Havering On

The Making of Modern Ireland – An Alternative History

2009-11-22T11:21:00.003Z

A new book, but not one of mine; this one is written by my friend Geoff Robinson. Writing a book is challenging in all sorts of ways and the amazing thing about Geoff is you're never too old to take that challenge. He has just published The Making of Modern Ireland – An Alternative History and he's 88 years old. Geoff's book is both extremely well researched and written in such a way as to make history engaging and interesting without being in the slightest bit stuffy.

“The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine.” – Seamus Heaney

The history of a nation all too often depends on an admixture of truths, half-truths and mythology; exemplified by the story of Britain and Ireland. Both countries were part of the Angevin Empire that controlled an area from the banks of the Shannon to the Centre of France until after its defeat by the French, in 1399. But Ireland did not experience English rule until her colonisation by Henry VIII in the 16th Century.

Basing their story on past ills which resulted in the 1798 Rising by the United Irishmen and the birth of republicanism, together with carefully selected facts, folklore and historically inaccurate assumptions, the Fenians produced a mythology which was in part responsible for the Rising of 1916. Few are aware that this would not have been possible but for the secret connivance of the enemies of Irish freedom, while Ireland gained her independence not by the Rising but as a result of British over-reaction which produced the War of Independence.

The Making of Modern Ireland looks at the broad sweep of the nation’s history from the 12th Century, when it was part of the Angevin Empire, right up to 2009 and the government of Brian Cowan. Geoff Robinson’s narrative offers an alternative view, stripped of the half-truths and mythology, that has passed for much of the country’s history.

Though born and educated in England, Geoff Robinson is an Irish citizen who has lived in Ireland for over fifty years. An unswerving believer in the rectitude of the Irish cause, he knew many who had been involved in the 1916 Rising and later came to meet others of such divergent political views as the daughter of a Redmondite MP and the editor of the “Bulletin”, a clandestine newssheet published during the War of Independence
Following his marriage in 1966 to Bernadette Tiernan, a national teacher, he developed an interest in Irish politics. His wife’s revelation that no critical examination of the events leading up to the 1916 Rising was contained in the schools curriculum, prompted him to make a re-evaluation of Irish history which has resulted in his book, The Making of Modern Ireland.

Buy it from Amazon UK

Buy it from Amazon US

MANAGEMENT BOLL**KS – How to talk your way to the top…

2009-10-28T09:25:00.003Z

Just who is picking the low hanging fruit? Is brainstorming a thing of the past or do we now just do 'thought showers'? If you have ever spent time in a meeting contemplating yet another 'paradigm shift' then you will be the first to realise that at the end of the day it is all a load of. .

It's out now and it's the perfect stocking filler for all your executives friends (and even those in the family!)

What the publisher says – For some people Genghis Khan was the earliest example of an extremely competent manager; although it’s doubtful whether he ever wasted time on management speak – for him actions spoke louder than words. Management speak seems to have been gifted to the world by America. Chester Irving Edwards’ 1938 book Functions of the Executive has a lot to answer for. With statements like, “The line of communication should not be interrupted when the organization is functioning,” you could have guessed that it was only going to get worse.

Initially it was those on the cutting edge that talked the talk, soon middle, junior and even non-managers embraced this language as a means of getting ahead. Management speak is very seductive – the bottom line is we’re all trying to leverage our fair share of the intellectual capital. Even politicians, who look increasingly like middle managers in marketing departments, have hi-jacked management speak to ‘present’, or at least try to differentiate, their ever more similar ideas from those of the other parties.

It is now so pervasive that everyone in society at least grasps the basics of the language. It’s no different from the language as a whole; it’s evolving year by year as new words get added to the lexicon almost every week. It would be wonderful to know who dreams some of it up. Who was he first numpty that uttered the immortal phrase, ‘transferable skill set’? Who said ‘impactfulnesss?’ and managed to keep a straight face? Who decided it was a good idea to have hymn sheets in the office? But whatever the answer, who needs to walk the walk, when you can talk the talk?

While euphemisms have crept into management speak for just about every kind of business activity, recently one old fashioned piece of straight talk has come back into fashion. ‘You’re fired!’ Still, it’s better than if Genghis Khan had been your manager, in his case it would have been ‘You’re dead!’

Brilliant!

2009-10-23T22:15:00.002+01:00

Lord Mandelson's Gardening Costs

2009-10-12T17:25:00.002+01:00

Back in 2004, five days after Lord Mandelson accepted an offer from Tony Blair to become Britain’s European Commissioner his Lordship, although back then he was lain old Mr, received a bill from his gardener for £1,500 for work on his back garden. It covered “crown topping of overgrown trees, pruning of leggy shrubs, digging up and removal of rogue saplings (elderberry and sycamore), removal of weeds, all tree branches, leaves and green rubbish taken away”. If Sir Thomas Legg thinks £1,000 per annum is sufficient for gardening costs can we assume his Lordship will repay the £500. . .always assuming of course that was all he claimed for gardening that year.

The Beatles. . .Not

2009-09-14T07:41:00.003+01:00

In honour of the Beatles remasters – I''ve bought four of them and cannot honestly see what all the fuss is about – and the fact that I am emerging from a welter of work. Two classic albums made up of alternative recordings

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Physic TV
With A Little Help From My Friends – Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – Noel Harrison
Getting Better – Steve Hillage
Fixing a Hole – Big Daddy
She’s Leaving Home – Baja Marimba Band
Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite – Frank Sidebotham
Within You Without You – The Soulful Strings
When I’m Sixty-Four – Bernard Cribbins
Lovely Rita – Fats Domino
Good Morning, Good Morning – Critical Mass
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) – Jimi Hendrix
A Day in The Life – Ipanema Beach Orchestra

Revolver

Taxman – The Bollock Brothers
Eleanor Rigby – Dr. West’s Medicine Show & junk Band
I’m Only Sleeping – Roseanne Cash
Love You To - Bongwater
Here, There & Everywhere – Stephane Grapelli
Yellow Submarine – The Leningrad Cowboys
She Said She Said – Gov’t Mule
Good Day Sunshine – Jimmy James & The vagabonds
And Your Bird Can Sing – The Flamin’ Groovies
For No One – Liza Minnelli
Doctor Robert – Bozo Allegro
I Want To Tell You – The Lambrettas
Got To Get You Into My Life – Sonny & Cher
Tomorrow Never Knows – The Grateful Dead

Woodstock – New Book

2009-08-01T14:10:00.005+01:00

Another reason for a distinct lack of posting is this new book I've done with my pal Richard Evans, a regular commentator. Richard has done the superb design you'll find inside this book that chronicles the now famous festival. There's 256 pages plus over 200 photographs & Images. It's out now and you can get it from Amazon and all good bookshops.

15 – 18 August 1969 – according to the song the people were half a million strong by the time they got to Woodstock. But in reality no one ever did get to Woodstock. Instead they made it to some alfalfa fields near Bethel – population 3,900 – a hundred miles north of New York City and 60 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. The Aquarian Music and Art Fair was held at Max Yasgur’s farm in White Lake.

No one among the 500,000 people could have had any idea of just how important the festival would turn out to be. Given the size of the crowd it was all extremely peaceful, especially considering what they had to endure. There were rainstorms, people waited for long periods for something to happen; they also ran short of food, and water, but there seemed to be no shortage of drugs.

Woodstock was a cultural landmark waiting to happen. Ever afterwards people have tried to emulate it; just a few months later at another festival at Altamont Racetrack, near San Francisco it tragically ended with murder and the death of the 60’s dream. It just proves how thin the line between glory and failure can be. At Woodstock nobody kept notes, maybe because no one thought it was that important. It’s only as the telescope of history has gradually been extended that the cultural significance of the 3 days of peace and love has truly been recognised.

Woodstock tells the story of everything that made up that momentous August weekend. From Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin, The Who to Joan Baez and Crosby Stills Nash & Young to Joe Cocker. But Woodstock does much more than focus on the 60 odd hours during which events played out. It traces the history of every band that performed, what they performed, how they came to be there, and what effect it had on the careers. The book reveals how it all came to be, as well Woodstock’s lasting legacy.

Whoever it was that coined the phrase – ‘The Woodstock Nation’ – created the zeitgeist. It’s what spawned the ‘Woodstock Generation’. From the day that the festival ended until now, and probably forever, we keep polishing it, perpetuating the myth and reveling in the magic.

Owl Watch – The Two Ring Circus

2009-07-19T07:51:00.008+01:00

A distinct lack of activity on the blog for only one reason. . .work! But everything stopped yesterday for the arrival of the owl men – Alan and Maurice. They were here to ring the owlets. Mrs H. has been worried that the owls had been too quiet and we had seen very little activity from the adults, apart from the pair of them roosting, somewhat appropriately, underneath our barn. The lack of activity during daylight hours was because they have had plenty of dry nights and they have been able to feed their brood. Last year we had 5 chicks so this year with better weather, and as it turns out only two chicks, it's all been a lot easier.

Alan went up the ladder and the whole process began.

Next came the job of weighing them. The are put in this soft cotton sacks to protect them and weighed. One weighed 415 grams the other 380 grams. Their wings were measured which showed they are 7 and a half weeks old – they fledge at 10 weeks.

In the bag they can be placed on their backs and left while the other owlet got weighed; next both of them were ringed with a unique number.
.
It's even possible to take them out of the bag – they just lay still and 'play dead'. Did you know that owls have the biggest eyes of any bird?

Then it was time for them to go back in the box. . .these two men made Mrs. H. a very happy woman. . .

Go(Ed)Balls and Go Now!

2009-06-30T14:53:00.001+01:00

The seriously delusional berk, Balls, has got himself embroiled in a fantastic spat with Fraser Nelson the Spectator columnist. You can read it HERE.

All I want is for Balls and his other loony Labour luvvies to bugger off. . .all they need to do is leave their offices tidy for the Conservative that will follow them.

Millionaire Blair at our Expense

2009-06-19T08:38:00.007+01:00

Last year there was a good deal of controversy over the fact that Tony Blair shredded much of the information surrounding his parliamentary expense claims. Here is the heavily 'redacted' claim from September 2007 for £305.50. So not only did the spinmeister shred the evidence, but we paid for it! Really you could make none fo this up and of course nothing will happen to millionaire Blair. The whole thing is almost too amazing for words.

Update

I have found I'm late to the party. Mr Guido Fawkes got there yesterday, I should have known!

Owl Watch Update

2009-06-16T17:53:00.003+01:00

At the weekend we had Alan and Maurice, two experts, come to look inside our owl box. Alan, the man up the ladder, is a bird-ringer who went and opened the lid – inside was the female and two, maybe three young. They were too small to ring and he'll come back in about a month to do it.

Just as he was finishing up the female tried to do a runner out of the front door. Calm as you like Alan just picked her up and held her so Mrs H could get some pictures. Apparently Barn Owls are not vicious like Tawney Owls! In future when Mrs H is putting a fallen bird back in the nest I will no longer need to stand guard with a broom!

Celebrity Politics TV Anyone?

2009-06-14T08:39:00.003+01:00

Muriel Gray knows a thing or two about the telly so it's very revealing what she has written in the Herald on Sunday about Alan Sugar's appointment as 'business tsar' – whatever the hell that is. No one in their right mind can honestly believe that Sugar can do anything for British business; he is after all just a TV presenter. However, what his appointment is ultimately all about is the mindlessness of Brown and his henchman Lord Mandy.

Most damning of all in Ms Gray's piece is this. "Nothing wrong with any of that. It's a terrific show. Sugar does what he's told by the producers, appears to follow a script as he often stumbles over the words, and is probably, if other reality shows are the benchmark, told by the production team which contestant to fire each week."

Read the whole thing and weep for what a nonsense this government has become. Maybe instead of elections we should have Simon Cowell and half a dozen other celebrity judges should help select our politicians. Pick our Politicians or The Ballot Box on the box? We'd probably get more people voting and would they be any less competent or qualified?

60,493,912 of us are marching to the beat of one man with 24,278 'friends'

2009-06-09T21:37:00.004+01:00

So let's get this straight. Gordon Brown, a man elected to serve his constituency in Fife by 24,278, who then becomes Prime Minister in some kind of stitch-up with Tony Blair wants change. He's a man who has brought into government as his de facto No.2 someone who has been disgraced twice and continues to show little more than contempt for everyone who comes into contact with him. He's also a man who has added more unelected people to his front bench than any Prime Minister in living memory. This is the man who is now proposing electoral reform of our democracy. It's bloody staggering!

You'll pardon me for being somewhat sceptical of his reasons. At best he's looking for ways to deflect yet more criticism of his patched up government. At worst he's trying to save his own skin. In fact everything that Gordon Brown does is about 'me', not about the country and the people he constantly claims to serve. Naturally to do a job like PM you have to have a highly, a very highly, developed ego. It seems like we have a man who is so convinced of his own rightness that he does not tolerate dissent, is prepared to sell his soul (to Mandelsdon, if not the Devil) and who is more focused on himself than the job he has to do. Despite all the talk of getting on with the job all he has succeeded in doing is getting on our collective nerves. In a random poll across the country I doubt that Brown would make double figures in the popularity stakes.

And we all thought it couldn't get any worse.

Hollywood to Remake Flipper

2009-06-07T08:18:00.002+01:00

Gordon Brown – Nero Without a Gun (Or the Bullets)

2009-06-06T07:11:00.004+01:00

Gordon Brown when he became PM promised us a government of all the talents and set about granting peerages left, right and centre to bring in people to positions as 'ultra special advisers'. But with this latest reshuffle Brown seems to be bringing in more and more talent' to do jobs that others could just as easily do. Mrs Kinnock, while experienced in Europe, gets a great gig to boost her personal standing and do precisely what? Is there really nobody among the 350 Labour MPs who could do the job?

Of course we've already had Mandelson who is now according to reports defacto Deputy Prime Minister. Lord Adonis is the Transport Minister and Alan Sugar has been given a peerage to be 'Enterprise Tsar'. In many ways the appointment and peerage of Sugar is the worst of all. It's a flagrant attempt to cash in on his profile as a TV face and got little to do with 'enterprise'. It's arguable what anyone in a position like his can actually do. I also doubt, among British business leaders, that Sugar has the highest respect quotient.

Democracies are wonderful things; we are blessed in this country with one that is much better than most. However, Brown's actions are making a mockery of the whole thing. Unelected cronies, hangers on, self servers and out of touch is what most of them are. It's the out of touch bit that's probably the worse thing in all this. But that's Brown's Achilles heal. He has been in government for so long that he has lost touch with people. Not content with bringing people into government his bunker mentality is what has done for him.

There's more than a whiff of "I'm going to take you all down with me." The moral compass was lost a long time ago. His emotional radar never has worked and now it seems the 'brain the size of a planet' has gone into lock down. We are about to witness a very unpleasant few months in which Brown finally implodes before our eyes. Do I feel sorry for him? No, not one bit. But I do feel sorry for Britain though. His arrogance and delusional behaviour has brought the office he coveted for so long down to a level of disrespect I never thought I'd see in my life time. Defiance is not strength. Saying you are, "not going to walk away", does not make you a leader.

Fundamentally Brown is a weak man. He's no leader as he's proved, yet again, over his dithering about Alastair Darling's removal. How can a man who cannot command the respect of his party get the respect of the country – let alone run it. It's all going to get very nasty indeed as Brown impersonates Nero. Unfortunately such is the ineptitude of his cabinet that none of them thought to take a gun, let alone the bullets into the bunker.

The Stones in The Park

2009-06-04T09:41:00.004+01:00

“I hope they don’t think we’re a rock ‘n’ roll outfit.”

The words of Michael Philip Jagger in July 1962 when the only thing he and the rest of the fledgling Rolling Stones wanted to be was a blues band. Seven years later, almost to the day, Sam Cutler who worked for Blackhill Enterprises, the company that arranged the free concerts in Hyde Park, went on stage to announce the band to the hundreds of thousands gathered in the royal park.

“The greatest rock and roll band in the world. They’re incredible; let’s hear it for the Stones!”

It was 5.25pm on Saturday 5 July 1969. For the Rolling Stones it was their first full concert in over 2 years, barring a short, 2 song, cameo at the NME Poll Winners Concert a year earlier that had been Brian Jones last appearance with the band. In June 1969 Brian left the group, setting in motion thirty-three days that would change the Stones forever more. Mick Taylor replaced him, before Brian then spawned a dozen conspiracy theories by dying in mysterious circumstances. Surrounding these events was uncertainty about the band being able to tour America due to Mick and Keith’s, as well as Brian’s, drug busts.

We will never know all that happened between Mick and Keith and the rest of the band over Brian’s situation as a Rolling Stone. It’s quite likely they can’t remember themselves all that went on during the later part of 1968 and early 1969. The truth always depends on who tells it, and in this case there were numerous different truths. For the last 40 years there have been stories and whispers from people saying that Brian wanted to leave of his own accord. This was probably true. He had lost his band mates along the way and he knew he was never going to regain control of the group that he had formed.

The Hyde Park concert was far from the greatest gig the Stones ever performed, but this was the dawn of the ‘Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World’. Come December at the Stones’ finale to their hugely successful American tour – the massive free concert at Altamont, just outside San Francisco – things almost went spectacularly and horribly wrong. But life turns upon events, and the Rolling Stones survived to become the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World, not just because Sam Cutler called them that for the very first time at Hyde Park in the summer of ’69 and throughout the US tour. They have done so because of all that happened over those fateful thirty odd days, forty years ago.

My new book is out this week and is available at all good bookshops as well as online from Amazon.

Lies, Spin, Connivance, B/S, Total Bollocks and Wind Farms

2009-05-24T08:03:00.005+01:00

The opening this week of the Whitelee wind farm outside Glasgow exposes the lying and deceitfulness of both the wind farm industry and Alex Salmond.

Hurrah they all trumpeted! The 322-megawatt wind farm is going to be able to power the whole of Glasgow. Except it isn't. Government figures show that it will likely operate at a capacity of 28% which means it will be far from effective but just as expensive. It will do little more than keep half of Glasgow’s lights on, and not do anything to power TVs, dishwashers, tumble dryers et al.

Of course it will make a lot of people a lot of money because of the subsidies that are paid. Especially the Spanish owned company that built it and the landowners on whose land it's built. We will be paying massive subsidies so that these ultimate examples of gesture politics can keep turning.

Meanwhile, according to Jason Ormiston the former PR windbag for Scottish Renewables, which represents the wind industry, the vast majority of wind farms were sited out with highly sensitive landscape areas. What utter bollocks. Try coming to the Lammermuir Hills where most of the wind farms are built on AGLVs (officially designated Areas of Great Landscape Vale) and a SSSI in the case of the Aikengall wind farm. He also said, "One of the biggest threats to wild land is climate change and one of the most effective responses to it is the sensible development of renewable energy." He said this in his capacity of Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, having been promoted from PR spokesman.

He went on to say, "The industry will continue to work with a rigorous planning system so that the building of productive renewable energy projects in the right places continues to follow good practice." He, and his organization, cares not a jot where they are built, just as long as they are. The wind farm planned by that defender of the Scottish Borders landscape, the Duke of Roxburghe on land he owns in the Lammermuir Hills at Fallago Ridge is case in point. It s on peat bogs that will be forever ruined by the concrete bases that are the size of football pitches that will be needed if the wind farm gets approval. It has been awaiting a decision by the Scottish Government's reporter following a public inquiry for over a year now. The reason that none has been forthcoming is nothing to do with the fact that it will complete the decimation of these remote hills, but because the MOD objected. Their radar will not work properly, creating 'holes' in its effectiveness. Ironically it would not be able to 'see' if an aircraft was approaching the Torness Nuclear Power station.

So desperate is the Duke’s company to develop this wind farm that they have got the former Conservative minister and now MP for Kensington and Chelsea, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, to write to Des Browne and another Labour Minister pointing out that they are acting contrary to the Prime Minster’s stated aims.
"As you know, the Prime Minister has indicated very recently the importance the government attaches to the development of alternative energy projects, and clearly wind farms must be a very important part of this overall strategy. It would be unfortunate if one arm of the government was pursuing a policy with such rigidity that it conflicted with the broader arms of the government."
Now that’s a first. A Tory helping the Prime Minister!

Then we have the downright untruths spouted by the great leader who opened the Whitelee wind farm. According to Alex Salmond, "Whitelee in its current form is already flying the flag for onshore wind power in Europe. The benefits of this investment go beyond South Lanarkshire and beyond our real economy. It is an investment in Scotland's potential and ambition to lead the clean, green energy revolution."

Back in January 2007 Alex Salmond was unequivocal. "There is a real difficulty with public acceptance of onshore wind. There should be a cap on future developments. We should concentrate the development of onshore wind into suitable areas.”
He went to say that financial support for onshore wind farms should be looked at again as he believed there was a danger onshore wind developers were getting too much financial support. Of course all that was done in order to help the SNP get elected and gain votes in areas where there was rising opposition to wind farms being built against public opinion.

This volte-face from Mr. Salmond is not totally unexpected; he is after all a politician. But such is the courting of the Scottish government by the renewables industry that even I’m staggered by the complete change in attitude. Does he not understand that wind turbines are inefficient, make little money for Scotland – other than for the landowners and the renewable companies, which are often foreign owned?

Are there any wind farms in Mr. Salmond’s constituencies? In fact how many wind farms have been approved in SNP constituencies as opposed to opposition constituencies? It might make for interesting analysis.

Nadine Dorries MP, Ex-Blogger?

2009-05-23T10:53:00.005+01:00

Nadine Dorries the Tory MP has had her blog taken down overnight. Apparently her less than well thought out remarks on the Barclay Brothers having some kind of agenda against British politics has caught up with her. As I said yesterday her new media profile could back fire on her, and it has. I read her blog last evening before I went to bed and I have to say it made pretty dire reading. Having read it occasionally I didn't think it was that well written and having watched her on Question Time a couple of weeks ago my immediate reaction was, thinks she's smarter than she is. She is/was clearly in a bit of a spin over all the Telegraph's coverage and she announced on her blog that she is going on holiday. I think she needs one. I bet David Cameron thinks likewise.

Update
There's a short article by Ms Dorries in the Indy, it does not reflect well on her. She calls what is happening to MPs, "torture" – a very poor choice of words. She also complains that MPs should be paid what they are worth; I think a lot of us feel that too. I get offered some small amounts to write some books, I accept it and get on with it, or I don't and I don't. I'm not complaining, it's the way things are. She's been in the House for 4 years and already she's a fully paid up member of the club.

Ryanair's Results as bad as British Airways?

2009-05-22T12:15:00.004+01:00

British Airways losses this year are large, but none too surprising given what has happened in the last 12 months, although if I were Willie Walsh I'm not sure I would have gone on the BBC and said there were absolutely no signs of any recovery. Still, we shall see.

In a few weeks the Ryanair results will be published; all may not be good at Michael Gerard Joseph Mary O'Leary's low cost carrier. Last year the airline made a profit of Euros 481 million, despite a loss of euros 101M in the 4th quarter, that's the one ending in March 2008. This year Ryanair, up until the end of the third quarter is showing a cumulative profit of euro 134M, compared to 582 million in 2008. Ryanair's full year results are due out in June and it's hard not to believe that they will not be showing a loss for the full year. It could be anything – 50 million Euros, 100 million. . . what am I bid?

Could We Have Some Government Again Soon?

2009-05-22T10:37:00.005+01:00

Nadine Dorries on Today this morning can be heard HERE.

Several points.
• Nadine Dorries has turned herself into a bit of a media turn. . . it may well back-fire
• This morning she argued her case pretty well against the questioning
• However, she, like a number of MPs has to 'get' the mood of the country a little more. Saying that it's a McCarthy style witch hunt is not credible.
• She also has to be careful arguing the 'we are worth this much (salary + allowances)' so we shouldn't be attacked.
• I think she has some good points to make, but the arrogance of some MPs and I'm thinking of the likes of Hoon, Darling, Blears here, Ministers who expect people to do as they are told, when they are totally comfortable with flipping their homes and making money as a result, is not going to wash.
• Ms Dorries in in the kitchen and the heat having been turned up is finding it difficult to cope with it. Nobody was dragged kicking and screaming to be on the ballot paper. There is just the hint of hypocrisy in all this.

Having said all that, would many of us have done any different to what it appears the majority of MPs have done? I think not. Most of us would have been lining up to line our pockets. However, that's what leadership is about, and it's what ministers just don't seem to grasp. If you get the big gigs then you have to be above reproach. Gordon Brown going on TV saying, "I was the only one trying to get this problem fixed" is absurd. He now won't deal with his ministers who flipped and flapped and milked the system. He cannot sack Hazel Blears because it would begin the domino effect.

As in all such situations we shall see some good people go from politics; however, we have needed the system to be fixed for a long while. We can but hope that the fires of the public's outraged indignation will burn themselves out soon. We need our politicians to get back to the job of government.

The Brown Snouts of Discovery

2009-05-18T22:08:00.006+01:00

Nick Brown, who suspended David Chaytor MP over his memory lapse about when his mortgage was paid up, claimed £18,800 over four years in unreceipted expenses for food consumed at his designated second home in Newcastle. Anything to do with why he has consistently voted against a transparent parliament? Then again Mr Brown, as a former Minister of Agriculture, knows a thing or two about snouts in the trough. . .

UPDATE
Mr Brown has since said that his claims were "not unreasonable" and reflected real costs that he had incurred. He claimed £87,708 under the second homes allowance between 2004 and 2008 that included £18,800 for food – he regularly got £400 a month during recess without receipts. According to Mr Brown, "This has to be seen in the context of my working life. I am working flat out for the people that I represent and the politics that I believe in."

Let's hope for the sake of his political career that his voters believe him. On the other hand he will from here on in have to look in the mirror every morning and tell himself that he's good, and moral and what he did was completely right.

One of his colleagues in the Labour whip's office, Ms Butler has issued a statement denying she had claimed for a whirlpool bath. She said all the claims were for "legitimate expenditure". She went on to say, "I totally refute the allegation that I claimed for a whirlpool. I am taking advice on legal action,"

Like some other MPs she has threatened legal action. Just how many have taken any?

Be Careful Out There. . .

2009-05-17T12:12:00.001+01:00

According to the News of the World Apprentice contestant Ben Clarke, 'swallowed a live goldfish in a sick stunt at a birthday bash'. It was part of a table decoration and he gulped it from a shot glass, 'forcing it to die a horrific death dissolving in stomach acid. He could face an investigation by the RSPCA.'

Mrs H cuts up slugs with scissors. I've advised her to adopt a disguise and lay low for a while.

Tavish Scott Should Not Hide From The Truth

2009-05-17T10:27:00.006+01:00

Back in March 2007 I wrote on this blog about the Runaway Gravy Train. Part of that post was about Tavish Scott and his property developing. It followed on from George Reid, who was retiring as the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament calling for a radical overhaul of MSPs allowances. This is a part of what I wrote.

The big money fiddle is in the amounts that MSPs can claim for accommodation in Edinburgh. Mr Reid chose to save the taxpayer money by staying in a hotel; many choose to buy second homes in the city.

Tavish Scott, the Transport Minister and Lib Dem, is another that’s climbed aboard the gravy train. He first of all lived in his sister's Edinburgh flat, bought it and then sold it for a profit of over £30,000 Mr. Scott now has a mortgage on a 'substantial' Morningside property that he apparently shares with a BBC journalist. When questioned Mr Scott has used the 'no comment' defence, probably hoping that things will blow over. Why should they? Why should he operate within the letter of the code but clearly sit outside the standards of behaviour that we expect from our MSP's. We have so far paid over £50,000 towards Mr Scott's properties, he's pocketed a decent sum of money, is potentially in line to make more and he can't even be bothered to say anything other than, "I'm not going to comment on anything to do with this."

Fast forward to the Herald on Sunday today.

The Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was last night refusing to reveal whether he paid capital gains tax (CGT) on the profits made on the first of two taxpayer-funded flats. A spokeswoman for Tavish Scott, who made a £36,000 profit in 2005 after selling a publicly-subsidised property, refused to give an answer on the "private" matter.

Private matter? No it's bloody not it's our money. How can he be so out of tune with the mood of the nation? Just because he's an MSP and a long way from Westminster doesn't mean he can just plead that it's a private matter. In the last Lib-Dem Manifesto it quoted the then leader Nichol Stephen as saying "I want to see the government consultation process reformed...we should give them (the people of Scotland) the facts, meet them face to face, ask their opinion and then tell them the truth." It's hypocrisy - nothing more, nothing less. He, like many of our politicians, has lost sight of what they are there for. It's not self-advancement or anything about self. It's all about service.

It's not about whether or not MSPs have followed the rules, it runs much deeper than that; Tavish Scott is showing contempt for the electorate. Of course he's far from alone and is just one of the 'public servants' who thinks they are better than those they serve.

The Brownies

2009-05-17T07:10:00.003+01:00

David Chaytor MP was yesterday suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party; the man who did the deed was none other than Chief Whip Nick Brown, one of PM Brown's most loyal allies. He's also someone who has consistently voted against a transoparent parliament. Could it be because he ranks 42 out of 645 MPs in the level of their expenditure? So far the Daily Telegraph have not trained their keyboards on the MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne, it can only be a matter of time.

Owl Watch Update

2009-05-16T21:12:00.004+01:00

Mrs H. was up early this morning and captured the owl, through the bathroom window, out hunting for food. It was a very wet night and with owlets and a mate to feed he needed extra time.

The Tory, The SNP and The Cosy Alliance

2009-05-16T20:11:00.007+01:00

Malcolm Rifkind QC is the Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea. From all the information that is available it appears he has never voted on a transparent parliament and he's someone who votes well below the average amongst MPs, yet he seems happy to take on a lobbying job for North British Windpower, a company trying to get permission to build a giant wind farm in the Lammermuir Hills in the Scottish Borders.

Despite, it would appear, after a public enquiry well over a year ago, and the Scottish Government's Reporter recommending against this wind farm, the SNP government are doing everything in their power to find a way to get it approved. The reason that the wind farm was rejected is because the MOD have objected to it because it will create 'holes' in their radar. The radar that they use to see if there might be a possible threat against the Torness Nuclear power station, which is not many miles east of the Fallago Ridge wind farm site.

Now why would Mr Rifkind, whose constituents are a good way away from the Lammermuir Hills, have an interest in such a thing? Could it be the offer of the dreaded wonga! Or is he just so mad keen on wind farms that he sees it as his duty? I wonder if he consulted the local Conservative MSP in Berwickshire to gauge public opinion? I doubt it. Has Mr Rifkind ever been to the Lammermuirs to see for himself the scale of the developments of windfarms? Having moved south after losing his Edinburgh Pentland's seat I don't suppose he really cares.

And while we're on the subject how come the Energy Consents Unit here in Scotland seems so cosy with North British Windpower, to the extent that they apparently offered to go to London to meet with the MOD, along with NBWP? It seems that there's an agenda afoot. Let's cover the South of Scotland with turbines, an area where the SNP have absolutely no chance of ever winning a seat outright, so that we can keep turbines away from all those SNP strongholds.