For its latest instalment, the producers of the Kraft durch Freude programme, Celebrity brain-rot, have recruited the Speaker's wife, Sally Bercow (pictured left).
In normal times no man can be held responsible for the conduct of his wife, but in this case we are happy to make an exception. With John Bercow, this pair between them have made a major contribution to the destruction of the majesty and gravitas of parliament, helping to make it the tawdry joke that it has become.
This article says she aims to "stick it to the establishment" during the programme, heedless of the fact that she is part of the establishment, living in a grace and favour apartment which has cost usbetter than £20,000 for refurbishments, plus another £1390.64, including VAT, for a satellite TV system, to save the pair the trouble of looting the local branch of Dixons.
One has to admit that this pair have got it made – having been able to delegate the parliamentary authorities to do their looting for them – and they certainly deserve each other. The question is whether we deserve such low grade personalities, a question which scarcely needs an answer.
COMMENT THREAD
We met this little baggage quite recently but up she pops again, as we learn that Andrea Hill, recently deposed chief executive of Suffolk county council, won a payoff of £218,592 - a year's salary.
But this was not the full cost of her leaving the post. The council, it seems, was also lumbered with a bill of £115,670 to investigate allegations of bullying and her "domineering management style" after David White, the council's interim head of legal services, was found hanged near his home in April.
In addition, the council had to cover legal fees of £13,506 on Hill's case, bringing the total cost of getting rid of her to £347,768. And this is on top of the £405,000 she has cost the council in agreeing settlements for the departure of other members of staff.
Unsurprisingly, Craig Dearden-Phillips, a Lib-Dim councillor, remarks that: "She had to go - her management style was pretty inappropriate". He adds: "It's an expensive settlement but if you counted all the hours spent dealing with this it would have cost far more than £350,000".
Amazingly though, a spokesman for Suffolk council actually says: "The county council would like to thank Mrs Hill for all she has done over the past three years and wish her well for her future". Not a few people, though, would like to make sure that the woman had no future ... of any kind.
Certainly, her kind of wholesale looting puts the efforts of last week's amateurs in the shade, proving that by far the best way of ripping people off and getting away with it is to join a public institution.
Her efforts, however, have not gone unnoticed, and anyone who thinks the moral indignation over the riots is going to cut any ice, as long as excrement like this is stuffing wads of dosh into her knickers, really does not belong on this planet.
If the ruling classes insist on helping themselves to our money, they really should not be surprised when their loose morality is reflected in the lower orders – and many others besides.
COMMENT THREAD
South Norfolk District Council are paving the way to bang up 72-year-old June Farrow for the most serious crime on the statute book – refusal to pay the council tax needed to keep greedy officials and councillors in their accustomed luxury.
Farrow, a retired nurse from Bawburgh near Norwich, has only been paying £25 a month in council tax for the last three months, instead of the £99 per month demanded. And she has been using her savings to pay the tax ever since her husband, Albert, died six years ago.
This, she now says, cannot continue. She and her husband had built their own house and it is now 50 years old. "It is at an age", she says, "where it needs a lot of money spent on it and I need my savings to pay for things like a new sceptic tank".
We would suggest that every house needs a "sceptic tank" (sic) – and that it would be better to spend the money on that, than the depredations of thieving officialdom. But the fact that Farrow is at risk of jail underlines that central – if uncomfortable – fact, that we are not free men and women in this country.
Given that we can be banged up at a moment's notice, without anything even approaching a trial, we are merely out on license. The bizarre thing about this country is that we, as citizens, face far longer jail sentences for not paying our "freedom license" than the excrement get when they steal considerably more.
But then, as mere serfs, we should know our place.
COMMENT THREAD
Former Liberal Democrat councillor Christopher John Basson walked free from Westminster Magistrates' Court, despite stealing £12,000 from the State in fraudulently obtained incapacity benefits, while receiving nearly £26,000 in member's allowances from Camden Council.
The 54 year-old, who resigned from the council in 2009 due to ill health, illegally claimed benefits for "depression and anxiety", telling officials from the Department of Work and Pensions that he was not "working" during his three years as an elected member for the north London borough.
Despite recent looters being handed down sentences of up to two years, district judge Nicholas Evans gave Basson a mere 28 days, suspended for a year, and ordered him to wear an electronic tag for three months, plus a curfew from 7pm to 7am. Basson will also be forced to pay back the benefits.
The former councillor, who now earns £37,000 a year as a computer consultant, is currently seeking treatment for heroin addiction. He admitted to being £55,000 in debt, but denied that his debts, which he is currently repaying at a rate of about £600 a month, were a result of his heroin addiction.
Outside the court, Basson admitted he was "sorry" for his actions but declined to answer further questions from reporters.
COMMENT THREAD
After attending a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, the serial offender proceeded to down a bottle of sherry and stumbled into the Krispy Kreme, in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, which was unsecured after being attacked earlier. He was almost immediately caught red-handed with a box of doughnuts, worth £17, when 20 riot police arrived. He was returned to custody.
Downey admitted burglary and breach of an Asbo by entering part of Manchester City Centre from which he is prohibited. The judge told him: "You are an alcoholic. That is established by your record which shows a chronic condition. You drink too much, too regularly and when in drink become threatening and abusive".
"Indeed on the evening before your arrest you had been released from prison and seem to have got no further than Piccadilly", said the judge. "The shop keeper described your condition in blunt terms, 'he was pissed'".
Downey's offending history - printed over 33 pages - included more than 100 convictions for 233 offences. In mitigation, Zoe Nield told the court Downey left prison with just £4 in his pocket.
Although he wasn't involved in the rioting, he saw the Krispy Kreme store unsecured and helped himself because he was hungry, having spent all his money on tobacco. She said: "He can't recall the events because he was drunk but he has expressed remorse."
One does not have to be a bleeding heart liberal here to see that jail is not the answer to the Downey problem – not least because it is an expensive and ineffective measure in this case. Likely, the best option would have been a secure rehabilitation centre, except that there are rarely enough places, and that part of the system is under-funded.
In any society, though, there are always inadequates. That is a fact of life, and a humane – to say nothing of sensible – society deals with it. Using the prison system as a human garbage dump, on the other hand, is not really an answer. It perpetuates the problem and costs us more in the long run.
Strangely, there is a system where inadequates like Downey could be pulled in to supervised employment, enabling them to make something of their lives. It is called Remploy. Yet its workshops are being closed down and the system is being dismantled, something initiated byLabour and not reversed by the caring, sharing Boy.
What is happening though, is that the plods, storming into the riot areas, have been missing the "first wave" of rioters and looters, and picking up the inadequates like Downey, with the "justice" system then putting them in jail - exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing.
But then, as one learns, it is much easier to bray about "being tough", and to call for more prisons to be built – and filled. Why bother trying to solve a problem when, with a little bit of effort, you can make it considerably worse?
Posts
