Austerity

I'm glad call-me-Dave and his never-worked-in-the-financial-industry-ever mate are treating their not meeting their austerity targets with the gravitas one would expect of people in their position.

Man who has no practical experience of economics is struggling to right the ship? Who knew?

Chicken Feed

Boris Johnson is in the news again. In case you haven't heard, he described his combined London mayoral salary and News of the World column income of £390,000 as "chicken feed" Boris is rich pickings for the media with all the supposed buffoonery, and his appearances on Have I Got News For You are never less than entertaining; personally, I can't believe an old Etonian and graduate of Balliol College Oxford is that stupid and it's all a carefully crafted act.

This weekend's error is still something of a Freudian slip in that however media friendly the new, touchy feely Conservative Party appears to be, they are at best as cynical with the media that New Labour were; and at worst still the party run by the select few, for the select few. What's worse is, given their leads in the opinion polls, that the British electorate seems to be falling for it. Cynical publicity stunts like 'Dave' Cameron's cycling to work on his bike to boost his green credentials while his chaffeur drives his suitcase behind him in the car might fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of them. Have people forgotten 18 years of Conservative rule that quickly?

MPs

I was surprised, but in a way also not surprised, to see that the latest MP's expenses scandal back home has made the news all the way out here. I have meant to write, repeatedly, a blog post in praise of the powers of the internet, and how it has manifested itself in the powers that be not being able to have their own way with the media any more. I read occasionally the blog 'Order Order', the so called Guido Fawkes Blog which is in effect, one man with a laptop with sources in high places. His politics seem quite conservative, but we all have our crosses to bear, after all.

The author of the blog has been writing for some months on 'pigs in the trough'. and the rather generous expense claims that members of Parliament have been submitting. of late Eventually, some of the national media outlets have picked up on it, culminating in the Daily Telegraph's expose of politicians of all sides really gettting it in the neck this week. Without wanting to go too Daily Mail on you, I find it bordering on obscene that the Education Secretary and his wife, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, (combined salary ca. £282,000) claim £600 a month in food expenses. Can they not afford it? Even by Waitrose standards (and take it from bitter personal experience, the one in Gloucester Road in London is eye-wateringly expensive), that's probably a bit pricey. I reckon my food bill is about 1/6 of that. Even including into that the effects of living in London Village, that's a real fiddle.

Add into that (from other suspects) claims for horse manure, cleaning out castle moats, bookcases costing £18,000, antique persian rugs, TVs worth £8800, two (at least) counts of claiming mortgage expenses for mortgages long paid off, several MPs suspended from their positions, multiple counts of 'second house flipping' and it seems that the public mood with their elected officials is at possibly the lowest ebb in living memory. The solution? As it is out here ,north of the 49th parallel. Publish every single expense claim on the internet, where the voting public can see and scrutinise. The internet is a force for good sometimes, and I think the british government should follow suit.