Almost every time I do a talk I point out that if you want to get people to do anything you must tap into their emotions.
Everyone agrees. Then I point out that the dominant emotion in many people today is fury.
Fury at the mere thought that bankers we are subsidising should consider paying themselves bonuses. Fury at the thought that those who saved are having to subsidise those who squandered. Fury at the way people who run things – or would if they had a clue – are so utterly, blindly removed from what we are all thinking.
Here’s an example. A sociable chap called John Turnbull in North Shields has been banned from having any visitors – even his own sons.
He had been charging an entry fee to youths as young as 14 to come and drink and take drugs in his flat. The row – which went on till the dawn – was driving neighbours mad.
Now get this.
The ban was imposed last week and was going to include Turnbull himself, but as he faces eviction proceedings the council has decided to give him one last chance.
Uh? This turd on the landscape doesn’t pay his rent, drives everyone mad and he needs a chance?
Of course he does. “I hope Turnbull understands he must behave if he wants to live in this community,” said Inspector Geoff Cross.
Well forgive my naivety, but where were Inspector Geoff’s brave stalwarts when this oaf was breaking what to the uninformed looks a like a goodly selection of laws. I seem to recall phrases like breach of the peace, corruption of minors, supplying drugs and so on that fit the book.
Maybe they were just too busy filling in forms, or less worried about breach of the peace than breaching his human rights.
If he’d been holding prayer meetings they’d have been round there like a shot to stop him offending any Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Muslims, Druids or Rosicrucians in the area.
And imagine if a council snoop had caught him putting the empty bottles in the wrong bin. Hardly bears thinking about, does it?
What does bear thinking about is who the police ultimately report to. Yes, it’s naughty Home Secretary Jacquie “Big Knockers,Tiny Brain” White, who’s just been caught with her porky little snout in the trough to the tune of £116,000.
If you and I were caught trousering that kind of money on the quiet what would happen? And what will happen to her? No prizes, folks, because she’s not the only one. Plenty of them have own snouts in the trough – Labour and Tory – starting with the Speaker. But the Home Secretary! Not so many years ago most politicians would have resigned for less – and did.
Now they’re all busy trying to cover it all up. Four days ago the laughably named Committee on Standards in Public Life – aka The What We Think We Can Get Away With While Nobody’s Looking Committee decided against launching an inquiry into MPs’ allowances.
But this was only after failing repeatedly to get it made illegal for any scrutiny of what they steal looked at.
What shits.
From Jacqui Snout in Trough’s own website (www.jacquismithmp.labour.co.uk/biography):
Piano wire sales are set to leap as the people get ready for the Downing Street lynching that must surely be soon. Well, at least that should help our desperate steel industry.
The rage is pumping through the electorate’s veins regarding the expense fiddles by politicians, particularly fiddles on the monstrous scale practiced by this unqualified ex sixth form lecturer. The Michael Trend precedent is not encouraging for this piglet, nor is the precedent established by Mr & Mrs Balls.
You may wonder why especially as Ed and Yvette Piggy got away with their fiddle. They huffed and puffed and argued that their constituency home was their main residence. They claimed that they spent more time at the constituency home and therefore that was their primary residence, allowing them to claim TAX FREE expenses for their more expensive London home. That argument was accepted by the authorities.
Jacqui Snout in Trough wants us to accept the opposite. She snorts that her main home is her sister's London hovelet where she lodges, so she can claim for her expensive constituency home. She will have to show that she spends more time at the London flat than seeing her own kids. The Balls' argued successfully that in the recess and school holidays they spent the majority of their time away from London. Do you really believe that Jacqui piglet would stay in London when parliament is in recess and remain away from her family?
That recent Balls precedent is going to be a tricky one to get around. However the Michael Trend precedent is even more worrying for this crook. In 2003 the Tory MP was found guilty of abusing the allowances system and ordered to repay £90,277, he was also suspended from parliament and stood down in disgrace at the following election. His crime was to claim the same allowance as the appropriately named ‘Home’ Secretary has when he was staying with a friend in London. Trend claimed he “believed that I could properly continue to designate London as 'home' for the purposes of ACA, even though, in domestic terms, Windsor had become my “main residence”.” It was not accepted. There was no doubt in the Standard's Committee's minds that there was no “real scope for doubt that the words “main residence” was intended to have other than their natural meaning.”
The Committee ruled that “Mr Trend should have recognised that, by claiming Additional Costs Allowance in relation to his Windsor home, the taxpayer was meeting some of the core running costs of what was in reality his main residence. He should have realised that this was wrong. Accordingly, we agree with the Commissioner that Mr Trend was negligent and has breached the Code of Conduct by making improper use of the Additional Costs Allowance and by failing strictly to observe the administrative rules relating to the Allowance.”
It is hard to see how, in these parallel circumstances, Browns lick spittle should not suffer the same fate. This snout in trough red should also be prosecuted for fraud and ordered to repay the fiddled £116,000 and suspended from parliament. This might be the only way to get her to resign as Home Secretary. Alternatively, shoot the bitch.