Agenda 2019

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-10-pay-rise-offers-mps-opportunity-to-be-more-charitable-10394801.html David Cameron: 10% pay rise offers MPs opportunity to be more charitable MP's have been awarded a salary increase of more than 10%. This award has been granted by the "independent" pay review body and consequently MP's are unable to do anything about it. They may of course as individuals, refuse to accept the increase or alternatively pay the extra cash into some charity or other deserving organisation. The extra money on their payslips, amounts to somewhere in excess of £7000 per annum, which is in excess of the money many people receive as income. Put another way, this figure amounts to around £135 per week. 10% increase for MPs was confirmed with salary now at £74,000.PA It is then ironic that not too long ago, some Public sector workers, nurses, NHS workers and other essential workers were awarded, ...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/lord-hanningfield-claims-fiddle-expenses-3489778 Lord Hanningfield claims he had to fiddle expenses to look after his CHICKENS    Chicken enthusiast: Lord Hanningfield   Hanningfield, a former Tory frontbencher, was sentenced to nine months’ jail in 2011 over the last expenses scandal after being found guilty of falsely claiming for overnight stays in London. But he was out in less than three months and returned to the Lords the following year after repaying £30,000. "kicked out of Parliament for a year and forced to repay the money " If we actually put these thieves in prison for a while, it may deter other MP's and Peers stealing money from the taxpayers of this country. 

  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/08/ed-balls-nick-clegg_n_4561996.html?utm_hp_ref=uk   Ed Balls Says He Could Join Coalition With Nick Clegg   Balls and Clegg    Another reason why politics in this country and its politicians, are loathed and despised. The prostitution of principle  (if they have any) for the acquisition of power, no matter how corrupt or contaminated such power may be. The people of the country are sacrificed on the altar of the ego's and personal ambitions of shameless and self serving men (and women) more interested in their positions, salaries and expense accounts and other perks rather than working people, the sick, the disabled, the unemployed and the excesses of businesses, banks and privatised industries. The cynicism and hypocrisy of this arrogant posturing was a contributory factor in my decision to leave the labour Party some years ago. The "power at any cost" philosophy which was becoming the o...

  The “Huffington Post censors (or “moderators”, I am never sure which is the correct title), are a strange crowd, where consistency has little if any meaning in the decision to publish or not to publish,. For example, yesterday (Sunday 15th December 2013) a story appeared in the press, including the Huffington Post, concerning a rather nasty little man, who currently is Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon. The story appeared under the headline of “Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi Calls For 'Two Child Limit' On Benefits”. Having written about Mr Zahawi on previous occasions, particularly about his unsavoury MP's expenses claims for heating costs and other business activities, I put together another posting under the heading of, “Nadhim Zahawi: Competing to be the nastiest of the nasties.” for publication on this blog and in the comments sections of other publications. In the Huffington Post, comments are restricted in terms of the number of words allowable...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/15/two-child-limit-benefits_n_4446773.html?utm_hp_ref=uk   Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi would limit child benefit and tax credits to families' first two children. Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi   Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi would limit child benefit and tax credits to a families first two children. Another of  the "Nasty party's" nasties to crawl out of the woodwork with proposals to save money for the tax payer. Zahawi, a member of David Cameron's policy board, rationalises his proposition with the notion that, "Capping welfare by family size would save billions and help the next generation think more carefully about their relationship with the welfare state". Politicians are renowned for their ability to have selective memory lapses when it comes to their own acts or omissions, but Zahawi takes first prize for patronising contempt, when he adds that  "they can no longer assume the taxpayer has a bottomless purse...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/08/mps-pay-rise-embarrass-party-leaders  MPs are to get an inflation-busting 11% pay rise   MPs will be paid an annual salary of £74,000 from 2015   An 11% pay rise for MP's. In these times of austerity, and following George Osborne's "Autumn Statement" last week, it is beyond belief that our elected representatives can receive a pay increase of £7,600.00 (or 11%) while the vast majority of people in the country see their incomes fall in real terms with salaries frozen or at best limited to a 1% increase for another year. Before anyone (if such people actually exists in these times), leaps to the defence of our "Honourable members" with the feeble argument that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, is independent and  MP's have no say in the decision to award this extra salary, these supporters of our "hard working" poorly paid representatives, should consider a few simple f...

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/facebook-democracy-the-face-of-things-to-come-8967976.html   Facebook democracy: the face of things to come? Speaker John Bercow   The "Speaker" has lost the plot. There are millions of people in this country who for one reason or another, do not use "Facebook", or do not own a computer or do not have internet access. Bercow should spend less time day dreaming and more time trying to find new ways of justifying his defence of the secrecy surrounding  the extortionate MP's expenses claims and the justification of their increases in pay and pension provisions.

  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/02/mps-energy-expenses_n_4206018.html?utm_hp_ref=uk 340 MPs get their energy bills paid on expenses Nadhim Zahawi with David Cameron   Since October of 2012, I have been posting comments on this Blog critical of MP's and their outrageous expenses claims, under headings such as "Mp's expenses. They are still at it." (18th October 2012) "MPs complain dinner expenses are not generous enough" (4th April 2013) "MP's have little or no shame" (8th May 2013) and various other postings of a similar nature. It is now clearly evident, that the public outrage and criticism of our elected representatives, initially brought about by the expenses scandal revelations of 2009, has had little effect in curbing the activities of these avaricious individuals who seem to have little, if any integrity. In these times when many people are facing stark choices in respect of heating or eating, when almost one ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/05/labour-unite-falkirk-police_n_3549835.html?utm_hp_ref=uk Labour Row With Unite Union Escalates   Enough of this pantomime between Miliband and McCluskey. The whole subject has descended into farce and both are to blame. It is time for Miliband to remember where the roots of the Labour party actually are and for McCluskey to understand that Unite is not his own personal vehicle for promoting himself. Over recent years, certainly since the time of Blair, the Labour party has deteriorated significantly both in terms of performance and programmes. We now have the obscene spectacle of Labour voting with the Tories or abstaining on votes of major effect on working people and their families, the sick and disabled, and on claimant generally. It is time for the remaining cords to be cut. The TUC have for many years, tried to breathe life into the corpse of the political party they formed so many years ago. From the ...

  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/05/ipsa-mp-pay-rise_n_3549461.html?utm_hp_ref=uk     Give MPs A Pay Rise, Or There'll Be Another Expenses Scandal, Says IPSA      This comment from IPSA is a damming indictment of MP's generally. Had the thieving members who embezzled public money by fiddling their expense claims been dealt with properly at the time, we might now have a house of commons which has some credibility with the people of this country, rather than a bunch of self serving hypocrites who are held in contempt by almost everybody. Saying "sorry" and handing back a few pounds here and there, was nothing more than a gesture in response to their crimes being exposed. Those MP's found with their fingers in the till should have been suspended from the House of Commons, charged with theft and misconduct in public office, and if found guilty, given suitable sentences and a criminal record. This would certainly ha...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-in-line-for-20000-pay-rise-in-move-likely-to-spark-public-anger-8622556.html  MPs are set to receive a pay rise of up to £20,000. Just when you thought that you had heard everything, just when you thought that there were no other depths to which MP's could sink, just when you thought that the greed of demanding an increase in their expenses for lunch followed by another demand for an increase in their bar drinks allowance, could not be topped, comes this. Make no mistake about it, no matter how many times the MP's may bleat, plead poverty and trot out the well worn cliche that their salaries are set by an "independent review body", the levels of salary that these parasites pay themselves are set behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms and agreed long before any announcement is made in the media.   John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is understood to be sympathetic to a pay rise after saying that M...

                         http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/07/mps-demand-cheaper-alcoho_n_3228805.html?utm_hp_ref=uk    MPs Demand Cheaper Alcohol In Commons Bars   Hard on the heels of, "MP's complain dinner expenses are not enough" (as reported on 4th April 2013), comes this latest example of what has become an outrageous and patronising insult to the people of this country. By calling for cheaper alcohol prices in the Commons' bars and restaurants (already subsidised by £5.8 million of taxpayer's money), these "Honorable members" demonstrate a complete lack of empathy with a society where austerity rules and almost one million people rely on foodbanks to feed their families. Not satisfied with fiddling  expenses to augment their already extortionate salaries, they seek to inflate their daily food allowance and now pay even less for their wines, beer and spirit...

  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/28/iain-duncan-smith-tells-wealthy-pensioners-to-hand-back-their-bus-passes_n_3172615.html?1367135836&utm_hp_ref=uk Iain Duncan Smith Tells Wealthy Pensioners To Hand Back Their Bus Passes IDS urges wealthy pensioners to forego perks. Another outpouring of verbal diarrhea from the "scrounger" living rent free in a lodge on his father in law's estate, who enjoys a chauffeur driven limousine on his way to and from work (and no doubt return trips to other less well known locations) and who's grasp of reality is severely limited by his background, his class and his intellectual abilities. Instead of lecturing the rest of us about things (in all aspects of his position as Work and Pensions Secretary)  which he could never understand or imagine, he would be better employed instructing or requesting that the other 649 MP's give up their allowances for food every week, (because they can affor...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/10/mps-vote-to-increase-pay-86250_n_2448503.html?1357840986&utm_hp_ref=uk  MPs Call For 32% Pay rise MPs Call For 32% Pay Rise Of £86,250 As Survey Finds Most Feel Underpaid  A few days after voting through a 1% cap on benefit payments, and after freezing public sector pay increases for the past three years, and after allowing public utilities and transport to increase fares and charges way above inflation, this bunch of avaricious parasites seek an increase in their salary of 32%. This demand is an insult to millions of people in this country who are enduring the austerity of cuts in their services and restrictions in their salaries and pensions, due primarily to the incompetence of this and previous governments who have allowed banks and financial institutions to accumulate vast profits and almost bankrupt the country in doing so. Politicians are now completely bereft of ideas on how to resolve the economic problems, an...