Marf on the MPs’ expenses developments
More of Marf’s work can be found at LondonSketchbook.com
How much are tax-payers funding political parties already?
BBC IPlayer Michael Crick’s programme is a must listen I’ve just picked up on BBC IPlayer this great Radio 4 investigation by Michael Crick on the funding of political parties and the rise of what he calls “The Political Club”. The programme blurb goes: “Michael Crick reveals how politicians are increasingly becoming a professionalised and separate class, who use their status to channel taxpayers’ money into the coffers of their parties. The recent scandal over MPs’ expenses has revealed how…
In spite of last night are Anne’s days numbered?
St Albans Review Will Dave dare risk losing the seat to the LDs? It’s been a tough return from vacation for David Cameron. For as well as the Hannan business to contend with he’s also got Anne Main. The immediate response of Ladbrokes to last night’s controversial decision by St. Albans Conservatives not to de-select their MP was to make the Lib Dem the 2/1 second favourite in the seat. On the face of it that’s a very tight price…
Has Cameron found the election dividing line – honesty?
Indy online Is this going to be the core Tory theme? Usually one of the most consistent Saturday morning political “reads” is Andrew Grice’s column in the Independent and today he speculates on what he think what the Tories are planning to make the election all about. He suggests that Tory riposte to Brown’s “investment versus cuts” will be “to invite voters to choose between “Honest Dave and Dodgy Gordon”. Grice goes on: “When Andrew Lansley, the shadow Health Secretary,…
Will my mate Pat ask a planted question?
Or will be continue his customary independence? Pictured above is Pat Hall, MP for Bedford since 1997, my general election opponent in 1992 and my colleague for adjoining divisions on Bedfordshire county council from 1989-1996. Today at the first post-Michael Martin PMQs he’s down to ask the first question and I wonder whether he’ll succumb to the whips and ask a planted one? Although we are of different parties Pat is generally a good guy and I was delighted when…
How’s the police probe going to affect the polls?
Where’s this all going to end? The crisis that has dominated UK politics for nearly two months has edged up a notch with the news that four MPs and a peer, all Labour, will face a full criminal investigation. Those are involved are named in the SkyNews report above and this development is not going to make life comfortable for several others who have had questions raised over their activities. What this does is keep the story on the front…
The Speaker race: the prices get tighter
Prices as at 6.30 pm. Click for latest updates Betfair’s last price matched has Beckett as favourite With just three days to go before MPs elect their new speaker there’s been a lot of activity on the betting markets with Bercow, Beckett and Young pulling away from the field. On Betfair the “last prices matched” (at 3.10pm) were Beckett 3.55 (5/2), Young 4.3 (3.3/1), Bercow 5 (4/1), Widdecombe 9.8 (8.8/1). The last price matched is often a better indicator than…
Who’ll get the blame for the expenses blackout?
Has redaction just made it a whole lot worse? If anybody thought that the official publication of MPs expense claim forms was going to put an end to the crisis then this morning’s front pages suggest they were wrong. For almost every paper is leading with the same broad story “expenses blackout” – because of the way that most of the documentation is almost totally useless because so much of the key detail been blacked out. All this has done…