Straw And Rifkind Defend The Indefensible

Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind have been defending their corruption and money-grubbing today, both telling us that they've done nothing "improper". While Jack Straw was recorded in an undercover press sting informing us that he "works under the radar" to influence policy decisions that favour the rich, greedy and immoral, Malcolm Rifkind was telling us that his working day in Parliament is only 75% of what we pay him for. "You'd be surprised how much spare time I have," he told the reporters. "I spend much of my time reading books and walking." Both men admit that they can earn between five to eight thousand pounds per half-day for selling their "influence" and seem amazed that taxpayers might object to paying these clowns 100% wages for 75% effort. We shouldn't be surprised though. Corruption is so widespread in Westminster that a reporter cannot throw a rock without hitting a crook. We have had years of "accidental" expense scams, tax-dodging, bribe-taking, law-breaking and scrounging off state funds from MP's and so-called Peers of the Realm. This is how the British political system works. A bunch of spivs, confidence tricksters and petty criminals tell us lies about their sense of "public duty", we vote them in hoping against hope that maybe they mean it and they then plunder the public purse while bleating about how they don't get the respect they deserve. Respect? They are thieves, pure and simple, scroungers, albeit very talented ones, two-faced crooks with all the moral fibre of a dead whelk. Yet no sense of shame, no inkling that what they are doing is wrong can be discerned as they strive manfully to defend their nasty little scams. Commentators often ask why the electorate seem so apathetic. How can they be expected to be enthusiastic about this continuing tale of corruption or about the unedifying spectacle of MP's fighting to get their greedy snouts in the trough? What is the point of voting when the choice is between one petty criminal or another?

Tories Wish Their Rich Mates A Prosperous New Year.

How 2014 is likely to progress in Britain is already evident - and the news is not good. While the Red Cross are busy sending food parcels to Britain to feed the starving, figures show that only one in fifty people are feeling the benefits of Osborne's so-called "recovery". Nor do you have to look to hard to find who that one in fifty are - bankers, energy company executives, the greedy and the selfish. It turns out - surprise, surprise - that Osborne has fallen short on his promise to raise £7.5 billion in levies from the banks and has raised only £5.4 billion. In other words he's handed criminal bankers a nice tax cut of £2.1 billion so they can have their bonuses this Christmas. As "trickle-down economics" continues to be what it always was - "gushing-upwards economics" - Cameron has rewarded the greedy and nasty in the New Years Honours List with lots of nice gongs and knighthoods. These include a knighthood for Alan Parker for his crucial services to Public Relations, a knighthood for Ian Cheshire, chief executive of the retail company Kingfisher, for his services to Business, Sustainability and the Environment all of which have virtually ceased to exist in the last 3 years, Marion Dowding, deputy chairman of Cameron’s Oxfordshire Conservative Association, given an OBE for her "services to politics" and Peter Emerson Jones, given a knighthood for giving George Osborne backhanders. Meanwhile, as the Tories have been making the NHS more "efficient" by making redundant more than 7,000 doctors and nurses in the last three years, the Fire Service are so impressed by Tory cuts that they are going on strike on New Year's Eve. So its full steam ahead for the Tories next year - wrecking ordinary people's lives to feed the insatiable greed of their rich mates, destroying public services so they can flog them off to those same rich mates at knock-down prices and smashing up the economy to teach us all a lesson in the wonders of neoliberal voodoo economics. Essentially they are stealing the country and then fencing it to foreign "investors" so they can fill up their offshore bank accounts, while the rest of us, known to the Tories as "stock" or "plebs", are doing "our bit" and sacrificing our future so that Britain can be kept safe for bankers, conmen and spivs.

Political Corruption And The Art Of Coalition Government.

Tory MP Brian Binley has been boasting about political corruption in Britain while on a taxpayer paid junket to Malta. Gleefully describing himself as a "political hanger on" Binley told the Bank of Valetta that he will push their interests in Britain confident of success because British politicians "are totally corrupt." In the meantime Nick Clegg was happy to defend MP's claiming the energy bills for their second homes on the basis that the cost of living was increasing while he and his wife both has "jobs" and, therefore, deserved the money because they are "hard-working." The arrogance and sense of entitlement displayed by these two corrupt, self-serving and greedy politicians amply demonstrates the extent of the political corruption in Britain. Our politicians are now so corrupt that they don't even understand what the word means any more. They honestly believe that they are entitled to unlimited access to public funds simply because they are "important" public figures. They can't even be sacked for a total and unmitigated failure to do their jobs as Iain Duncan Smith's less than glittering career as the Work and Pension Secretary demonstrates quite clearly. Having totally wasted £140 million on a useless IT system, wasted even more millions on a mandatory work scheme that has proved less successful than doing nothing and pushed hundreds of thousands of people into utter destitution, David Cameron is still insisting that IDS is "doing exactly the right thing". The corruption is now so pronounced and the government so inept that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PcW) is warning that austerity in Britain will have to last until at least 2030 and that the electorate will just have to get used to a standard of living not experienced since the 1950's. Punished because the banks were run by criminals, we are now being punished so that politicians can keep the gravy train moving and to provide the "savings" necessary to fund their tax cuts.

MP's Put Differences Aside To Defend Their Right To Plunder The Public Purse.

MP's from all parties serving on the Commons Lack Of Standards Committee have put aside their arguments as to whether it is moral to freeze pensioners to death this winter in order to defend their right to steal public money. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa)has ruled that claiming for such expenses as food, tea and biscuits, hotel accommodation, taxi fares, content insurance for a second home and a TV for their second home plus an 11% pay rise is a bit much. The MP's on the committee, however, are howling with indignation at this attack on their living standards. "Falling living standards are for the plebs only," one of the committee told our reporter. "How can we demonstrate our innate superiority over the mugs who pay our wages if we can't maintain our wealth at their expense? That's what Parliament is for - to provide the necessary democratic legitimacy for us to shove our snouts in the trough. What good is democracy if it can't provide a bunch of bone idle over-educated scroungers with a free lunch or three? I mean, what self respecting banking executive wouldn't book himself into a five star hotel less than 100 yards from his second home bought by the taxpayer if he didn't get the chance?" We asked a government spokesman for the coalition's view; "It's nothing to do with us mate. We have absolutely no control over what we decide to glum out of the public purse. That's what committees are for - to provide the necessary democratic legitimacy for us to shove our snouts in the trough without having to worry about what the plebs - sorry, the electorate - think."

Jeremy Hunt Plans Shrinkage Of The NHS.

Jeremy Hunt has now unveiled his latest move to soften up the NHS for privatisation. Not only does he plan to stop the promised and less than generous pay rise of 1% for NHS staff he also plans to dismantle the system of increments that reward staff for their growing experience over time and for staying in a difficult and challenging job. NHS pay and conditions for the vast majority are hardly generous in the first place - certainly not as generous as the inflation-busting pay rises and the "increments" that MP's allow themselves by cheating on their expenses. But, of course, Jeremy Hunt doesn't care about that. All he cares about is reducing the wage bill in anticipation of flogging off the NHS to his corporate bloodsucking mates. Nor does he care that the death rate is climbing steadily or that waiting times in A&E have trebled since the Tories seized power in 2010. Tory MP's in exposed marginal seats are already becoming rather nervous about their electoral prospects in 2015 but Hunt doesn't care about that either. He knows, as do Cameron and Osborne, that the Tories will only win a majority in 2015 if God intervenes and arranges a miracle. Hunt and the other criminals in the present coalition cabinet have to flog off the NHS and pocket the proceeds well before the 2015 deadline and wrecking it is the best way to achieve this. At first glance this might appear counter-productive. How can he sell off the NHS if it is near to collapse? The answer is simple. It doesn't matter if the NHS is in a state of collapse because Hunt and his rich pals don't use it. A NHS near to collapse will provide the necessary alibi for the Tories to sell the idea of privatisation to the electorate. And, even is this ploy fails, so what? The collapse will make it cheaper for the corporate bloodsuckers to acquire the NHS as they get their grubby hands on assets worth billions for next-to-nothing and increase the size of the potential "donations" for the Tory party. Jeremy Hunt is planning the world's most audacious smash and grab raid and, with so much money at stake, he doesn't care about anything else. Like all Tories he is nothing more than a squalid crook.

Tories Shovel Taxpayer's Money Into Private Hands.

David Cameron's waistline seems to be expanding at a rate matched only by the bulging wallets of the fat cat private sector. The Tories latest scam, the bedroom tax, has increased the amount of tax payers money flowing into the bank accounts of private landlords from £7.9 to £9.4 billion. While wages are squeezed rents are continuing to climb as the demand for smaller properties is deliberately and artificially inflated by a Tory party with its eyes firmly fixed on "donations" from grateful crooks, spivs and conmen across the country. Where industries are already privatised the Tories are busier than ever laundering public money through their wealthy mate's businesses and into their party coffers. Where nationalised industries still exist the Tories are casting greedy and envious eyes on the potential money stream and scheming to either privatise them outright or introduce "market forces" that privatise them in all but name. From being the country's most successful bunch of scroungers, the toffs in charge of our lives are now actively defrauding the taxpayer in a criminal spree that is unparalleled since the Norman Conquest. They are fond of the phrase "entitlement culture" but are not shy in promoting their own corrupt version of it in which the already rich grab as much as they can because they believe they "deserve" it. This is staggering hubris as their greed continues to warp and destroy the wider economy, with demand from the majority stagnating even as the ill-gotten gains of a minority flow into offshore bank accounts. It is the economics of the insane and there are few more certifiable than a Tory with his greedy nose in the public trough.

Tories Unveil Their Great Export Drive.

The Tories have proudly unveiled their plans to stimulate British exports by announcing that they intend to send the sick abroad to India for treatment. This will "save" money, they assert, without explaining exactly how British money flowing to India will do this. No do they explain what will happen to all of the "excess" medical staff in Britain. Presumably they will be offered retraining as domestic servants for the new fat cat elite that will be pocketing the "savings". Whatever their intentions one thing is for sure, the tax money intended for the NHS will find its way into the bulging wallets of the Tory's mates and British patients will quietly expire well away from the gaze of the British press. Remember Camerons's words "The NHS is safe in our hands"? Well it isn't and the Tories are busily dismantling and selling off piecemeal something that we have paid for and something that certainly doesn't belong to them or to the greedy money-grubbing crooks that finance them. While Cameron is sunning his flabby body whenever he gets the chance at our expense, he is also planning the greatest crime this country has witnessed since the last time the Tories stole something that didn't belong to them. This is an act of sheer premeditated malfeasance and if the British people stand by and allow this to happen they will rightly forfeit any reputation for the rule of law. It is a crime and, as such, the Tories should be prosecuted for fraud.

Tories Laundering Public Money.

So, the Tory story is that private enterprise is more "efficient" than the public sector and offers better "value for money" to taxpayers. Eager to prove this Michael Gove is busily engaged in privatising the education sector, promising that things will then miraculously improve. He's not wrong, though not in the way most people would wish. It turns out that one of the largest of the education trusts, the Academy Enterprise Trust, registered as a charity to avoid paying tax, has been stealing public money and diverting hundred's of thousands of pounds into the pockets of its trustees and executives. Instead of going to the schools to improve educational standards this money has found its way into the offshore bank accounts of a bunch of crooks appointed by Michael Gove. Why would any minister in his right mind allow this? Is it sheer coincidence that Gove has raked in over £500,000 in donations to the Tory party - more than any other Tory minister? The conclusion, that public money is being diverted into the hands of private enterprise who then pass some of this on to the Tory party in the form of "donations", seems inescapable. Privatisation, it would seem, is nothing less than a money laundering scheme for the Tory party. In the case of Gove this might be over-stating the case somewhat - though not by much - since much of the money given to him has come from a disgraced aluminium trader wanted by the FBI and a Mayfair nightclub owner. However, the vast majority of the donations he has gathered have come from so-called "supper clubs" in which money is handed over to the Tory party under a veil of secrecy by unknown individuals. If this is not simply organised crime then what is?

Privatisation And Other Fairy Tales.

British politics is largely run on myths and legends. You know the sort of thing - low wages has no effect on demand, taxing rich people returns less revenue, disabled people are all secret Olympic gold medalists, unemployed people are all lazy and feckless. By far the most ridiculous one, however, is that privatised businesses are better and more efficient than publicly-owned industries. This so-called "efficiency" comes with a high price tag as your gas, electricity and travel bills show all too clearly. What has been largely hidden by all governments since 1979 is the added costs we are all paying. Rail privatisation has not only increased prices to eye-watering levels, it now turns out that we are subsidising it to the tune of £1 million per week while they happily pay their shareholders £305 million per year in dividends. Essentially then rail privatisation has turned out to be nothing more than an exercise in diverting money from the public purse into the pockets of the already wealthy. It is not only a rip-off it is fraud on a huge scale - and you are paying for it. This is not surprising since the nation's best orgainised crime syndicate - the Tory party - thought the whole scam up in the first place. The question that then arises is why succeeding Labour governments have failed to do anything about it. Today it was revealed that MP's have access to a "hardship fund" totalling nearly £6 million. How they might fall on hard times is difficult to imagine - especially since they don't pay for anything and fund their property portfolios by shoving their sticky fingers into the public purse. "We are all Thatcherites now," David Cameron told us last week but it would seem that what he was actually saying is that they are all crooks and shysters now. MP's might be out of touch, but they are certainly in touch with their criminal instincts and have absolutely now hesitation in helping themselves to your money - irrespective of whatever colour rosette they wear on election night.

Nick Clegg: "I Don't Know What I Know."

It can be very difficult to understand what, if anything, Nick Clegg actually stands for. While it is true that there is no principle he won't sacrifice to hang on to the shadow if not the substance of power, what he actually thinks remains a total mystery. In fact so mysterious is it that Clegg himself doesn't seem to know what he thinks. Take this latest scandal over Chris Rennard. At first Clegg told us he knew nothing about it but it then transpired that he had been told about it four years ago. He then countered with the politicians favourite reply that he "didn't know the specifics." So what, exactly, did he know or not know? According to him he must have been informed about "something." How did the conversation go? Political Aide; "Mr Clegg we have some bad news about Chris Rennard." Nick Clegg "Oh dear, what can it possibly be?" Political Aide; "We don't actually know. But it seems to have sexual overtones." Nick Clegg; "What has been said about poor old Chris." Political Aide; "We don't know but it might be serious." Nick Clegg; "Who is making the claims?" Political Aide; "We don't know that either." Nick Clegg; "Oh my God its worse than I thought. Whatever you do don't tell me any more." Political Aide; "Any more about what?" Nick Clegg; "Chris Rennard." Political Aide; "Chris Rennard? My God what's he done?" Nick Clegg; "I don't know." Political Aide; "Oh well, that's all right then."

It's Official - MP's Can Be Trusted Again.

Sir Ian Kennedy, the leading expert on law and ethics who has chaired the Parliamentary review of MP's pay, has told the "Today" programme that MP's now deserve to be trusted again. According to him the "problem" of MP's expenses has been "sorted out", although he failed to even mention the recent scandals over MP's renting flats from one another. "The problem was that MP's couldn't tell the difference between their own money and that belonging to the taxpayer. I have tackled this head on and changed the law so that MP's no longer have to worry about things like that. There is now no difference between MP's own money and taxpayer's money and they are free to steal whatever they like perfectly legally. As a consequence it is completely unfair to say that MP's can't be trusted. MP's can always be trusted to grab whatever they can, using whatever immoral means available because they are a superior sort of people and deserve every penny they can glum out of the system. Having looked closely at the previous system that forced many MP's to steal in order to maintain their position in society, I have decided to abolish the system and replace it with a freemarket grab-all in which MP's social position is enhanced in direct proportion to how immoral they are willing to be. Essentially I have embraced the principles that it is not illegal to break laws that don't exist and that ethics must first and foremost be entirely elastic."

Parliament's Latest Scam.

While Britain is facing the worst economic and social crisis for nearly a century, while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, while corporations steal money from both customers and taxpayers alike, while children can't get enough to eat and old age pensioners face a freezing winter unable to afford the cost of heating their homes, what are our MP's doing? Last week they were busy discussing whether they should award themselves a 40% wage increase. This week they are busy trying to hide their latest scam from the public on the grounds of "national security." So what is their latest scam? It goes like this. An MP buys a very expensive London house as a "second home" to live in while performing his duties in Parliament. The mortgage on this is paid by the taxpayer, even though, once its paid for, the MP gets to keep it and any profit he or she can make out of it when its finally sold. Unfair enough, you might think - but it gets better, at least if you're an MP. Once bought it can then be rented out, the profit from this pocketed and another house can be bought using taxpayers money to build up the MP's property portfolio. But two MP's acting together can, it seems, go one better - renting out their houses to each other paid for - you've guessed it - by the taxpayer and effectively getting the public purse to pay for their property portfolio twice. Of course this would be obvious if MP's had to publish their addresses and who their landlords are - so they've blocked this by citing "security" concerns. You can see their point. Not only would we then know which MP's are exploiting this loophole, we would also know where they live and where we can find them when an angry public start throwing hangmen's nooses over lamposts.

Tories Cash In On The NHS.

As the NHS gradually slips away from its rightful owners - you and me - it has emerged that the Tory party has already pocketed over £10 million in bribery money from their corporate pals. Circle Health have handed over £1.4 million alone and have already begun to colonise lucrative government posts in anticipation of the free-for-all to come. Christina Linnet, formally a spin doctor for Circle, has now become Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's "media boss" and is set to continue her campaign of propaganda against the NHS from within the government itself. Meanwhile, as part of a "cross-over" colonisation from government to Circle, Tory MP Mark Simmonds is pocketing a tidy £50,000 a year from the company in return for a whole ten hours of "work". While Cameron and his henchmen are always eager to characterise the perfectly open relationship between Labour and the unions as somehow sinister, they regard this outrageous and obvious corruption as completely normal. Nothing could demonstrate better the criminal nature of the Tory party or the arrogance of a political party that sees Britain as its own private fiefdom to be plundered and exploited at will. This is theft, plain and simple, and this government, both Tory and LibDem, should be held to account for it.