Quote of the Week
"We will oblige parties to declare the source of all donations above a minimum figure. Labour does this voluntarily and all parties should do so."
The Right Honourable Tony Blair
Labour Party Manifesto 1997
Labour Party Manifesto 1997
Memories....
ReplyDeleteMay be beautiful and yetttttttt....
What's too painful to remember....
We simply ....
Oh fuckit.
Guilty feet have got no rhythm ?
ReplyDeleteWe never said what the minimum figure was.
ReplyDeletewhat's the world record for holding your breath?
ReplyDelete7 mins. set by the man that followed John Prescot into the House of Parliament toilets last week.
the real problem with mp's telling the truth is that there wouldn't be a lot left to say with the lies gone.
ReplyDeleteAt least that’d make Hansard faster reading.
ReplyDeleteDoes the author have a Pollonium 210 indicator ? Be careful of going the same way as David Kelly.
ReplyDeleteFour things I wanna mention:
ReplyDelete1. German Project www.abgeordnetenwatch.de (=parliamentarianwatch)
2. "They are all liars" comments
3. Limit the terms for a PM
4. What about the opposition lying?
Re 1. German Project www.abgeordnetenwatch.de
This is what the MO'TRUTH thing should grow into maybe? This project started in Hamburg, founded by a bunch of guys that wanted more transparency in politics. They had a website with all city council politicians from Hamburg with as much information on them as they could get - regular jobs, what they earn, CV. Citizens can publicly ask question for everybody to see, which politicians then answer. Again, everybody can read those answers. If they dont answer, that looks pretty bad. If they give you a shitty 'leave-me-alone' answer, looks even worse. Within half a year that website had 600.000 hits! From 1.400 questions, 1000 were answered. That’s maybe something that the Ministry of Truth (sounds a bit orwellian to me!) could consider delving into?
Regarding 2:
""the real problem with mp's telling the truth is that there wouldn't be a lot left to say with the lies gone.""
OH SHUT UP! get a grip or rather use your brain PLEASE!
Yes, some politicians have lied to us, yes, about things freaking important (like a war), but not all of them are just liars and not everything they say is a lie either. I would even think it is the minority of politicians that are lying. So you saying they all lie is what? Yes, you get it ;-) blatantly LYING YOURSELF!
If you want to improve the situation you have to argue well and not just shout some silly slogan. A slogan this shallow ("they are all liars") is discrediting the whole project so please refrain from that. The only thing those kind of statements achieve is a growing feeling of frustration which itself breeds nothing but votes for the fringes of the political spectrum - BNP? Any bells ringing? And no, LibDems do NOT count as fringe!
Re 3 - Limit the terms for a PM:
I support that idea of limiting the number of terms for the PM. Knowing you cannot be re-elected (thus not having to compromise) allows you to act more freely - and will also include some painful and unpopular, but necessary changes.
Chancellor Schröder used some realpolitik, but only after 6 yrs in power. The first 6 yrs he was too worried about popularity before realising the country was going down the drain (staying the course the Christian Democrats had chosen before Schröder and the social democracts took over). So if you do not have to worry about popularity too much (since you cannot be re-elected anyway...) that's a good thing I think.
Re 4: What about the opposition?
We have been mostly speaking about government? But should the opposition not also be under stronger scrutiny???
Cheers from Germany…
Jannie G.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/unionlink/
ReplyDeletecheck out the link above and sign!!
anyone want to pay for the privilege of having dinner with me? anyone?
ReplyDelete