Joanna Lumley to lead Labour

Labour List are running a poll for who should be the next Labour Leader. I suggested Joanna Lumley. What do you think?

Do the poll

Hat Tip Fragmeister

Help get the pigs out of the trough

We've seen what happens when parties get into power. They look after their own and not one of them speaks out about the corruption and thieving within their own ranks. Every one of the faces above is an Independent Candidate, sworn to Open Democracy and committed to the Nolan Principles.

You can help root out the corruption.

Volunteer to help out in the campaign at Jury Team or make a donation using the Donate button at the top of this page. Every penny goes towards getting the pigs out of the trough.

Give what you can because if you don't, they'll keep helping themselves.

A Snap General Election

From Ananova

Parliament should be dissolved if the expenses scandal continues to rumble on, a former Commons deputy speaker said.

Tory Lord Naseby said the status of Parliament had been brought "right down into the pits" and Gordon Brown could be forced to call a general election as a result.

The peer said the public had lost confidence in their elected representatives, leaving a fresh vote the only option.

Spot on. We need to clear this shower out. However, Lord Naseby goes on to say:

The majority of members, I think, do a genuine job, work hard and try and look after their constituents' interest.

Really? What were they doing whilst their colleagues were robbing us blind? They kept their traps shut for the sake of the party. They saw what was going on, they saw the thieves at work and figured the public didn't need to know. They're guilty by association.

Let's have an Election, but let's send back people unconnected with the sleazy political circus. If they work for a Party, they stink just as much as the thieves at the top.

The Truth About MPs Expenses

No wonder he's laughing.

Laughing at us all

There's been a smug silence from politicians North of the Border over the current expenses uproar. Part of that is due to the fact that Holyrood undoubtedly has a more open system of accounting for MSPs expenses. Perhaps they imagine that the public will think that automatically means Scottish politicians are more honest.

Don't you believe it.

They're more open at Holyrood because they're forced to be, but given a sniff of the Westminster trough they're in like Flynn.

Take Alex Salmond -

Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, claimed £400 per month for food when the Commons was not even sitting. No wonder an SNP activist commented at the recent party for Osama Saeed that the First Minister was piling on the pounds. This is the guy that claims the maximum amount allowable for food (no receipts required of course) and yet picks up £145,000 a year in salaries for his multiple jobs.

Just what the hell does he think his wages are for?

Then we've got Eric Joyce, the most expensive MP in Britain. Eric Joyce, the Labour MP for Falkirk, has emerged as Britain's most expensive member of parliament after claiming £187,334 in allowances and expenses in 2007-8. You'd be forgiven for thinking he comes from Orkney, Shetland or even Kuala Lumpar with a bill for travel at £40,637 a year, but this guy's constituency is in Falkirk - slap bang in the middle of the Central Belt!

He spends more than double the UK median wage just gadding about!!

Scottish politicians are as bad as the rest of them. Give them a whiff of your money and they trouser it. Maybe when the English press have grown tired of lambasting their own MPs, we'll start to hear about the piggy excesses of the Scottish lot.

The Party's Over

This is Australian, but fits the Jury Team principles so well I thought I'd share.

Gordon Brown - The Dancing Clown

Well, it made me smile anyway.

Hat Tip to The Crown Blogspot

So What Are You Going To Do About Our Corrupt Politicians?

We're all rightly being driven furious as the news about MP's expenses drips out and the sheer scale of the immorality within Westminster becomes apparent. But they're just the ones in the spotlight right now. The problem exists at every level of politics. Next month there are elections for local government & of course the European elections. I'm sure we've all been angered in the past at local councillors jetting off to the Bahamas on taxpayer funded junkets and as for the "Sign In - Sod Off" antics of MEPs, well words fail me.

The question is, what are you going to do about it?

Start a petition on the 10 Downing St website?
Do you think they give a toss?

March on Parliament & burn it down?
In your dreams.

Report corrupt MPs to HMRC, the Police or the DSS?
The system looks after it's own.

Spoil your ballot paper on June 4th?
They don't give a shit. Even if they only got 3 votes, it's enough to get them on the gravy train.

Vote for another party like UKIP, the Greens or the BNP?
As I've already explained, the party system is one of the root causes of political corruption. Changing to yet another party is just the same shit, different coloured ties.

Stay at home in silent protest?
They're counting on that.

You want to make the system work? Vote for an Independent, any Independent. Vote for the woman or guy who has no connections with politics, is untainted by the greasy pole, who is standing out of sheer exasperation at the bloody crooks who do nothing, but spout hot air all day about it whilst trousering our money. Vote for the guy who wants to paint penguins blue if you want. Just don't vote for a party.

June 4th, send a REAL message. No more crooks sponsored by crooks, protected by crooks. Tell the parties to sod off.

Living a life of Fiction

This one's been reading too many of her husband's books.

Tourism minister Barbara Follett claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols at her London home after she was mugged, the Daily Telegraph claims.

The wife of author Ken Follett, seen as one of Parliament's richest MPs, said the claims over a four year period had been made within the rules

There were 33,000 "street crimes" in London last year, basically muggings. How many of these victims got personal police protection?

Her chutzpah takes the breath away though.

Ms Follett told the BBC: "I claimed it, it's within the rules and I have no comment to make".

How many times will we hear the "within the rules" whine?

It's time to bring the residents of the Westminster Bubble back into the real world. It's time to send a message to the political parties that if they don't bring the shysters within their ranks to heel, ordinary people who don't have personal protection squads will kick them out onto the streets to fend for themselves.

Take Away Their Houses

One aspect of all this expenses furore that's being missed is how having publicly funded houses must inevitably influence MPs view of the economy.

Some MPs have effectively built up a property portfolio at our expense. Whilst property was booming, they stood to make a fat profit.

MPs play a large part in dictating how our economy grows. Their decisions in Parliament go a long way to fuelling housing booms. Being allowed to profit directly at taxpayer's expense is surely a breach of rules concerning vested interests?

There's an answer to hand. An Olympic village is being built that will lie empty after 2012. Lots of flats with great transport links to Central London all in one easily policed area. Let's take these flats into public ownership after the Olympics and reserve them for MPs. If they need to stay in London, they get an Olympic flat. If they lose an election, they hand back the keys ready for the new MP.

Oh, but no sub-letting.

Report the Pigs to the Taxman

I've just fired off a letter and I thought I'd share it.

Mike Clasper CBE
Chairman
HM Revenue and Customs
100 Parliament Street
London SW1A 2BQ

Dear Mr Clasper

In light of today's press, does HM Revenue and Customs have any plans to look at MPs expenses? There is obviously some doubt about whether many of the expenses incurred are wholely necessary for the execution of MP's duties. Additionally, it is not clear whether the expenses allowances granted to MPs was used exclusively for the purposes intended.


I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely


Feel free to cut & paste to do the same yourself.

The Wisdom Of Crowds

There is a theory that says taking a wide and diverse group of people and setting them a problem leads to innovative and novel solutions. It's called The Wisdom of Crowds and it's theoretically what our system of democracy is built upon. Westminster with over 600 MPs and the EU Parliament with over 700 MEPs should be perfect examples where people from a huge variety of backgrounds debate problems and propose solutions. Unfortunately, that isn't what has actually happened due to the Party system that has become so ingrained in the public psyche, largely due to the propaganda from the parties themselves. Time and again we are told that only this party or that party can deliver change and so we get electioneering along the lines of "Only the SNP can beat Labour".

This is fundamentally missing the point of politicians and democracy. Playing the parties off against each other leads to the situation we have now where the parties are to all intents and purposes identical replicas of each other.

The vast majority of MPs in parties are drawn from the same pool of people - politics & media studies graduates or those who have ground their way through local councils. Far from being a diverse pool of talents, we actively restrict membership of this political club to the very people who have never had to suffer the effects of politicians.

How many times do you think our MPs have had to search for an NHS Dentist with space on their books? How many have sat for hours in a Doctor's waiting room? How many have suffered the body blow of redundancy or the worry of a child being bullied at school? How many of our MPs have lived on minimum wage or come home with every muscle aching after a hard day's work? How many have even sat on a bus?

It's because the vast majority of MPs have absolutely no connection with the reality of life for ordinary people that we see the paroxysms of indignation from them that their expense accounts are now under scrutiny. They simply cannot comprehend how the rest of us live without cleaners and gardeners.

“The political system has a problem….My point is a very simple one - the political system is
to some extent closed to outsiders, to people who are not of a particular stamp. This is not
just about race, this is a wider point that our leadership class is really basically white, male
and professional. It is very hard for women to break in and very hard for working-class
people to get to the higher reaches of parties."
Trevor Philips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission

This self-serving elite organises itself into parties for self-protection. For them, there's safety in a crowd. Following the party line means they don't have to take personal resposibility. I've written to my MP three times in my life about local issues. On the two occasions I actually got an eventual reply, they trotted out the party mantra dictated by London, over 400 miles away.

When they publicise their manifestos, they can print any old tosh they like because they will never be held personally accountable. When their promises are shown to be utter lies, they put it down to the party.

And we keep falling for it. We keep voting in parties despite the evidence of the last half century that political parties serve only themselves, not people.

“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state … The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, is itself a frightful despotism. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”
George Washington

I'm standing as an Independent. I'm supported by Jury Team who are giving me, an ordinary man, this opportunity. I fully agree with the statements made by Jury Team that:

Government should be run for the benefit of the people and not for the benefit of any political party.

Elected representatives should vote according to their view of what is best for the country and their constituents and not at the direction of a political party.

Politicians should fully comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life and have externally decided and transparent remuneration

There isn't a party politician crawling out of Westminster that can say the same.

I stand for an end to sleaze and an end to corrupt party politics. Until we tackle these two issues and get politicians doing what we actually pay them to do, all the talk of grand ideas and beating this or that party is just a load of hot air.