Highly entertaining but no laughing matter
Friday, May 15, 2009 Question Time (BBC1) was a joy last night. I have never heard such insistent heckling of MPs. I particularly liked the moment when the chief executive of McDonalds (who was also on the panel) denounced MPs for their expense claims and received a thunderous round of applause. A few months ago MPs would have thought nothing of attacking the likes of McDonalds for feeding the obesity "epidemic". Now the boot is on the other foot.
Last night's programme made it clear that the public is totally and utterly disgusted by this week's revelations. I thought Teresa May did OK but Margaret Beckett and Ming Campbell were pitiful. Beckett maintained her usual insufferably smug expression throughout the programme. That woman must have the thickest skin in parliament - which is saying something.
Campbell, however, was looking his age - and more. I don't care whether he repays the cost of an interior decorator for his London flat. The man did something wrong and his body language told us that he knows it.
Another MP looking like a beaten man on television last night was Andrew Mackay. And so he should. Until he was caught out, the (former) aide to David Cameron was claiming that his London flat, which he owns jointly with his wife, fellow MP Julie Kirkbride, was his second home.
Kirkbride, meanwhile, was claiming that her second home was their family home in her constituency. This allowed them to double up on expenses - a whopping six-figure sum over several years.
The number of MPs who should be sacked or de-selected is growing by the day. The trouble is, there are so many of them I've lost count. Full marks then to the Taxpayers' Alliance who have joined forces with the Daily Mail to raise funds for possible civil action against individual members of parliament.
Meanwhile, on Five Live Breakfast this morning, Nicky Campbell spoke to Paul Stokes, co-founder of the satirical online magazine The Daily Mash. As you might expect, it was very entertaining, but the problem for Stokes and his co-writer, Forest's Neil Rafferty, is this: how do you make fun of a story that is already beyond belief?
It will be interesting to see how the scandal is handled on Have I Got News For You (BBC1 tonight). I'm sure we'll have a good laugh, but I hope the programme also conveys the very real sense of anger that people are feeling.
Mocking laughter combined with genuine anger - that's a powerful combination.
Note: illustration (above) courtesy The Daily Mash.
Simon Clark
Another one bites the dust ... Justice Minister Shahid Malik has resigned from his ministerial position following revelations over his expenses pending an inquiry.
Simon Clark
Iain Dale reports the following exchange on Sky News:
Presenter: Can I ask why a £800 massage chair is so important to you?
Shahid Malik: You see, I'd have more respect for you if you were honest about the figures. You know full well it is £730.
Reader Comments (12)
Nigel Farage on Newsnight last night made a point about how in the USA, there is a clause for people to raise a petition to recal their elected representative from office. Now that would be democracy if we were able to raise a petition to force a bi election in our constituency.
Put all their names in a hat every one from whatever party and select two out of every three names and sack them!!
Repalce with good commonsense citizens.
I think it was Camppell, who claimed £600 per month for food and there was great laughter when somebody said food was much cheaper at Mc Donalds.
Its good that all the corruption is coming out into the open at last and especially at the present time when elections are imminent.
It will give people a good chance now to give them all a good pasteing at the polls, especially the shower in Brussels who can make over a million euro by working their expenses the 'right way' if they're lucky enough to pull off a five year stint.
No wonder they voted against accountability for their expenses.
Its time they were all booted out and made reapply under new laws of transparancy and accountability.
When you think that these are the guys that brought in the smoking ban and all the other life despairing bans while taking the law into their own hands for themselves and then making other laws for the little people that doesent affect them, it makes one want to light the torches.
It's incredible stuff isn't it? We're living through what feels like history in the making. Will it blow over? Stephen Fry, for some accountable reason, thinks it should. He thought it unworthy of all the fuss: 'we all do it', he said to camera. Actually no, Stephen, I don't fiddle my expenses,and if I did, it wouldn't be on this scale! It's not blowing over: people have had enough and politics must change. Oh God, wouldn't it be good if all this ushered in a new era of honest politics under a real leader with integrity? Err...probably not
'We all do it' is no justification. An MP should set an example. How can they justify prosecting a guy on benefit doing a bit of moonlighting. Another example, removed from politics. If I commit adultery it is not right. If a vicar commits adultery it is unforgivable.
It wasnae meee... oink! snort! it was the system! Nasty system made me claim for the dildo-waxing, taxicopter rides and, as you say, essential moat-maintenance! Oink! System needs reform! I think we can all agree that... [blah blah oink squeal spin etc]
Stephen Fry is a typical example of actor makes good and achieves celeb status, just like the oinks in govt with a sharp line in the posh vocabulary dept that makes the rest of us feel inadequate and dense.
Most of these types are nothing but bleedin schizo meglomaniacs who dont give a toss about others and eventually show their true colours when the veneer is uncovered revealing their devious actions and statements, proving how out of touch with reality they really are and who probably never lived in the real world in the first place anyway.
We really are living in confusing times and when all govt parties are cooking the books its hard to know what way to turn.
But as they love telling us, and their favourite buzz words seem to be that 'lessons can be learned from this' lets do what we're told in this instance and boot the bastards out at the next elections and hope that the new shower elected will learn lessons from this the next time round.
So Stephen Fry (whom I rather like) said
'We all do it'.................?
Difference is, Stephen, that 'WE' are not charged with making the LAWS of this Blessed Realm !!!!!
Just a subtle little point that seems to have escaped the notice of some commentators.....
Or are MPs now merely a part of the Entertainment Industry, as well................?
I would really love it if it was a smoker who was the mole in the house of commons. What lovely revenge that would be if it was a smoker who thought that giving a national newspaper all this information on Mp s expenses would be a smashing got you back at last you B.......S
lets tell cameron and brown the only way you will get back in power is to bring back smoking and hunting and they would jump on it as long as they can get the power they crave
me my self will be voting ukip at least they say that they want to save the local pups thets see if they will turn the smoking and hunting ban around and take us out of the eu
I'm deeply unimpressed that MPs in our Rotten Parliament now seem to be turning on the Speaker of the House. Because in the light of the events of the past week, it just seems to me like they're looking for a scapegoat, someone on whom to pin their collective guilt. Why else the sudden rush to get rid of him? No doubt, when he's been driven out of office, they'll claim that they've lanced the boil, and turned over a new leaf. But, of course, they won't have done any such thing.
It's not the expenses scandal that started me loathing the lot of them. It was just the last straw. It was the smoking ban which started me hating them. The only thing I ever want to know about any of them is whether they voted for the complete smoking ban or not. That's the only thing that matters to me.
For example, a lot of people think highly of Vince Cable these days. But not me. Guess why.