Archive for May, 2009
Posted by michael on May 31, 2009
I don’t understand why this ‘public outrage’ against all MPs is being so hyped up!
Why on earth should MPs be called to account for not saving the country money? We would save a lot of money if we paid them ‘minimum wage’ rates but no one would think that was sensible!
MPs who cheat should obviously be called to account. But MPs who claim within the rules are not doing anything wrong., even though we may think that the system needs changing.
Perhaps it is because so many people in the UK have been hurt and are suffering because of the damage that this government has done to the UK and to them over the last 12 years.
There has been a definite divide between the rich, who are getting richer, and the poor, who are getting poorer! The recession, affecting the UK more than most of the rest of the world, has made life for many people, mainly those who are less well off, worse still!
So is this just a reaction against the government and the politicians (a plague on all their houses)?
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Euopean Union, Lib Dems, UK Economy, benefits, credit crunch, debt, economy, labour, recession, tax | Tagged: abuse, brown, conservative, credit crunch, economy, expenses, gordon brown, government, greedy, labour, mp, parliament | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 31, 2009
Just watched Brown on the Andrew Marr program.
I cannot see any acknowledgment that he has been prime minister for several years and, prior to that, the chancellor. He has been in power and in very influential positions for twelve years now.
There is no acknowldgment that any of the problems facing the UK now are his fault or his responsibility. It is a ‘global’ recession, yet the UK government failed to regulate the financial industry to prevent them going out of control.
We are in a deeper recession than almost every other nation on the planet because of our huge debt levels, much of it not even included in the debt figures!
The government is spending a fortune in war against other nations.
The government has failed to control immigration and illegal immigrants to the UK.
There is a long list of failed computer systems, all wasting millions of pounds.
Yet Brown does not seem to accept any problems as being his fault!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Euopean Union, Europe, Lib Dems, UK Economy, credit crunch, debt, economy, financial, labour, recession | Tagged: abuse, borrowing, brown, conservative, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, economy, families, gordon brown, government, recession, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 28, 2009
This is a story in the Mail, read it yourself to see the details. But I am getting more and more concerned about the level of petty bureaucracy that is beginning to control all aspects of our daily lives. We now seem to have groups of people who preying on everyone else, looking continuously to catch people who have broken the rules! But there are now so many rules it is almost impossible to avoid breaking some some of them!!!. For example the act of dropping a piece of paper can get a person a fine even though they immediately pick up the paper. Effectively we are being fined for the act of dropping something even if it was not deliberate and we pick it up immediately. During the second world war there was only one Hitler. Now in a so-called free society we have hundreds of them!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Europe, Lib Dems, credit crunch, economy, labour | Tagged: abuse, brown, council, david cameron, debt, economy, gordon brown, government, vehicle, warden, wardens | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 28, 2009
The Government hasn’t got any money!! It has spent it all over the years and we now have huge debts that will take many years to pay off from extra taxes on our incomes! There has to come a point where the government has to come clean and admit that it cannot afford to subsidise everyone who needs it. Of course they could abandon schemes such as the ID cards and some of the other hugely expensive computer systems that they are planning! We cannot spend money that we do not have!
Posted in Conservatives, Europe, Lib Dems, UK Economy, council tax, credit crunch, debt, economy, financial, labour, recession, tax | Tagged: abuse, bills, borrowing, brown, conservative, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, economy, gordon brown, government, greedy, labour, recession, repossession, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 22, 2009
It is becoming a bit more clear on what is perceived to have gone wrong with MP’s expenses.
Since 2005 (i think) there has been a deliberate system in place as part of the MP’s remuneration.
The first thing is to seperate the ‘official’ expenses system where MPs can claim back their genuine expenses. Apart from possible questions about what constitutes ‘genuine’ expenses, this is all open and above board. Of course the administration of this process has to be correctly done, but if they accept an invoice as valid then that is down to them and not the MP.
The real problem stems from an attempt by the government to increase the MP’s salary. They apparantly felt that they couldn’t do it by just increasing the salaries because the public would object. Instead, they thought that they would do it be stealth.
So the (un)official system was to set up a bucket of money for each MP and then encourage them to claim from this bucket. This was not for official expenses. It was just a way to pay MPs more. They didn’t even have to submit a receipt for amounts under £250 but some did.
The whole object of this exercise was to pay the MPs more money. Of course those submitted receipts included many items which were not justifiable expenses. But they didn’t have to be justifiable expenses! This bucket contained additional income and MPs are entitled to spend their income as they wanted to!
What a lousy system that government set up! They should simply have paid the MPs more money, if that is what they wanted to do, and avoided all this fuss.
This deceitful approach raises questions about sidestepping taxable pay. Does this method of improving MPs salaries involve an elementof tax avoidance?
It also raises questions about this government being prepared to deceive the general public about the level of MPs salaries!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, credit crunch, economy, financial, labour | Tagged: abuse, brown, conservative, cost of living, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, government, greedy, labour, recession, UK Economy | 1 Comment »
Posted by michael on May 22, 2009
It is becoming a bit more clear on what is perceived to have gone wrong with MP’s expenses.
Since 2005 (i think) there has been a deliberate system in place as part of the MP’s remuneration.
The first thing is to seperate the ‘official’ expenses system where MPs can claim back their genuine expenses. Apart from possible questions about what constitutes ‘genuine’ expenses, this is all open and above board. Of course the administration of this process has to be correctly done, but if they accept an invoice as valid then that is down to them and not the MP.
The real problem stems from an attempt by the government to increase the MP’s salary. They apparantly felt that they couldn’t do it by just increasing the salaries because the public would object. Instead, they thought that they would do it be stealth.
So the (un)official system was to set up a bucket of money for each MP and then encourage them to claim from this bucket. This was not for official expenses. It was just a way to pay MPs more. They didn’t even have to submit a receipt for amounts under £250 but some did.
The whole object of this exercise was to pay the MPs more money. Of course those submitted receipts included many items which were not justifiable expenses. But they didn’t have to be justifiable expenses! This bucket contained additional income and MPs are entitled to spend their income as they wanted to!
What a lousy system that government set up! They should simply have paid the MPs more money, if that is what they wanted to do, and avoided all this fuss.
This deceitful approach raises questions about sidestepping taxable pay. Does this method of improving MPs salaries involve an elementof tax avoidance?
It also raises questions about this government being prepared to deceive the general public about the level of MPs salaries!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, credit crunch, economy, financial, labour | Tagged: abuse, brown, conservative, cost of living, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, government, greedy, labour, recession, UK Economy | 1 Comment »
Posted by michael on May 21, 2009
So Gordon Brown is taken to the cleaners by Joanna Lumley; although there is no doubt of the sincerity and determination of this lady. She strongly believes in the cause and is prepared to stand up for what is right!
I was concerned when the first statements from this government talked about ‘all Gurkhas who had served for more than four years would have their case reviewed‘. I am cynical enough about Labour to know that this would not necessarily mean that any would be allowed to stay in the UK, just that their cases would be reviewed!
Jacqui Smith is quoted as saying that she was “proud to offer this country’s welcome to all who have served in the brigade of Gurkhas“. If this really is the case then why did she not go public before, or does she, like many politicians, keep quite when their leaders are doing the wrong thing?
Gordon Brown was wrong to restrict Gurkha’s rights to stay in the UK when soldiers from the Commonwealth who served with UK troops were allowed to reside in the UK. To accept the principle with Commonwealth soldiers but refuse it to Gurkhas is simply hypocritical!
Well done Joanna Lumley!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, economy, labour, recession | Tagged: abuse, brown, conservative, david cameron, gordon brown, government, greedy, Gurkha, Gurkhas, labour, recession | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 20, 2009
During a discussion on Radio 5 it was said that one of New Labour’s first actions was to curtail Commons debate on new legislation. This meant that proposed legislation was not properly debated before it became law.
I think that this action may well turn out to be a primary reason for the downfall of Labour and the total mess of the UK economy that has resulted from their 12 years in power.
A striking feature with this government is that hardly any legislation that they pass actually works first time, as intended. The same applies to many of the computerised systems that New Labour have implemented.
Full and proper debate on proposed legislation is absolutely essential if that legislation has a chance of working as intended.
Legislation doesn’t work just because those who draft it want it to work! In fact these are the people who are generally the least able to understand the consequences of their actions. This is because their focus is on what they want it to do and they fail to see the problems that may occur.
Curtailing debate on proposed legislation may well turn out to be an own goal that has destroyed New Labour as a rational, capable government and brought the United Kingdom into recession and New Labour into disrepute.
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, credit crunch, debt, economy, financial, labour, recession, tax | Tagged: abuse, brown, conservative, credit crunch, debt, economy, families, gordon brown, labour, recession, repossession, tax increases, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 14, 2009
I think it is important to remember that the MPs seem to have been mostly operating within the rules.
The next point is that all of these expense claims have been signed off and agreed by the people operating the expenses system. So have these officials been signing off expenses without checking them?
It does look like the officials have operated the system as it was intended to be operated.
The BIGGEST problem here is not that the system does not work, it is that the system is rubbish.
Who is responsible for the expenses system?
The answer is that the government in power is responsible. It is the Prime Minister who is responsible for the system that he is in charge of.
This is just another example of Gordon Brown not seeing problems until other people have pointed them out! He seems to be spending a lot of his time firefighting! It would have been a lot better if he brings in legislation and systems that actually work in the first place!
Brown seems to be always reacting after the problems occur, he seems to be part of a government which is unable to see the problems before the legislation is implemented. Or perhaps they don’t really understand the legislation that they introduce!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, benefits, credit crunch, economy, labour, recession | Tagged: brown, conservative, cost of living, debt, economy, gordon brown, government, greedy, recession, UK Economy | 5 Comments »
Posted by michael on May 12, 2009
In an analysis of the causes for the ‘credit crunch’ economic crisis, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has stated that the problems were not caused by market failures.
The study,Verdict on the Crash, claims that the government failed to manage the regulatory process of the financial and economic systems.
In other words, the ‘credit crunch’ and the state of the UK with it’s massive debts are the fault of the New labour government and Gordon Brown.
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, benefits, credit crunch, debt, economy, financial, labour, recession | Tagged: abuse, bank, banker, bankers, brown, conservative, credit crunch, debt, economy, gordon brown, government, recession, repossession, UK Economy | 1 Comment »
