Michael Martin: gone in 30 seconds…

The divine comedy that is known as the MPs expenses rages on with Michael Martin falling on his own sword, metaphorically speaking. Though he probably had a chauffeur driven car ready for his exit. He maintains he is going in the name of unity.

But he need not fret as the sacrifice for unity will all have not been in vain, as Martin will have secured a nice pension that will soothe his woes and pay for many many many chauffeur driven luxury trips.

Yes, a nice pension to see him through which won’t be attacked unlike public sector pensions.

“All hope abandon ye who enter here”…. should be the new sign outside Parliament (apologies to Dante as he was writing about Hell….)

Beside the sea….

Phew….that’s over for another year. Indeed I am back in the Big Smoke. Conference for me is over. I must admit I had a hotel room with a gorgeous view of the sea. Sunday evening the sea was rough and waves crashing on the stony beach. It was a magnificent sight to behold from my window, I was sitting there transfixed while work colleagues were propping up the bar downstairs.

And I had to rush out, run across the road and get to the beach to take some pix. And even when I went to bed the sounds of the sea and the waves crashing were kind of relaxing and calming. And the next two days were sunny…. but didn’t get to see much of it….(moan, moan…)

Anyways…. on the train down I was very pleased to see Georgia Gould lost the chanceto be selected as the Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead. She was parachuted in undemocratically and it was a case of ‘who you know, not, what you know’… Daddy being Philip Gould, one of the creators of that Frakenstein monster…New Labour….and part of the shallow political glitterati.

MPs and their expenses rages on….with the Speaker…going, going, gone….

Everything But The Girl: Each and Everyone

Well, off to rainy Brighton so will leave you with some Everything But The Girl, and the beautiful and gorgeous vocals of Tracey Thorn. Here’s the wonderful Each and Everyone from the Eden LP. I couldn’t find anything on YouTube from their underrated LP Baby, The Stars Shine Bright especially exquisite Sugar Finney….

And check out Tracey Thorn’s skin-tight PVC trousers. Fantastic…!

Kitty Ussher and ‘tasteful’ interiors…

Indeed it had slipped my mind that NL, at some point, is going to launch a public consultation on housing benefit reformwith minister Kitty Ussher at the helm.

Oh, yes Kitty Ussher, the phrase ‘rank hypocrisy’ comes to mind especially as she tried to claim for these interior changes….

Most of the ceilings have Artex coverings. Three-dimensional swirls. It could be a matter of taste, but this counts as ‘dilapidations’ in my book! Can the ACA pay for the ceilings to be plastered over and repainted?

It is the politics of do as I say not as I do. It reminded me of Vera Baird trying to claim for a xmas tree and baubles..!!

But the fact Kitty is involved in this reform of housing benefit is unbelievable. You can’t trust these people as any confidence is well and truly lost. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking…

Repossessions on the increase

While MPs engaged in developing the fine art of flipping regarding their 1st, 2nd and 3rd homes, maintaining ye olde moat, cleaning the swimming pool, installing mock tudor beams, and breaking their toilet seat twice (Oh, mister Prescott, to break one toilet seat is considered a misfortune but to break it twice looks like carelessness!)… countless ordinary people are finding it exceedingly difficult to keep ONE roof over their head.

Repossessions have skyrocketed by 50% in the first quarter of 2009. Recession, unemployment, poverty and repossessions yet MPs are feathering their own nests at our expense….

Justice for Iraq blog

As promised I just want to bring comrades attention to the Justice for Iraq blogsite. It is a very good resource and thankfully they are updating their posts on a regular basis so please do link to this blog as Iraq is falling off the political agenda and that cannot happen!

Palestine demonstration

Pictures from the Palestine demonstration today. There were around 4-5,000 people. Lively, and musical, well the bit I was marching in.

Even though had a bad case of sinus problems and hayfever while trying not to fall over professional photographers with their zoom lens and/or getting knocked by the said zoom lens…

And another

More

And

Finally

Straw drops secret inquests plans

INQUEST is delighted that the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw MP, has responded to our concerns and those of the families and lawyers with whom we work as well as those of Liberty, JUSTICE and Human Rights Watch. Today’s announcement means that clauses 11 & 12 of the Coroners and Justice Bill will be removed, which sees the end of provisions that would have given the Secretary of State power to certify inquests where sensitiveinformation is involved so that they would take place without juries, partly in private – excluding bereaved families, their legal representatives and the public at large from crucial parts of the investigation process.

Cinema 16

I watched Cinema 16 on DVD some years back and just discovered the trailer on YouTube. Some wonderful short-films, I especially liked Toby McDonald’s Je t’aime John Wayne, which is a parody of French New Wave cinema, main character is called ‘Belmondo’, smokes Lucky Strike and runs off into the sunset with a woman who looks remarkably like Jean Seberg….

Great satire on the cult classic ,À Bout de Souffle, but the 10 minute short has been described as pretentious, hell I don’t care, it made me laugh and I adored the monochrome cinematography. Annoyed with myself for missing a screening of  À Bout de Souffle last month at the BFI….

Tis trade union conference season

Stressed…Stressed. Conference. Stress. Conference. Stress. Standing Orders. Motions. Registration. Speakers. Gawd.

I wonder if I will see anything of Brighton, probably not.  Hopefully by Tuesday evening when I am back in the Big Smoke I will be able to string words and sentences together….once again..

Well, I will preoccupy myself with the Palestine demo tomorrow and I am off to sunny B’ton on Sunday afters.

Will take deep breath, hold and then exhale…

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=62&Content_ID=554