tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-200686132009-07-13T05:44:55.193ZWestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.comBlogger792125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-77260766437271641242009-05-11T17:38:00.008Z2009-05-11T21:47:32.669Z

And so it goes on, just this time its the Tories turn to have their expense claims revealed. They range from the bizarre, claims for manure and dog food to the outrageous, including repairs on a tennis court, £7k for gardening and £4k on renovating a property before selling it at a profit. They all owe their constituents a personal apology, they owe members of the Conservative party an apology,

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-52261357223562713682009-05-10T22:48:00.006Z2009-05-10T23:01:55.664Z

It was bound to happen eventually, the Telegraph has revealed the expense claims of our local MP, Tom Watson. There are few surprises. Aside from the £100 per week “Two Dinners Tommy” claims for food -I’m not quite sure why MP’s can claim for food, I too work and I too eat food, yet I have to pay for it – Watson along with Iain Wright MP managed to lavish a whopping £100k of our cash on his

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-26687083807115292212009-05-10T07:20:00.004Z2009-05-10T08:15:41.995Z

From the News of the World:Tory MP James Gray is exposed today as a greedy skinflint after claiming for remembrance Day WREATHS on expenses. He demanded taxpayers foot the bill and was put out when he got turned down, claiming he'd always got away with it in the past. Unabashed, the MP said: "It's necessary for me to attend three ceremonies and I have therefore to buy three wreaths at £20 each,

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-43385402556545548452009-05-09T12:34:00.002Z2009-05-09T16:13:53.738Z

The most popular lines of defence to come out of the MP’s expenses scandal; “We were acting in good faith” and "Everything was done within the rules”They just don’t get it do they? We know most of you acted within the rules. You made the rules and you police those rules. It is the fact that these rules are the rules that are upsetting people. It’s morally inexcusable that a multi-millionaire MP

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-69328978341039157912009-05-06T21:33:00.006Z2009-05-06T21:44:14.175Z

From the GuardianThe government is demanding unprecedented control over the day-to-day running of one of the UK’s biggest car companies in return for help to secure an emergency cash injection.Ministers want the right to choose Jaguar Land Rover’s chairman, take a seat on the board and hold a veto over investment and employment issues. Appoint is own chairman? Veto management decisions? Get

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-21910215670817558352009-05-06T20:28:00.010Z2009-05-06T20:58:51.688Z

Roll up, roll up! Get your £60 non-compulsory, totally voluntary, likely to be scrapped in the next 18 months, ID card. Any takers? Anyone? Well, I’m sure they will be able to rustle up a few party hacks for the launch day. You could be forgiven for thinking that there are better ways to spend five billion of taxpayers money, particularly since all evidence points to the scheme achieving nothing

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-34889908202334232442009-05-06T06:51:00.002Z2009-05-06T20:59:39.382Z

Normal blogging service will resume soon.

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-53646199315290422332009-04-29T07:09:00.003Z2009-05-06T21:48:01.850Z

What can you tell about a President’s four year term from the first 100 days? Sod all really. The first 100 days of the Bush presidency told us nothing about how he would go on to be one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history or that war and terror would go on to be the defining issues of his term; hell, by the first 100 days his approval ratings suggested he was on course to be one

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-40643201011697756442009-04-28T17:51:00.004Z2009-04-28T18:05:03.205Z

The aeroplane, used by the US president, was escorted over lower Manhattan by two F-16 fighters, so government photographers could capture images above New York harbour. But the low-flying planes raised fears that the city was under a Sept 11-style terrorist attack.Not content with being scared half to death, New Yorkers can rest assured that despite a record budget deficit, team Obama can still

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-67427408471402449882009-04-27T21:49:00.004Z2009-04-27T22:09:55.129Z

It’s just what we need now - a flu-pandemic scare in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Right now officials are still unsure, but by end of this week I’m sure they'll have a pretty good indication of how serious the new swine flu outbreak is -- how many people are likely to get sick, how many people are likely to die, and how much the outbreak will affect the

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-60026091591418132902009-04-26T10:02:00.002Z2009-04-26T10:10:44.587Z

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-69290275553734624382009-04-25T17:57:00.004Z2009-04-25T18:04:37.909Z

Politicians love to think they can run things better than anyone else; especially when they have a limitless pot of your cash to play around with. There current target is banking.In one of the most significant developments in the governance or financing of Britain for a hundred years, local municipal banking has returned with the launch today of Banking on Essex. Banking on Essex is the first

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-48790561767015648602009-04-24T18:32:00.000Z2009-04-25T18:38:14.483Z

I am absolutely flabbergasted by THIS story. Yet another example of the extraordinarily ridiculous (and alarming) power of the state.Police and council officials raided Bamboo Joint in Leytonstone, east London, to post a closure order because the takeaway broke new rules which ban hot foot outlets near schools, parks or leisure centres.Yes, you read that correctly. Raided by police and council

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-59294560979299292832009-04-22T15:01:00.000Z2009-04-23T07:13:20.595Z

Tax the rich until the pips squeak. The party of ‘low tax’ and high expenditure is finally dead. It has deceased to be, an ex-party, dead and buried under a mountain of its own debt. The public finances have been comprehensively destroyed for at least a generation. New Labour has generated the largest series of fiscal deficits and the most rapid growth in public debt since Hitler was

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-34080768925721585802009-04-21T20:19:00.003Z2009-04-21T20:34:09.865Z

So Gordon Brown has felt in necessary to make a pre-emptive YouTube strike against the huge expenses scandal which will break when all MP’s expense claims are revealed for the first time in June.You can tell how bad the expense revelations are going to be the Guardian warns that the whips are braced for potential “suicides” when the story breaks. That in mind Gordon has made his surprise

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-53334459058574436982009-04-20T00:00:00.004Z2009-04-21T07:03:39.966Z

Given the turn of events and almighty row that created following my post on last years St Georges Day parade, I was sceptical about going to the event this year but in the end curiosity drew me back.Despite the desperate pleas for politicians to stay well away, Nick Griffin, regional BNP organiser Simon Derby and Cllr Russ Green couldn’t resist flouting the wishes of organisers and putting in an

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-31730793824412769812009-04-18T15:04:00.007Z2009-04-18T17:02:31.483Z

The banking crisis, it’s all Thatcher’s fault don’t you know? If she hadn’t passed the 1986 Building Societies Act and allowed ordinary people the freedom to choose how their building societies operated we wouldn’t have these evil, and I can’t stress the word evil enough, capitalist, and shareholder owned banks cocking things up in the hunt for short term profits.Hang on a second, what’s this in

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-30555579952744228782009-04-18T14:34:00.000Z2009-04-18T21:37:36.573Z

"It sounds increasingly like Tom Watson is going to be hung, drawn, and quartered in on one or two of tomorrow’s papers. Downing St. is desperately trying to pull strings right now".h/t

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-53914360753305898602009-04-17T18:32:00.006Z2009-04-17T18:47:16.480Z

I couldn't end the week without posting the video we have all seen before but can't help watching again.Susan Boyle on Britain's Got TalentThe woman has gone international. She has already broken the US, got her invite to Oprah and Larry King and left the pundits in tears. In a poll by the New York Daily News asking readers if they also cried, 95 per cent say they did. It can only be a matter of

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-38549626360385988762009-04-16T15:23:00.005Z2009-04-16T15:57:28.699Z

Since Mervin King told Gordon that the piggy bank was empty and that a fiscal stimulus was out of the question, Brown has clearly been desperate for ideas to fill his upcoming budget. Heaven forbid that a government in debt to the tune of at least 45 % of GDP present a budget with 0 extra spending commitments. Today he has leaked an idea that kills two birds with one stone, electric car bribes

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-1910704460457920762009-04-16T13:17:00.004Z2009-04-16T15:44:32.447Z

It’s quite amazing that seven days after the “smeargate” story was broken, the whole thing still has legs. Gordon may have been forced into a half-hearted apology but for the second time in three days the Sun has editorialised against Tom Watson, the Minister for Twitter, and is again calling for an official enquiry into the murky, mudslinging goings on at the heart of Downing Street.Holding a

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-37945050890630572102009-04-14T00:13:00.005Z2009-04-14T07:18:25.667Z

Given Tom Watson’s furious denials – though his attack puppy Adrian Goldberg – and the suggestions that Tom is prepared to get m'learned friends involved, I hope the Sun is lawyered up because the nation’s favourite rag has gone after him with some ferocity in today’s paper:“And sack the equally poisonous Tom Watson, whose position as Cabinet Office minister is a stain on the Prime Minister’s

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-37385913500512208042009-04-13T14:45:00.006Z2009-04-13T15:39:17.485Z

It seems that Gordon Brown’s attack dog has got his own little attack puppy in the form of left wing blogger Adrian Goldberg. Finally breaking cover, Tom Watson has revealed in a statement posted on Goldberg’s blog that he feels as smeared as the Tories. Pull the other one Tom. Watson it seems is getting awfully defensive, contacting lawyers who in turn appear to be putting pressure on the BBC

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-49800980430225598592009-04-13T10:02:00.006Z2009-04-13T11:33:42.170Z

Well it is according to Liberal Burbling and Liberal Conspiracy, quoting a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research:“There was an immediate boost to the volume of retail sales after the cut was introduced on 1 December 2009," said Douglas McWilliams, the chief executive of the CEBR. "Annual growth in retail sales accelerated from 1.6 per cent in November to 2.6 per cent in

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20068613.post-60614480078038201372009-04-12T12:40:00.015Z2009-04-12T16:45:42.507Z

The News of the World reveals the smears - full story here.Obviously as Tom Watson is my constituency MP, it is his conduct in this affair that I am most interested in. For those of you who don’t know (and let’s face it there is no reason why you should) Tom is the man in charge of the government’s Internet strategy, the Minister for Digital Engagement (aka the Minister for Twitter). He is also

WestBrom Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07382903625035285240noreply@blogger.com0