782 days ago
This is a title which is always hotly contested but today’s winner is actor Hugh Laurie as you can see below.
1697 days ago
By convention the speaker of the house of commons, standing as an independent, is returned unopposed by the major parties. But John Bercow is a divisive fellow.
3949 days ago
I noted here six days ago that MPs (who earn between 4 and 7 times the national average wage) reckon that if they don’t get a £10,000 pay rise they will be forced to fiddle their expenses again. But of course I got my sums wrong. It is even worse that I first thought.
For we learned at the weekend that 150 of the Westminster swine are claiming £50 a week for transport costs for their kids. That is deemed a legitimate expense. £2,500 a year tax free – that is worth £4,500 as a higher rate taxpayer. How many other "little" fittles like that are there which are all 100% legit under rules created by the MPs themselves? One suspects quite a few. And it all adds up.
As a bonus we also discovered that speaker John Bercow managed to claim £84 travel expenses for a journey of exactly one mile. Ironically it was a journey to visit the body set up to oversee MP’s expenses.
The political classes are right now thrashing about in a row about how Labour is bankrolled by Unite and the seeming corruption within Unite designed to fix election meetings. I do not give a damn about this. Or about the various corporates and dodgy hedge fund managers who bankroll the Tories. The real issue is that the entire political class is venal, corrupt and out of touch.
The battle is not between Labour and Tory or between Call Me Dave and Miliband. It really makes no difference who is in charge. Both accept the ultimate supremacy of the Evil Empire, pander to the moral sensibilities of a metropolitan elite and are happy to see the deficit remain out of control as Britain goes bankrupt every more quickly.
The battle is between the political classes who are robbing the citizenry, making Airstrip One ever less free while feathering their own nests and the rest of us.
Every time a new expenses scandal emerges or there is another episode of beltway sleaze newspaper columnists (part of the political media beltway class and inveterate expense fiddlers themselves) write “they still don’t get it do they?” Er… they never got it and they never will and any pre-election suggestion otherwise is mere pretence.
3983 days ago
Speaker John Bercow is in many ways a horrible little man. However for once I have to applaud him for stating what is a self-evident truth on the matter of immigration – something which the mainstream parties have lambasted him for as they grub for votes.
Bercow stated: "I want to underline the fact that there has been an important wave of immigrants that came to Great Britain from new member states and in many cases they came with aptitudes and a commitment, an involvement we haven't always seen in our labour force.”
He is bang on the money. The growing success of our Real Man Pizza Company restaurant in Clerkenwell sees us again hiring for another waitress/sous chef position. It is hard work and if you play the benefits system well you are better off not taking the gig. Once again the advert goes up and once again I have received a flood off applicants from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, all keen and in London looking for work.
However the idea of working for £6.50 an hour or may be £7 really does not appeal to native Brits. I have received absolutely ZERO applicants from British born workers. And how many unemployed young Brits are there in London?
Real Man currently has one part time waitress who is British and killing a few months before heading off to set up a scuba diving school. She is the only British applicant (other than one who was utterly illiterate) I have had recruiting for 5 staff posts since Christmas. I have had hundreds of European applicants. Most have degrees and qualifications and are well spoken and presentable.
Bercow is bang on the money. Our welfare system has created an attitude amongst far too many of our home grown “talent” that they will wait for the “right job” or forever and live off welfare. Thank God for immigration.
Bercow is attacked
