I may as well have been sitting in The Whitehall Theatre back in the old days when Brian Rix did his farces as I watched Dispatches. Tonight’s edition of Channel 4 Dispatches was a Tour de Farce…epic even. Hoon, Hewitt, Byers, Baroness Morgan, Margaret Moran – too ill to do constituency work.. but not ill enough to turn up and do an enthusiastic interview) and Sir John Butterfill, a sole Tory MP – ‘pillars of the establishment’, some ex-ministers…. all revealed to the increasingly goggle eyed viewer just how venal they can be. Channel 4 set up a fake consultancy company, Anderson Perry, and invited these politicians along to see just how much they charged and whether they were for hire. £3000-5000 is the going daily rate. Hoon even told the interviewer that he was away recently doing Nato work…and a ‘bit of Hoon work’!
I don’t have a major problem with ex MPs earning a living – £20 million… didn’t the socialist Tony do well?…as Brucie might have said… but profiting directly from time in government to a point of trying to influence policy on the QT is not ideal.
A disgrace… and if they lied, as appears may be the case, following denial and ‘explanation’ today – please see the views of the Fat Bigot in the post below….
I quite liked Sir John Betterfillmyboots MP… particularly when he rose to the occasion and informed the comely female interviewer…confidentially… that he would be going to the Lords! Love it…. Gun… BANG… just blasted my left..sorry, right…foot orf.. was the first thought which came to my, by then, laughter collapsed mind.
This was Britain at its best… we lead the world… I am going to sing Land of Whores and Glory..below…. and wonder what happened to the idea of socialism and fairness with those who are supposed to serve Labour ideals (I exempt Butterfillhisboots on grounds that as a Tory – at least we know he hasn’t got any nonsense on his sleeve about being a ‘socialist’) and put the needs of the people first.
Land of Whores and Glory – to be sung in honour of the Alumni of Anderson Perry
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Sleaze,
How shall we whore thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still, and wider, shall my fees be set;
God, who made me mighty, make me mightier yet
I canvassed for that prat when he first stood for Bournemouth West. What a fool (me, that is).
Well, I sang the revised version of Land of Hope and Glory and I still feel miserable.
There is only one thing for it. All MPs must be made to bungee jump at least once before breakfast.
From Big Ben.
(Noone gets hurt though cos they have the rubber string thingy, but it might just remind them of their mortality. I shall be the String Leader….. you want in)?
Geoffrey – a truly astonishing edition of Dispatches…. they ALL looked ridiculous… and Hoon… he was ‘well up for it’..
You really… could not make it up! I know everyone keeps saying this…. but what next?
Crocstar… I’m *IN*… thankfully there are a few good MPs left… they are not all at it….
We must rebuild trust in Parliament… and change it for the better… it is all we have in terms of government and it is important.
Coolio.
I do agree with you; democracy is a wonderful tool for peace and progress, and trust and belief are the corner stones.
Yet, to build trust, we need to increase the number of good MPs (and I do think there are some good ones out there, having the privilege of working with some of them).
How on earth, do we renovate such a machine and cultivate quality?
Over to you, Charon QC……….
we need dave the clean, dave the fertile, dave the man who has never made a living from pr or lobbying – oh well: 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, is it?
and butterfill is the crook who used public money to refurbish the ‘servants’ quarters’, made a huge gain on his residence at the taxpayers’ expense and then put in a dodgy capital gains claim when he flogged it. dave has said he won’t be getting a peerage. he didn’t say he hadn’t been in the running; he didn’t mention the guy is supposedly one of the 3 who urged him to stand as leader of the party and he hasn’t withdrawn the whip as he is another standing down at the next election, presumably to work for byerscabs the new all party lobby firm: ‘he’s just at the corner of your street and will be with you in 5 minutes, honest’ is their catchy slogan.
ooh look – pregnant woman – nothing to see; drink the koolaid…