Cherie Baby Spill The Beans

Peter Oborne reports in the Mail this morning that Brown’s plans include a regional tour, a possible cabinet reshuffle and a rapprochement with the Blairites ,.... oo thats gonna be painful to watch. Oborne reveals: “There is now lively talk inside Downing Street that Alastair Campbell might be brought back in a senior strategic role in the New Year and, apparently, there are indications that Blair's controversial former Press Secretary would welcome such a role.

Cherie Blair is now certain to receive a peerage says the rumour factory but will be enough to ensure that Cherie’s autobiography glosses over the Blair – Brown feud as tactfully as Campbell’s The Blair Years did. Cherie’s book is scheduled to be dominating the news at the Labour conference next year, the Brownites are desperate to minimise the damage that the book will do.


What do you think , will she take the gonmg and shut up or will she not be able to resist " Thats a lie "

Norman Baker

This is the picture of Norman baker our nauseating local MP I found . He is one of theose MPs who is busy doing nothing . Thanks to Flo for pointing out his pointless trip to Tasmania to comment on the Rainforest there. We already know about the silly and lucrative book and his support for faddy causes like Animal Rights.If he has ever done anyhting for Lewes I am yet to hear it. Typically despite a life of far left opining he has clung onto bookies favoutire Nick Clegg...Fancy...

Being The Change

Still trying to get into then local paper sadly this is too long …,happily I can be as boring as I like here

As a committed Conservative , Councillor Susan Murray (See letter 7.12.07) is of a type I used to back away from with a raised crucifix. Not any more ,in an effort our beloved leader would appreciate, I am trying to “Be The Change“ ,and determined to seek areas of agreement.

She wanted to hijack Remembrance Day to express the startling insight that no nuclear weapons would be safer .I agree; with the addition of three little words ;“In”, “Iran”, and ,“ever“. That only ‘some’ of the Councillors though the gesture outside the scope of a provincial district Council has left my eyebrows in a permanent gothic arch. Only some? Still it’s a good start.

Admittedly her letter on Post Office closures piles error upon error like a glutinous trifle.“ Neo Liberalism “ cannot be said to be responsible the destruction of public services as she claims as we have not had any. If public spending were now at 1997 levels income tax could be abolished, state governed expenditure has risen from 38% to 45% and the public sector is now more bloated than Germany’s . Naturally the gentlest puff of global chilly wind has us stocking up on tinned foods and gold but just imagine what the Green Party would have done to us. Think medieval period. I appreciate it was warmer then, but it was more the dentistry and leeches I had in mind .

Ms Murray’s charming generosity with other people's money is not altogether to my taste either so this isn’t going very well, sorry Dave. She wants a to give 6,000,000 Public sector workers job security not enjoyed by the over taxed private sector employees who pay for them and their pensions ?These are presumably not, “ordinary people “,a class she boldly speak for en masse. Then we come to her brilliant plot to force people to pay benefits into post offices by which quixotic route she arrives at what is in effect a subsidy. Well Councillor, we either chuck the money in or not but lets not pretend we can un-invent the internet re-monopolise services or maintain luddite practices, much as you might like us to be returned to the wood fire and bodkin. These are the real reasons for the £260 million down the plug`ole (2005)and worse since .

Fortunately for “Being the change",in the matter of Post Office closures we are one.Of course they should be subsidised .If it costs £250 million, so what! In the context of torturous New Labour waste and squander that’s a light tickle. The pointless development agencies have a budget of £2.3 billion. We are spending £5 billion and rising on a detested ID card scheme,£30 billion goes straight to Scotland,£60 billion to the EU we are £30 billion in debt with another £30 billion hidden under the carpet in PFI contracts. Absolutely we should subsidise these vital engines of precious communities. The money involved would hardly cover a Northern Rock Bonus .

It gets better . I also agree with her that, as usual, the EU ,which quietly makes 70% of our laws, has taken away our right to make any decision on then matter at all so we are wasting our time talking about it.I presume she agrees with me that this disgraceful position which is about to get much much worse should have us asking why our politicians are so determined to do to us what Phillip of Spain Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolph Hitler could not.

All in all then a spirit of delightful accord has broken out. I agree that we should treat the environment responsibly and to cap it all I am a great admirer of their Party’s leader. Or at least I might be if they are ever got serious enough to choose one

Newmania

Lewes Conservative .




Newmania

Lewes Consevative .

If Greens Ruled The World...

Local Greens Susan Murray and Nicola McGilligan

Good god Lewes has three District Councillors who are in that silly Green Party. Two of them are shown here for your delectation. Its not all Marina Pepper down here you know . Anway the one I have noticed is Cllr. Susan Murray who immediately earnt my stifled snort and this months deluded egomaniac prize . When remembrance day came around her first instinct was to try and hi jack it for a “Peace Initiative “ to campaign against all nuclear weapons . With withering understatement the some of the veteran Councillors suggested it was ,‘beyond the scope of the Council.’ I would have said beneath the dignity of anyone except a Miss World bimbo passing an idle second with Terry Wogan What’s the betting this means ours first eh …know the type ?The local Paper which has a dated Liberal provincialism about it that stales quickly ands they seem to publish all her fluffy witter. Half a page suggesting a luddite fantasy from the 60s this week its charming in a way I suppose .Anyway the effort will be to attack her and her faded counter-culture nonsense .

WE have a Liberal infestation ,as well and they are always having opinions . One is so very tempted to remark . Nothing you think matters , you are not a Party you are a soiree for intimate friends at best and nationally quite quite irrelevant . Goodbye

Compass Should Come Clean

Now we know that that GLA funds were being channelled into campaigning groups ( Blink), what about Compass who , 'out of the goodness of their hearts’ mounted an astonishing and sustained attack on Boris . , a subject that they , as a national and international far left ginger group , have nothing to do with. It is far from easy to discover the source of their funding ,I have tried ,but they are closely associated with Ken, and just to give you an idea of tCompass, they have retained Miranda Grell on their board after her conviction for false representations .She claimed her opponent was a paedophile .“ Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys , his boyfriend is sixteen and , he is dirty”…said the ambitious associate of Ken Livingstone . And yet she is still on the board. Compass with its close associations with Ken Livintsone and its gratis campaigning and its being Ken`s favourite think tank are bound to come under scrutiny now as the GLAs corrupt practices bubble to the surface .The deliberate obscurity of the ultimate benefactors must cease and the GLA must give a full account of the depth of its corruption

The Creature Alone

It seems that David Cameron met Arnold Swarchenegger at a Policy Exchange Crimbo bash on Monday reporting delightedly that he was taller than the girly-man. The Gubernatorial top ten films were presented to Boy David and they included two of the action man’s efforts,“Twins”, a barely functional comedy, and the marvellous sequel Terminator 2.We are in a period of political sequels are we not? “Heir to Blair “, Cameron, and the bogey gobbler, are trying to achieve a similarly elusive blend of new and familiar themes.

A brace of films with the typical failures and successes of sequels is Alien and Aliens .The original comprises dissonant elements ;the dialogue and acting style are theatre work shop with sections of improv' providing an ultra realistic feel accentuated by the high background noise. The artistic vision is contrastingly high Gothic with pornographic images of corrupted flesh woven into dark arterial structures.The scaffolding is is an old B movie plot with traditional chase scenes , a secret identity and a female in peril. These ingredients complement each other in a creative tension.Pseuds corner here I come ;but it is an alchemical achievement .

The follow-up was an artisans delight and importantly a new film in old clothing. Wisely,it ditched the ambition of the first and settled for a high class actioner The Elstree,(Bond), wizards, incoporated the look into superlative product.A thrill ride replaces existential terror,but if its aims were limited,it delivered a satisfying experience to the oft cheated franchise follower. It was only when Universal threw the whole years budget at Aliens 3 that the series “Jumped-the-shark ”.

Don safety goggles while I stretch metaphor to breaking point; ready ? The Blair period appeared to contain internal oppositions.The weakness of the Conservative party brought this about but also the New Labour versus old Labour battles as personified by Blair and Brown.While neither predominated the government maintained energy,( all the wrong sort in my view, but bear with me).Cameron was initially impressed and set out to be Blair Project 2. But trying to pick up the story and pretend it was always written that way ( See Matrix Re-loaded) always fails .You have to make a 'new film' and that uses its ancestor rather than wears it like a posh boy affecting incongruous (political) bling. Had it gone on this way I would have been concerned ,but following Iain Duncan Smiths work and the policy reviews, not to say the vigorous debate on Grammars , Europe and so on over a decade, the Conservatives have forged what looks like a Government in waiting. Intellectual ferment and even disagreement can be productive and the paucity of Browns bench is the result of the silent "Terror" of life under the Talibrown.People have a sense that something is happening on the right and it feels like the future.

Brown is not a sequel , Blair did that himself , he is a spin off.No doubt he hoped to be ‘Frasier’, but he was too large a character in the original hit . Its more like having Punch wandering about pointlessly with no Judy to hit .Alien climaxed in a duel between the sleek black carnivore and Sigourney Weaver.Brown , remember, caught his prey and ate him. Imagine that had happened in the Ridley Scott film and the sequel consisted of hours of the creature, sitting about picking its teeth alone in space , whistling , perhaps flipping place mats into the bin ?

Bums are beginning to ache already Gordon ,and the two years of this non government stretch before us like an interview with Alan Shearer..

1-Anyone not come across “Jump-the-shark moment”. Google it

When You Walk Through A Storm......

Looking at the posters for Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd ,I was , like others , amused to see Big Ben , looming outside his attic window a good 50 years before it was built . Similarly, I think we all enjoyed Robin Hood and his “ Saracen” stalker , alighting at Dover and walking to Hadrian’s wall in a stout days yomp .The spirit if Tony Curtis’s ,“Yonder Lies the castle of my fodder”, is alive and well in Hollywood we murmur ,chuckling in that evil, way the English always employ , in Hollywood .

Now what I `m doing here is that Vicar thing , I `m going to be tediously sententious any minute now but I `m creeping up on it in the manner of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf “ . It will take constant vigilance to spot the elegant segue ….

Right then , morality ( Did you notice ?).Like the above examples it is a question of the right proportion . Jane Austen`s thematic polyphonies lean heavily on this metaphor . A rightness in art a rightness in society a rightness in manners and morals. The study of moral philosophy might be termed the study of what we ‘ought’ to do. If I believe in the immortal soul then I ‘ought ‘to see life as not defined by its flesh but by its creation. I ‘ought’ to feel abortion is a form of murder and I ought to etc……. This is actually the case, hence the dance macabre when Liberals suggest early abortion is made easier, and Conservatives are almost obliged to approve, having borrowed medical rags they secretly find uncomfortable and thin.

The problem with this “ought to” business is that it is not two dimensional and unless you have things in the right ‘proportion’ you will get lost. . Moral decisions have fewer signposts. Transport planning may yield a chaotic infrastructure provides a clue but in the flat featureless plain the modern man surveys confronted with right and wrong , he lacks the ancestral compass. Secular and floundering he is aware of competing questions but has no language or system to resolve them… .Here is a recent moral conundrum:

Should sexual orientation be used against prospective adopters ?
Should sexual orientation be the only factor which it is illegal to hold against a prospective adopter ?
Should the government have the right to impose on religious organisations as to the rightnes of minority sexuality
Should the government sacrifice lives of 1500 children stuck in care by creating a system complex and slow enough masticate on every conceivable risk
Should a member of that Government avoid the problem and go to America (Milliband)

Or should teenagers be obliged to endure sex education as provided by the state so there are none to adopt ? . Polly Toynbee , the woman from Italy she says yes! There may be a case that such a programme would reduce early pregnancy. It sounds logical . There should be relationship counselling on a compulsory nationwide basis , morning after pills and greater access to early abortion. Polly pours scorn on the “Sex Is For Marriage “ Group by quoting numerous members of her political coterie who happen to occupy bodies producing authoritative reports . Yet ,“Sex Is For Marriage “, would cut out STD`s were anyone to listen and our European record in teenage pregnancies accompanies a socially Liberal country . I have a dim sense that we need to recreate the moral responsibility of the past but in a new way. I have doubts about continuing the factory farming methods employed to pre-mature children for the market. How can she be so doubt free ,certain enough to impose on other people’s children ?Her own went to Public school so can she understand how sex operates in the bog standard London Comp and how seriously these ”Lessons “might be taken ?

Science pushes us further away from the comfort of daily pragmatism . Modern man expected quite the reverse and he is almost enraged and having to confront old problems . Should I abort a child late because it has a cleft palette as a “serious handicap” ?. Embryos with squints can be destroyed , parents can select IVF babies to be saviour donors to their sibling with blood disorders . How does the baby feel about that ? If you could grow a human with no mind and farm the body , should you ?More than 100 babies with minor disabilities were aborted in one region over a three year period ,54 babies with club feet , 37 cleft palettes, 26 extra I webbed toes in the South West between 2002 -2005 .way above the national average . Do you find this troubling , I do ?

I have tried to describe a state dimly lit uncertainly and groped unsuccessfully for the door , but there are more hazards yet. How can we know if we have the right perspective when we cannot ‘feel’ what it`s like to be in another’s shoes. I am ending with a story on the front page of the Mail where I have some experience of how it feels :

IVF clinics were ordered to cut multiple pregnancies by up to a half to day. Walter Merrick., head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said “maximum safety means one child at a time , it cannot be right for numbers of children ending up in neo natal units just because of decisions made in the treatment designed to help the mother conceive “

Here is the problem.126 babies die each year as a result of being part of multiple births. It is dangerous for the mother and , no doubt a bad thing ……So should the planting of multiple embryos be guidelined out of business an if not why not ? Well here are the reasons why not

Many come to IVF desperate and having to pay for themselves
Two healthy Embryos double your chance
Many can only afford one or two cycles at about £10,000 a throw and the three cycles you are suppsed to get is not available in many post codes ( Not at all if you have a child )
They have a roughly one in four chance of success per go with multiple embryos
One in four double embryos implantations results in twins
So without the second chance the success rate would be drastically reduced
Would be parents are more than aware of the risk to themselves and this cannot be a factor
The increased risk to the child is an increased risk to a child who would otherwise have had no chance of life at all.

I see there are risks and I see there are competing claims of the new born child who has , lets not forget , a very good chance indeed of a life otherwise nonexistent . I think I have looked at this from every angle and I find it a heartless and poor moral direction. What strikes me moreover is this . With such desperately subtle and difficult balancing to be done who the hell gave Doctors the right to decide for us all. ?Its like leaving a cannibal to baby-sit and if I am sure of one thing it is this .The faux medical language in which arguments of principles are couched should be ditched and replaced with the real issues they thinly disguise . Desperate for any sign modern man clings to the white coated chap who likes bossing us around .This is absolutely , “wrong “

Thanks for listening if you did,go on treat yourself to this . http://www.desertwebcenter.com/YouNeverWalkAlone.html

This Is A Respectable Blog

I have just been informed by Mr. Tufton that Jason has passed the address of my blog to members of the local Conservative association.I would like to make a statement .....The appearance of naked post op transexual who reportedly consorted with the unfortunate, and , by the way brilliant ,Wasps fly half Mr. Cipiriano was not me and must have been someone who has no respect for wimmin whatsoever. This is a respectable blog...(starting now...cough cough)

Funny Foreigners And Their Funny Ways

Hat tip to Croydonian for finding the hilariously mal-approporiate logo top right that is in fact for the forthcoming Slovenian EU presidency.... It reminds me of something though and I cannot quite out my finger on it ...... Appropos of nothing I thoigh you might like to see this interesting brand of bun . Again I couldn`t exactly say why

Baker Keeps The Cash

Norman Baker , our local MP loves attention . He seems to have no work to do and unlike others paid to do a job ,has plenty of time to write books . He announced a decision to step down from the shadow cabinet ( In the chortlesomely grandiose nomeclature the Lib Dens use), to ‘establish the truth behind the death of Dr David Kelly‘. . His theory was that the Iraqi civil service were over here in collusion with ours to bump off the troubled boffin. This is the risible stuff of fiction and not any fiction but a specific genre of conspiracy speculations marketed as fact but really ‘factional’ pot boilers. As it`s publicists mention “ A sure fire hit “. Fancy….
The Strange Death of David Kelly came out this month .Family members of David Kelly have expressed their displeasure at the publication. The husband of Kelly's sister Sarah said "It is just raking over old bones ... I can't speak for the whole family, but I've read it all [Baker's theories], every word, and I don't believe it." So why would Norman Baker waste his time on a loon theory which was torn to pieces on Andrew Marr , when the Kelly family find upsetting it and silly . Richard Norton Taylor said ….
“There is no evidence supporting the many theories that Kelly was murdered and plenty of evidence supporting the conclusion that he was driven to suicide. .”
Recently Baker claimed that evidence showing David Kelly's death was not a suicide had been wiped from his hard drive,. Yeah right , funny how this wasn’t mentioned until his stupid book began to make him a laughing stock So once again what is it that drove him to chase a wild goose so assiduously
Could it be the £50,000 he was paid and the additional amounts for the Mail’s serialisation netting god knows what.? Well what do you think ? No sign of giving it to charity I see , despite his noble intentions and sizeable salary, not a penny for our soldiers for example about whom he was supposedly concerned
I have no special objection to a hack cashing in on a hot topic but when he requires such perfection from others it leaves a bad taste . I do object to his being paid as an MP when he clearly spent a year writing this nonsense and I cannot stand the portentous airs he gives himself when he is no more than a self publicising egomaniac on the make .
It is possible to get obsessed with your own importance create a fantasy world and get terribly depressed when you are found out . I hope he does not get as depressed as David Kelly but were he to feel unable to continue as an MP I could bear it with fortitude

A Very English Front Line

I have just returned from a meeting of the Conservative Association where the PPC Jason Sugarman was doing his bit to get a few sparks flying on what looked a friendly if slightly Methuselan gathering. As ever amongst Conservatives there were some highly intelligent and detailed questions much of it concerned with the local scene which I am only catching up on. He was introduced as a man which was going to make Mr. Bean into a ‘has-been’ by the twinkling and congenial MC and when I could take my eyes off the terrifyingly attractive young lady sat next to me I tried to get a sense of the man and the state of play. Picture the scene , a slightly shabby but architecturally satisfying Hotel , about 50 people in a room whose smoke still lingers and perhaps a slightly claustrophic conspiratorial atmosphere. Military ties were not absent neither were whiskers , farmers , but as many un-categorisable types .

The first thing to say about Jason is that he is clearly a worker. He immediately recognised me and even found me a drink .He was equally thoughtful to everyone he spoke to .It was also clear that he was an effortlesly real Conservative who has spent years on Councils in the real Political world as well as doing a proper job as a barrister He was an encyclopaedia of local events and history , knew everybody and clearly has a command of detail not to say a street fighting local instinct. I did not yet get “the vision thing “ but this was a rather informal meeting in which to thunderously orate might have struck the wrong note . Not quite the finished product but a man with palpable sincerity . This natural human quality of straightforwardness will be his greatest weapon against he slippery and self adoring Norman Baker the sitting MP .

With this audience the job was to get people motivated and to get them involved in how we were going to win. This was achieved by hammering home the raw facts of the matter.

1 The Seat can be won. It was safe Conservative seat and it is above all one where the solidity of the Liberal vote will be crucial . On current polls it is on a knife edge and a good campaign will be crucial

2 In this seat you have a the country written in small . For the Conservatives to form a government they have to win seats like Lewes and they have to make the paper swing into real votes . Help me or get Brown was the message and that is a message I would like to hear more of

3 He gently implied that the Conservative Party has had to modernise without ruffling feathers. He was keen that we show we have changed and in such a seat as this the Party truly has to be a new Party with a new message. The audience agreed , as I often say many Pary members are nothing like as doctrinaire as right wing commentators are often valuing small c Conservatism over Libertarian or Friedmanite economic theory.


4 He saw that the best line was that Baker will let in Brown and in that he must have the somewhat inglorious but effective narrative for a Liberal held seat.

5 He attacked Baker with brio, venom and satirical humour . It was here that I felt the tempo rise.( more on Baker to follow )

I would have liked to hear more of his positive thoughts for the country , the sort of thing that David Cameron does so well and there was little for the political geek , like to me to gnaw on in terms of national analysis . This is a fiercely local place though and the MP is far more attuned to the region that was the case in London where they were absent Landlords .

Lewes has a top quality PPC albeit with some momentum to find .If he can get some energy behind him he has a good chance of winning . I see him growing into the role and I do not for one second doubt that he would be a marvellous MP when it comes to actually getting things done.

This seat and others like it is where the future of the country will be decided and with that thought you realise that the slightly comical minutiae of the area is far from comical .

It is the front line in the battle for the soul of England.

Something is Rotten....

Something is rotten and it goes far beyond Abraham. I yield to no-one when it comes to loathing Gordon brown but I cannot get over the feeling that theis scandal is a bit like getting the murderer Al Capone for accounting irregularities .The truth is that the Labour Party is corrupt at levels far beneath this squalid affair and the sickeness has spread beyond them to the country.

If the problem was only anonymity then there would be some point to Brown’s repetition of the ancient Haydn Phillips report accentuating activities of the Midland s, Yorkshire and Humber Industrial Councils .Whether by design or not they allow anonymous donors to contribute to the Conservative Party. I don’t accept the equivalence. In this sense the Unions allow anonymous donations to be given to the Labour Party , but it is a grey area depending on the size of contributions to the Council by individuals and the transparency of the process .

Let us not forget that both Parties had assumed that cash for honours was just the way it was done as did the general Public until wee Angus McNeill started mentioning that the King had no clothes . It was the scale and the direct selling that was new .In the past a life time of support would not hurt. These are potentially a different matters and yet we can see how the one fades into another. With Abraham the real problem is the reasonable assumption that he did not given money for nothing and he is a property developer who obtained a golden planning permission. If there was influence we will never prove it , it will not be written it did not need to be said . Thus we are obliged to follow up the relatively technical matter if the proxy donors .

Wendy Alexander is the eye of the storm of over £950 from foreign Paul green and the lie that she did not know about it. As the slicker pointed out recently if you look at £950 upon which the fate if the government depends and you look at £20 billion for Northern Rock and you have to wonder if this is more theatre than reality.

It is the problem of scale that has perplexed me. Labour continually mention Lord Ash croft , although he ahs given less than Sainsbury has to Labour . Lets have a look at some of the other Labour donors . Ronald Coen, is typical ; one of those wealthy people who wishes to be good as well as great . He is no doubt as well meaning as the many wealthy philanthropists which is not very. In his case his business , like many Labour donors was Private Equity. Private Equity has received a quite astonishingly easy ride from the Blair administration and no-one thinks it is a coincidence. Nigel Doughty, the internet betting tycoon Peter Coates and Jon Asbit are among the others . Consider the way the scale of bribe was unblinkingly reported

“ The scale of donations may worry trade Union bosses who are mounting a campaign for greater regulation of the private equity- who buy up struggling firms , they say , to asset strip “

Policies are not only for sale but up for auction and after the Eccles one car boot sale why not . Money given to Brown by the Unions buys them policies that is the wholly admitted purpose of it . It is paid for by the tax payer as modernisation grants . Why on earth do we accept that? I do not really want to get into the Smith institute but £100,000 of donations found its way into his campaign fund from nearly half the trustees. Many of the same people will go on to have lucrative Government posts Lord Leitch aptly named , for example gave £5000 and was appointed to produce a report on corporate governance. Good joke eh ?Labour peers are up to ten times as likely to get a dip in the treacle pot of “Public Service “ than their opposite numbers according the a recent register of House of Lords interests .Bad Joke then. Allow me to throw a few figures around



One “renowned Institution…a Charity” receives 88 % of its money from the taxpayer which it the uses much of for soft left campaigning .In his last budget Brown tied in his successor to selling £36 billion of public assets which will be leased back under PFI schemes , cheating the future to pay for his present glory The South East England Development Agency ( SEEDA) deserve special commendation. Last year the chairman James Braithwaite spent£51489 , on taxis , going to see other pointless bureaucrats . The agency spent £600,000 last year running ten overseas offices with one representative in Stuttgart paid £89,000 for either months work. One North, the agency for the North spent £965,000 on an offices in China , the USA Japan Korea and Belgium while Yorkshire forward spent £20,000 sending its staff to a film festival in Dubai . These entirely worthless talking shops have an annual budget of £2.3 billion which is an awful lot of Labour glad handing.This sort if thing never stops with , for example £11,000,000 less per constituency being received out of the national Lottery by Conservative areas a £2.2 billion differential. The closure of Hospitals in Conservative areas is well known.

Lakshi Mittal coughed up a over £4 million for Blair last year and is by far the largest donor to Labour . Mr. Mittal, claims he made the donations in support of the Labour party and not for special treatment or assistance . We do not know what he wants , we do know that Mr. Brown does and that is enough .. Neil Kinnock was awfully stuffy about cash for honours but then he was awfully stuffy about suspending the accountant who brought to light the intergalactic level of fraud in the EEC.

Where corruption starts and incompetence stop ? The point is that the one usually goes with the other in our increasingly Bureaucratised state .£55,000,000 was paid , for example , to dead people .Tony Blair trebled the cost of Downing Street to £18 million. The top twenty civil servants now have a pension pot worth £35 million. Peter Mandelson habitually orders £400 bottles of wine at the public’s expense and Ruth Turner who kept her mouth shut was rewarded with a lucrative Euro sinecure. IN such a country there are simply no footholds for making any sort of morla stand

When you step back and look at the whole picture the question of a property development oiled through is only the paper boat on the flooding river of sleaze which is formed of two Contributories . The internal corruption of the Labour Party and the general moral corruption that arrives when much of the money spent in a given day is not earnt by the spender.

Clever Mr . Croydonian recently gave me a catechism to recite

1 When I buy for me with my money I care about quality and value for money
2 When I buy for me with other peoples money I care about quality but not value for money
3 When I buy for others with other peoples, money .....


I don’t care at all