On the Remploy closures

I am an admirer of Remploy. The support and employment they give to the disabled, initially disabled servicemen, is fantastic. The minor subsidy they recieve is more than made up by the good they do in allowing the disabled to work. It provides them with a sense of worth, helps with their social integration, and massively reduces the benefit bill by giving them meaningful employment.

I am therefore saddened that the government is sacking 1700 of them in the stupid idea that it will save money.

It's idiotic. All it does is to push up the benefit bill.

However I find the false anger of labour to these closures pathetic. The last labour governemnt closed more Remploy factories and sacked more disabled people than the current governemnt has done. They didn't support the disabled I'd vulnerable when in power.

It is the sheer cynicism and lies of politicians that does the greatest damage to our country.

This is a perfect example of this sad fact.

For the rich in all parties with no experience of work or the realities of disability to destroy the lives of the disabled in so cavalier manner whilst squandering billions on themselves and their pet projects is obscene.

Horsegate

OK I think everyone who reads this blog know my views on the Murdoch empire, and Rebekah Brooks/Wade/whatever.

Suffice to say I'm not a fan.

Indeed I think they should be jailed if found guilty. I think the same about any media types who have broken the law. And those police and officials who took bribes.

It is beyond doubt that the closeness between some of the press (not limited to Murdoch's mob) and some police are at best wrong and out worst illegal.

However I don't understand how David Cameron riding a retired police horse is a scandal. It is odd and perhaps a scandal that Rebekah had a retired police horse lent to her. It does seem a tad peculiar. It may not be wrong. Indeed it may be a longstanding scheme to loan retired police horses to people. I've never heard of it. And the fact that such a horse was lent to a powerful media boss close to the police and not a school for the disabled leaves a bitter taste.

But I still don't see how the fact that Cameron rode said horse reflects badly on him.

Labour under Blair and Brown had Rebekah as a houseguest so they cannot attack Cameron.

The thing is if I were a house guest with people with horses, and I don't know any, and I was offered one to go for a ride with the host I wouldn't ask if the horse was on loan from the police. I'd assume it was theirs. The same thing would happen if I was offered a go on a quad bike or whatever.

You'd assume it was theirs.

More than that even if you did ask, which none of us would do, you'd assume it was all above board.

For all the scandalous ties between labour and Murdoch it just strikes me as a pathetic to attack Cameron, and I don't like the man, on riding a horse.

He's posh he's supposed to rude horses!

Rupert Murdoch promises to move Sky tv to an indepdentnent Scotland

It is a well known fact that the lapsed Australian Rupert Murdoch hates the British. This is a man who is against knighthoods and honours handed out by the British, who greedily accepted a Papal knighthood when offered by a controversial Pope. (As an aside how could a church award a knighthood to a multiple married, unfaithful, man with dubious tax history who made a fortune out of semi nude women and now owns both gambling and porn sites?).

Anyway his empire strove to have the Australians replace their Queen with a politician. He failed. His press in the UK are republican when they can be. (why would any proud Australian follow the advice of a man who hates them so much he became American to get away from them?)

Any road up Murdoch has been in talks with the Scottish First Minister and has apparently told him he'll move his Sky empire to an independent Scotland if they reduce the business tax to 10%. That he'll use all his empire to secure an independent Scotland.

The rumour is that Murdoch's hatred has grown since the British government dared to uncover his numerous crimes. So he wants to move to Scotland as revenge. It also would allow him to have a weak government to bully.

The thing is would you believe a word the proven liar that is Murdoch says?

Worse than that, for the Scottish perspective, is that Murdoch is only a minority shareholder in Sky who may find the newly independent majority shareholders refuse to move.

Put it this way, Sky makes a fortune. Would you want to gamble this income by moving to a separate country from that which makes you the money. It's even worse since Scotland may be outside the EU and so have no guaranteed access to the EU airwaves.

If I were the Scottish government I wouldn't trust the siren call of Murdoch about the loverly tax he'd bring. Murdoch doesn't pay tax anywhere. He won't start with Scotland.

And as for Murdoch I'd be much more scared about prison. His idiot son may have ran from the country when it became clear he is at risk of arrest but that may not protect him. Extradition would still hang over him. Worse than that he and Rupert both have the threat of arrest and prison in America hanging over them. Even if the crimes uncovered in the UK, hacking, bribery, etc., did not occur in the US, they face the very real prospect of being charged under US law for bribing foreign officials.

Against such serious trouble Murdoch's Scottish dalliance is unimportant.

If I were in charge of the UK government (and I'm sure we all agree i should be!) I'd take this as a declaration of war. As such I'd destroy him. I'd reopen the inquiry into the scandalous tax affairs of Murdoch that the labour government scrapped for his support. I'd also make sure that charges are brought against the Murdoch's in the UK and US courts. I'd demand their extradition.

I'd even use the longstanding NI crimes as an excuse to ban non-EU ownership of EU media. I would confiscate all their assets to commentate the victims of their crimes and to ensure that others don't break the law.

But that's just me. I can be mean and I really don't like Murdoch!

MP's greed part 2: Adrian Bailey

There is greed and there is contempt for the dead.

 

The labour MP Adrian Bailey has both.

 

To gain political brownie points with his voters he attends a Remembrance Service for those who gave their lives for their country. Such attendance looks good to the voters as it spins the image of a decent man in tune with our shared losses.

 

It's an easy vote grabber.

 

However Bailey charged the taxpayer £13 for the event, and another £3.15 to attend the Poppy Appeal launch.

 

I'm sorry you have to be mean and greedy to earn over £80,000 a year and scrabble around for such a trivial amount.

 

However it's worse than that. It's pathetic to seek political capital by joining in with our remembering of the dead and turn round and claim it on expenses. If you claim it's just an excersise in spin nothing more.

Like I've said before its the minor things which show you what a person is. He isn't the first labour MP to have been caught claiming for poppies and attending such services, Gordon Brown, did the same. However Brown was damaged politically by this greed.

Bailey is too stupid and greedy to realise how it looks to the public or learn from the criticism of Brown's greed.

It's this insidious sense that our money is theirs by divine right and that poltics is only about making them rich we see time and again. This attitude is what does so much damage to our political system and why they are held in such low esteem.

It's pathetic.

MP's greed part 1: Justine Greening

Transport Secretary is wealthy. With her Minister's wage, free taxpayer funded homes, and expenses, she is, by most standards, well off.

It is therefore pathetic that she would stoop to claiming 10p for bus fare on expenses.

10 pence!

It takes spectacular greed and a sense of entitlement to demean yourself in this way. Who claims for ten pence?

PC David Rathband commits suicide

PC David Rathband has tragically died. My deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

David, as readers of this blog will remember, this was the officer shot in the face by the murderer Raoul Moat. By some miracle David survived but was blinded. David dealt with the devastation of the attack with incredible strength and courage. However it seems the trauma of this insane and wicked attack proved too much and he felt the only option was suicide.

For many people it is the psychological damage caused by violet acts which do the most damage. For an active  person to have to cope with blindness on top of this must be unbearable.

The love and support of family, friends, and colleagues could not save him. Our saving rests with ourselves so however much others want to help, however deep their love, we sometimes they cannot save someone in such pain.

It is a sad and dark day.

I can only add much voice to the others who wish David, and those he left behind all my sympathies.

Chris Huhne: by his mean stupidity see the man

The disgraced Lib-Dem MP Chris Huhne had to stop being a utterly useless minister because of the small matter of him bring arrested for perverting the course of justice.

Huhne is yet another of the long line of multi-millionaire posh boys who infect our politics. I'm not against wealth but the fact that such people never actually earn their wealth yet make things harder for small business and the non-loaded strikes me as wrong.

Being arrested made his position untenable so he was allowed to resign.

He is now claiming an extra £17,000 tax free from the taxpayer because he was forced to resign being arrested and all.

I've written here before how often it is the little things that are the most revealing. And so it is in this case.

To me £17,000 is a fortune. It would change my life for the better. Such an amount would improve most of our lives.

But not Huhne.

To him it's nothing. Literally small change.

Not only is he on a huge wage, he is a multimillionaire. So why claim it?

It all comes down to meanness and a sense to entitlement. The money is his by right and so he'll trouser it. This same mentality is why so many of our MPs fiddle their expenses.

Huhne is a greedy man. This isn't an attractive trait.

To my mind the worst thing is his stupidity. How do you think this will play in his very marginal area he is MP for? Not only does he have the fact he lied to them about being happily married, with election material plastered with images of his family and quotes saying how his marriage was the best thing in his life when he was screwing around and quickly dumping his wife, he also has the criminal charges facing him.

So in light off this what type of politically tone deaf idiot adds greed to the already long list of reasons not to vote for him?

 

Truly it is the small things that are most revealing. It reveals Huhne to be a greedy, lying, creepy, idiot.