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| When Danny gave his alternative budget only 10 Liberal Democrats turned up to listen. Still, they'd be glad of that now. |
Why offer them anything, I hear you ask.
Quite apart from the outdated idea that people should be given honours that change their names, what exactly did either of them do to deserve this "honour" (if honour it really is)?
And why should people so roundly rejected by the voters in their constituencies be so rewarded? After all, what really happened was that their employers sacked them and chose other people to do their jobs. They were handsomely paid while they had the jobs and they were given redundancy packages by us. Why are we giving them silly titles which move them into the bottom section of the upper classes?
Why is there a dissolution honours list? Is it not enough that there is one at new year and one on the birthday of the queen?
 |
| Don't think the National is too happy about it either... |
It is expected too that this honours list will include the creation of 50 more peers of the realm, as if the number we had wasn't already ridiculous. Mr Cameron apparently needs more obedient people in the upper house to help him win the debates on Europe.
That's nice. In a so-called democracy, where you received only 37% of the votes cast, but still have a majority in the lower house due to a ridiculously inadequate system, you can give yourself a majority in the upper house, at our expense, just by making up a list.
And these people don't just get to change their name. They get to sit in parliament and make laws, collect £300 a day tax free and expenses to boot. Additionally they can avail themselves of the subsidised restaurants and bars of the Palace of Westminster.
 |
| Because it now seems to be a requirement of peers to pose in a bra. I suppose at least you could say that this is a sight easier on the eye then the last one. |
Philippa Stroud, a former aide to the grim reaper, Iain Duncan Smith (and therefore guaranteed to be a real charmer); Simone
Finn, an efficiency advisor (no honest, I'm not kidding) to jolly old Francis Maude (is he STILL around?); Stuart Polak, a lobbyist and director of the Conservative Friends of Israel (you might know); and Cameron's chief of staff, Kate Fall, are also expected to be given
seats in the Lords, for no other reason than presumably he can trust them to vote as they are told.
Unbelievably the Liberal Democrats are due for some more seats in the Lords... Ming the Almighty and Alan Beith, whom I've never heard of (both probably for longevity) are reckoned to be among 10 more Liberal Democrat peers to be created to add to their 102 current members. Not bad when the voters only reckoned they were worth 8 MPs!
Honestly the British democracy becomes more incredible by the day.
++++++++++
The House of Lords currently comprises:
227
Conservatives,
213 Labour,
102 Lib Dems,
26 Church of England bishops
38 other
parties or non-affiliated
180 Cross benchers.
786 Total.
They should start by getting rid of the bishops ,by what stretch of the imagination does belief in a sky fairy and the rest of the mumbo jumbo qualify one to participate in legislation rather than being under psychiatric care.
ReplyDeleteSteady on there. This site respects religious belief, Anon.
DeleteSome of our readers may be strong believers and we're not in the business of suggesting that that makes them in need of psychiatric care.
However, it has to be said that, the original point of your post...ie, the removal of the bishops, would be a first start. In a modern democracy there's no place for a House of Aristocrats, but to include the bishops of one branch of one of many religions is just farcical.
Strong believers are as barking bonkers as the idiot bishops.
DeleteYour opinion, to which you are entitled.
DeleteThe Chine Politburo has fewer members.
ReplyDeleteWell Britain has to be bigger and better than everyone else.
DeleteAnd you've been living too long in France matey... Chine? :))
Fuck I think the auto spellchecker has changed allegiance. UDI ?
DeleteToday lunch is homemade salad; lettuce, one boiled egg 3 oval tomatoes, depulped and de seeded, one quarter cucumber, deseeded and cubed, half a raw onion cut into wee toty bits and a packet of fried lardons. Sauce is olive oil and red balsamic vinegar. Cost £3
DeleteBottle of Burgundy, £9. I have my priorities
I quite like living here it weren't bloody hot. Women are cool though.
BLP stop complaining about it being hot and think of your countrymen and women, we have yet to have Summer, as one Guy said to me in passing this morning where is the bleeding Sun.
DeleteI certainly pay less for my wine but then you have to pay a decent amount on France for a decent wine, Aldi's do a decent Red circa £5 odds and I doubt your lunch would have come to £3. Then of course we are poor and under paid.
Ahhh, how well I remember coming out of the university at Grenoble on a hot day in May, and sitting for 10 minutes while the car, with both doors open, cooled enough for you to be able to get in and without becoming nauseous with the heat. And the scramble in the morning to find a "parking dans l'ombre"!
DeleteAnd the cool refreshing Schweppes with lime squeezed in, which made life worth living again.
As Helena says, it's been like October all summer here.
If it's not raining there's a gale blowing...sometimes both.
We have some visitors from Tromso, in northern Norway and they are finding the weather unseasonal!!
Ha ha ha.. The women are hot here (well some are... see above!!), the days are cool, no cold!
Bon appetite et puis bonne sieste!
There are more unelected representatives in the HoL than those in HoC. Cameron now plans to REDUCE the number of elected members in HoC, because apparently there are too many! Honestly there are banana republics run with more integrity than this.
ReplyDeleteTo use a tired and worn out phrase... you couldn't make it up.
DeleteThe trouble is they can, as they go go along.
Honestly, Britain is a joke.
If I was the head honcho in a banana republic, I'd look toward the "cough" mother of all parliaments, for pointers in how to hoodwink the populous.
DeleteLOL... I bet they do!
DeleteNot that the British system of royal browny points had much in the way of gravitas...
ReplyDeleteBut Danny Alexander getting a K is less like rolling a turd in glitter and more like rolling a turd in more turds...
Or something...
And Michelle Mone... *sigh*
Ah Pa. You have such a way with words... Probably why I'm an avid reader of your books on Kindle!
DeleteI just cannot see the reason for any of it. Danny Alexander and Vince Cable spent one parliament as ministers because they were required by the Tories to make up numbers. neither was distinguished in his post. Vince in particular sold off the post office at knock down price to Tory mates, and made a fool of himself over some young women "sting" reporters pretending to be constituents.
Danny came up with a scheme to hurt the North Sea oil industry, and yet it is proposed to hand out honours to them as if they were great elder statesmen.
And Michelle Mone... *SIGH*
So nice to see the British State at work, and doesn't it reward it's servants well. Now I expect Danny and Vince still see there is a chance of getting back into Parliament, I do not think a CUR (SIR) actually stops you. I have a better chance, in fact a snowball in hell has one. Hahahahaha
DeleteApparently Danny still sees his future in politics Helena.
DeleteHeaven knows why.
The British sense of fair play where those at the top are rewarded for failure and those at the bottom
ReplyDeletepay for their (the failures) mistakes.
The pity is that ordinary people just accept this as the way things are done and nothing changes.
The French knew how to deal with these parasites,off with their heads.
Vive la revolution!
Yep, there's an acceptance in Britian that people like Alexander and Mone get rewards and those who went out to Iraq at the bottom level and came back injured, physically or mentally, are allowed to dier at the hands of the DWP and the tender mercies of the likes of its head, who himself will go to the HoL.
DeleteYou are asking people to get rid of their pension though, when you ask them to abolish it.
Turkeys...Christmas.
Oui, Vive la France et la révolution!
Never mind guys, it will give us some entertainment when the new inhabitants get to mash up what's left of the Scotland Bill (is there anything left of it?) and we all get to see which of the enNobbled is chosen to sit on the very important Committee of Cheap Womens' Underwear for Members of the HoLs.
ReplyDeleteShame its costing taxpayers' money to watch this tragic comedy play out, but we all know that we are only here to pay for stuff we don't want, because we are still UK citizens and this is what we apparently voted for last September.
Can't wait to hear Mone's maiden speech.
DeleteShe knows about fake tans, bras and slagging Scotland. Should be interesting.
Tris
ReplyDeleteI will be disgusted if any Liberal takes a seat in the House of Lords, it flies in the face of democracy and always has as far as I am concerned. Britain, the mother of all democracies, well that might be true if we actually lived in one, we don't. I hate everything that the current second chamber stands for, we need a second chamber but a mostly elected one . I can accept some people being appointed to a second chamber, say a brilliant scientist, or academic but again any that were appointed could only be appointed with agreement of the people in the sense that there would need to be a system that allowed for objections to be made. Bishops have no place in the House of Lords on the basis of their Church affiliation, that has to end.
Alexander and Cable have done nothing to deserve to continue to be subsidised by the tax payer, you are 100% correct, they have both been rejected by the electorate and Cameron has no right to appoint them to make laws with zero accountability to the electorate. Michelle Moone being appointed is an afront to every person in this country, if there was ever anyone who deserves not to be there it is her, a nasty horrible piece of work. I also hate anyone having the title Lord, I am a Christian and I actually find the term in the context that our country abuses it insulting.
I hate what we have allowed these people to do to our country, we are to blame in many ways because we put up with this shit.
Bruce
Apparently it was Clegg who put them forward for the honours as part of the dissolution, and it's reckoned that the Liberal Dems will take another ten places in the Lords, including, as I said above, Ming.
DeleteI believe that in the past PMs got Earldoms and maybe the odd Foreign Secretary went up with a barony. Personally I find the idea of even that an affront. These people are the same as you and me. They chose a career in politics, they prospered, and then they get honours... and instead of retiring with a clock and a pension like you and me, they are ennobled.
And the riff raff they are putting in now... it's a joke. And I don't just mean mediocrities like Darling and Beith, I mean all the ministers including junior ministers at the Welsh Office...
As I said, I'd start by getting rid of the bishops, then the next day I'd get rid of the rest of them too.
I see no reason to appoint brilliant scientists, writers, actors or anything else to the Lords, give them a title and a pension for life, and minor titles for their children. If folk have something to give from their genius, let them give it. You don;t have to have a seat in the Lords to contribute. You can do that from your university or your theatre or whatever.
Being a brilliant actor doesn't make you a good politician. And these people have votes.
To be fair Clegg wanted to do something about the Lords, but Cameron stymied him. However, he wanted the Bishops left in... and people elected for 15 year terms! So they could claim legitimacy, but we couldnt get rid of them for 15 years!!!!
I think that the Queen telling us that every action she took was guided by the teachings of Christ was downright insulting to Christians, as she sat recording in her grand place not a mile away from where people live in cardboard boxes and visit shelters for something to eat because HER government is starving them to death.
And as for members of the government of a Christian country suggesting sending in the army to clear Calais of a "swarm" of migrants, who are hungry and desperate, often becasue of the actions of British ministers, was utterly unspeakable. A government who sent troops to massacre hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis because they didn't like Saddam Hussein.
What would Jesus have said to the hungry people in Calais? bugger Off, we're English and we don't want you? I think not.
If these people are Christians then I'm the man in the moon.
:)
If Blair ever took an honour it would be and Earldom
DeleteArise the Earl of Hell.
Perfect title for him
DeleteI've already said that the second chamber needs to be fully elected, along with a lay committee (normal people) who will oversee standards.
ReplyDeleteBut it needs to be slimmed down. It is necessary as it can stop some of the more ludicrous pieces of legislation getting through - Blair had more than a few run ins with the noble lords.
As to Ms Mone getting in, sorry but no. She's a successful businesswomen, but too arrogant and egotistic to oversee legislation in my view.
Oh, and the House of Lords needs to be renamed, by removing peerages etc. In the past, the noble lords at least fought in battle. This lot seem more at ease battling the choices of subsidised booze.
Agreed. America with 320 million people, plus or minus, manages with 100 senators all of whom are elected, and the VP (elected on a ticket with the president) as its chair. UK has under 70 million. 25 should do, but i imagine 50 would be more than sufficient.
DeleteThe only way that the likes of Mone should get in is if she is elected.
And I see no reason why it can't be a Senate. it'as good enough for most other people
There should be no subsidised food or drink in parliaments and that gores for Scotland as well.
Mark Frankland's "The great Foodbank siege", is now available, I've got mine, now you ALL get yours.
ReplyDeleteSaw that Jim, just after I put up the next post.
DeleteI've got mine too. Looking forward to it, the preview passages were great.
Please everyone support it if you can.
We mustn't let it close.
I'll do a bigger post on it tomorrow night Jim.
DeleteI'm on it on Twitter and Face book.
I'm reading it just now, really enjoyable.
DeleteI don't do Facebook or Twitter, maybe I should but, I've got by without them so far.
I used it to spread the word. Almost no friends on Facebook but quite a sizeable following on Twitter. It a hundredth of them buy it it will feed a family for a week!!!
DeleteJim...Can you do a review on Amazon?
DeleteWill do, as soon as I've finished devouring it.
DeleteThanks Jim.
DeleteTris can you do me a favour and print of and send me a life size copy of that picture of Lady Moan,...
ReplyDeleteso as a kin throw darts at it ye unnerstaun?
Just darts?
DeleteHa ha ha
DeleteYes, I understand of course.
Nothing in the least sad about that :)
Sir Mark Thatcher
ReplyDeleteThat says it all to me.
Ah Mrs Thatcher ensuring that her hapless, useless wimpy son would get a title, by inheritance, because she was sure that even with her as his mum, he hadn't an earthly chance on his own merit.
Delete