UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
MPs shoot themselves in foot over expenses
The online release of MPs’ expense claims has only served to further dent their already battered reputation.
Forty-two days after the Daily Telegraph began to investigate MPs’ expenses the Houses of Parliament finally got round to publishing official details of them. Or rather it didn’t, as lots of key information was blacked out.
Britain’s newspapers spelt out their condemnation – in black and white – of this supposed exercise in freedom of information.
The Sun labelled MPs “Blankers”, the Daily Mirror led with the headline: “Blackwash”, while the Daily Mail posed the question: “Just how stupid do they think we are?”
Commons officials insisted that the information that had been blacked out was done to protect MPs’ security, but the consensus of Britain’s media was that the political classes had shot themselves in the foot.
“Yesterday’s exercise in obfuscation suggested the House of Commons has learnt nothing,” opined the Daily Telegraph’s editorial, with the paper promising to publish an uncensored version of every MP’s expense claim on Saturday.
“The Portcullis House edition of the dossier does not so much slam the door behind a bolted stallion as painstakingly construct a new stable in order to house a dead nag,” wrote the Guardian.
from Global Investing:
On Bankers and Busing
Bankers are having a rough time of it lately. It is not just that their companies are collapsing beneath them and their bonuses are the subject of global hate and derision. They also have to put up with the barbs of journalists (who are very familiar with being at the bottom of the popularity pile).
The latest example comes from Tim Dowling, scribbling away for Britain's Guardian newspaper. Mr Dowling has penned a useful primer for bankers who suddenly find themselves living in the real world.
You can read the complete guide by clicking here. But Global Investing's favourite tip concerns the use of London's celebrated buses:
"When a bus comes into view, raise your right hand as if you were hailing a taxi. Get on at the front and tell the driver where you are going. He will name a price. Haggling is frowned upon, as is suggesting a route. Buses have no business class as such, but the top deck, if there is one, offers superior views."
So cruel. So very cruel.
Yes, you just have to wait (forever) for one of these filthy, overcrowded red things to come along.
Then you can see just how bad a service is provided by those who are berating you for what you have done.
PS your average public sector employee has had every form of Public service benefit from the NHS onwards subsidised by your high tax. So next time one of these moaners has a go at you remember, you paid ££££ in tax every year so that they could pay £ in tax.
Editorials praise Brown’s energy package
Unions and energy watchdogs lashed out at Gordon Brown’s aid package aimed at helping householders cope with soaring energy bills, saying it was ”too little, too late”. Even pensioners’ charities gave a frosty response.
But newspaper editorials on the whole were supportive, describing it as “bold politics. More importantly, it was good policy”, as The Times said.
From The Guardian to the Financial Times, the editorials praised the “eminently sensible” measures which concentrated on big companies helping householders to lag their lofts and cavity walls.
It may not have delivered on the pre-hype, but the editorials blame the government for bumping up the publicity in a desperate attempt to boost its poor showing in the opinion polls.
But the government resisted the temptation to impose a windfall tax on big power companies — a target on so-called excess profits.
Instead, the utility companies have been persuaded to invest 910 million pounds in helping householders pay the cost of insulating their homes.
The editorials said the government was right to resist pressure from Labour MPs and unions to impose a tax.
Editorials should not praise Brown’s energy package, but should point to his huge lies and huge hidden tax on energy
Palin – the next Thatcher or Diana?
The British press, like their American cousins, doesn’t seem to able to get enough of Sarah Palin.
The self-described hunting, shooting and hockey “mom” is the “biggest hot-button political story in the English-speaking world”, says Martin Kettle in The Guardian on Friday.
Newspapers have devoted pages to the previously little-known governor of Alaska and now Republican vice-presidential candidate.
But while she was described as the next Margaret Thatcher by the American media in the Daily Telegraph, the British media have concentrated on drawing parallels with psychiatrist Dr Melfi from “The Sopranos” TV show or the late Princess Diana.
“She joins those women, such as Diana, Princess of Wales and Carla Bruni, who were picked to fill a gap at the side of a prominent man and promptly upstaged him,” writes Bronwen Maddox in The Times.
Her colleague Andrew Billen draws on Palin’s joke for inspiration: what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull — lipstick.
“It has been applied liberally to Mrs Palin’s pleasing face, less hockey mom than Dr Melfi from The Sopranos or the Specsavers model, a sexy lady who knows it but won’t show it. Her hair was down but her neckline was up.”
I read this excellent article with a great interest. Thank you. It is so obvious the Obama camp is paranoid that is why they don’t stop trashing Sarah Palin who runs for number 2 not 1.
Yes I agree that Sarah is both M Thatcher and Diana.
Sarah is smart and beautiful, a few ugly women love to attack her because they are jealous of Sarah.
Let me tell these radical left “McCain will be the President of the United Stated and Palin will be the Vice President of the United States.”
Wednesday’s front pages
The papers are nearly all agreed that Chancellor Alistair Darling’s 2.7 billion pound fix for the 10p tax row is the day’s main story.
“Darling seeks end to 10p tax backlash” reports the Financial Times, noting that the move will still leave 1.1 million poorer households worse off following the abolition of the lowest tax band in last year’s budget.
For the Daily Mail the tax giveaway is a “2.7 billion pound gamble” to appease fury on the Labour backbenches over the scrapping of the 10p starting rate.
But the papers also find room for other stories: Drivers face a 185 pound tax to park at work, says the Daily Telegraph of a government push to cut traffic congestion. The paper reports that Nottingham city council will be the first to introduce the “workplace parking levy as an alternative to road pricing.
The Sun reports that Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe is making a legal bid for freedom from the secure Broadmoor hospital, claiming his human rights have been breached. It says Sutcliffe, jailed in 1981 for killing 13 women, wants to be declared sane and given a release date.
The Independent opts for an analytic lead, suggesting that “Britain could once again be haunted by the spectre of stagflation“. It says a combination of stagnant output and high inflation not seen for decades will dog policymakers for months if not years to come.
By contrast the Daily Express says there is “Now a race to cut prices“, reporting that supermarkets Asda and Tesco and mortgage lender Nationwide have all unveiled plans for a host of cost-cutting deals to help “Britain’s hard-pressed families.”
Tuesday’s front pages
The cost of living and falling house prices, school tests, knife crime and pictures from the Chinese earthquake feature in Tuesday’s headlines.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Abolish Tests for Pupils at 11 and 14, Urge MPs
MPs who say pupils are being drilled to pass exams to inflate schools’ positions in league tables rather than being encouraged to learn, are calling for some tests to be scrapped, the paper says. Story here
DAILY EXPRESS: 415 pounds Jump in Energy Bills
The paper continues to say the cost of living is on the rise, this time pointing out that families face an increase in energy bills of 46 percent. Story here
DAILY MIRROR: Saint Jimmy
The paper quotes the mother of Jimmy Mizen, killed in an unprovoked attack in a London bakers, about how she believes her son will go to heaven. Story here
Monday’s front pages
There were further potentially damaging revelations about Gordon Brown from within the Labour Party, claims about the rising cost of living, as well as coverage of Manchester United’s Premier League title win on Monday’s front pages.
DAILY EXPRESS: Family Tax Up 51 Percent
The tax burden has risen by 51 percent under Labour and the average family now pays a crippling 20,700 pounds a year, the paper says. Story here
FINANCIAL TIMES: Banks’ Losses to Hit Public Finances
Losses suffered by the country’s largest banks as a result of the global credit turmoil will add further pressure on the public finances by cutting the amount of corporation tax paid by the financial services industry, the paper says. Story here
THE INDEPENDENT: Strawberry Fields Forsaken
Millions of pounds worth of soft fruit and vegetables are likely to be left to rot in fields this summer because of a shortage of foreign pickers caused by the falling value of the pound and new restrictions on the number of seasonal labourers allowed to enter Britain, farmers’ leaders warned the paper. Story here
Friday’s front pages
Abortion, Ant and Dec’s award – that wasn’t, and the confessions of the Austrian cellar man dominate the front pages of Friday’s papers.
THE INDEPENDENT: Abortion; the Battle Lines Are Drawn
The paper uses just three lines of text and three pictures for its main story about survival rates of premature babies and its significance in the abortion debate. Story here
THE TIMES: Drivers in Worse Jam as Traffic Plan Fails
The paper says motorists are wasting more time sitting in queues on motorways and A-roads because the government has failed to meet its key three-year target for reducing congestion. Story here
THE SUN: Hitler Made Me Do It
The man at the centre of the Austrian cell scandal has blamed his tyrannical rapist behaviour on his growing up under Adolf Hitler’s Nazis, the paper says – using a photo of Fritzl interposed on an image of Hitler. Story here
Thursday’s front pages: anti-social behaviour
The latest initiative to tackle anti-social behaviour and an apparent loophole in airport security feature prominently on Thursday’s front pages, along with the Chelsea gun siege and the Austrian house of horrors.
The Guardian says Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wants police to harass anti-social youths and make life as unpleasant for them as they do for their victims. Young thugs should be hounded and filmed. Story here
The Daily Telegraph is among several newspapers to pick up a BBC 2 “Newsnight” expose that foreign employees working in sensitive airport locations are not having their criminal records checked because of the time and effort that would involve. Story here
The Daily Mail features a picture of the wife of the Chelsea siege gunman looking on in horror during the standoff and runs the story under the headline: “I Love My Wife Dearly” — the message the paper says he threw out of a window before his death. Story here
A report that suggests Britain wastes around 10 billion pounds worth of food a year is the subject of The Independent front page. The paper says most of the waste is made up of entirely untouched food products. Story here
The Sun splashes what it says is the last picture of Elisabeth Fritzl before she was imprisoned for 24 years in a cellar by her father. Story here, while the Daily Mirror leads on the father’s insistence that he is not a monster because at least he did not kill his daughter and the children he fathered with her. Story here
The Times carries allegations from an Iraqi cleaner and two cooks that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists at the British embassy in Baghdad. Story here
Tuesday’s front pages
The destruction and loss of life caused by the cyclone in Burma features on many of the broadsheet front pages, while Chelsea’s win, which keeps the title race going until the final day of the football season, is promoted in all the papers.
DAILY MAIL: Abortion: Fight to Save 2,500 Babies Every Year
MPs will begin a fight to cut the number of abortions by limiting a woman’s right to have a termination for social reasons, from the current 24 weeks to 20, the paper says. Story here
DAILY MIRROR: Boy from the Cellar
The paper features a picture of one of the children born in the cellar in Austria where his mother was kept captive for 24 years. Alex was one of three who was brought up in the family home upstairs. Story here
DAILY EXPRESS: Secret 25 percent Pay Rise for MPs
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The Wall
Anybody who has ever worked for a boss or colleague with a limitless sense of entitlement will recognise the behaviour pattern. Don’t wait for them to learn or adapt – they never will. Their perspective is to vaguely observe that things have unaccountably (but temporarily) gone wrong with the universe’s processes for adapting to them.
The term ‘Narcissitic Personality Disorder’ fits perfectly.
To use an aussie expression ‘trust them as far as you can spit a fridge’