Downing Street said that those who rely on cars to get to work should have “contingency plans” for possible disruption of the fuel supply network. (There was a failure to suggest what kind of contingency plans ordinary people should have... presumably Mr Cameron is thinking we should fill the Bentley, the people carrier, the off roader, the Range Rover and the sporty little thing we keep as a toy, or maybe he just thinks we should fill the stable block with large containers of fuel. Idiot.))
Ministers are considering a range of options for keeping fuel flowing, including deploying Service personnel to drive tankers (the few that aren't in Afghanistan).
No 10 has not ruled out trying to employ foreign drivers to stand in for British staff. (That, I assume is a departure from Iain Duncan Smith's recent call for a Brownite policy of the use of home-grown labour. "British jobs for British people, except when they're on strike, of course...then you can use the more reliable foreigners!)
Anyway, I'd write to my MP about it, but the nationalised banks aren't lending and I certainly can't afford a stamp without a loan.
Update: Downing Street, in the form of our old favourite plonker Francis Maude, appears to have done a U-turn on government advice. The Fire Services have advised that the government's strategy for dealing with the petrol problem was based on illegally storing petrol in gerry cans in your garage (or whatever)... Back to the drawing board Maudie
It now costs around £70 to fill an average family car with petrol, and that this is worrying for a “hard working British family”, who may only have around £250
disposable income, and with rent of £80 and council tax of a further £60 this can make life difficult. You could see the pain in the prime minister’s face. He really feels for us “hard-working British families”. He hasn’t said how he feels about spinster ladies and single people. I wonder how he feels about pensioners whose only way of getting shopping is to use their car. How does he think they manage with the most expensive fuel in the world in this oil rich nation? Indeed how does the poor man manage himself?
Mr Richard Baker is starting to campaign for re-election by bringing up the case of Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al Megrahi. He wanted to know how many letters and emails were received (and has been
told) then he wanted them broken down into how many were for and how many against, and then he wanted to know how many civil servants were on the “Lockerbie team”, and then he wanted to know how many man hours had gone into dealing with the matter, and then he wanted to know how much it cost. (He’s very inquisitive, isn’t he?) He appears to be very concerned about how much this particular item has cost the Scottish taxpayer. I wonder if he’s considered how much time it would take and money it would cost to provide him with all this information so that he can go electioneering on it?
Mr Gray has started his election campaign, 100 days before the election, by highlighting (predictably) 100 SNP broken promises. They included promises which the SNP had not made. He also misquoted the SNP manifesto at least 20 times and mentioned items which are the responsibility of other parliaments. Moreover he included things that the SNP had brought forward and had been voted down by parliament. So as usual Mr Gray got his facts all wrong and mixed up promises broken with policies voted out by parliament. God help us if he is ever First Minister, but if he is, he will be able to rely on me to point out every single promise he breaks.
Our senior police officers were given bonuses amounting to more than
£400,000 across the country last year, at a time when police forces are having to slash money from their budgets. Colin McKerracher, CBE, QPM, LlB, Chief Constable of Grampian Police, has suggested that part of the money confiscated as proceeds of crime could be used to subsidise the police in future. Could this be because he was one of only two Chief Constables that accepted his bonus? It seems to me that, like in every other walk of life, those at the top will always look after themselves, regardless of the effects on other people. Me me me me me is the motto of the senior people.
John Taylor has been found guilty of stealing over £11,000 of public money. As a barrister sur
ely he must have been bright enough to realise that the “advice” given by fellow peers that “any family connection with an address” was enough to justify claiming that it was a first residence for the purposes of claiming expenses, especially as if he had never even been to the house, never mind lived there. I hope his lordship will have time in the pokey to reflect on his limited understanding of the legal system, and perhaps do some revision. He is safe in the knowledge, however, that even if he gets more than a year’s sentence he will still be able to resume his seat in the House upon release, and restart his expenses business.
No 10 has not ruled out trying to employ foreign drivers to stand in for British staff. (That, I assume is a departure from Iain Duncan Smith's recent call for a Brownite policy of the use of home-grown labour. "British jobs for British people, except when they're on strike, of course...then you can use the more reliable foreigners!)
