Whilst I'm still not convinced the expenses debacle is the most important thing that should be being addressed in the media and debated by parliament at the moment, it is pretty incredible, and leaves me vaguely gob-smacked.
You have to admire MP's for trying to distract the public by putting all the blame on the Speaker who's been forced to resign; the first time this has happened in about 300 years. Think the last time was in the late 1600's when the Speaker of that time had to resign over a bribery claim.
There seem to be very few MPs that didn't jump on the expenses band wagon and claim for all sorts of things they probably shouldn't have. Are we allowed to get rid of the whole lot and start again? As someone mentioned this week I don't know if the Queen still has the power to disolve parliament and call for a general election. I think the public would defintely pass a vote of no confidence in the majority of MPs at the moment.
A senior Catholic Archbishop did come out in support of the Speaker and had a rant versus MPs today, accusing them of trying to deflect attention. The Archbishop in question better take care given the recent report out in Ireland concerning the Catholic Church and child abuse, who knows where the media spotlight will turn next!
If we did have an election now I'm not sure who I'd vote for. I couldn't vote for Labour at the moment, they've just made too many mistakes and need to have that period out of power to sort themselves out, same as happened to the Conservatives. Not sure I could vote Conservative as Cameron is a bit too smarmy and I don't trust him. I quite like the Lib Dems however preferred Charles Kennedy to Nick Clegg. And the Greens aren't really worth it at the moment as most politcal parties have the right green intentions at the moment. Don't think there are any other viable contenders; the BNP should just be dissolved.
I wonder if we just paid politicians a bit more if we'd get better quality people - the sort of private sector business men and women who otherwise wouldn't be attracted to politics, but would probably be quite good at it.
Anyway enough of politics, which really can be quite aggravating. Time to get gardening this evening as probably away in Derbyshire this weekend and tomatoes need a planting.
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Friday 15 May 2009
Funny goings on
It's been a week of funny going's on I reckon.
The expenses debacle seems to have got a bit out of hand. One part of me thinks it's all got a bit silly, and there really are more important things we should be worrying about, whilst the other says MPs should have more scruples. Whilst many of them might not have broken rules they certainly didn't go with the spirit of them. The one that forgot he'd already paid off his Mortgage and was still claiming is a classic. Not sure many people would forget paying off the biggest debt you're ever likely to incur. I wish I'd caught Question Time last night as apparently it was pretty feisty with MPs nearly geting lynched (might not have been a bad thing).
Then again this sort of thing has been going on for centuries I imagine, and is unlikely to stop now, and does it really matter that much in comparison to other things? For example my God Father's son was killed in Afganistan last week, and although I haven't seen my God Father Jim Ross or his son Ben for a long while it really brings things home and makes you think - details here - http://tiny.cc/r26eQ . By all accounts Ben was highly respected and an all round great bloke.
It's been a funny old week at work too, in between projects and waiting for replies on a lot of stuff so have been doing quite a bit of house keeping and helping out with some testing work.
On the plus side quite a good week on the share dealing front - about 10% up on the previous week according to my calculations. Not quite enough to pay of the Mortgage yet though, maybe I should go into politics.
Now it's time for a glass of wine or two. Eurovision party this weekend which should be fun.
Here's some photo's from our Welsh trip - http://tinyurl.com/rb3rft
The expenses debacle seems to have got a bit out of hand. One part of me thinks it's all got a bit silly, and there really are more important things we should be worrying about, whilst the other says MPs should have more scruples. Whilst many of them might not have broken rules they certainly didn't go with the spirit of them. The one that forgot he'd already paid off his Mortgage and was still claiming is a classic. Not sure many people would forget paying off the biggest debt you're ever likely to incur. I wish I'd caught Question Time last night as apparently it was pretty feisty with MPs nearly geting lynched (might not have been a bad thing).
Then again this sort of thing has been going on for centuries I imagine, and is unlikely to stop now, and does it really matter that much in comparison to other things? For example my God Father's son was killed in Afganistan last week, and although I haven't seen my God Father Jim Ross or his son Ben for a long while it really brings things home and makes you think - details here - http://tiny.cc/r26eQ . By all accounts Ben was highly respected and an all round great bloke.
It's been a funny old week at work too, in between projects and waiting for replies on a lot of stuff so have been doing quite a bit of house keeping and helping out with some testing work.
On the plus side quite a good week on the share dealing front - about 10% up on the previous week according to my calculations. Not quite enough to pay of the Mortgage yet though, maybe I should go into politics.
Now it's time for a glass of wine or two. Eurovision party this weekend which should be fun.
Here's some photo's from our Welsh trip - http://tinyurl.com/rb3rft
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