WBB

Poor Gordon, when it rains, it bloody poors.

This is one time when I do feel sorry for Gordon Brown. For all his faults, he is a compassionate man. We saw evidence of this when David Cameron's son died.

Personally, in those circumstances, I'd rather know that someone had taken the time to wield the pen in their own hand rather than dash off an illegible signature appended to a pro forma condolence letter. Whilst Mrs Janes' reaction may be understandable, the media treatment of Brown over non-political issues is getting increasingly petty.

The fact he took the time out from running the country, which last time I checked has a fairly busy schedule, to hand-write a letter he could've left to a secretary to type, far outweighs any media kerfuffle about his spelling acumen. It's when politicians get the big things wrong, like sending the country on a potentially illegal war that they should get a real bollocking, not a spelling mistake.

I'm also sickened by the level of viciousness and callousness shown by some bloggers who appear to be suggesting that Brown is now too 'blind' to write and therefore unfit for the job. A lot of proffesional people have appalling handwriting (Doctors for one) this doesnt make them unsuitable for their jobs.

Anyhow, maybe Gordon Brown should follow the Sun's lead in making apologies.... y'know, page 19, small box in the bottom left hand corner.

I admit to being somewhat surprised by the outrage and vitriol directed towards David Cameron over the supposed U-Turn on Lisbon. After all, what did you expect? The promise of a referendum was only any good as long as the Treaty remained unratified. As soon as Czech president Klaus put pen to paper, a reluctant climbdown was inevitable.

After quite a long break I've decided to start at it again.
Normal blogging services will now resume!

It was bound to happen eventually, the Telegraph has revealed the expense claims of our local MP, Tom Watson. There are few surprises. Aside from the £100 per week “Two Dinners Tommy” claims for food -I’m not quite sure why MP’s can claim for food, I too work and I too eat food, yet I have to pay for it – Watson along with Iain Wright MP managed to lavish a whopping £100k of our cash on his second home* in London. That’s some gold plated pigsty. Tom even managed to spend so much taxpayers cash in one shopping spree, that Marks and Spencer’s presented him with a free Pizza Wheel as a show of gratitude. The irony clearly wasn’t lost on them.

From the News of the World:

Tory MP James Gray is exposed today as a greedy skinflint after claiming for remembrance Day WREATHS on expenses. He demanded taxpayers foot the bill and was put out when he got turned down, claiming he'd always got away with it in the past. Unabashed, the MP said: "It's necessary for me to attend three ceremonies and I have therefore to buy three wreaths at £20 each, so I am out of pocket to the tune of £60".

The most popular lines of defence to come out of the MP’s expenses scandal; “We were acting in good faith” and "Everything was done within the rules”

They just don’t get it do they? We know most of you acted within the rules. You made the rules and you police those rules. It is the fact that these rules are the rules that are upsetting people. It’s morally inexcusable that a multi-millionaire MP can claim over £25k from the taxpayer to hire security for her home, to have her “Chinese needlepoint rug to be repaired and cleaned” or for mock Tudor house beams. To those of us paying increasingly more of our hard earned wages in tax it’s simply not fair; the fact that it is within the rules just doesn’t cut it.

From the Guardian

Roll up, roll up! Get your £60 non-compulsory, totally voluntary, likely to be scrapped in the next 18 months, ID card. Any takers? Anyone? Well, I’m sure they will be able to rustle up a few party hacks for the launch day.

You could be forgiven for thinking that there are better ways to spend five billion of taxpayers money, particularly since all evidence points to the scheme achieving nothing like what we are told it will achieve.

And what’s with the voluntary element? I don’t want to resort to moral equivalence here, but the phrase ‘voluntary ID scheme’ reminds me of the BNP policy of ‘voluntary repatriation’. If it’s voluntary, why the need to state it? People can leave the country whenever they like. I’m sure I could find an IT firm that would knock me up a biometric card, for a reasonable fee. Make no mistake - both policies mean compulsion by stealth.

Then again perhaps comparisons with the authoritarian left BNP is not unfair, just take a look at the new sales pitch for the cards:

“ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists,” the home secretary will say.