MP’s STILL ARGUING OVER THEIR EXPENSES AT OUR EXPENSE
Posted by Caledonian Jim in Daily Posts
In the UK Members of Parliament (MP’s) from all political parties have been warned that they face being kicked out of Parliament (above) if they refuse to abide by a recent retrospective review over their expenses for the last 5 years and don’t pay back over-claimed money. Both Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Opposition Leader David Cameron have said that any MP’s that resist the financial payback demands raised by the review conducted by Sir Thomas Legg could lose the support of their party and be de-selected for their parliamentary seats at the forthcoming general election.
But there is a growing rebellion amongst lots of MP’s over the review. Many Conservative members are said to be “unhappy” – and Mr Brown was reportedly “violently heckled” at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Many greedy MP’s are said to have “a sense of grievance” at being asked to pay money back – some have even had the cheek to question “the legality of the review”. What planet are these MP’s on ? They’re STILL having a laugh over expenses at our expense. If they have a sense of grievance, can they imagine the sense of grievance WE feel at having been forced to pay for this ongoing theft ? And as for questioning legalities, well we’re all for it – let’s send the Fraud Squad into the House of Commons with a brief to examine every set of expenses and we’ll see just how enthusiastic MP’s are to observe legalities then.
In the UK inflation has (allegedly) dropped to its lowest rate in 5 years as falling energy prices (!) reportedly continued to “cut the cost of living”. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the consumer prices index (CPI) fell to 1.1% in September on a year-on-year basis, down from 1.6% in August. This is its lowest point since September 2004, and well below the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committe’s 2% inflation target. We are being told that the main cause of the fall was cheaper electricity and gas bills, which are, according to the “experts”, 7.3% lower than a year ago. Well I’m not an economics expert, but I’m afraid I have to report that my gas bill isn’t 7.3% lower than a year ago – it’s 10% HIGHER. And as for inflation running at only 1.1%, well that’s obviously very good news – I just wish someone would tell the people charging me between 5% and 10% more than last year for gas, electricity, water, food, fuel, clothes, insurance, booze and council tax.
Here’s a thought for the day. Pictured above is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embracing Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness the other day, as if he was an old and dear friend. Now Mr McGuinness was a senior commander in the Provisional IRA – in other words, he was a terrorist. Yet it’s only a few weeks ago that the same Hillary Clinton was criticising the Scottish government for releasing another terrorist, Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi, to Libya on compassionate grounds. Now far be it from me to accuse Hillary and her boss President Barack Obama of double standards – after all, if you can win the Nobel Peace Prize at the same time as you escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending more troops, anything’s possible. And I suppose there’s a lot more Irish votes in the US than Libyan ones.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (pictured above) has called for “unsustainable” air-freighted food to be replaced gradually by homegrown produce from thousands of new vegetable allotments. In a newspaper interview, Dr Rowan Williams, who has recently advocated the introduction of Sharia Law in Britain, said that families needed to respond to the threat of climate change by changing their shopping habits and adjusting their diets to the seasons, eating fruit and vegetables that could be grown in Britain. Maybe somebody should remind the Sharia Archbishop that most of us go to work each day rather than having plenty of spare time to undertake gardening in between visits to the Mosque.
First of all, air passengers had to remove their jackets when passing through airport security. Then it was belts, soon after shoes. And now there is an x-ray machine that produces “naked” images (above) of passengers that was tested at a British international airport yesterday. As well as enabling staff to instantly spot any hidden weapons or explosives, the full-body scanner being trialled at Manchester Airport will leave little to the imagination of airport security staff. It will reveal a clear outline of passengers genitals, as well as any false limbs, breast enlargements or body piercings. Travellers can refuse to undergo the virtual strip at Terminal 2 and choose a traditional “pat down” search instead, according to the airport, which admits that some travellers may feel uncomfortable about using the new technology.
The scan’s black and white image will be seen by one officer in a remote location before it is deleted, said Sarah Barrett, head of customer experience at the airport. “Most of our customers do not like the traditional ‘pat down’ search, they find it too intrusive, but they still want to be kept safe. This scanner completely takes away the hassle of needing to undress. The images are not erotic or pornographic and they cannot be stored or captured in any way,” she said. As passengers will not have to remove their coats, shoes or belts, the scanner will – in theory – speed up the check-in process. Frequent flyers will not be at risk from the low-level radiation, which is 20,000 times less powerful than a dental x-ray, Barrett said. “Passengers can go through this machine 5,000 times a year each without worrying, it is super safe and the amount of radiation transmitted is tiny,” she said. Yeah sure – be x-rayed 5,000 times and be safe ? Is that a pig flying over Manchester Airport ?
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