Friday 29 May 2009


Today's other newslinks

The golden goodbyes that the 12 MPs giving up their seats will receive from the taxpayer - Independent

Bill Cash MP is latest target of Daily Telegraph's expenses series

CASH WILLIAM"A veteran Tory MP pocketed more than £15,000 of public money to pay his socialite daughter rent for her luxury London apartment. Bill Cash billed the taxpayer for letting the flat despite owning a home nearer Westminster. He handed over more than £1,200 a month to his daughter Laetitia - a close friend of heiress Jemima Khan - then claimed it back from his second homes allowance." - Daily Mail

"Shortly after the MP stopped claiming money for his daughter’s flat, Miss Cash, 35, who is hoping to become a Conservative MP and is on David Cameron’s “A list” of preferred candidates, sold the property for a £48,000 profit." - Telegraph

Two more Tory MPs to retire at next election

"Julie Kirkbride, Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, was apparently put out of her expenses-related misery during a conversation with David Cameron on Thursday morning. The party leader said it was Ms Kirkbride’s “own decision” to stand down at the next election. But the backbencher had vowed to fight on during a BBC radio interview only three hours before." -FT

"Maria Miller, Tory MP for Basingstoke, and the mother of three young children, said yesterday that the fall out from the expenses row might put mothers off a political career." - Independent

> Yesterday's ToryDiary on Julie Kirkbride's resignation > Yesterday's Seats & Candidates post on Christopher Fraser MP's decision to stand down

The Sun lists the 12 MPs to have resigned so far over expenses-gate

Ed Balls says Cameron has been softer on expenses than Labour - Guardian

Conservative AM accuses Welsh Tory leader, Nick Bourne, of "lack of vision"

BOURNE NICK"A Conservative AM who lost his job in a shadow cabinet reshuffle has attacked his leader for making a controversial expenses claim for an iPod... [he also said:] "We have also been guilty of not standing up for what we really believe in because we were more afraid of voter hostility. Wales cannot afford this lack of vision. We need to start making our case now to prove to the people of Wales that we have a coherent long-term vision and the mettle to deliver it." - BBC

Barack Obama's former brother-in-law wants to become Tory MP - The Herald

Nick Clegg: MPs should be blocked from taking their summer holidays until they agree sweeping changes at Westminster - BBC

Jeff Randall: The range of excuses in the MPs' expenses affair has been breathtaking -Telegraph

Paul Routledge: Today's MPs are better than celebrity-style independents

"John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington claimed £0. That’s right. Nowt. I’d rather have him as my MP than Beirut hostage Terry Waite, tombstone-teeth Esther Rantzen, or “celebrity” David Van Day, who reportedly blew £100,000 on cocaine but couldn’t make it as a Tory councillor in Brighton." - Paul Routledge in The Mirror

"Success in showbusiness and the media may be evidence of ambition, eloquence and charm but it doesn't necessarily carry with it either a guarantee of incorruptibility or the aptitude for the kind of hard and thankless work that is the lot of the average backbencher." - Lance Price in The Telegraph

One-seventh of fearful Labour MPs apply for an escape route to the Lords

"In the clearest indication to date that increasing numbers of Labour figures believe the party is heading for a heavy defeat at the hands of David Cameron, the Guardian has learned that at least 52 MPs have formally approached Downing Street to be given places in the upper house. The MPs include current chairs of select committees as well as past and serving middle and junior ranking ministers, according to Labour sources. They account for a seventh of those elected at the last election." - Guardian

Two Labour MPs write to The Guardian seeking controls on opposition party spending - Guardian

Opponent of PR, David Blunkett, ready to accept Alternative Voting system - Guardian

"PR is a recipe for weak government, born out of the understandable anger of the moment. We must look beyond that anger and decide whether we want bold leadership with decisive answers to the major challenges of the moment – or a talking-shop parliament that regularly gives ministers a bloody nose so that everyone feels better." - David Blunkett writing for The Guardian

How to fix parliament? Stop MPs being ministers - David Green in The Telegraph

BNP's Nick Griffin paid £5,000 donation into his personal bank account without declaring it - Times

Britain's 281 smallest political parties have a combined total expenditure of £1.7m - ePolitix

Britain becomes increasingly Eurosceptic

EconomistPoll"Polling commissioned from YouGov by The Economist suggests that Britain is gradually becoming a more Eurosceptic place. Over the past quarter-century the proportion of people who think Britain’s membership of the EU is a good thing has fallen from 43% to 31% (with a spike in 1990 after sterling’s ill-fated entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism). The share of those who think it a bad thing has risen from 30% to 37%."

Child rapists are avoiding jail as judges hand out “softer” sentences

"Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “Dangerous offenders cheat justice and children are put at risk. It is hard to think of any circumstances where an adult who rapes a young child should avoid jail.” - The Sun

Tory research suggests that the proportion of teenagers from the richest parts of England who go to university is twice the rate in the most deprived areas - Telegraph

Tomorrow on ConservativeHome
Two mornings ago ConservativeHome published a poll of 1,144 members which found that 81% thought she should go, 6% should stay. With 2,027 votes now in the percentages have hardly altered; 80% thought she should go, 6% say she should stay.  Tomorrow we will publish the first league table of the shadow cabinet since expenses-gate.
  

Posted by Britannia Radio at 11:18