Pick A Pocket

Ah, some English satire:



Wish it was a bit longer though!

Satire 101

Hattip Speccy, Yo.



Hey, when do we get ours?

Update: the same crew did this one...



Larks!

HP Source

The Telegraph tonight revealed the source of the information leak which led to the expenses scandal. He's Tory-supporting, ex-SAS retired soldier with strong links to parliament, John Wick. Here's what he has to say for himself:



His article in the Telegraph reveals a man disillusioned by the corruption at the heart of Westminster, running through all parties at all levels. His reasoning for releasing the information - bravely, I might add - brooks no argument. His view is that if they want to know everything about us then it's about time we knew something about them.

But he also points out that there is a serious security risk to Britain thanks to the government's appalling record on data protection:

Government ministers had overseen a series of data losses involving the electronic records of ordinary people in recent times and here was the proof that they could not even properly protect their own information.

Ironically, I believe that it was only the outside agency which treated the data as secret and put the correct procedures in place.
The fault for this lies at the top and is indicative of the haphazard way in which personal data for millions of people is treated by the Government.
The expenses scandal may have exposed serious abuse and possible corruption within the Palace of Westminster, but it also shows the abysmal standards of data protection at the heart of British life.

Well, I doff my hat to him. He's not a whistleblower, he's a bloody hero. And what he says is dynamite (or, perhaps, great big barrels of gunpowder).

Freedoms You've Lost

Believe me, there's a long list - and they all mount up!

Philip Johnson gives us a rundown of some of the things we all could do before new liebour came to power. And there I was thinking it was only me that felt better off, happier and far more free before these bastards fooled the country into voting them in, and then launched their all-out war on civil liberties. This list is certainly not comprehensive, I might add!

» Smoke in a pub or on a railway platform in the open air in the middle of the countryside, or at a covered bus stop, or in your own car if it is used for work, or in your own house if it is used as an office where outsiders may come.

» Own a horse, donkey or Shetland pony without possessing a passport carrying a picture of the animal.

» Ride off with a pack of hounds in pursuit of a fox or stag.

» Play the piano in a pub without an entertainment licence.

» Stage more than 12 events a year at, for instance, a school or church hall at which alcohol may be served without a full licence.

» Set off a firework after midnight or be in possession of a firework if aged under 18 at any time other than the period around Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve.

» Own a pistol for any purpose, including sport target practice.

» Stage a protest of any sort, even if alone, within 1km of the Palace of Westminster, without the authority of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

» Fish in the River Esk without authorisation.

» Enter the hull of the Titanic without permission from the Secretary of State.

» Import into England potatoes which a person knows to be or has reasonable cause to suspect to be Polish potatoes.

» Obstruct the work of the Children's Commissioner for Wales.

» Imbibe an alcoholic drink on a London Underground train or bus.

» Keep a car on your own driveway without tax, even if it not being used, without filling in a form.

» Sell a grey squirrel (though you can kill one).

Before you say you support any or all of them (and one of them is BoJo's handiwork, I seem to recall), think about the principles: civil liberties are there to protect individuals and minority groups generally from the intrusion of the state. That's why statist Labour has always found them to be incompatible with their ridiculous ideologically authoritarian view of society and the 'role' of the state in it, especially now. Johnson's conclusion:

Labour has created new offences at twice the rate of the previous Tory administration, which was bad enough in this regard, and it has done so at an accelerating pace. Now you may support some or all of these new laws. What cannot be denied is that we have had a frenzy of law-making that has changed the character of the nation in a way that many of us neither expected nor wanted – even those who voted Labour (especially those who voted Labour, perhaps).

The first thing any new government must do is audit and then abolish any and all of Labour's legislation which is deemed either offensive to common sense or impinges on civil liberties, or both. This means that those terms - common sense and civil liberties - which were once taken for granted in what once was our far more free society, will need to be redefined after the constant and determined assault on them from the Left over the past twelve years.

The next election should be fought on this ticket just as much as an anti-corruption and economic one. The next government will represent nothing less than 'regime change' (from elective dictatorship back to democracy!). The role of Europe in this disturbing trend will need to be carefully examined, too, of course.

First, though, fight for the freedoms you've lost: kick this government out!

==Update 9.11pm==
I missed this excellent piece by Iain Dale on the subject of Labour's assault on liberty and the need for the opposition parties to stand on a civil liberties agenda. I highly recommend it.

==Update 2==
Hattip to Old Holborn for this chilling video.

Remember, the system isn't regulated and the police keep your DNA even if you're innocent (like all the people featured in the clip, for instance).

Bradshaw Threatens Self With Prison

Bradshaw: "I fully deserve to be banged-up"

My ears did not deceive me last night. The newspapers carried the opening Question Time bombshell for MPs of all stripe, heal and party. William Hague did say it: "when asked if some MPs should face criminal prosecution, Mr Hague answered: 'In all probability yes'", according to the Daily Trottergraph in the last hour or so. So it seems they really are steeling themselves for a potential knock on the door from DCI Knacker of the SFO.

None more so than silver-tongued twister, Ben Bradshaw, he who argued in nauseous circles last night (once he'd clocked the hostile mood of the audience) that the outgoing Speaker should get his peerage while advocating a fully elected Upper House in the same breath, and also admitted that

...any members shown to have broken the law should "face up to the consequences" of their fraudulent claims. "Some may go to jail."

So, as the DT shouts in its headline, a Government minister has raised the spectre of MPs being sent to prison for abusing the expenses system. Curious, that, given that Bradshaw's full expenses claim for mortgage interest on a flat jointly owned by him and his civil partner has attracted criticism from several quarters, not least from Pink News who say:

"Although the mortgage is in their joint names, since their civil partnership Mr Bradshaw has paid the full bill." Obviously, it suits Mr Bradshaw and his partner financially for the whole cost of the interest on the mortgage to be paid by the tax payer...

All approved and within the rules, of course. But above within the law? Lest we forget all the other expenses claims currently causing the defenestration of MPs all over the place were also 'approved and within the rules'.

So who is Bradshaw referring to when he says some might be heading for jail? Why, one can only assume he means himself. How very big of him.

Plod's view?

A former senior assistant director of the Serious Fraud Office has said he is "sure" that the Met Police will pursue a full investigation into the expenses abuses, with some MPs facing jail terms if convicted.

"It doesn’t seem to me that it should be for individual citizens to try and investigate and bring prosecutions. It seems to me to cry out for a proper police investigation and if the evidence is there for public prosecutions,” Chris Dickson told ITV1’s Tonight programme, to be broadcast this evening.

Tune in tonight, folks. Could be interesting.

Can I Believe My Ears?

==Question Time Bombshell==

Watch it if you get a chance because hardly had the music stopped than William Hague said - I think - that Douglas Hogg and the others might well have to face criminal prosecution. He then got a round of applause for saying the misuse of expenses could well be fraud. Um...I think he's still gonna get grilled, though. But full marks for effort, William my boy.

Ben Bradshaw's turn. He looks petrified.

=Update=
Well, maybe not petrified. But he sounds like a whining schoolboy ('It wasn't meee'). The audience responses are interesting: huge, spontaneous applause for the calls from Hague and Cable for a General Election and for the UKIP treasurer, Andersen who asked who signed-off on all this (dovetailing it neatly with Europe). Powerful response to that. UKIP could have really broken through in middle England. Tories beware June 4th! (By the same token, Labour has lost the ear of the public - utterly. They're in real, big, deep poop. Every cloud...).

Martin Bell sounds more and more like the boring old fart he really is. And he's just said he's gonna stand again. Oh dear God.

=Update 2=
The piece that'll be played on the news: Bradshaw mercilessly handbagged by an articulate woman who said, to great applause, "Brown: your time's UP". That's the message in the proverbial nutshell. Pure, simple and shattering, and nothing slippery mouthpieces like Bradshaw say can alter that. Job done.