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What were the movies, Jacqui?

By Mark Littlewood
March 30th, 2009 at 5:02 am | Comments Off on What were the movies, Jacqui? | Posted in Uncategorized

Jacqui Smith faces a cross-examination on having submitted a claim for her husband’s consumption of pornography.

Even the Home Secretary concedes that her husband shouldn’t be entitled to consume masturbatory material at the tax-payer’s expense.

But what I want to know is what were the films?

Why is it that we know her husband watched Ocean’s 13 and Surf’s Up, but not the names of the “ADULT” movies the Home Secretary received payment for?

I know you’ve paid back the cash – but would you (or your spouse) mind telling me what it was that your husband watched?

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Marry Jacqui Smith and get tax-funded porn

By Mark Littlewood
March 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm | Comments Off on Marry Jacqui Smith and get tax-funded porn | Posted in Uncategorized

Jacqui SmithAmusing to see the endless scandals over MPs’ expenses reaching new levels of farce today as the Home Secretary claimed for two “adult” films watched by her spouse.

But surely, as great a scandal is that £3.50 was wasted on viewing the truly excrable “Surf’s Up”?

If Richard Timney switched over from whatever pornography he was watching in order to see a movie about computer-generated penguins, he clearly isn’t subscribing to the right pornography channels.

Perhaps a publicly-funded sex therapy workshop for her husband will be the next item on the Home Secretary’s shopping list?

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How do we lift ourselves out of the polling doldrums?

By Angela Harbutt
March 28th, 2009 at 10:36 pm | 1 Comment | Posted in UK Politics

Tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph ICM poll shows the Conservatives up 4% from the last Sunday Telegraph/ICM poll, published in early February, to 44%. This gives them a lead of 13% over Labour (on 31%).

Most worringly, the Liberal Democrats are the apparent losers in this poll with support dropping by four points from 22% to 18%.
Accepting that there are margins of error on all polls, and that results do vary from one company to another, this is still a worry.

What will the Party response be I wonder (apart from stating the they don’t comment on polls)? I for one am hoping that they will offer big and bold and specific promises on cuts to Government spending. (see Fridays Telegraph/YOUGOV poll if any evidence of the soundness of this policy is needed).

I applaud Vince Cable’s recent statement that “we will need to take tough decisions to bring restraint back to public spending in the future”. But surely we need to back this up with solid facts? Does the pledge to cut £20billion still stand? (though surely that is simply not enough?). And can anyone tell me where I can find these cuts spelled out?

Vince has done a first rate job at demonstrating his predictive and analytical skills during this economic disaster– but what we now need to see substantive policies. This is not the time to be timid or cowardly – holding back our plans for fear that the opposition will seek to pick holes in them. We should be forthright, plain-speaking and clear. Not only will this set us apart from the other parties but serve only to enhance Vince Cables well deserved reputation.

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Creeping protectionism

By Julian Harris
March 26th, 2009 at 5:59 pm | Comments Off on Creeping protectionism | Posted in Economics

In the run up to the G20, it is worth noting that nearly all (17) of these countries have implemented protectionist measures in the last few months–in spite of signing a pledge in November 2008 to avoid protectionist measures.

For all their crowing about free trade, these scoundrels are sneaking in barriers at every opportunity, often to the detriment of the world’s poor.

Details are in a report by the World Bank. It states:

“Since the beginning of the financial crisis, officials have proposed and/or implemented roughly 78 trade measures … Of these, 66 involved trade restrictions, and 47 trade-restricting measures eventually took effect.”

Click here for the full report.

SIGN THIS PETITION TO TELL G20 GOVERNMENTS TO END PROTECTIONISM NOW

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Nobel Prize-winning economist: stick to markets

By Julian Harris
March 25th, 2009 at 6:19 pm | 1 Comment | Posted in Economics

Anyone see this piece in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago?:

“Now Is No Time to Give Up on Markets”

A synopsis, if I may:

It’s an interview with Professor Gary Becker, winner of a Nobel prize, who explains that now more than ever we need markets to cure the world of its ills.

He concludes:

“When the market economy is compared to alternatives, nothing is better at raising productivity, reducing poverty, improving health and integrating the people of the world.”

Do you concur, my interweb buddies? Yes or no, go take a butcher’s.

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