So - where to from here?

So Conway is going, the Police will be talking to him and the conservatives are hoping that this will 'draw a line' under the affair.

Well I'm sure they do...

However, we should all remain concious of the 'cover-ups' which our elected representatives have already tried on. Not just in this case, but also by Jack Straw previously, not wanting to 'embarrass' his Parliamentary colleagues (see previous blog) ...

Let's not be satisfied with anything less than full disclosure by all MP's. Not just at this point in time as a 'one-off', but everything, fully on the record, and permanently available from here on in.

I understand that this is already the case in the Welsh Assembly and yet, once again, in this pathetically small 'United Kingdom', we manage to pull 'different strokes' for 'different folks'.

You would think it would be easy in a land this size, yet this is yet another 'post-code lottery' for us to come to terms with. It apparently not only governs how we get treated when we are ill, or how well our under-graduates' are supported whilst studying, but it also now appears to determine how safe our taxes are from potential fraud from those that we elect.

What the hell are they doing?

Just what is going on in the House of Commons?

The Speaker of the House has apparently blocked the disclosure of information about the employment of MP's families (see the preceding Conway item).

Meanwhile the Committee on Standards in Public Life is preparing to launch a full-scale inquiry into MPs’ expenses. Excellent! About Time!

However, apparently, Jack Straw - whilst he was leader of the House - previously blocked a similar investigation as it might 'embarrass' some backbench MPs!

Honestly now - have you ever heard the like?

It's been obvious to me for some while that quite a large proportion of our elected representatives have got just a little above their station whilst, at the same time, dangerously exceeding their natural limits of competence.

Is it not about time that we reminded them that they are our elected representatives and that, as such, we (you and I) are collectively their employers? It's a novel idea I know...

Perhaps we might do well to urgently remind them of the established 'employer/employee' relationship (i.e. we call the shots and they take their instructions from us).

Like all good employers, we should monitor their performance and where we find it lacking, demand improvement.

I think that both the Speaker and Jack Straw need to listen and pay heed - so hear this both! This is your 'performance review' and you have both been found wanting!

This is our money being discussed and, therefore, it is our business! We have every right to access this information and, unless the security of the nation is at stake in this matter (which it patently isn't), you have absolutely no business covering up your colleagues tracks and hiding their potential misdemeanors. You obviously can't (or won't) understand this, and so we find that you are falling well short of the competencies required to do your jobs. Please close the door behind you!

When the Committee on Standards in Public Life eventually completes their investigation, I wonder if we'll get to see it?

Not if Roger Gale MP (North Thanet) has his way I suspect. I heard him on Radio 4 this morning responding to the Conway story (still in it's embryo state at that point in time).

He described the clamour for more information about Conway's suspect dealings (which are at best another example of incompetent administration in the afore claimed 'P Haine style' and at worst a criminal act) as a 'witch-hunt'.

Incredibly, he asked the listeners' to accept that if he (Roger Gale) an MP who knows Derek Conway (MP) is assured by the said Derek Conway that his financial transactions with his sons were legitimate and above board then that should be good enough...

Was I reassured by this display of party loyalty? No - I was definitely not convinced by this performance from someone who is a former Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, with (get this) responsibility for Presentation.

Truly incredible! I wonder, did Peter Haine get him to do it for a bet do you think?

We are back to the 'competency issue' again I'm afraid. If Mr Gale genuinely believed for one nano-second (look it up Roger) that that his little performance on 'Today' this morning was actually going to reassure us all then he has proved my point for me.

If, on the other hand, he didn't believe that this interview was going to reassure us - then what exactly was he playing at? BTW Roger it's a rhetorical question - don't bother answering.

Either way Roger has 'blown it' (Gale - geddit? - oh never mind!) and has shown himself to be 'not fit for purpose' (unless the purpose was to be a confirmed ignorant, arrogant self-opinionated twit who doesn't know his A from his E).

Hold on - what am I thinking of? Silly me - he's an MP - of course that's his purpose...

Derek Conway reprimanded

So here's another one...

And this one really takes the biscuit (and just about anything else he could lay his hands on by the looks of it!).

This senior Tory MP was forced to apologise "unreservedly" to Parliament after an investigation recommended he be suspended for paying his "all-but-invisible" son £1,000 per month in taxpayers' money.

Apparently the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee was 'scathing' about the £11,773 per year salary (plus bonuses) that he paid his son out of taxpayer's money for NOT doing work for him.

Is this not just a tad more serious than the other recent cases that we've heard of?

I think so, yet the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee 'scathe' apparently only amounted to a recommendation that he suspended for 10 days! Yes that's right! a whole 10 days!

Oh I see, this is the justice that we get when the police, 'police' the police!

Why aren't the real Police questioning this doting father and his student son about their embezzlement?

It's a case of Conway? Way to Con!

Johnson's cash Issue and the Press

In the news today;

The health secretary's team claim that they submitted details of over £3,000 in donations for his deputy leadership campaign last year after finding that they weren't on the list.

That was long after the 60-day limit to declare them - but Mr Johnson's team says they were first declared in May...

The Electoral Commission, on the other hand, has said that it "was not aware of this and was seeking to clarify the situation".

You might well ask - what on earth is going on here?

Between a Minister's office, a watch-dog and a baying rabid national press, the electorate have no idea now what to believe. The only certain thing is that one of these parties is completely wrong and it'll be interesting to see if, when they are finally revealed, that the party in question, steps up and admits it and takes the consequences...

But let's consider the press for the moment.

I wonder - how many of the Mirror's journalists' expense accounts could stand up to the sort of close scrutiny that they are currently subjecting the politicians' to? Now that might make a really interesting story...

One might, of course, reasonably argue that the national press are not publicly accountable due to the fact that we don't elect them and that that's a differentiator between them and our politicians.

Well, it has been said before that we should really think twice before voting for politicians' as it only encourages them.

Perhaps we should also think twice before choosing our national papers as the same applies.

Fed up with their journalistic double-standards and hypocrisy? Then don't vote for these press barons and the tripe that they peddle by buying their papers!

Much of what is printed in the national press has, as often as not, little to do with genuine news and more to do with either their own political agendas or, manufactured 'celeb-news' dross aimed (as far as I can see) readers with a mental age of 9 or 10 (if that).

This may seem a little unfair on the Mirror (and the rest of that part of the press community) if they have indeed uncovered some murky truth about Johnson, but hey - just like the politicians - they shouldn't be in the kitchen if heat is not to their taste.

My Local Conservative Kak Letter (intouch)

OMG! - what a load of dross has just dropped through my letter-box from the local conservative party!

This is a pathetic attempt at trying to give the impression that they a) have our interests at heart b) are competent to run our lives, and c) have some talent for communication...

My decision to share just some of this 'tat' with the wider world was not an awful struggle as there were 2 x A4 pages of utter rubbish to choose from.

Example -

"We are moving into the 21st Century..."

This apparently refers to the fact that you can now send an email to our 'venerable' local conservative party.

Here's a 'heads up' for you guys... email has been heavily used by the rest of the community, that you aspire to belong to, since the latter part of the 20th century!

Just to make it easy for us all to join them, they've come up with a really short-snappy and easy to remember (and type) email address;

info@kenilworthandsouthamconservatives.co.uk - snappy huh?

Another 'heads up' for the duffers who reside at this address - the rest of us have been in the 21st century for the last 7 years - so where have you been? Not intouch obviously...

Another example; apparently a certain councillor has "spent many hours liaising with them ('them' being the contractors working on our new sewers) to minimise the impact of these major works".

Really? Exactly what was it he achieved ? As someone affected, I know that there were many traffic routes affected simultaneously by these works. There was intrusive noise and dirt/dust with house windows having to be kept closed in an attempt to keep it out.

The plant used in the works was constantly running back & forth between the work sites and the contractor's base taking (comparatively speaking) teaspoons full of gravel in one small dumper load at a time. This created a mess on the roads and added (due to the slow speeds involved) more traffic disruption to the already miserable lot of the local tax payers.

Now this is not to say that the work wasn't essential. It was (and still is). But I believe that it could have been better organised on a number of fronts.

What really annoys me intensly is to see a local politician who had no real part to play in this whole exercise, now trying to get some kudos for it. One role that this 'elected official' could have usefully performed, would have been to have created an effective means of communication between those contractors carrying out that work, and the elderly part of the community most affected by this work in order to establish where their problems could have been eased or even eradicated. My mother and her neighbours fell into this category and most definitely did not see any such effort.

Of course, this would have involved the said Cllr in many days or weeks of liaison rather than hours, and would have meant him having to engage in, and solve, some real problems. Whatever he did was little enough for most of us affected to notice.

Some years ago, I worked as a 'Professional Officer' (i.e. trained, qualified and paid a salary) for a local council. I had a role in a major service reorganisation (I led a team of officers in fact) and we not only improved the said service, but also made substantial savings to boot. No politicians were involved at any stage, save for giving us the go-ahead (after us having to explain the whole thing to our elected members in words of one syllable - I always thought that the word 'members' was such an appropriate description for them).

When it came to the publicity, however, 'pow' - they appeared out of nowhere to claim the credit for our efforts. Not only that, they also wheeled in our national MP to bathe in the glory! Of course, neither me nor my team were mentioned in their little speeches. It probably goes without saying that this too was a conservative run council...

The whole business had a 'nasty whiff' about it - and I have exactly the same smell in my nostrils now thanks to this 'intouch' edition.

We all know that Severn Trent did (and are doing) all of the hard work and so, deserve all of the credit, such as it is, for not disrupting our lives more than they did. Shame on any politicians who do so little for us in reality, that they have to stoop to such 'glory grabbing' tactics from any quarter however small, and in doing so try to alter our perception of the reality.

In another area of this letter, it claims that (get this) "We know it's your money". Like we should've expected anything else from our elected representatives... Rather stating the 'bleeding obvious' isn't it old boys?

They go on to crow that the last time they were in power here they left office with reserves of £12m.

On recently re-entering office they found that the reserve was only £1m... They also go on to promise that they will be now 'stabilising' our financial affairs (which I assume is a hint that they want to try to get us back to a large reserve situation).

Now I know that it's prudent to operate with some reserve, but £1m for a district of this size sounds more than enough to me. If we've been operating with a reserve of £1m under the previous administration, then it must mean that the one before that (i.e. the previous conservative administration) had £11m of our money that they weren't using. So why wasn't it being properly put to use to either improve our services or to reduce the tax payers burden in the first place?

I suppose that by nature conservatives accumulate wealth for it's own sake and they really can't get past that flaw in their collective characters can they?