Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

There wouldn't have been that problem if we had been as compassionate to him as he was to the people on the aeroplane i.e. hung him.

Alan Duncan said: "MPs are living on "rations" and being treated "like shit".

After a grovelling apology to his boss, David Cameron, millionaire Duncan is being allowed to stay on as shadow Commons Leader - and with responsibility for MPs' pay and allowances.

Mr Cameron said: "I made it clear the actions we take have got to demonstrate that we share the public's fury."

ExecLine said: "Rubbish! How can David Cameron keep Duncan in a job so closely involved with MPs' allowances? Oh Yes, I forgot. It must be to do with the tough stance Cameron is taking on this topic and also the skill he is using, which of course, includes picking the right man for the job in the first place."

Totally agree. Even if he was joking (which I don't think he was) it would just go to show how much our MP's hold us in contempt.

Also on the news this am

Sir Patrick Cormack has complained that his 64,000 salary was not enough to allow him to make donations to charity.
'One is expected to give liberally to all manner of charities, one is expected to attend all manner of events, one is expected constantly to be putting one's hand into one's pocket,' he added (a bit like us tax payers).

High-profile MP Nadine Dorries made things worse by blaming the media rather than politicians for the expenses scandal. She also claimed she recently assisted at a road accident but was too frightened to admit her identity as an MP, such was the publics anger. Poor lamb.

A Conservative MP has survived an attempt to deselect her following her involvement in the parliamentary expenses row.
Anne Main, the MP for St Albans, had allowed her daughter to live rent-free at a taxpayer-funded flat she claimed was her second home for the purposes of expenses.
No doubt she will be elected as it will be a case of which fiddling b*****d do we vote for. Pathetic.

Calf born with an MP's brain (ie. Half a brain for every gobbler)

Cow gives birth to calf with four eyes, two mouths and only one pair of ears

That Nadine Dorries scene in my head just won't go away. "Let me through, let me through, I'm a Member of Parliament."

Just what you need when you're about to draw your last breath. Not sure why she thought it was relevant for anyone to know?

Thats what I though, who would she tell and why.
But then I thought, what if someone at the scene had required mouth to mouth. Who better than a so full of hot air (wind) MP.

MPs don't fill in their expenses claims any differently than a lot of people!

I just had to move my daughter's car - clio with NO power steering - what a struggle - I felt like I needed oxygen after grappling with it.

But there are a several differences.

1 They can claim quite substantial amounts without completing/producing receipts to prove the amounts spent.

2 When/if they are caught, which is far less likely as proven by the period and extent it has been occurring, often nothing happens even if it is criminal (see No 3).

3 Until the 21/07/09 Parliament -- the House of Commons set their own rules, IE they were, and to a large extent still remain a law unto themselves.

4 The Department of Resources (auditors) in the MPs case knew that fiddling was going on but allowed it to continue, something that would be very unlikely in the private employment sector.

5 As they represent us the Tax Payer, who pay their salaries (and none tax payers) it is our money that pays their expenses, and yet we have no power in their instant removal.

6 We have no choice to be a customer of HM Government/Opposition, whereas we have a choice as to be a customer of a company or not.

I have had a T shirt printed which states....UK MPS are Institutionally Morally Corrupt. Democracy is Dead.

I wear this with every time I go to my nearest town Beverley, which is where our local MPS and Councillors (who are about as dishonest) stand and preach their sermons every other week-end. Since the expenses scandal they are hardly ever seen.

No wonder you call yourself 'skinny'! I thought all modern cars had power stearing. Have you checked if it has a broken power stearing?

Let's all vote for greekman at the next election on the no expenses ticket!

This-is-me.

Thanks for that. I am at present asking for donations to my becoming an MP fighting fund.
Cheques to be made out to Theo Paradopistricadiousikis, sent C/O Muchfailski General Bank, 1 Muchogracious Street, Helsinki.

All monies will then be transfered into my Bermudan bank account (too complicated to explain here, but it is nothing to do with money laundering, it's to save on money transfer rates), from where I will run my election campaign, solely due of course to the savings on my expenses (less tax).

Also to save on my expenses, no receipts will be issued, re any donations, but you can trust me, as 'I'm a pretty straight sort of guy' with apologise to Tony 'teflon' Blair.

I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you greek but there has just been a new EU regulation issued that any MP or MEP not claiming at least 1,000,000 in expenses per year will be disqualified and thrown on the dole since anyone not needing that kind of expenses is obviously not doing any work. Since you state that you will not need any expenses that means, according to the new regulation, that you are in effect saying that you will not do any work and are therefore disbared from standing for any elected position in the EU.

If you want to claim 1.000,000 in expenses let me know. You can pay me the 1,000,000 a year as your assistant and your problem will be solved.

Obama's ambassadors continue to refuse to pay 3.5m congestion charge bill

In total, embassies owe more 28 million in fines on top of unpaid congestion charges. Americas fines are the highest, with Russia owing 2.6 million and Japan 2.3 million.

A TfL spokesman said: More than three-quarters of all embassies pay the congestion charge. It is therefore disappointing that the American embassy continues to refuse to pay. TfL and the UK Government are agreed that the congestion charge is a charge for a service and not a tax which means that diplomats are not exempt from payment. All staff at the American Embassy should pay it, in the same way as British officials pay road tolls in the United States. TfL continues to engage directly with those embassies that refuse to pay in order to increase compliance with the scheme by diplomats.

The non-paying embassies are saying that is a tax and not a charge for a service, and therefore that is why they should be exempt from having to pay it.

Meanwhile Boris continues with his holiday....

ExecLine,

Another example to the world that shows yet again what a soft touch we are. But of course we Brits must obey the rules whilst everyone else ignores them.
Johnny foreigner must be laughing their socks off.

This-is-me,

OK as a good British citizen I must obey the rules, so I will claim the required amount (reluctantly and under the strongest protest of course).

It's exam time....

Just a couple of comments from my local paper:

I am an employer who constantly see job applications from these so-called "star pupils' - most of whom are not even capable of stringing together enough words or English grammar to present themselves properly - either orally or in prose. This is nothing to do with "dumbing-down" the examinations per se. It is about what is acceptable in the schools, and it seems that most schools (and parents) find in perfectly acceptable that A-Level students can't even spell properly, let alone carry on an intelligent conversation. There is a very good reason why we have accepted norms of spelling and grammar - it is so we know what each other is talking about.
.................

I wonder how many people, particularly like the above poster, know that the procedure forced on teachers now is that they are NOT allowed - yes, thats right, not allowed, to correct spelling mistakes and grammar errors in a pupil's work.

Its no good making out that kids these days are thick because they havent put the work in. How do they know they've done something wrong if they are simply just never told about it?

When my children have homework, they always do it in rough and I correct it for them. However a large number of parents do not have the knowledge to be able to do this, which means poor English is now being passed down through the generations.

Unless this stupid Government directive is stopped, things will only get worse. Especially when you get people complaining about kids' grammar and spelling, who dont and can't even check that belonging to their own!

Find my 16 year old son correcting my grammar these days. Also he can hold a conversation with my mother about historical fact that I haven't a clue about or can't really remember. Makes me proud and frustrated in the same measure!

Oh dear! But not entirely unexpected....

VAT holiday over as tax revenue collapses

Rate will return to 17.5% from start of next year
Annual deficit likely to exceed 175bn forecast

Larry Elliott, economics editor guardian.co.uk
Thursday 20 August 2009 20.31

The Treasury dashed hopes of an extension to the government's VAT holiday tonight after the latest figures for public borrowing revealed a collapse in tax revenues and prompted City forecasts of a 200bn deficit for the whole financial year.

With the City taken aback by the rapid deterioration in the state's finances, aides to the chancellor, Alistair Darling, stressed that the Treasury could not afford the 12bn cost of the VAT cut for a second year and the tax would return to 17.5% from January 1.

Data from the Office for National Statistics underlined the impact of the recession on the government's coffers today and left Darling with no room for manoeuvre in this autumn's pre-budget report.

Business groups have been pressing for the extension of tax breaks to safeguard the economy from a double-dip recession, but Darling will insist that the government's credibility with the financial markets is more important.

The chancellor deliberately made cautious assumptions for the deficit in the budget, but the 5.6% contraction in the economy has blown an even bigger hole in the public finances than feared in April.

VAT receipts in July were down by a third on the same month last year, corporation tax was down 37.9% and there was a 10% decline in income tax, capital gains tax and national insurance contributions.

Last month, government spending was 7.5% up on July 2008, leaving the Treasury with a deficit of 8bn, compared with a surplus of 5.2bn a year earlier. The City had been expecting July one of the four key months for tax collection to show a small surplus. In the first four months of the current financial year, the UK was in the red by 50bn a bigger shortfall than for the whole of 2007-08.

Stephen Lewis, economist with Monument Securities, described the first July deficit since 1996 as "a shocker" and said the deficit for 2009-10 as a whole was now likely to exceed Darling's 175bn budget forecast by "10bn or so".

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said the figures underlined the need for "sharp tax rises and/or government spending cuts in the next few years".

She added: "At this rate, borrowing looks set to overshoot vastly the chancellor's full-year forecast. We expect a figure of at least 200bn."

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the deficit for the first four months of the year was a poor guide to the likely total for the whole of 2009-10. It said the end of the VAT holiday would boost revenues in the final three months of the year, although it was likely that the Treasury would be denied the full benefits of the 2.5 percentage point rise by consumers bringing forward spending to late this year.

Opposition parties seized on the figures to accuse the government of losing control of the public finances. The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, said: "As the country fights its way through recession we are seeing a collapse in tax revenues. We are now heading for a level of deficit this year even higher than the chancellor's original predictions.

"What is particularly concerning is that the government's hopes for the recovery of the public finances are based on extremely optimistic growth forecasts. Without this growth we will be heading for even higher levels of debt."

The Conservative shadow Treasury minister Mark Hoban said: "These appalling figures are even worse than the already dire expectations. Yet the government persists in the outright deception that there is no debt problem, and that it will increase spending after the next election. By denying the scale of the debt crisis ... Gordon Brown is putting our economic recovery at risk."

But there is hope.....

Just how thick are our so called leaders.

Since the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds several including, Gordon Brown, Alan Milburn and Alistair Darling, have been quoted as saying they are surprised and angered by the heroes welcome home he received, by the Libyan people.

As all terrorists are received with such open arm welcome (remember the IRA and Biggs early releases as just a couple of examples) why are they surprised, or are they!

Of course not (surely they can't be that dim, can they!). What they are trying to convince the electorate is that they are as shocked as what they hope us to be.

It matters not if al-Megrahi is innocent or not. He was found proven guilty and until/if such evidence comes to light to prove his innocence he should have remained in prison.

What next, Ian Brady of Moors Murder fame, or perhaps early release of those responsible for the Baby P murder being released due to compassionate grounds.

Once again we show ourselves to be the soft touch of the world. Johnny foreigner must be laughing his socks off.