[Archived] Gordon Brown

[American]

They should have an office allowance, not a second home allowance.

All legislative bodies should be part-time to begin with. First, it leads to expense problems like this and secondly, they end up creating unnecessary legislation to justify their time and jobs. Have them meet quarterly for a week and give them dorm rooms when they do.

[pg]

Why not turn the current Parliament house into a museum and build a new Parliament in Birmingham?

[thenodrog]

Why not turn the current Parliament house into a museum and build a new Parliament in Birmingham?

Good point but Leeds / Manchester is prob more central........... as long as we allow the scots to share in governing us.

Hey but alternatively how about the Blackburn / Preston area?

1. Ribchester or Dunsop Bridge is supposed to be the centre of the kingdom. MWays, Inter City lines and Blackpool airport would provide quick and efficient transport services.

2. The domestic and business properties are as cheap as anywhere else so the poor darlings would easily be able to afford accomodation of a sort in Shad / Mill Hill / Whalley range or wherever.

3. The average wage is miniscule and God only knows we need to regenerate the town.

4. I guess it would also sort out the people who are genuine in wanting to represent their constituencies from the greedy, grabbing gravy train passengers.

Anybody agree?

[Billy Castell]

Why not turn the current Parliament house into a museum and build a new Parliament in Birmingham?

The new building will be monsterously over budget. The Scottish Paliament was supposed to be £55m. It finally came in at £470m.

[jim mk2]

Why not turn the current Parliament house into a museum and build a new Parliament in Birmingham?

It's been suggested many times over the years by many north of Watford MPs but Britain is so London-centric it will never happen.

Look at the furore over the BBC moving a few depts to Salford.

[scotchrover]

Good point but Leeds / Manchester is prob more central........... as long as we allow the scots to share in governing us.

Hey but alternatively how about the Blackburn / Preston area?

1. Ribchester or Dunsop Bridge is supposed to be the centre of the kingdom. MWays, Inter City lines and Blackpool airport would provide quick and efficient transport services.

2. The domestic and business properties are as cheap as anywhere else so the poor darlings would easily be able to afford accomodation of a sort in Shad / Mill Hill / Whalley range or wherever.

3. The average wage is miniscule and God only knows we need to regenerate the town.

4. I guess it would also sort out the people who are genuine in wanting to represent their constituencies from the greedy, grabbing gravy train passengers.

Anybody agree?

yep, i do for a first I think bringing that lot up to Blackburn would really put them back into the real world thats for sure. The town would also be transformed as well i would think. Massive investment would come in and the town would iam sure change forever. The tories wouldn't shut the North down again like last time.

OVERALL A GOOD IDEA. BRING WESTMINSTER TO BLACKBURN OR DARWEN

[Billy Castell]

Caught something on Channel 4 news yesterday stating that the reason they are all standing down at the end of this Parliament is that they'll get a pension and redundancy package, and this would be worth up to £100,000. This would not be given if they resigned now.

Didn't really take it in as I was making dinner, but its worth looking into.

[broadsword]

It was in the 'papers a couple of days ago, they get a whacking great pay-off plus pension.

[thenodrog]

Caught something on Channel 4 news yesterday stating that the reason they are all standing down at the end of this Parliament is that they'll get a pension and redundancy package, and this would be worth up to £100,000. This would not be given if they resigned now.

Didn't really take it in as I was making dinner, but its worth looking into.

Heard about that yesterday. Why am I not suprised? Weren't our politicians fairly unanimous in criticising Fred Goodwin and the rest of the banking industries for the undeserved and excessive pay off and bonus culture?

[broadsword]

Politicians being hypocritical? Never!

I think it's come out in the Telegraph today, a Labour MP, (yes, that's LABOUR Jim, LABOUR) has been caught claiming for expenses for £5 he gave at a church service commemorating the Battle of Britain.

He denies all knowledge, naturally, even though the claim was submitted as a hand-written note.

I don't think they can go any lower now.

[thenodrog]

Politicians being hypocritical? Never!

I think it's come out in the Telegraph today, a Labour MP, (yes, that's LABOUR Jim, LABOUR) has been caught claiming for expenses for £5 he gave at a church service commemorating the Battle of Britain.

He denies all knowledge, naturally, even though the claim was submitted as a hand-written note.

I don't think they can go any lower now.

Don't bet on it Bryan. A trivial amount but a truly awful action when one considers the circumstances and the crass insensitivity employed. Never in the field of British government has so much been owed by so few to so many.

[Flopsy]

Anyone see Golem's 'performance' on the Andrew Marr show this morning? To think that that man can stay in charge of this country for another year, is mortifying. Id recommend catching it on IPlayer (50 mins in) its almost as bad as his you tube vid

[broadsword]

I'm guessing you could use it to scare teh kids with.

[Flopsy]

Oh it was horrible, the man didnt answer one question, waffled on about how he's being trying to sort out MP's Expenses for years, but didnt know anything about them till the Telegraph broke the story, claimed that he was all for the FOI for Parliament but forgot to mention that one of his closest friends (the Speaker) had thought tooth and nail to prevent their release.

Oh and he's trying to give back power and freedoms to us all, by trying to pass an anti-terrorism bill that would lock you up without charge for 42 days.

Oh and a number of cabinet ministers have been flipping their second homes but a word against them? A minor rebuke? No, because the man's too gutless to do anything that might look like being decisive. If he stays in charge, Labour are finished in 12 months, dosent matter if the economy starts improving, all the Tories and Lib Dems need to do is just show footage of the man gurning away as if he's having his testicles slowly fried on a kebab skewer.

Oh I know Cameron might well be all style and no substance, but he's showing some leadership and grasp of the public mood compared to the Golem in Number 10.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Oh I know Cameron might well be all style and no substance...

Wait, stop there.

Cameron? Style?

[Flopsy]

Iplayer Andrew Marr Show - 26 minutes in

Listen to him just list up a bunch of sentences and words with no real relationship to the question or the point of the question.

ADB

[broadsword]

apparently Charlie Kennedy claimed for Rememberance Day wreaths.

Unbelievable.

[Billy Castell]

He may have been off his face though Bryan

As Frankie Boyle once said-"Gordon Brown looks like a sad face painted on someone's scrotum."

Honestly, this has been so damaging for all the parties, and the only people i can see benefitting are UKIP, the BNP, the Greens etc. in the council and European elections. I'd go to a bookies and bet that the next general election will have an even lower turnout than the last one. And that was the lowest since the 1920's, or even the 1st world war. All the parties are at it, even Sinn Fein who don't bother turning up (dirty Irish bombing gits). However, I reckon Tony was the worst, but his claims were 'accidently' shredded before it all hit the fan. He and his odious wife were always grubbing after free holidays from the likes of Berlosconi and Cliff Richard, and having £7,000 worth of hair cuts.

[Tris]

I think it's come out in the Telegraph today, a Labour MP, (yes, that's LABOUR Jim, LABOUR) has been caught claiming for expenses for £5 he gave at a church service commemorating the Battle of Britain.

I don't think they can go any lower now.

You won't find Jim knocking about on this thread any time soon. With the humiliation his hero is going to face in the elections on Thursday there's going to be so much egg on face the nursing home will have to find a whole new breakfast menu. Brown is likely to make history this week, but not in the way he planned.

Sure, Clegg and Cameron probably won't look too clever either, and rightly so - the voting public is entitled to put the boot into all three main parties. However, Clegg and Cameron don't have to turn up for work on Friday and pretend they still have a mandate to run the country (not that Brown ever did have that).

Brown's performances on Sky News today and on Andrew Marr yesterday were those of someone who has lost the ability to govern his own mind, never mind anything beyond that. Half of his cabinet is disgraced and his chancellor can't even fiddle his own expenses convincingly - Darling has changed his story three times in 24 hours. If that wasn't a microcosm for the mess he's made with the UK economy it would be funny.

Brown is finished, this Thursday will be such a slaughtering of his government that whatever he tries to do in the aftermath will just add more fuel to the raging inferno. He'll be singing duets with that woman in The Priory this time next week. Are there even enough "clean" Labour MPs to form a full cabinet?!

[pg]

What % of MP's are Lib Democrats, and how many of them have been found with their snouts in the trough?

[RibbleValleyRover]

I see that Brown has made another cock up this time about the 65th anniversary of D-Day. France send an invite and Brown decides that he should be attending and not our head of state. The veterans who will be making the trip want to see the Queen there and people need to keep in mind she did military service in WW2.

This is supposed to be a remembrance about D-Day, she should be there.

[dave birch]

Something that I find rather funny.

You seem to have a Transport minister called Hoon.

" hoon", in Australia is someone that drives in an irresponsible manner.

Just thought that I'd bring that to your attention.

[Flopsy]

its sorted Obama's taking her as his plus 1

[dave birch]

Looking at the beebs "have your say" site, you lot are just about to vote yourselves out of the EU by putting in the UKI? party.

Must admit, I could never understand why anyone would vote themselves another level of government. At least I've got the excuse of it being here when I arrived, but I'd love to shaft it.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

People are just going to vote for the BNP and UKIP to spite the other parties.

This won't end well.