It's pretty extraordinary to me that there is what seems to be a virtual television news blackout on the latest, extraordinary twist in the expenses scandal. After a PMQs where no mention of the subject was made by MPs and their leaders, in what looks for all the world like a cowardly cross-party consensus, the main TV news outlets, the Beeb and SKY (ITN has no rolling news service so it's difficult to include it these days), appear to have dutifully forgotten all about it.the new CGS Sir Jock Stirrup in a bizarre interview during which he appeared to call his predecessor, Richard Dannatt, a liar over the request during the summer for 2000 extra troops. "It's a myth," he said. Oh, really?
It's obviously one of those weird 'protect Brown' days in the broadcast media that crops up from time to time. While there have been some, small references to Clegg's pretty mendacious call for an extention to the Legg review that includes house flipping (mendacious because he knows a deal's already been struck to exclude this), there has been nothing about the rebellion Brown faces or more on David Cameron's uniquely hardline stance. Well, whatever the motive and the agenda of the 'village', as James Kirkup has said in his DT blog, they can do what they like but the expenses debacle is not going to go away. I would add that it won't go away until this parliament goes away, complete with the majority of its corrupt, whingeing, not-fit-for-purpose MPs. For good.
PMQs: pathetic MPs won't mention their expenses"A collective act of denial beyond pathetic." I like that a lot. But I would extend it to include the pathetic broadcast media, if not the entire, pathetic MSM (minus, perhaps, in this case at least, the Telegraph).Afghanistan. Europe. General Sir Richard Dannatt. Girl Guides. Mortgages. Royal Mail. Emergency services. Freedom of the Press. Scotland. Poverty.
All important subjects, all worthy of parliamentary debate and all rightly discussed at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Yet there was not a single mention of MPs’ expenses, Sir Thomas Legg, public money or public trust. Not one MP, backbencher or party leader, dared to mention the issue that has fixated them for days and made them the objects of public scorn.
It’s not as if politicians aren’t talking about this. MPs are happy enough to talk about their expenses in the tearooms and corridors at length. But they won’t do it in the House of Commons, which is at least supposed to be the proper forum for national debate. As a collective act of denial, this is beyond pathetic. As a public spectacle, it verges on the surreal.
Bloggers of the net, unite! You have nothing to lose but your piggy MPs.
I still really want to know why we're paying for Brown's sky sports subscription. How is that necessary for his parliamentary work?
ReplyDeleteYes, pathetic sums it up rather well.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the msm has been paid off, one can only assume.
I think I'm beyond caring, if truth be told. They're all as bad as each other. But it is a fair question nonetheless: why do they not just receive for nothing but EXPECT to receive for nothing the things we all have to pay for!
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you something else, there is nothing wrong with an exes system that assumes honourable behaviour. The problems come when you have MPs with no honour. The solution seems pretty simple to me, therefore. Don't get rid of the system, get rid of the dishonourable MPs.
Cameron should fire anyone who even *complains* about the Legg review, regardless of whether they pay the money back or not. A complaint speaks to a mind set - a mind set of entitlement unbefitting of a public servant.
As for Brown...don't get me started! The reading out of dead soldiers' names at PMQs was nauseating, given that he sent them to their deaths (most of which were casused by a lack of equipment in Brown's war on the cheap) - and given that a woman was actually arrested not so long ago for doing the same thing at the Cenotaph not so long ago.
The hypocrisy of these assholes is monumental.
Gig: It does sort of look that way, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteUB: forgive typos in my ranting response. I was hitting the keys a bit harder than usual ;)
I think the reading out of the dead should not be done at PMQ's. If anything this is something that should be brought up at Defence questions. Every single soldier that dies is named and acknowledged in every major news outlet in the country. Brown is using their deaths to give himself some breathing room at PMQ's. There's one for speaker smeagol to put to him. If he wants to to do that at the start of PMQ's every week, then PMQ's should be extended to 45 minutes to enable the party leaders and others to come back with more questions and hold him to account.
ReplyDeleteAt least we only have a few more months of the bastard to put up with. The last 2 years have been interminable. The next six months will get sweeter with every day passing as it's a day closer to a post-Brown country!
Precisely right. On every point. Brilliant.
ReplyDelete