Sunday 28 March 2010

OINK OINK, I'M GOING TO BE A LORD!


Another two of the little piggies have been caught trying to sell themselves for money (there’s a name for that, isn’t there? Starts with a P, huh?)

Adam Ingram
, a former Armed Forces minister, “regretted” being caught out by undercover reporters who recorded him offering to exploit government contacts in return for lobbying fees. He has said that he was conned into attending what he thought was a confidential interview for a US company thinking of setting up an advisory board. He was recorded boasting that he could draw on a pool of out-of-work ministers who could be used to harness contacts in return for a fee from the lobbying firm.

Poor scone! I imagine that anyone who could be so easily conned into a sting operation like this is too dumb to be of much use to any private company when he is no longer an MP. So bang goes that particular income strand Mr Ingram.

The other little piggie is the equally obscure Richard Caborn (that’s pretty close to “cab”) who was apparently some sort of sports minister. He was taped claiming that he might get a peerage and that that would "boost his chances" of extracting valuable information from the corridors of Westminster. (Woops! Firstly why would this obscure man get a peerage? And secondly I’d be interested in an explanation as to how his possible ennoblement would “boost his chances” in that way, and from whom, would he get the information.) He discussed the services he could offer including building relations with ministers who were “good friends”. His asking price is apparently £2,500 “plus expenses” per day. (Incidentally, Dick my lad, you could probably forget the peerage now old thing!)

Needless to say, in time honoured Labour fashion, the Sheffield MP denied any wrongdoing (yawn) and burbled on about his comments being taken “out of context”, and giving the “impression of something improper going on”. Like there wasn’t!!!!!

Given that Ingram said that he charged £1,500 a day or £1,000 a meeting and could make up to £173,000 a year from outside earnings on top of his £65,000 salary as an MP, I wonder if his constituents are concerned that their drains or school places might possibly take second place in the Ingram scheme of things.

The last set of egregious Labour fellows caught by the Sunday Times/Dispatches team (Hewitt, Byers and Hoon) was turfed out of the Labour Party, pending an investigation. If he goes on at this rate Brown won’t have to fight a general election to be chucked out of Downing Street. His majority is disappearing like sna’ aff a dyke!

Pictured: Some nice pigs, then Adam Ingram and then finally Richard Cabforhire, no sorry Caborn. =========>

18 comments:

  1. There is so much and so often that one becomes inured to it, unpleasant though it is.

    What a pickle we are in. The country is in a worse economic mess than ever. Sleaze seems to be oozing out of the body politic at Westminster from every orifice. And all the time the two main parties bandy management speak generalisations without body or soul over a political gap you couldn’t fit a ray of sunshine into. Thank god that we have the SNP.

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  2. Scotland and the Scots are lucky Mungion. We have an alternative; we have our own government. A great raft of the hopeless government that goes on in England stops at the border....

    Unfortunately we have to submit yet a while to the aweful economic policies of London not ot mention the foreign policy of David Bloody Miliband!

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  3. Tris,

    If Martin and Foulkes managed to get a seat in the Lords there is no reason why Caborn could not get one as well. At least Martin probably knew where the bodies were buried but what did Foulkes ever do that entitles him to be addressed as My Lord? Mr Ingram has certainly had a chequered career and it is beyond belief that he held such a position in government. I think it speaks volumes about the judgement of those who promoted him.

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  4. The Unionist pirties have aw lost their principles. They're neither the pairty o' the land nor the pairty o' the workin' man. The land is now depopulated and metropolitanised, an' the workin' man disnae wear a bunnet. Their auld constituencies hae gone an' their fight has gone wi' it.

    Ah wis watchin' that young Davy Cameron aon the telly th' other day. He sounded like a saft happy-clappy meenister, the kind they send roon' tae dae the Sunday School when the meenister's wife's no weel. She wis no weel this time, well, she wis no weel many's a time, an' ah'm no wan tae talk ye know me, well ah jist happened tae see in her message bag in the line at the butcher's, we were talkin' ye see, an' well, ah happened tae look in an' that's a lot o' sherry for somebody that disnae keep weel is whit ah think.

    Whit wis ah sayin? Aye, Davy Cameron's saft. Ye know that awready. But then here, jist at the end, in his last sentence, he almost gets up tae a shout. An' it's only tae say somethin' like 'Get oot there, vote tory!' or the like.

    Where's the fire, or like ma auld pal Dod Bush said, 'where's ma meat?' Ye mind him, he had a garage, big arse he wis.

    Where's the meat? Where's the argument? Ah honestly cannae see whit guides each o' these parties. Same goes for the liberals, they're no even sure whit a liberal is these days. Thae aw' jist want tae make a better job o' makin' a hash o' things. Ye see it aw' comin' roon' an' roon' again, tory sleaze wi' suspenders an' an' orange in it's mooth, liberal sleaze wi' what-not aw' ower it's face, an' labour sleaze wi' it's blue movies.

    Aw' the same. Aw' shite, pardon ma french.

    An' aw' advocatin' continued Union wi' England.

    Is it no obvious? Ah say nae mair.

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  5. Mind now then, afore anybody starts pickin' oan me, now. That there critique isnae ma sole an' fundamental reasonin' behind supportin' the National party when it comes tae poolin' dae. But it helps.

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  6. Anent thae twa ye're gaun oan aboot tris, Ingram an' Caborn. Has it no got the feelin' o' the various pigs in Animal Farm linin' up tae sign their confessions in show trials. There's nae shame in it fer them, thae ken they've got it sorted. There's that much winkin' an' noddin' gaun oan at Labour pairty heidquarters the now it's mair like the Kenilworth when the General Assembly's in.

    It's so that Gordon Brown can go oan telly in a couple o' weeks time an say, aye thae were bad, but look, ah've shot them an' dumped ther bodies ower the side. Look, there's Pat Hewitt floatin' under London Brig. Vote fer me.

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  7. Aye, you're right Brownlie. I suppose they are no worse that Foulkes and Marin.... Lord. No-onw is worse than Martin. Ingram was responsible for the troops . It makes you wonder he didn't try to sell them....

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  8. Another good rant there Sophia.... It's good to get it off your chest, so to speak.

    What kind of sherry was it? Did you notice? They've got a good bargain down at the sosh this week... well, every little bit helps when you're on a budget and, well, it seems she does get through a lot of the stuff....

    Anyways....

    I seriously doubt anyone would dare pick on you Sophia.... I can't imagine anyone brave enough to be honest.

    You know what bothers me about these two, and Hoon, Hewitt and Byers? Well, I'll tell you anyway:

    It's the, "it's not fair; we were trapped into it; we never thought it was being recorded; we were done over; it's not fair" "nasty Times and Channel 4" carry on they have.

    It's someone else's fault that they got caught on the make, because they didn't think they were being filmed on the make.

    Is there one single soul in that parliament who isn't as bent as the devil's elbow?

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  9. In this day an' age, ye wid think think, wid ye no, that ony conversations as blatant as thae were, are gaunnae be a sting. Ye're antennae are gaunnae twitch. Unless ye're thick, or glaiket, or baith th'gether.

    But they're no that bothered. Bothered they are by bein' filmed aye, but no fer the fault in the first place. They dinnae see it as a crime, they see it as a pension, as an entitlement. They feel it's their due for, in Ingram's case, what? Years o' lobby fodder an' giy little else.

    Oor politicians have been gettin' up tae all sorts ever since we startit sendin' them tae London in auld Queen Anne's days. Bring them aw' back here where we can keep an eye oan them.

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  10. It wis Harveys. Bristol Cream. Aye. Three bottles.

    Aye.

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  11. Yep. Bring them back. There's far fewer temptations for evil in Edinburgh town.....

    Harvey's Bristol Cream.... pfffffff Bristol?

    I thought Sherry came from Spain, not Bristol.

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  12. An' her a meenister's wife. That no awfy? An' her faither wis wee Free intae the bargain.

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  13. Oh and glakit and thick, yep both I would think... and bad too.

    It actually makes you wonder what kind of company would want to employ, at senior management level, the kind of baw head that would be taken in by something as simple as this... tut tut.

    I'd find them hard to employ.

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  14. ohhhhhhhhhhh a wee free.... tch, is that no awffy....

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  15. Hoi, you two, leave the wee frees alone. I've been one for the past thirty odd years. I only joined because it was free and I was wee at the time. I'll never forget the minister shouting "There's some hoor singing and some hoor not".

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  16. LOL@Brownlie.......Ah but, do you like a drop of Harvey's Bristol Cream on the quiet Brownlie?

    That's the question here.

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  17. tris,

    Strangely enough, my son has a graphic design business in Bristol but for some reason he keeps buying me Old Peculiar - can't think why?

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  18. Old Peculiar Brownlie......Hum.... I have a few suggestions about that .... but I'll content myself with remarking that I had no idea you were old enough to have a son who would be allowed to buy such treats...

    :¬)

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