candidates to ensure a good tactical voting turnout, and Labour also paid for Bells election expenses.
Bell has since apologised to the Hamiltons.
That slimy cunt Vaz is now a major back bench figure despite being censured worse than any MP for decades for corruption, but the BBC has him on their programmes as a matter of course regularly.
I have some sympathy with the views of Atlas Shrugged and others on the BBC. There is a crumb of comfort however - in the new environment which includes Sky and the Internet, Bean's Bullshit Corporation is struggling to compete. however many billions are thrown at it, the public are voting with their feet (remote-control fingers?) for other things. I think you will find that the beeb's market share is falling rapidly.
Some of these comments are pathetic. There's stuff that stinks attached to all three parties - face it - deal with it - challenge.
Tory stooges make me as sick as their Labour counterparts, getting a fucking grip and drop the lame partisan excuses.
Tory stooges make me as sick as their Labour counterparts, getting a fucking grip and drop the lame partisan excuses.
Labour cock down your throat makes you sick you mean.
Listen twat...we are talking about Labour law breaking and no other party right now. So you are disappointed that the ideology and party you devoted your life to turns out to be more corrupt, sleazier and incompetent than any that came before..get over it wanker and stop trying to deflect the issue.
Mike. Said it before but remains truer than death. Better to have a gun and not need one, than need one and not have one.
Even the Uncle Sams know that and God never made a sorrier bunch of stupid arseholes (apart from the Scotch and the Kinnock family, of course.) The present ban, and the accompanying smugness of Guardian readers, is in force to protect the government from the people and to enable the shooting to kill of innocent, unarmed civilians. It is also there to exalt the police, who are deemed the only ones entitled to defend us, even though they seldom do.
What other explanation can there be ? Gun crime has risen dramatically since guns were banned. I don't actually want to own a weapon but since the cops use them without restraint or penalty, native black teenagers have them in abundance, people coming in from Europe bring them by the suitcase full, drug dealers of all ethnicities use them at the drop of a hat, schoolchildren routinely carry them, and they have, in short, never been so easy for criminals to acquire, what on earth is the justification for the law abiding citizen not to have a gun, if not to protect the crime families in Westminster and Edinburgh from an armed uprising.
Thomas Hamilton, of the Dunblane infantimassacre was a creature of Scotch Labour politicians, a paedophile who rubbed shoulders with the great and the good, who, in their turn, supported his application to own multiple handguns, knowing a) that he was a paedophile and b) that even for one of that persuasion, he was unstable. If an ordinary citizen had been armed then maybe most of those children would have lived.
Typically, though, the shitbags of NewLabour, evading, denying their own involvement with Hamilton, turned the tables on us, it is we, not they, who are unfit, we, not their own in-house pimps, who are dangerous; we and not Sir Nancy Blair's metropolitan cops who are likely, at the drop of a hat, to empty our guns into some poor cunt minding his own business.
Mr 45 Govt's logo is unlikely to find favour among the ninnies who still believe in the beneficence of the state. That's because they're fucking stupid.. Our entire cabinet will be guarded by armed detectives. If they can have guns to protect themselves then why not we? Oh, yes, Mr Balls's life is more important than ours. Silly.
re earlier post has abrhams money been returned ??
i seem to remember straw saying it had.
gordons been to iraq and wished our soldiers a happy christmas
he was behind a glassplex screen so kept speaking whilst the bottles rained in .
the hitch: sorry i thought he was called oberon , but i appreciate the shakespear gag.
as for Charlie Wheelan i can only say i hope you know what your doing , its one thing to have a difficult Pr job , quite another where lawyers are required . there has been some mass lying going to on the uk population , not your ordinary holiday villa type scam, but more of your , screwing a nation into the junior ecnomic league whilst you pocket the money type scam.
stuffs come to me charlie (that is now in safe hands) that is quite awesome , i wouldnt want to be around when that hits , likely to be mobs with ropes around if its true .
Labour's 'secret' Scottish donor gave £300,000
Labour has failed to disclose that it has received more than £300,000 from a Scottish entrepreneur whose identity was not disclosed to electoral watchdogs.
Imran Khand is said to have sent the money to the party via a "secretive front organisation", detail on Muslim Friends donors.
In Europe, not a single junk bond has been issued since August. Spreads on Euribor - the rate used to price mortgages in Spain, France, Italy, and Ireland - reached 93 basis points last week, a new record. This is tantamount to four rate rises.
We have a rate cut this week.
Look at the adverts in the Sunday Newspapers.
Saving rates are inching up, not down.
Annon 22.10,
That fucking stupid and ignorant comment tells me all I need to know about where your loyalties lie! Fucking Quislings like you cannot even tell how important an inquest is to cut through the lying cheating NuLiebour regime and its lickspittles at the MOD who wish to hide the fact that the C130 wouldnt have crashed IF it had proper fire retardant foam in the fuel tanks!
The NuLiebour regime/MOD tried to save money by NOT fitting the foam to save money so when a projectile hit the fuel tank, it blew up killing all on board!
Cunts like you make me sick because you are happy to deny the reletives the chance to find the truth whaile you are happy for terrorists to have legal aid!
Before you make fucking ignorant posts try engaging your imbecile brain first eh?
Re last post,
Spelling mistakes made because I was so upset!
Anon 1.23 - I don't and wouldn't support Labour or the Tories. But you do know that this post is about both, right? You can read?
allan 12.42
careful allan (or should I call you Mike?) or big butch homo the hitch will come round and punish fuck you.
Why would you call me Mike??? And why would normal people want to defend ANY of the parties?
allan
There's only one party that is being investigated for illegal doanations and that is the Labour Party. They are currently under investigation by the Met, the Durham police, and the Strathclyde police.
If you have any evidence that the Conservative Party or the Lib Dems have received illegal donations then I suggest you report it to the Electoral Commission or the police immediately.
If not then I suggest you stop your shit stirring on behalf of the Labour Party.
Looks like "allan" has gone back to the bunker for more instructions
Have you read Guido's post? Are you interested in propriety and accountibility by all parties?
Dear me, Guido. Complete nonsense is unusual from you.
The problem is not that political parties get lots of money from people. What's there to worry about? Get a big book and write the amount, the date and the name of the donor. If the donor is an organisation or a company have another column and write the name of the beneficial owner(s) and/or donating officers. So we know about the likes of Sainsbury and Ashcroft and we can draw our own conclusions.
The problem comes when the buggers cheat and lie. The Comrades have been well and truly caught and they must take their punishment. The error is to think that they used proxies with some innocent intention - the avoidance of publicity - when it is overwhelmingly likely that the intention was to hide the source by breaking it up into small chunks and a few extra bob made from some planning jiggery pokery.
One issue is political funding and the need for transparency. Another issue is corruption and buying political intervention.
To allow the luvvies to water down their sins by dragging the other parties into it is too soft by half, daft lad.
Allan, If you have evidence of illegal donations or impropriety or unaccountability in this matter by the Tories or the Lib Dems then let's hear it. Post your evidence on here now for us all to see.
If not, then shut the fuck up, crawl back under your stone, and stop wasting everybody's time.
allan said...
Anon 1.23 - I don't and wouldn't support Labour or the Tories. But you do know that this post is about both, right? You can read?
That's what Labour cock sucking cunts like you usually say.
It's now the stock excuse for Labour and their cretinous supporters...the we are all doing it defence.
Cunts all.
He who is without spin - let him cast the first scone.
What planet are you on to suggest that New Labour believe in a free market? Massive inflation, a giant public sector? A depresion around the corner: they have learnt nothing.
cassandra said...
"Re last post,
Spelling mistakes made because I was so upset!"
There, There. Calm down Dear.
45govt said...
"Mike, 2.07, ....you time expired, mouth-breathing ...."
Anon 10.07 said ..."Through what orifice do you breath?"
45govt said...
"anon, 10.07 - my nostrils - and you?"
45govt, we look forward to you getting a heavy cold with fully blocked nostrils.