Why Don't Politicians Have a Specific Donations Account?
Dizzy makes a splendidly straightforward suggestion, why don't politicians have one bank account for donations? They then record each transaction's source on a register. Guido would also suggest that benefits-in-kind went on the same register. Both the account and register records would be made publicly available online. If a politician failed to report an item within 30 days they would get a fixed fine of £100. If they failed to report an item after 60 days a £1,000 fine. If they fail to report an item after 90 days a mandatory one month suspension from the house - unpaid.
Party and constituency reporting would continue as now. To accept donations any other way would be a criminal offence. Simple enough even for the most incompetent politician...
55 comments:
How about a 10% fine of the total after 30 days, 50% after 6o days and 100% and a suspension after 90 days?
I'm all in favour of this as it would serve to limit the corrupt fucks.
Putting it online is also a great idea as we know how safe banking data is in the UK. 10 minutes after some sleazebag MP's funding account appears on the web the entire balance will be used to support the lifestyle of his excellency Chief Akinwumni in Lagos. What's not to like?
Great Mail headline. No doubt Brown thought he was just giving Hain a bit of moral support when he characterised him as not corrupt, just incompetent. Of course Brown expects incompetent Ministers to continue in the Cabinet, that's a perfectly normal state of affairs in this Government.
Hain probably wouldn't even make a competent job of resigning.
Surely Hain already has one bank account for donations. His own.
yes, but where is the scope for mendacity, waffl;e, obfuscation abd just being a fucking liar?
It would never work. The poor darlings would never be able to understand it.
Minister for incompetence. Is Tango to be the new cabinet enforcer then?
Well, think about it. Anyone vaguely competent and wishing to keep track of donations so that donors could be properly thanked would have established a proper register at out set. And this could easily be accomodated in any proprietary computerised book keeping system. So, why haven't they done this already? Answer because they are sleazy ratbags who tart money from whichever self serving wealthy git they can find. Operators like Hain find no problem with the existing system because they are essentially deceitful and venal.
So, yeah, Dizzy (sorry don't know who you mean) idea is sound but not novel. Except for the penalties.
So the assumption is incompetence rather than duplicity?
Why?
Just because Brown says so?
I think we need rather more incisive investigation than that....
Good idea. Doesn't solve the problem of concealed donors (i.e. the person paying into the account is not the original source of the funds), but it does make things a lot clearer.
"Peter is doing a great job"
Peter "an incompetence"
Gordon Brown January 2008
..............and there are 15 days left in the month!
What a relief!
In the view of Gordon Brown, the person who has responsibility for the Department of Work and Pensions (and is Welsh Secretary in his spare time) is merely incompetent rather than bent.
Phew - for a while, I thought we all might have had a reason to worry.
I think you're all being far too hard on poor Mr Hain. I'm certainly planning to use the Hain Defence (it's not my fault I'm just incompetent) at my next annual appraisal. Winner!
Well, great news for Remploy workers - the decision on whether to close factories was given to someone who is incompetent rather than left with the company board....
"An incompetence", eh? What a strange turn of phrase. If the clunking one really intended to be supportive of Tango, I wonder how he goes about pulling the rug from under people ...
Wasn't it Montgomery who was famous for "praising with faint damns"?
I suppose Mr Bean saying "incompetent" is Bean's calculated way of avoiding all the other under-suspicion ministers having to go as well.
A carefully crafted bit of damage limitation.
It wouldn't work with New Labour politicians. It's too simple and transparent.
How about after 90 days suspension from the House for a minimum of one month until the item is reported?
"Incompetence" iz zurely Le Brun playing a "busted flush"?
'E iz zo incapable of organising ze dance "Ze Reshuffle". Just when each ministere is programmed and nailed down, Le Hen fucks it all up. Sacre bleu, thinks Le Brun, I pin the tail on ze donkey, yes? Then I play with'im as ze dead man - oh, ziz is fun!
And ze accounts - my wife's, my mistraittes, mes secretaires, my solicitors, my private think tank, my forum, my constituency, ziz expense, zat expense, who's expense? Oh mais oui - YOUR expense!
Being on the right side of the law should not be the only hurdle one has to clear to serve in HM Cabinet. You should be liable for a sacking if you incompetent, ethically challenged, even unpopular (etc.)
Yet Gordon "man of Courage" appears to have contracted out the selection of his cabinet ministers to the El Comm, Commons Standards, The Met, etc.
Where is his OWN moral compass? Why can't HE make a decision?
That the Snot Gobbler thinks "incompetence" is a defence to STAY IN the Cabinet is priceless - but it is not unique.
How can we ever forget Ron Davies revealing that he is a badger botherer, not as a confession, BUT AS AN ALIBI!!
A simple transparent system, such as you suggest, would preclude donation theft by liebour politicians - it therefore will never happen.
What an excellent and straightforward idea (though for those reasons it probably won't be adopted). Personally I'd prefer to see the fines after 30 days set at £100 per day - as per tax returns. After 60 days this could be increased to say £200 per day.
so whats DCs opening question today going to be?
"dont you think the British people deserve better than incompetent ministers?"
So not only is he a thieving lying corrupt cunt, he's incompetent as well.
Why bother with fancy bank accounts? The fraudulent fuckers will just launder money some other way.
The solution is simple - if they cannot or are incapable of staying within existing laws, they get the sack and go to prison same as the rest of us. No ifs, no buts, or other pathetic excuses.
If I can pay my VAT, taxes and file corporate accounts on time, AS THE LAW REQUIRES ME TO DO, so can these crooked bastards.
MPs don't do criminal things because they are all pretty straight kind of guys: ask any one of them. It's only the Great British Public who can be criminal: that's why MPs pass laws to protect us from ourselves.
No one will shed any tears for the demise of Peter Hain's career: Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the DWP, Boyo for Wales and Aide de Camp for incompetence. This was a man who was so unpleasant, even the IRA couldn't stand him.
What about the rest of the "government of all the talents"?
and the Bank of England can run the accounts. We know how trustworthy and competent they are....
If I did this in my company I would be facing fraud charges. Private Law anyone?
A good idea, but I think the fines are too lenient, after all drinking a can of lager in the streets of many English towns now attracts an on the spot £500 fine. It is not as if they cannot afford it!
Can't they just sing for their supper? I'd like Hain to sing a Bing Crosby medley.
Fines are too low guido.
If you want Compliance then you need to harsh to ensure compliance.
1) Failure to report 30 days, fine of 10 times the amount missed.
2) Failure to comply within 60 days, fine of 20 times the amount and 60 days exile from the Palace environs.
3) Any failure in excess of 60 days dismissal and and a by-election.
As for Hain and Gordo its pathetic. Gordo defends him and labels him incompetent, as if that is a defence. If you're bloody incompetent then you have no right to rule over people or make rules and enforce same.
The Revenue, Police, Judiciary, Social Services, Employers (Other than the public sector), DSS/DWP, etc, do not accept incompetence as a valid defence or excuse.
Hain needs to be buried under a few tons of contaminated turves, in a public spot so we can all piss on him.
'competence' has a meaning in Newspeak, as in fishing is an EU 'competence' (translate as completely fucked).
So translating 'incompetence', use the double negative rule and you arrive at the truth; Brown thinks Hain is doing just fine.
Well Phain's got chutzpah. Looking tanned, he faced the H of C out in his strange strangulated voice. Said he had no trouble in accepting invitations, oops sorry donations, from companies like Cuddy. Lots of tries by the opposition to get the word 'incompetent' into the debate. Fed patsy questions by the sheep-shagger Labour MP's. What a farce. He has no shame. Resign - you are a laughing stock.
"Incompetence"? That's a bit like the pot calling the kettle bronzed.
Dizzy's scheme will never work, because they are all CROOKS.
Off topic, I see the security services say Al Qa'eda are threatening the infidels Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
Do they take donations?!?
Fascinating how journalists can take exactly the same news and arrive at opposite conclusions: Peter Hain bolstered by Gordon Brown's support in face of Tory attack
This proposition - that Hain is merely "incompetent" and therefore he cannot be bent - is a non-sequitur. It is perfectly possible to be crooked and a fuckwit.
Hain may be an utter prick but he isn't stupid.
There are plenty of disused mine-shafts in Wales and I am sure that even a numpty like Hain can find a use for one.
(Stanislav: where are you when your people need you?)
You can't fix this. It is the system of career party politics which invites dodgy, otherwise unemployable characters and their attendant criminal practice.
A free-for-all between workshy, conceited, braying Old Etonians; idle bastard champagne socialist layabouts and simpering toilet artists is no mechanism for running a country in the interests of its citizens and where necessary the wider, common wealth.
How on earth can you remedy a system which employs, in prominent, responsible positions people like Bob The Cunt Ainsworth? That this useless fucking tongue-tied uneducated arsehole has anything to do with the welfare of Tommy Atkins should be such an affront to decent people everywhere that they burn down parliament and lynch its creepy-crawlies all along the Embankment.
Instead, we let them, through their fawning cocksuckers in the press and the BBC, lecture us about how we need to do better by them, how poorly paid they are compared with people who work for a living; jhow lucky we are to have such giants as Bob The Cunt bumping along on a couple of grand a week - just think what he could earn on the bin lorry; how we should give them more money to spend on persuading us to vote for their lifetime passage on a luxury liner.
A short time ago every last one of these smirking degenerates applauded the outgoing, criminal prime minister. Not a word is currently raised in protest, from this adoring audience, at the bungs now thrown at Tony and Imelda.
Tommy Atkins, gutted, blinded and limbless in the service of Haliburton sees his portion capped at a quarter of a million, chicken feed to the mongrel dogs of Westminster, hoovering-up directorships and consultancies, showered with baubles and pensions; Lord and Lady Bendover, bright-eyed and grateful, swallowing Satan's ejaculate; worth so much more than some stupid oik of a squaddie who probably isn't even a lawyer; should be grateful for the opportunity to serve, we honour his sacrifice, only not with money, we need it ourselves, as much as possible, can't ever have enough.
Are we really suggesting that fucking about with their petty cash book will redeem this knocking shop, filled at is it is with thieves and whores and nonces, Christian warmongers for hire ?
Endorsed by one bent Law Lord after another; excused by rancid prosecuting authorities and idolised by their six hundred partners in crime Tony and Imelda are vindicated, by their masters in GlobaCorp, their cronies in the EUSSR and most shamefully by the people's tribunes in the Motherfucker of Parliaments.
This - the Blairs and their kind inviolate and fabulously wealthy - is the Future. The Future is not bright. But to all intents and purposes the Future remains, so to speak, orange.
If Hain is incompetent, where does that leave Harperson and Alexander?
The first Cabinet in history where incompetence is a recognised qualification for membership. Perhaps there will now be NVQs in it for aspiring Ministers; Level 1 mere bungling, Level 4 full blown chicHainery.
ps John Stanislav Bright, you are incomparable.
The word 'competence' applies to government only when intention does not fit well with practice.
Hain can not be incompetent because his parties intention is to undermine our confidence in our current terminally ill parliamentary system of representative democratic government.
This is why Hain is doing a perfectly wonderful job right now. As is every other member of his government, and half of the opposition as well.
Hain is one of STATE CAPITALISMS star performers, among Gordon's every decreasing amount of friendly, highly power motivated, co-conspirators.
GB must be very proud of him.
We however should do all we can to have him and the rest of this criminal conspiracy put permanently behind bars.
If only to slow down this fast becoming endemic plague of corruption from completely engulfing our entire country from top to bottom.
The KEY is the BBC. A forever lost bent key for which the lock has long since been changed.
@John Bright
Excellent post!
The phrase 'in a nutshell' springs to mind.
I guess that in order to be able to label Hain incompetent, Brroon has already done his deal with the Electoral Commission and the H of C to ensure that criminal Hain gets just a reprimand.
(BTW, can the eloquent, Polish Mr Bright REALLY call Brroon 'Satan' in his bit about swallowing ejaculate?)
Peter Grimes
och! If only we could get the wee Mr. Bright into the telly. It'd be better than a preacher on Sunday!
I see that Brown has re-invented the meaning of Prime Minister's Questions. Never an answer, let alone a straight one, from the government that brought us "Don't Resign, Won't Resign, Can't Resign". What an absolute shower.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zu8H-GDI5c8&feature=related
The Tango Kid in action
Dear Mr Grimes
More to do with the Satanic criminal oligarchy of Haliburton-Cheney-Bush-Clinton-Obama Inc. which may yet kill us all, than with poor wee Nancy Brown, who should come out.
It is of course, currently, an Arabic flight of fancy - the great Satan - but why should Osama have all the good tunes, eh?
He was our Satan first. The image in mind was of Lord and Lady Blair-Bendover, knelt, spattered and gulping before the Horned One -who occasionally writes reprovingly to Stanislav- but then perhaps one can spend too much time on the Internet.
Welcome back Stanislav. I see you are now John Bright. Are you still in plumbing?
A bit soft here. It about time we made it perfectly clear to anyone who want to be an MP that we expect that highest standards of probity:
Miss 30 days - 1 month suspension
60 days - loss of seat and disbarred from being an MP for life
And while I'm at it, I don't see why we need a Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards. Any MP who doesn't know how to behave shouldn't be an MP and any who are referred to him should be sacked as well.
no point in any kind of fine - it will inevitably be paid by the taxpayer. They can still claim up to £250 without any verification of validity.
I suggest ALL political financial transactions together with proof of source or purchase is published for public scrutiny.
I am confident any cost will be covered by the consequent reduction in MP's claimed allowances. Also it would give Guido and co - and me :) - hours of pleasure.
If they are too preoccupied with their vitally important in the national interest double departmental work, they are very welcome to ask their donors to lodge monies sent my account.
Far too simple. If politicians accepted simple solutions like this, they'd make themselves redundant.
John Bright, I must concur with other contributors- good work fella!
Dizzy makes it all far too complicated.
Line them all up and shoot the fucking lot of them. If on the million to one chance an innocent MP is executed, well that's just too bad.
You could also add several layers of the civil service to that.
If you want something more reasonable. Death penalty on first offense.
I'm so bloody liberal.
But what about expenses?
To get around this systemic incompetence problem, and thereby the standard basis of the miscreant's defence, why not have all the donations received centrally, logged on a website and then forwarded, less an admin fee, to the intended recipient's bank account. All above board and 100% traceable and transparent.
Such a scheme might tend to discourage those inclined to give or receive dodgy payments...
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