Lord Mandelson said… “Does it remain an important objective for Britain to find itself in the same currency as that single market in which it interacts? Obviously yes.” Censored MPs’ Expenses from A to Z – Parliament.uk
Anonymity Shields Bloggers from Tyranny – Index on Censorship
Bercow: Bumptious, Expenses-Fiddling Greaser – Quentin Letts
Mandelson Sits at Gordon’s Right Hand – Indy
Gordon Brown Helped Cause the Crisis – WSJ
Americans More Conservative Now than in Nineties - Gallup
Party Youth: The Young Ones – Indy
Ivan Massow: the Never-Ending Tory – Times
Harman Brackets Tories & BNP – ConservativeHome
50 MPs Face Axe for Exes – The Sun
THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2009
Times Leader Columns" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 68, 119); ">Time to End Anonymous Times Leader Columns
When Guido started back in 2004 he tried to be an anonymous blogger until he was outed by the Guardian duing the 2005 elections (a Labour party employee had traced back the fax number). A major part of the reason for that was to save my wife embarrassment.
Nowadays the third person anonymity on this blog is just a stylistic device, for Richard Horton it was for essential career reasons, blogging policemen are breaking regulations. The Times claims public interest is behind the reason for outing the Orwell prize winning Nightjack blogger. Mr Justice Eady, who fancies himself to be a legislator as much as a judge, ruled that the mere fact that the blogger wanted to remain anonymous did not mean that he had a “reasonable expectation” of doing so or that The Times was under an enforceable obligation to him to maintain that anonymity. He is clearly correct in law.
The Times journalist says he wanted to discover the true identity of the author of blog, for with that knowledge he would be able to judge the standing and authority of the author. The Times has daily leader columns, these famously thunder out the considered view of the newspaper on the issues of the day and seek to influence the direction of the country. It would enable Guido and the rest of us to better judge the standing and authority of those leaders if they were signed rather than anonymous. Was the recent leader on Investment v Cuts, which was so favourable to the Shadow Chancellor’s arguments, written by a former work colleague and friend of George Osborne? It would be nice to know.
Which employee of BSkyB supremo James Murdoch argued for a smaller BBC and against giving licence fee money to Channel 4? Who wrote the last leader calling for interest rate cuts? Was it Rupert Murdoch himself? All News Corp’s newspapers worldwide argue without exception for interest rate cuts. Hardly surprising when you know News Corp struggles to service interest payments on $14 billion of debts…
Pay Points for Political Piggies
If you see any good expenses spots link to them in the comments and Guido will highlight them here all day:
Paul Waugh notes George Osborne had us pay £47 for a DVD of his speech on “Value for Money”.
James Arbuthnot thinks it wholly necessary for us to pay £138 for a “chainsaw for logs”. Massacre him at the general election.
Terry Rooney claims off us £125 pcm for “cleaning” and his landlord bills him for cleaning too. No receipt was required for the cleaner because it is was below £250. He cleaned up.
Julia Goldsworthy made us pay £734.30 for her Meniscus “rent”under incidental expenses. What is that about?
Doug Henderson claimed for tax advice from the taxpayers and claims frequently for the maximum amount for food.
Alan Duncan takes £250 petty cash each and every month without any justification. Because he could.
Lembit Opik claimed £19.99 for the “Mother of All Wigs” – justified apparently as a sundry cost “incurred while supporting a Charitable Event”. It actually appears that we taxpayers supported it with cash Lembit.
Did Jim Devine MP really claim £938 for a Mink coloured suite? He could have just made it up like his electrical bills.
UPDATE : There is just so much troughing that it is impossible to do it all justice…
Random Spot Check on a Political Piggy
Guido will be going through MP’s expenses at random today, amazinglyTom Watson’s expenses are the first randomly selected for detailed examination. Fancy that, him looking just like a piggy and all…
Redacted Expenses Save Blushes
Guido has had a quick look through some expense claims – the redactions hide a lot of sins and seem to have been applied inconsistently. Despite the censorship it is still possible to discover some interesting stuff.
Have a look for yourself here.
Blair : We Paid to Shred His Evidence
There is an Irish saying that sums up Blair. He is one “cute hoor”. You have to laugh, we paid to shred his receipts…
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