Five minutes after writing a post about the death of a Gurkha Soldier in Afghanistan, I read the story of The Rt Hon James Gray MP who tried to reclaim £60 to pay for wreaths to honour the fallen. This man is a complete and utter a***hole and should not belong in the Conservative Party and certainly should not be a Conservative MP. As Conservative home reports this man ashames us. The NOTW has this to say
"Top Tory MP James Gray is exposed as a greedy skinflint after claiming for Remembrance Day WREATHS on expenses. Astonishingly when this perk was finally stopped he had the nerve to COMPLAIN to the Leader of the House. Embarassingly for the former Shadow Defence Minister, we uncovered his SELFISH whining yesterday just as SELFLESS hero soldier Major Phil Packer-who lost the use of both legs in a Basra rocket attack- completed the London Marathon on crutches after a gruelling 14 days to benefit Help for Heroes.
In a shocking twist on the scandal surrounding MPs' outrageous expenses claims, onetime Tory whip Gray moaned he was £60 down on the deal after buying three poppy tributes to Britain's fallen heroes to place at war memorials in his North Wiltshire constituency. 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.""
What can you say. Making money from expenses is bad enough but this sort of behaviour is just truly disgusting. This man has form and should be got rid of as soon as possible. As I said earlier MP's should live by a simple rule Not for Self But for Country
If this story is true it is just stunning and reveals that Gordon Brown's promise to Joanna Lumley were just his typical Weasel Words. Yesterday I blogged about the death of four soldiers and the fact that one was a Gurkha nowaAccording to the Sunday Mirror
The widow of a hero Gurkha killed in Afghanistan was told she has no right to stay in Britain – just 24 hours after he was blasted to death by a Taliban suicide bomber.
Still stunned by news that Kumar Pun had given his life for Britain on Thursday, his wife Parbati was told on Friday she and his children could be ordered out of the UK next year.
And even though Kumar, 31, of Dover, loyally served his Queen and Country for 13 years, his wife may not even qualify for an Army widow’s pension.
The revelations come amid huge public outrage led by actress Joanna Lumley at the Government’s refusal to give all Gurkhas an automatic right to live here when they retire.
Kumar’s uncle Jak Phagami said yesterday Parbati, 28, cannot even grieve properly as she fears she and their two daughters will have to move 4,000 miles to Nepal, where she and Kumar were born.
Furious Jak, 43, himself a former Gurkha, said: “She is so upset about hearing of her husband’s death but now she is worried they won’t let her stay here.”
Speaking at Kumar and Parbati’s home in Kent, he added: “She was told by an Army person that when her visa runs out she may have to go back to Nepal and reapply for a British visa so she can come back. But her home is here now, the children are here and she must stay here. Parbati is in a terrible condition.
"She is totally distraught. She hasn’t eaten for two days or left her bedroom. She is slipping in and out of consciousness and we are really worried for her health.”
This story just beggars belief, how can we treat people like this, how can we treat people who are prepared to give their life's for our country with such disregard. We must right this terrible wrong.
As a resident of Tarland and the son of a former RAF officer it is good to see that the name of Macrobert has not been forgotten.
The story of the deaths of all of Lady MacRobert's sons is very sad but the way she went on to help both her country and the RAF is truly inspirational. Even now 60 years after her death her fortune is helping many organisations to help many people and help run many national institutions. Over 800,000 pounds was spent in the 2008 financial year, including over 20,000 pounds to local groups in Tarland.
It would be only right that her name lives on by naming a new Typhoon after her and the family Motto of "Not for Self But for Country". A motto that would well be remembered by some of those who purport to leading our country in these dark times.
One of Europe's best-informed hostesses, Lady Powell – the wife of Lord Powell, a member of Margaret Thatcher's inner sanctum when she was prime minister – has ominous news for Gordon Brown.
Carla Powell has just had to bury a rabbit that she had named after the beleaguered Prime Minister. She tells me that all her animals have names associated with political and military leaders: thus she also has an alsatian named after Tony Blair because she felt he was "good looking, tough when he needed to be but essentially sweet-natured"; a doughty goose named Margaret Thatcher and two black sheep which she has called Barack Obama and Colin Powell – for obvious, if not entirely politically correct, reasons. She feels the demise of Gordon the rabbit augurs ill for Brown. He was a very timid creature who was always running away – the Prime Minister's decision not to call a general election last year decided her upon the name.
He was ripped to pieces, so she says, by one of her dachshunds. She does not name the culprit, but Mandrake fancies it could well have been called David Cameron.
Four soldiers including a Gurkha were killed today in Afghanistan. The full horror of the stories is not apparent from the BBC article as in one case more than 30 Afghans were killed along with two soldiers. Let us hope that this is just a blip and their will be no more deaths, but with summer coming to the country it is likely that more Taliban will be active. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed serving their country.
Meanwhile back in the UK one MP has claimed expenses of £16.50 for a Memorial Wreath, the little piggies just can't stop feeding from the Trough.
Tories, Labour, Lib Dems are all at it, feeding like a pig from the public Trough. Today it is Labour tomorrow it will be the the Tories and Lib Dems turn over the weekend.
Direct from Fraser Nelson in the Spectator.
Plato had it right on MPs' expenses. This from The Republic:
"We also have to make sure the guardians do not become like sheep dogs that turn into wolves and abuse their power to harm their fellow citizens. Therefore the guardians will have no private property, they will live transparently, they will be provided for out of taxes, and they will live together communally.
First, none of them should possess any private property beyond what is wholly necessary.
Second, none of them should have a house or storeroom that isn’t open for all to enter at will.
Third, whatever sustenance moderate and courageous warrior-athletes require in order to have neither shortfall nor surplus in a given year they’ll receive by taxation on the other citizens as a salary for their guardianship.
Fourth, they’ll have common messes and live together like soldiers in a camp.
We’ll tell them that they always have gold and silver of a divine sort in their souls as a gift from the gods and so have no further need of human gold.
Indeed, we’ll tell them it’s impious for them to defile this divine possession by any admixture of such gold… Hence, for them alone … it is unlawful for them to touch or handle gold or silver… In this way they’d save both themselves and the city. But if they acquire private land, houses, and currency themselves, they’ll be household managers and farmers instead of guardians – hostile masters of the other citizens instead of their allies. They’ll spend their whole lives hating and being hated, plotting and being plotted against, more afraid of internal than external enemies, and they’ll hasten both themselves and the whole city to almost immediate ruin."
I see that in less than 24 hours the Weasel Words of Zombie Brown on how he would sort out the issue of the Gurkha's rights to live in Britain have already been broken As the Spectator put it
Joanna Lumley was late for her 4pm press conference - she apologised and explained why. 10 Downing Street had just called her and said they "had just heard" that four of the five Gurkhas have had their test cases rejected. She repeated this, with incredulity. "They had just heard. They had just heard. There seems, if I may say so minister, a gap in communications."
That's one way of putting it. Another way of putting it is that British government is in utter meltdown, and there be even more stapler-sized holes in the walls of No10 this afternoon. Brown gave assurances on the matter, on the very day the Home Office rejects it - this is what passes for government. It is pure panto. And it would be funny - if these clowns weren't also in charge of the economy.
What more need I say really, This is a government of the Incompetent, lead by a complete Incompetent and our only hope is that some of the less Incompetent's come to their senses and get rid of the Prime Minister. We may be in for a long and excruciating wait, or maybe not as rumours are rife, from a knowledgeable source, of developments overnight on the expenses front and a number of ministers may be involved.
Joanna Lumley went to visit Gordon Brown yesterday on the vexed issue of Gurkha's being able to settle in the UK after serving in the UK Armed Forces.
After her meeting Joanna said
She trusts Gordon Brown to do the "right thing" for the Gurkhas after the meeting to discuss the issue.
Ms Lumley said Mr Brown had taken the matter "into his own hands" and would come up with a "solution" to the issue of residency rights by the end of May.
Amazing this U-Turn by Brown but it just appears to be another part of his embarrassing performance as our supposed Prime Minister. Last week he was proclaiming it would cost 1.4 billion pounds that we didn't have and then proceeded to lose a vote on the issue.
Me, I wouldn't trust Gordon Brown to change his socks. He will weasel word his way out of any commitment to the Gurkhas and Joanna.
Today during PMQ's we witnessed yet again the embarrassment that is the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He is tottering through the final stages of what, we can only hope, is a short period before he becomes the ex Prime Minister. Watch the video's above to see how he is now held in complete contempt both by his opponents and his own party.
Unless this man goes very soon the UK will be in desperate trouble for decades. We are already in the most serious recession since the 1930's and Gordon is not up to the job of guiding us through this period. Unfortunately Gordon appears to be about the only person in the UK who actually believes he is up to the job. Gordon Brown is now nothing more than a Zombie waiting for a merciful release.
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg seem to have arrived at the conclusion, probably from the ill-tempered meeting about expenses with Gordon Brown two weeks ago, that Gordon is now beyond any help and that only by working together can they hope to relieve Gordon of his position.
This has been seen on a number of occasions in the past two weeks when Cameron and Clegg have put on a double act to try and demonstrate to the Labour Party what a state this country is in with Gordon at the helm. Working together they have shown the inept and bungling embarrassment that our Prime Minister has become. Hopefully soon Labour will also get the message.
But the biggest problem we face is actually ditching our current Prime Minister. This is virtually impossible without the help of the Labour Party and it's MP's. Unfortunately as Clegg said in PMQ's today the Labour Party is good at speaking behind peoples backs but will not confront the issues head-on. It also has a dearth of talent, most of it's major players having been undermined or smeared by its own Leader in his vain push for glory.
So getting Labour MP's to get Brown out will only happen if they can get past the fact that a new Leader will almost certainly mean a General Election and the loss of many of their jobs. This is the price they will have to pay for supporting Brown to his coronation as Prime Minister rather than having a proper election. Even two years ago it was obvious to many that Brown was totally unsuited to the Prime Ministers job. Now it appears that even his predecessor, Tony Blair, has realised the game is up and is looking to help get rid of him, if only he would stand up and say this outright rather than skulking about behind the scenes.
So what will be the path forward for the UK in this most troubling of times. Zombie Brown leading us on into the Wilderness and Desolation of a Bankrupt and Decaying Britain like that of the 1970's pre-Thatcher or hopefully a brighter future under the Conservatives and David Cameron where we can regain our pride, fiscal stability and our ability to be a player amongst the major nations in the world. Now it is up to the Labour MP's and Party to work together to get rid of the emabarassement that is our Prime Minister. Remove the brain and the Zombie will die.
So here is a way out of the mammoth debt spiral that Gordon has now lumbered us with after 10 years of his being in charge at the Exchequer and 2 years of being a Prime Minister. What we'll do is make everyone work longer and get more out of them.
A report from the NIESR makes scary reading about we will need to do to recover from the debts this Government has landed us with.
The report says
The NIESR predicted that the economy was likely to shrink by 4.3 per cent this year, much more sharply than the 3.5 per cent fall predicted by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, in the Budget last month. Neither can any forecaster rule out the possibility that Britain faces a funding crisis in the coming years, when investors might refuse to buy government debt. Mr Barrell said any plans to raise the retirement age would have to wait until 2013, when rising unemployment should have passed, after which the Government could gradually increase the age to 70.
For each extra year worked, the budget deficit would be reduced by 1 per cent of gross domestic product, NIESR calculated.
The institute also said the Bank of England's attempt to stimulate the economy by spending billions of pounds of newly created money on government debt was misguided and would fail.
Martin Weale, the NIESR's director, said the focus of the policy, known as quantitative easing, should have been on buying private sector debt to help companies that were finding it difficult to gain access to finance.
"The policy of quantitative easing is completely misapplied," he said.
"It is likely to be much like the VAT reduction. It has had some impact but one won't be able to see any clear effect, and it therefore runs the risk of becoming a policy failure. The Bank should have been intervening in the private sector debt market."
George Osborne,, the shadow chancellor, said the report
"graphically illustrates the shocking scale of Gordon Brown's debt crisis"
He added: "The Prime Minister didn't fix the roof when the sun was shining and now we will all be paying the price for his mistakes for a generation.
"Gordon Brown thinks he can fool the British people by pushing all the difficult decisions until after the election and covering up the mess in the nation's finances with optimistic growth forecasts.
"Instead we need real spending restraint now and action to get to grips with our national debt once the recovery is under way."
So we either work for longer, of course you'll need a job to do this and with 3 million likely to be unemployed in 2010 this may be a bit tricky, or we pay huge amounts of extra tax after Labour have been thrown out of power.
This will be yet another generation wasted to pay for the profligacy of wasted years of Labour's corrupt governance.
What a wonderful Legacy for Blair and Brown to reflect on in their retirement, let us only hope that Gordon retires before he is 70!
Good to see we have been ranked as high in the world as Belgium. Makes you feel so warm that we are basically average. More analysis of the results in the Telegraph
The Daily Mail reports on possibly the sh*ttiest landings of all time. There are no reports of whether the pilot cr*pped his pants as well!
With his plane stalling at 150 feet, and no time to return to the runway, the pilot of a Cessna 182 was probably in need of the toilet.
Luckily, he found a whole pile of them, and the crash landing on top of piles of portable loos probably saved his life.
The Cessna 182 crashed on Friday afternoon in Washington state after taking off from Thun Field, an airfield owned by Pierce County southeast of Tacoma.
The plane was about 150 feet (45 meters) in the air when the engine quit.
Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said the pilot tried to turn around to land but didn't quite make it.
The plane hit a fence, flipped over and landed upside down on top of the portable toilets standing in a storage yard.
The pilot, whose identity has not been released, was able to walk away apparently unharmed.
According to Pravda's Today Programme Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harperson has no ambition. Or at least all she wants is to be a deputy. On the Today programme she apparently saidlied that
"I don't want to be prime minister and I don't want to be leader of the party."
So here we have a politician who has no ambition or desire to move up to the Top Job. Excuse my derision at the thought that she does not want to move onto being Prime Minister. Perhaps she believes on the 30th Anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's rule that no other woman can do the job.
If you want to see a proper politician becoming Prime Minister then watch BBC Parliament today as Maggie in 1979 becomes Prime Minister. Or have a look here.
No not a Swine flu story but a question about whether or not Labour are doomed. For the past couple of weeks the news has been relentlessly bad for Gordon Brown and Labour, but today we have a number of stories about impending doom.
The Evening Standard has this story, with a number of Labour MP's being rather less than Optimistic.
But the Guardian is, as usual, more guarded but none the less not particularly optimistic. It points out
I remember the last three years of John Major's premiership and stories about his party losing faith in him became – rightly – a regular feature of political news coverage. These stories often featured on-the-record comments from the "usual suspects" because the people who mattered did not want to be quoted. The same thing is happening again now. Brown doesn't need to worry about Marshall-Andrews, Livingstone or Clarke. But he does need to worry that they are getting airtime because the media has decided they have got a point.
So this could be a long slow death but we at least know we have a final date next year when Labour must go to the country. Hopefully with Labour now in the betting to get less than 20% in the upcoming Euro elections the Men in Grey suits may do their job and get rid Gordon.
The final line in the Guardian article is particularly relevant
There's another type of story that crops up when a leader is in trouble and, from the Press Association news wire, I see that we're getting one of these this evening. Harriet Harman "will call for party unity in a speech in Scotland tonight". This is confirmation that things really are pretty bad; politicians don't appeal for unity when it already exists.
This hits the nail on the head. If there is no unity (and Unite!) then Labour will be doomed.
Today was apparently the end of UK combat Operations in Iraq. The date is somewhat moot as over 400 "advisers" will remain in Iraq and has apparently been pulled forward a month to suit Gordon Brown.
We should celebrate the fact that we are finally coming out of Iraq after 6 long years but we should not forget the terrible toll that this war has claimed on our forces. Gordon Brown may claim it as a success but many others in the UK will look on it as little short of a Disaster.
Whatever we think we owe much to the efforts of our British troops and the sacrifices they have made for us.
A total of 179 people from the British Forces have died in Iraq. Full details are here. In addition many others have been injured, both in mind and body, and we must help them through the coming years. Help for Heroes would be a good starting place
May they Rest in Peace.
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Gordon will again be turning into Macavity the Cat this weekend as he retires to his bunker to lick his wounds after a truly appalling week of embarrassments and humiliations.
The latest humiliation is that his grand expenses plan has been dumped without a fight and chaos now reigns over what will happen. Paul Waugh has this in the Evening Standard.
***Harman waves white flag on MPs' exes***
The Commons Leader has just said that she accepts in full the George Young amendment. A real humiliation for the Government whips, it seems. Can Gordon's authority be so low that he can't even get his backbenchers to vote for his resolution?
UPDATE: Total fiasco. Hattie's retreat means she wants to leave the issue of per diem allowance upto Sir Christopher Kelly. But she wants MPs to vote on the remaining issues such as the London allowance etc - pre-empting the Kelly review.
Sir George pointed out the logical inconsistency of her position.
Alan Duncan rightly said Harman's move turns a climbdown into chaos.
I note that there is not a single Cabinet minister on the front bench alongside her.
So Gordon doesn't even turn up to apologise for his plan, just leaves poor old Harperson out to dry. The courage of the ban you would think he was a big feartie.
In 1983, when Michael Foot's Labour Party tried to bring Britain back to the true path of socialism after what it believed was a brief and misguided detour into capitalist economics under Margaret Thatcher, its election manifesto was described as “the longest suicide note in history”. In the same spirit, the death throes of the Labour Government that started with Gordon Brown's arrival in No10 and reached its terminal phase in last week's Budget, could be called the longest assisted suicide in history.
Gordon Brown’s premiership faces a lingering death as painful as that experienced by John Major in 1996-97 unless he gets a grip quickly. Long-serving MPs were drawing parallels last night between the two: the willingness of government backbenchers to defy their leader, a loss of prime ministerial authority and open fatalism about the party’s electoral prospects.
That's just one paper and one day!
I'm sure there will be many more days like this after the defeat on a Liberal Democrat motion, A car crash of PMQ's and another embarrassing slip by Gordon Brown.
He must go, and go soon, before he destroys our country.
Gordon Brown tries to do exit stage left from the chambers after a hard PMQ's forgetting he has a statement to do. What an embarrassment this man is to the UK.
Mr Clegg said that there was an obligation to allow Gurkhas who have fought for Britain to settle there, and warned that the Prime Minister must find his moral compass soon if he is to avoid defeat in a vote this afternoon on last week's residency ruling.
He said the basic principle is that, “if people are prepared to fight and die for our country, they have the right to settle here”.
He added this afternoon’s debate and vote “is an opportunity for all MPs…this is a Prime Minister who once said he had a moral compass - he’s got to find it quickly”.
He went on to say the government is “in truly despicable fashion are trying to scare people” with the use of "totally fictional numbers" regarding the number of former Gurkhas who could settle in Britain under more relaxed rules.
“This ruling would mean Gurkha’s who fought in the Falklands war would have no right to settle here”.
Gurkhas are fighting for Justice. They want the same terms and conditions as their UK and Commonwealth counterparts.
Britain has had no greater friends than the Gurkhas. They have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.
You may have seen in the media that the Gurkhas have been fighting in Parliament and the Courts. Step by step, things are getting better - but there is a long way to go.
The Government decision of 25th April 2009 on Gurkha settlement rights is yet another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country.
Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy. A Gurkha will have to have served 20 years or more or won one of a handful of medals: the big majority of Gurkhas served for 15 years under standard army policy.
The campaign for full Gurkha Justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The Government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.
Please sign up to the campaign below. We will keep in touch with you about how you can help: there is now much that needs to be done.
Join me in the campaign: together, we can finally right this wrong.
Good to read this story that gene variations have been identified that may be a cause for Autism. Five years ago my family were DNA tested and the whole story was printed in our local paper the Press and Journal. You can read it here.
Since then Ruaridh our youngest has progressed really well and starts at Aboyne Academy after the summer. A combination of pure stubbornness and a thirst for knowledge has brought him from a youngster who had little language and poor social skills up to a confident and bright young child who has achieved more than we ever believed possible when he started Primary School. He has just had his last Primary School report which was excellent and was in his school quiz team where his knowledge of History is tremendous.
Let us hope that these new advances lead to insights into the condition’s underlying biology that could eventually lead to new treatments. There will be no miracle "cure" just hopefully a better understanding of how we can help.
If you want to learn more about Autism please go to the NAS website.
An article from the Asian Times looking at the UK economy and Gordon Brown. Nicely describes us at the end as
To paraphrase Churchill, the UK economy is now a disaster, wrapped in a catastrophe inside a calamity. And someone just flushed the key down the proverbial.
Meanwhile Poland tells Gordon Brown how he should have been running our Economy. The Polish Premier Donald Tusk said
"The Polish government at a time of financial crisis has behaved with full responsibility in terms of its public finances and the budget deficit.
"After a few months, our government made the assumption that the method to deal with the financial crisis was not to increase expenditure but (to ensure) the availability of public finances."
He added that Poland's success was down to "efficient supervision of banks and sticking to the rules."
With Mr Brown beside him, the premier went on to say that his administration's approach was based on "not exaggerating with living on credit. These are the most certain ways of avoiding ... financial crisis."
OK yet another embarrassment for Gordon and the UK. How many more do we need.
Thank you so much for your support of the Gurkha Justice campaign. We are overwhelmed by the support the campaign is receiving.
As you may know, on Friday, the Government badly let down the Gurkhas. The new rules they have announced will exclude the huge majority of ex-Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from claiming citizenship in this country. They've given five bullet points that virtually cannot be met by the ordinary Gurkha soldier.
It is so obvious that the treatment of the Gurkhas has been a great injustice. To treat them like this is despicable.
The strong reaction by the public and press should show the Government that they simply cannot get away with this outrage.
I'm ashamed of our adminstration. We will be challenging this decision in the courts and in Parliament. We will not stop now.
This is not a party political campaign: it's simply one for justice. I am so grateful though for immediate support from MPs from all Parties, including amongst others Conservative leader David Cameron and Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg.
Nick Clegg has agreed to put a vote to Parliament this Wednesday calling for a fair deal for Gurkhas. This vote on its own won't change the Government's ruling, but would be an overwhelming signal to the Government that they need to think again.
We need all MPs that support the Gurkha justice cause to turn up and vote for a proper deal for Gurkhas on Wednesday. Can I ask that you take a couple of minutes right now to ask your MP to do so?
You can send a message to your MP directly at www.theyworkforyou.com - please ask them to support the Gurkha Justice motion on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, there will also be a Gurkha Justice rally and protest against the Government's decision, starting at noon in Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Many MPs have already committed to support the vote and join me and others at the rally. I know it's awfully short notice, but if you can, please do come along as well to add your support.
If you can pass on this message to others as well that would be fabulous - and if they sign up to www.gurkhajustice.org.uk we can keep in touch with them directly in future.
Lastly, again, thank you so much for your support. It means so much to us. I spoke today to Lt Madan Kumar Gurung, who has been at the forefront of the campaign since it began. He said to me that he has no fear for the Gurkhas any more, as he knows the loving hearts of the British people will not let them down. With your support we won't.
A ComRes poll in tomorrows Independent will show the following CON 45(+5) LAB 26(-2) LD 17(-1)
What more is there really to say. Labour are falling apart at the seams. The Lib Dems who you think would manage something better are also dropping. The Tories are looking forward to a massive majority based on these polls. It cannot come soon enough.
Less than a month ago Our Jonah met the Mexican President and infected him with his own form of illness, the Jonah Jinx. Gordon Brown is surely not the man that any President or World Leader wants to meet these days. The Pakistani president even pulled out of Press Conference with Jonah.
Now we have Swine Fever and an Earthquake in Mexico. What more can this man do to the world.
Please sign the petition to rid us of this man who is making the world fall apart at the seams.
Just another routine story of Labour destroying our Democracy. Two Labour lords are set to be suspended for a year after being caught out by the Sunday Times. If anyone in business was found out taking what were essentially bribes they would be thrown out without any thought.
As Lord Taylor put it
"rules are meant to be bent sometimes".
It just seems that with Labour they are meant to be bent, distorted and just plain broken all the time.
I have noted on a few occasions the problems with the RAF Nimrod and the problems it has experienced culminating in the crash of Nmrod XV230 that cost the lives of 14 servicemen over Afghanistan. We have litany of issues that this crash has brought to our notice but the most applaing is that basically this type of Nimrod has not been airworthy since it was built and in particular changes to allow air refueling caused the Nimrod to be an explosion waiting to happen.
Now The Independent tells us that Bob Ainsworth lied about a report on the Nimrod. Bereaved relatives were not told of 26 faults which inspection found could threaten aircraft's safety
A report into the safety of Britain's ageing fleet of Nimrod spy planes, which a defence minister claimed did not reveal "any significant airworthiness issues", exposed almost 1,500 faults – 26 of which threatened the aircraft's safety.
Eight of the faults posed risks of fire and explosion, the cause of the catastrophic loss in September 2006 of a Nimrod in Afghanistan. Fourteen servicemen died after leaking fuel was ignited by a hot air pipe, causing the aircraft to explode...
... It found that the initial general condition survey – a visual inspection of the plane – revealed 1,495 "observations", 26 of which had "potential airworthiness implications".
These included chafed wiring, damage to an oil pipe and chafed fuel pipes, all of which could have led to a "fire and explosion". A further nine observations were categorised as "serious engineering issues requiring immediate action".
The MoD ordered the rapid rectification of all the problems on the ageing Nimrod fleet. However, 12 of the 18-strong fleet remain grounded while aircrews fix the problem that resulted in the explosion in Afghanistan.
So whilst these repairs were going on Bob Ainsworth the Defence Minister wrote to families of those servicemen killed, stating that the
"report by QinetiQ on the Nimrod has been received and it does not identify any significant airworthiness issues".
This was an utter and complete fabrication. The letter from Mr Ainsworth also made no mention of the fact that the MoD had ordered a thorough strip-down of the Nimrod to see whether there were any deeper, less visible problems.
This is just yet further news of the deep and dirty corruption that stains this government. Bob Ainsworth should resign immediatlely and Gordon will need to issue yet another apology for his stinking corrupt Government.
Second Best, that's what we get when we fiddle with the election system.
After the fifth count using the wishy-washy sandals and cardigan voting system(STV) at the Aboyne, Deeside and Donside By-Election and despite beating her opponent by over 170 votes in a "normal" first past the post vote Jo Pick came second to Rosemary Bruce.
So instead of getting the best candidate we have now elected a councillor who is on more peoples second most OK person list. This voting system is of course a Lib Dem preference and now we see why. Anything that can produce this sort of result is surely a travesty of true democracy.
Unfortunately for us, accepting second best, has become what we expect in this nation.
I do hope that Rosemary can juggle her family life, Office Manager job (As hubbies 30k Diary Secretary) and the work of a Councillor,, or will being a Councillor be second best to helping her hubbie.
Call me a sore Scottish Tory but this sort of result is a joke. Second Best democracy at work. Maybe Dr David Starkey had a point when he called us a
"Feeble little nation. The Scots and the Welsh are typical small nations with a romantic 19th century-style nationalism."
Full result here. Makes interesting reading. Note the lack of any Labour candidates, even the BNP put up a candidate.
After six months we can rest a little easier now as my Brother-in-law has been in Afghanistan. Each and every time there has been bad news in Afghanistan over the past 6 months it has been a fraught time in the house as we wait to here what has happened.
Tomorrow we will welcome him back to RM Condor in Arbroath, but sadly not nine of his friends and colleagues who gave their lives serving our country. In addition there are a number of others who have been injured, some seriously, who we should not forget however hard this government tries to hide the true facts of the cost to our forces of the war in Afghanistan.
Gurkhas are fighting for Justice. They want the same terms and conditions as their UK and commonwealth counterparts.
Britain has had no greater friends than the Gurkhas. They have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.
You may have seen in the media that the Gurkhas have been fighting in Parliament and the Courts. Step by step, things are getting better - but there is a long way to go.
The Government decision of 25th April 2009 on Gurkha settlement rights is yet another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country.
Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy. A Gurkha will have to have served 20 years or more or won one of a handful of medals: the big majority of Gurkhas served for 15 years under standard army policy.
They are not married to prudence. Indeed, the Prime Minister — the former Chancellor — divorced her many years ago. They are now holding a drink and drugs party on the poor lady’s grave, inviting everyone to come along and spend as much borrowed money as possible
John Redwood taunts Mr Brown over his claims of economic prudence
Things must be bad for Gordon when the local rag, the Press and Journal, has a story like this in the paper. As Nicola Barry says
Apologies have to be spontaneous to be worth anything. The successful apology requires empathy, the strength to admit fault, failure and weakness. The real success of an apology lies in its delivery. So many people say “Sorry” thenfollow it with “Actually, you see . . .”, which is not a real apology but along, rambling justification for whatever you did or said.
Famously the P&J was supposed to be so parochial that it reported the Titanic sinking as "North East Man dies at Sea.
The Fourth Estate really is waking up to Gordon Brown. Maybe this will be McBride's lasting legacy.
I see our prospective Liberal Democrat Councillor Rosemary Bruce in the Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside by-election advertises herself as an Office Manager.
She is currently an office manager, but has previously worked in both training and hotel management
Strange. I thought she was the Diary Secretary for her Husband, Malcolm Bruce M.P. , at a cost of about £28,500 to us, the general public.
Via the Coffee House we have this story about just what the IMF thinks about the state of our economy. So Gordon's story of us being best placed to comeout of this recession is revealed as just more bunkum from this truly awful Prime Minister. From the devastaing story I have this:
The IMF also suggests (p xiii) that a further $250bn of capital will be needed for UK banks. Don't expect to see any of this in the Budget - this is the truth that dare not speak its name. It is airbrushed out, there will be small print in tomorrow's Budget saying "excluding financial interventions". As the IMF makes crystal clear, this is anything but a footnote. The £190 bn figure is for what is described by the IMF report (p45) as "net costs of direct support to banks, expected eventual costs of guarantees; and costs, net of recoveries, of central bank liquidity provision." When all is done and dusted, flogged and floated, the UK banking crisis will go down in history as the biggest fiscal disaster in peacetime history. And the Brown-Balls tripartite bank regulation system will go down as perhaps the biggest single calamity in modern UK economic history
Meanwhile across at the centre of Gordon's nest of trickery what are they doing, no, not working out a way fix all these problem, oh no, they are trying to blow a smokescreen over all the bad news by concentrating on MP's expenses.
Now whilst this is a worthy endeavour, it is really nothing for Gordon Brown to get involved in. This is something that Parliament must sort out itself, and not something that Gordon should be deciding on.
However what we do get out out of this is one of the strangest ever performances by a Politician I have ever seen. The video shown below is just downright strange. As the erstwhile Dr Crippen says:
I have in the past been chided for speculating about the Prime Minister's mental capacity but this odd concatenation of "la belle indifference" bordering on anosodiaphoria with inappropriate smiles, and the odd dyskinetic gesticulations does make one wonder if he is playing from a full deck of cards. Maybe the video was released without his permission.
When I first watched this, I start to laugh, but then I realised this is the person who is supposedly running our country. I didn't laugh for long. Nick "Toenails" Robinson of the BBC has this to say on his blog about Gordon's decision to do this.
At first, Gordon Brown insisted that the question of how to reform MPs' expenses was a matter for Parliament not for him or the government.
Indeed, when proposals very similar to those he's outlined today were defeated in the Commons, he missed the vote and many of his colleagues backed the status quo.
Later, he called for an enquiry to report after the election.
Then, under pressure, he brought forward the timetable but rejected calls for him and other party leaders to lead the way to reform.
The anger generated by the home secretary's claim for the cost of an adult movie watched by her husband seems finally to have convinced Mr Brown that - fairly or not - he was getting the blame for a system that the public regards with anger and contempt.
Proposing reform and getting it agreed is, of course, a very different matter and will require many, many MPs - and not just the prime minister himself - to perform a U-turn.
The Prime Minister is due to be immortalised on the animated sitcom alongside its main characters – schoolboys Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, and Kenny McCormick. In the episode to be aired later this year, Mr Brown becomes part of an international plot to steal money from aliens in a bid to solve the global recession.
Via Guido I find that Charlie has surfaced in the Strathy and is at his hypocritical and condescending best. He obviously regards anyone in the area as a hick. Well worth a read just to have a good laugh.
He might just find out that the people of the area are a bit more aware than he thinks about the sort of sewer rat he is.
Sir, - As your Labour correspondent Charlie Whelan is implicated in the production of the scurrilous emails by Damien McBride at 10 Downing Street, I trust (not a word the special advisor or political officer group would recognise) that you will ensure his rapid exit from your team. Perhaps across the railing of the Moet roof garden on the 10th floor of Strathy Towers!
Will be another embarrassment for Gordon's Government and indeed the Civil Service.
Update: What the CPS said
I have considered whether there is evidence of any additional damage caused by the leaks in question. I have concluded that the information leaked was not secret information or information affecting national security:
It did not relate to military, policing or intelligence matters. It did not expose anyone to a risk of injury or death. Nor, in many respects, was it highly confidential. Much of it was known to others outside the civil service, for example, in the security industry or the Labour Party or Parliament. Moreover, some of the information leaked undoubtedly touched on matters of legitimate public interest, which were reported in the press.
If the Civil Service wanted the police to investigate Damian Green over some minor leaks which now appears to have been all hyperbole, makes you wonder why they won't look into the McBride affair a little bit more thoroughly. Even the Sun wants to know!
Perhaps there are still some more e-mails or other embarrassing documents out there just waiting to be found?
Why the families need to take legal action is beyond me. The Coroner has already issued a verdict of unlawful killing and criticised the MoD's decision not to fit "explosive suppressant foam" (ESF) around the plane's fuel tanks, which experts said could have saved their lives. This means that the MOD surely has a legal liability to pay Compensation and as the report says the MOD have already said
"Our deepest sympathies remain with the families of the RAF and Army personnel who lost their lives when hostile fire shot down Hercules XV179 in January 2005," he said.
"We have apologised to the families for the shortcomings identified at the inquest and by our Board of Inquiry, and we have enhanced the protection of our aircraft, including fitting explosive suppressant foam to all Hercules operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The MoD awaits the full details of this legal challenge from the families' lawyers. Compensation is always paid in cases where there is a proven legal liability."
Compensation should be paid without the need for recourse to taking legal action which can only be more distressing for the families of the victims.
Surely the mixture of Smeargate and Alcoholics on the bru is a mistake!
Mr Purnell defended Gordon Brown’s response to the smears against Conservatives planned by Damian McBride.
“Gordon Brown acted swiftly and fully as soon as he found about this. He accepted the resignation of Damian McBride he then wrote to every involved expressing his regret and has asked for the system to be strengthened,” he said.
"This was shocking and totally unacceptable way to behave and the Prime Minister has dealt with that".
Mr Purnell also said that the government was taking action to identify alcoholics who were claiming benefits, by sharing data between agencies and offering help to those people,
"It's not of any help to an individual or a families if we just allow them to remain an alcoholic and have their lives blighted by it," he said.
"If we can help people to get sober that can help make a massive difference to their lives”.
Once upon a time in a far off country their lived some pigs who wanted to rule and they were, the Old Major who sadly died before he came to real power, Snowball who took over from the Old Major and ruled the country for a while trying to do good things but ultimately failing before being knifed in the back by, Napoleon a true tyrant and a villain, who then ruled the country aided by his puppies, Jessie and Bluebell and his right hand man Squealer who manipulated the country to excuse, justify, and extol all of Napoleon's actions.
And then one day Squealer, on his master's orders went just a little bit too far...
"What people have to understand is that this crisis started in America before spreading to Britain. It was in America, not here, that these people started to publish their blogs. When the practice then caught on in Britain we no idea that it would get out of hand so quickly and lead to these problems.
And of course I have regrets that I did not stop the mostly right-wing people who started using these blogs to criticise the government. That's something I am sorry happened. And I also regret that then certain people who used to work for me, and have met from time to time, started planning ways to respond to these unfair attacks on me by right wing bloggers. They were a little too enthusiastic and got caught. Again, that is something I regret.
But I don't think focussing on such tittle-tattle for a minute longer helps anyone, least of all me. Instead, we need to remember that this blogging started in America and spread here. Now we must focus on taking the decisive action to stop this blogging doing any more damage to me, I mean before it does any more damage to public confidence in our political process. And it started in America. Thank you."
Update: The Excuse, I didn't do it, a fat boy snuck up and did it and now i'll stop all the fat boys
Dear Gus I am writing about the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, and the proposals I want to make to tighten this up. I am assured that no minister and no political adviser other than the person involved had any knowledge of or involvement in these private emails that are the subject of current discussion. I have already taken responsibility for acting on this - first by accepting Mr McBride's resignation and by making it clear to all concerned that such actions have no part to play in the public life of our country. I have also written personally to all those who were subject to these unsubstantiated claims. Mr McBride has apologised and done so unreservedly. But it is also important to make sure such behaviour does not happen again. Any activity such as this that affects the reputation of our politics is a matter of great regret to me and I am ready to take whatever action is necessary to improve our political system. I would therefore now like a more explicit assurance included in the special advisers Code of Conduct that not only are the highest standards expected of political advisers but that the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks have no part to play in the job of being a special adviser, just as it has no part to play in the conduct of all our public life. I also think it right to make it a part of the special advisers contract by asking our political advisers to sign such an assurance and to recognise that if they are ever found to be preparing and disseminating inappropriate material they will automatically lose their jobs. I think you will agree that all of us in public life have a responsibility to ensure that those we employ and who are in involved in our parties observe the highest standards. Like the overwhelming majority of figures in public life across the political spectrum, I entered politics because of a sense of public duty and to improve the lives and opportunities of those less fortunate than me. My undivided focus as prime minister is on acting to make Britain a fairer, safer and more prosperous nation and, in particular, on guiding the country through the current economic difficulties. The public would expect no less and would also expect the highest possible standards from all their politicians and all those who work for them.
Yours sincerely Gordon Brown
Why bother the current code of conduct for SpAds already covers what McBride did and he should have been sacked and not allowed to resign.
Two articles in the last couple of days highlight the impact the current recession is having on the Oil and Gas industry and how it will impact Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland in particular. The first in the FT is here and the second in the Herald is here.
As usual at the root of the causes is the way this government has such a short-term view on how to tax the industry and the time it takes them then to react to changes. Labour has consistently managed to ensure that companies regard the North Sea as a risky place to invest because of the ever changing taxes and rules that they apply. This is detrimental to the long term investment decisions that the Oil and Gas companies must make to develop new and modified sources of Oil and Gas and drives them to invest in other areas of the world where the fiscal model is more geared to the long term.
A year ago I had this to say on what Gordon was doing to the Oil industry. It seems that what I was saying then has come to pass quicker than even I expected. I reiterate what I said then
This just goes to show that despite our "Jonah" trying to sell himself as a wonderful Leader and former Chancellor is nothing of the sort. He has dug the UK into a deep hole and now has nothing to extract us from it.
Now, in this difficult period, we see the huge impact that this has on the Industry and its future in the UK. Investments dry up quicker than in other areas as risk is lower. As a result of this the government itself loses, not only just now, when the tax revenues are at their most needed, but also in the future, when we will need to pay off the huge debts that Gordon Brown has burdened the country.
It is worth reflecting on the fact that the FT quotes the fact that about 1 in 8 of the 400,000 jobs in the the Oil and Gas Industry may well go in the next two years, the majority centred around the NE of Scotland. If this does come to pass this will be a disaster for the area which has little other sustainable industries to fall back on. Urgent action by the Government is required, unfortunately, having taken and spent the money in the good times, they have nothing now left to fall back on, which gives rise to a pretty bleak outlook for the future of the industry and the whole area.
The following was written by Guido on the My blogs part of the Telegraph. Makes interesting reading on their part in this whole shabby affair.
I quote
There are a lot of bitter, jealous journalists at the Telegraph and you have behaved shamefully over the McBride story. You even tipped off Downing Street in advance as to exactly what I was up to. It reflects on you a lot more than it does on me.
You revealed sources, broke a confidence, breached a signed non-disclosure agreement and behaved like patsy's for McBride.
You still failed to spoil the story. Your political team is about as weak as it gets, that is why you sucked up to Downing Street.
The Telegraph was once run by gentlemen for gentlemen. This would never have happened under Deedes or Charles Moore.
A couple of days ago I wrote about the fire at Strachans in Aboyne. What I hadn't thought of was that just a day later we would have a Chimney Fire in our house. Luckily there was no major damage and just some embarrassment at having to call the Fire Brigade. If you look closely at the photograph above you will see that the metal grate at the top of the Chimney is heavily blackened, it was at one point glowing a very good shade of red with the heat.
The fire itself was caused by something that should not have been in the fire. Just at the end of the night we were burning some extra cardboard and in a box of cardboard someone had put an aerosol can of Lynx deodorant and a plastic inhaler, why and who we are not sure.
I had not long put the box into the fire and replaced the Fire Guard when we heard a small pop this, we think, was a small plastic inhaler used by one of my sons. I was just looking at the fire to see what had caused this when there was an enormous bang as the aerosol can exploded. The force of the blast blew the fire guard out of the fireplace and sprayed ashes and sparks around our lounge. Luckily, even though I was only sitting about 4-5 feet from the fire, the guard did it's job and stopped most of them from getting past it. Almost immediately we could hear a roaring as the chimney went on fire with the debris blown up the flue.
By now smoke alarms were going off around the house, we have 4 all mains and inter-connected, we dialed 999 and got the fire brigade called out as it looked as if the fire was taking hold. I then poured water on the fire to extinguish it and shut the doors to the lounge to try and stop the fire. Luckily it burnt itself out fairly quickly and within 5 minutes all signs of smoke and flames had stopped coming out of the chimney.
The fire brigade, despite being located 6 miles away and being a retained crew, arrived within 15 minutes and checked the house out thoroughly with a heat-sensing camera to ensure it truly was out. After a quick cup of coffee and filling in a report about the fire they were off happy not to have had as much work as the previous day.
It was only then I realised how lucky we had been. If the guard had not been up it is likely that the whole lounge would have been showered with red hot debris and sparks and we could have had a much more serious situation. As it is we got away with no damage apart from our blushes. The combination of melted plastic and other debris could have caused quite serious injuries apart from setting fire to the lounge. The photo below shows the two offending articles.
The other thing we realised was how lucky we are to have retained firemen available in our rural area as if the the EU has it's way we may not be so lucky. I'm glad to see that this is an area that our local prospective Conservative Councilor Jo Pick is highlighting in her campaign for the local by-election on the 23rd April 2009. As usual we see the Lib Dems at their hypocritical best saying they support the opt out of the EU directive when one of their number in Scotland voted to end the opt out along with two Labour MEPS.
Literally 20 minutes before this happened I was in this shop purchasing some potting soil for my wife. I have a genuine alibi for the time of the fire as we were walking round Loch Kinord very shortly after this.
We went past at about 6pm and it was a real mess with the roof down in both the main shop and the big extension at the back.
The Daily Mail speculates that the Damian Green affair might be Gordon Brown's Watergate. It might well be if it carries on and gains legs as it has this weekend. Despite all "Spliffer" Smith's attempts to portray Green as the Devil incarnate, all we see is the desperate misinformation of a dying goverment and the stench of corruption.
Just in case you don't think this is going to be a problem, just realise that the Big Feartie, our own Macavity the Cat has yet again disappeared from view, preferring to put out his minions to try and save his hide. This is the man who has now written two books about "Courage", this is the man that is supposed to be our "Moses", this is the man who is the great Leader of the World's Economic Recovery, so where is he when he is needed?
Yet again this man is cowering in his Bunker hoping this will just blow over and that he can avoid all or any of the blame for the actions of his government. Even his beloved Sun is turning on him calling this Country a Police State , here and now.
And yet again we hear that the real story may yet be still to be released. The murky goings on of this Government and it's Political minions is starting to unravel. The jobs for the boys and the cash for honours are coming home to roost not a moment to soon. Let us hope that they don't reach into the Police or we are all in trouble.
Conspiring to tell the Truth - that's what Damian Green is currently being charged with by the Police. His crime is to have gone against a Government that brokes no opposition to its Stalinesque methods.
As Fraser Nelson says today in articles in the Spectator and the News of the World, he has committed no crimes, just done his job as a responsible and respectable MP. If he has then by his own admittance then Gordon Brown is guilty of the same crime and not just on one occasion. As Gordon says it's not a mole it's just someone who is concerned about the public interest.
Fraser finishes off his article in the Spectator with the following words.
So it’s no excuse for Brown to say that the system went crazy during Green’s arrest. It should make him wonder what kind of monster has been created. It’s no use for Michael Martin to let it be known he’s hopping mad. He can still act. To signal the seriousness of what happened last week, he can resign – not out of guilt, but out of protest. Green’s arrest is a wake-up call for all of us, but no one more so than politicians. The last ten years have been about giving the system more power and money. It’s gone way, way too far. Now’s the time to fight back.
The problem is how does the ordinary punter do this today. We are now in the grip of a government that steadily and surely over the past 11 years has managed to begin to control our thoughts, words and deeds. We spend our lives wondering if what we say or write has been misinterpreted or could be deemed as somehow racist, stereotypical, anti-feminist, anti-government or a whole class of other possible indiscretions. We are scared even to put out the "wrong" sort of rubbish or to dare to drive a car by ourselves or even holiday abroad.
It's gone so far that now is the time to fight back to stop the erosion of our liberties, to stop those who would wish us all to lie down and just do as they say rather than stand up and fight and question what is happening to this country of ours.
When David Davies resigned earlier this year he gave a speech outlining the reasons he was making his stand. I thought at the time it was strange decision as I felt he could make his views heard much better from his then position but supported what he was highlighting. Now I know that, perhaps, he had realised just how far this government has gone to turn us into a Stalinesque Society.
David Davis said this in his speech
But in truth perhaps 42 days is the one most salient example of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedom.
And we will have shortly the most intrusive identity card system in the world. A CCTV camera for every 14 citizens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has, with thousands of innocent children and millions of innocent citizens on it.
We have witnessed an assault on jury trials, a bolt against bad law and its arbitrary use by the state.
And shortcuts with our justice system, which will make our system neither firm nor fair and a creation of a database state opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers.
The state has security powers to clamp down on peaceful protest and so-called hate laws to stifle legitimate debate, whilst those who incite violence get off scot-free.
This cannot go on, it must be stopped, and for that reason today I feel it is incumbent on me to take a stand.
To those above must now be added the the terrible crimes of "Conspiring to Tell the Truth" and "Just Doing your Job".
The story, as it is revealed, of the arrest of Damian Green, may just be the final catalyst to the general public, just as the PBR was earlier this week on the economy, to understanding just what has happened under the insidious direction of the Labour Government. It may just be the time when they say no more and demand we get rid of the pestilence that now threatens to devour the freedoms we so rightly prize in this country. I can only hope that we do not have to suffer for much longer.
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