Unconventional Lifestyles

Aired on the BBC last night was the story of Anne Lister who led an unconventional lifestyle during the first half of the 19th century. Little was known at the time.
When a relative discovered her coded diaries in the 1890s he was forced to keep quiet about them by his own similar lifestyle, during even more puritanical times.
Even in the 1960s the content was considered too risqué by the authorities, and by the time they were finally published in 1988 they were considered so outrageous that they were rumoured to be a hoax.
And yet even in these so-called enlightened times a cabinet minister resigned last week for similar behaviour. And please London Daily Telegraph, stop repeating the pretence that the David Laws report would have been published without revealing his sexual orientation. Without that crucial admission there was no story, and there would have been no resignation.

Why Now?

The London based Daily Telegraph newspaper faces the most serious question about David Laws’ resignation, and that is: Why now?
Why reveal information pertaining to his personal relationship as it relates to a rule change in 2006 about MPs renting accommodation from a “partner” -- a murky term if ever there were one?

It is certainly most detrimental to the coalition government, and hence the economic fortunes of the United Kingdom, and thus totally irresponsible.

Today the Telegraph makes the naïve claim they had no intention of revealing the victim’s sexual orientation. What a foolish claim.

It’s ironic that had David Laws defected to the Conservative Party at the time of the rule change he could then have safely come out, and stopped claiming for the London flat without giving rise to any suspicion.
But he didn’t, because he wrongly thought the Conservative Party more homophobic than his own LibDems.

Unguarded Moment

Least written about the Prime Minister’s unguarded remarks the better, but I can’t help thinking they might not have seen the light of day had he got on better with the media. Tony Blair would have shrugged it off.
Nice that we’re allowed to talk about immigration now, it being one of the most common complaints on the doorstep.
Let’s hope the Liberals’ amnesty comes under scrutiny, with each of the one million illegals being allowed one family member from abroad.
No one is quite sure where the ex-Labour voters will go.
If there is an indecisive result I can see both left wing parties splitting, and a Cameron rainbow coalition to sort out Gordon Brown’s mess.

Today’s LibDem lie: Last week Nick Clegg said: “Politicians who sell their houses and pocket the money still haven’t been held to account.” Five years ago he made a profit of £240,000 selling his home in Brussels, after using his expenses as a Member of the European Parliament to help pay his mortgage.

First Time Voters

After concluding that Cleggmania is mainly down to the exuberance of younger voters, it has been gratifying these last few days to find first time voters choosing the Conservatives.

And why are they going to vote Conservative?
Because they want a job!

Leave aside the fact that there has never been a Labour Government that didn’t end with more unemployed than when it started: the number of 16 to 24-year-olds seeking work in Britain is now 929,000 and rising.

Today’s LibDem lie: Nick Clegg repeats his pious claim that no LibDem MP abused their expenses for second homes, just one month after four of them were ordered to pay back £16,500 pocketed from a dodgy rent deal at the taxpayers’ expense.

Opinion Polls

I now have a view on the opinion polls and make the following prediction.
If, as seems likely, they are distorting the intentions of those who will actually be voting (by including the views of many youngsters who tend not to vote), then they will be abolished during the next General Election campaign as in continental Europe.
You have to balance the freedom of the press against the artificial volatility caused by people’s herd instinct.
Let people make up their own mind, rather than be told what to think!

Today’s LibDem lie: At the start of the recession Nick Clegg sympathised with voters by saying he was changing his grocery supplier from Waitrose to Sainsbury’s as they were a lot cheaper. The same Nick Clegg MP who claimed £1,657.32 worth of food on his parliamentary expenses in one four-month period alone.

Delivering to Flats

People are always telling me about flats [US: apartments] where they can’t deliver election leaflets.
Yes, more and more people are living in seclusion, and things are set to get worse under a Liberal Democrat administration, when only the most serious criminals will go to prison, because they will abolish sentences of less than six months.
However I have yet to find a building with more than five flats that I couldn’t get into, though admittedly there are hazards.
I have sheltered accommodation on my patch where the warden was always very defensive. After she faced a tirade of abuse from a senior Liberal Democrat local councillor 18 months ago she is even more protective. I have contacts who let me in, and I then have to whiz round the building undetected. Today I exited under her nose, as she sat at her desk.

Today’s LibDem lie: As Member of the European Parliament Nick Clegg used to fly to Brussels in economy class, but always claimed expenses for first class travel and pocketed the difference.

UK Parliamentary Expenses

The news today that the cost of IPSA -- the body set up to police Westminster parliamentary expenses -- will be six times the total amount MPs have been found to have over claimed, tells us all we need to know about left-wing liberal “big government”.
And that’s six times the amount just in the first year, until common sense sees to it that the quango is abolished.
Compare that with the cost to taxpayers of exposing the allegations in the first place, which was precisely zero, because everything was brought to light by a free press -- the Daily Telegraph in particular -- something which the liberal left also secretly despises.

MPs’ Expenses v Open Primary

I’m very disappointed that our local press has chosen to lead on the continuing “revelations” about MPs’ expenses, rather than mention Spelthorne’s exciting Open Primary election next month.
None of the people I speak to -- over a hundred ordinary voters in the last 48 hours -- have mentioned MPs’ expenses. No one is interested any more!
In contrast a quarter of them are definitely going to try and attend our Open Primary next month. If you add in those who’ll think about it, over a half of those I’ve contacted are interested in the chance to help choose who could become their next MP.

Another UKIP MEP Jailed for Fraud

To think that earlier this year we Conservatives spent a load of money on extra promotional material across the Borough of Spelthorne, all for a measly 126 extra votes in last June’s elections (as compared with five years before).
In the end too many Tories voted UKIP in the mistaken belief that they were voting for a Party untainted by the MPs’ expenses scandal.
Today former UKIP Member of the European Parliament Tom Wise was jailed for two years for stealing £39,000 worth of parliamentary expenses.
This comes after local UKIP MEP Ashley Mote served a nine-month prison sentence for £67,000 worth of benefit fraud.
It makes you pig sick.