"Springtime for Merkel and Germany, Meltdown for Ireland and Greece"

Richard Littlejohn in The Mail has written a lovely reworking of Mel Brooks' classic from The Producers 'Springtime for Hitler'. It's rather funny and well done...

The Eurozone is having trouble, what a sad, sad story,
Europe needs a leader to restore its  former glory,
Where, oh where, is she?
Right here, in Germany.
She’s the one we need right now,
The original Iron Frau.
And so it’s . . .

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

Meltdown for Ireland and Greece,

We’re marching forward to bankruptcy,

Watching the death of democracy . . .

Showtime for President Sarkozy,
The markets are downgrading France,
Bang goes the doomed single currency,
Come on Germans, go into your dance.
In East Berlin, the volk are hurtin’
Should have stayed behind the Iron Curtain.
Don’t be stupid, be a smarty
Forget the Bunga Bunga Party.

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

Riots in Lisbon and Spain,

Berlusconi is toppled in Italy,

And Deutschland is rising again . . .

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,
Bail-outs for Europe’s bust banks,
Billions of euros gone down the drain,
Come on Germans, start revving your tanks.
Listen to Angela’s sermon
All of Europe’s speaking German.

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

Doomsday for Athens and Rome,

You don’t want to make us your enemy,

We’re creating a brand new hegemony . . .

Crunch time for Britain and Cameron,
Protests on the steps of St Paul’s,
The Tories want out of the Union,
But Cleggy’s got Dave by the . . .

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

Panic on Wall Street and the DAX,

The Bundesbank’s final solution is,

Make the City of London pay tax.

Come on Mervyn, be a honey,
Give us all the City’s money.

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

We’re building a new Fourth Reich,

This shouldn’t come as a mystery,

Not if you study your history . . .

(Grand finale)
And so it’s . . .

Springtime for Merkel and Germany,

The euro is dead on the floor,

Frankfurt is dictating policy,

And soon we’ll be going,

Yes, we are going,

It looks like we’re going to war!

Saturday morning catchup

An apology: I have been very busy at work over the last few weeks and so posting has been reduced from normal levels. As a by-product of this work my Firefox has way too many open tabs and thus keeps crashing. In an effore to clear some tabs, here is a catchup...

1) Con Coughlin in The Telegraph explains why 'The Arab Spring is becoming an Islamist takeover' with special reference to Tunisia.


2) The Express report that 'A SOLDIER killed in Afghanistan had £433 deducted from his final pay because he had failed to complete “a full month’s” work.
Lance Corporal Jordan Bancroft, 25, was shot dead in Helmand province in August 2010. More than year later, as the Ministry of Defence finally settled his outstanding wages, £433.13 was deducted because he had died 10 days before pay day. '


3) The excellent UN Watch reports that '45 NGOs urge UN Human Rights Council’s Jean Ziegler to resign for founding “Gaddafi Human Rights Prize”' The story of the UN's dalliance with vile states is an outrage that should get more publicity.


4) The Mail reports that 'NHS writes off more than £40m in unpaid bills owed by foreign nationals'


5) Richard Littlejohn points out an inconvenient truth about those arrested at Dale Farm - 'None of those arrested lived on the site. They were full-time agitators who went to Basildon to confront the police. It was a battle of their choosing and they can have no complaints. They fought the law and the law won.

The police acted with commendable patience and restraint. Casualties were kept to a minimum. Even the demonstrator who was Tasered managed to pick himself up and melted back into the crowd, so he couldn’t have been that badly hurt.'


6) Jihad Watch
report that Underwaer bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has declared that "Participation in jihad against the United States is considered among the most virtuous of deeds in Islam and is highly encouraged in the Quran."


7) The Moose finds that his most popular post is not politics related but nipple related (Sabrina "Boys, Boys, Boys")The excellent . I feel your pain sir, just google Felicity Kendal's nipples and see whose site is at the top of the list!

Thursday afternoon catch-up

The usual story; too many open tabs and nowhere near enough time.

1) Are Hezbollah setting up a base in Cuba? Naharnet have the story:

'A U.S. Republican lawmaker has warned that Hizbullah could build "missile sites" in Cuba and pose a threat to the United States.

"Why would you normalize trade with a country that sponsors terror?" Rep. Michele Bachmann asked an audience of supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Monday, in response to a question about her position on trading with Cuba.

"There are reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hizbullah,” she said.

The Shiite party “is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don't want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hizbullah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. This would be foolish," she added.

Bachmann was apparently referring to an unsourced report in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera earlier this month about how a handful of Hizbullah members have set up some sort of encampment in Cuba.

The report was never backed up in major publications but was picked up by conservative blogs like Glenn Beck's The Blaze and Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace.'

2) Has the Obama government armed Mexican drugs barons? pajamas media says that they have, that it is not accidental and that the Obama supporting media have deliberately ignored the story:

'Monday’s revelations by Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea at the Gun Rights Examiner, corroborated here at PJMedia and expounded upon at Fox News, comprise a “smoking gun” of the one of the most stunning political scandals in U.S. history.

As William Lajeunesse writes at Fox:

Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel — the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.

I don’t wish to understate it: elements of the U.S. Departments of Justice, State, Homeland Security, and Treasury are responsible for supplying an arsenal to narco-terrorists waging a civil war against an American ally. Our federal government may bear responsibility for at least 200 murders committed with “walked” firearms, in what Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales describes as a “betrayal” of her country by the Obama administration.

...

But despite the revelations from of documents and testimony obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and repeated calls for full disclosure from senators and congressmen, mainstream media organizations have done everything in their power to bury the scandal. This can only be viewed as a partisan media’s attempt to protect a criminal executive branch.'

3) What really caused the Eurozone crisis? The Street Light Blog has an interesting quotation from Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, from his recent piece in the Financial Times:

Whatever role the markets have played in catalysing the sovereign debt crisis, it is an undisputable fact that excessive state spending has led to unsustainable levels of debt and deficits that now threaten our economic welfare.

4)  Are BBC employees more 'of the left' than 'of the right'? The BBC is meant not to be biased, indeed we are told that impartiality is in its genes. This old Conservative Home piece says otherwise:

'One of the great things about Facebook is that you can find the nichest of niche groups of like-minded people. It has an advertising package to match. You can, for example, upload an ad banner that will appear 10,000 times to female twenty-somethings who live in York and enjoy listening to jazz. This kind of micro-targeting has got to be the next stage of the Party's online advertising campaign. The advertising package has other uses...

BBC employees went Facebook mad earlier this year with 10,580 now having profiles on the social networking site. Many of them chose to specify their political views as either liberal, moderate or conservative (there isn't a socialist option available to the chagrin of many). An advanced search reveals that more than 11 times the number of BBC employees on Facebook list themselves as liberal than conservative:
BBC - 10,580
BBC liberals - 1,340
BBC moderates - 340
BBC conservatives - 120

Former BBC journalist Robin Aitken, who has still yet to be properly interviewed by any of his many former colleagues about his whistle-blowing on its institutional biases, said you couldn't make a cricket team out of the number of Tories at the corporation. He wasn't far wrong!

To show that these proportions don't merely reflect the fact that the student-dominated Facebook is full of young liberal trendies anyway, a search of the UK-wide Facebook population reveals a liberal to conservative ratio of just 2.5 to 1, that's four times less liberal than those on the BBC network:
UK -  6,407,580
UK liberals - 545,240
UK moderates - 251,320              
UK conservatives - 216,660
Narrowing it down to the London network where most BBC employees reside, the ratio is still just nigh of 3 to 1 at 147,340 to 51,760.'

5) Social engineering in education continues apace, as The Independent reports that:

'A controversial plan to rank all A-level students according to the schools they attend – which would allow universities to discriminate against pupils from private schools – is unveiled today by Britain's biggest exam board.

The plan by the exam board AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) provoked a storm of argument among academics and independent schools. There were immediate fears that candidates will be penalised simply because they achieve good A-level results at a good school. Independent schools are also alarmed that the approach could discriminate against disadvantaged pupils to whom they have offered scholarships.'

6) I dislike Marcus Brigstocke, well who doesn't, so I was pleased to see this New Statesman article from 2008 , here's the conclusion:

'All Brigstocke does is preach to the choir. He is the poster boy for an effete, obsolete, undergraduate, Meccano-set humour that can be snapped together in short order. Absolutely nobody, apart from BBC commissioning editors, thinks Brigstocke is funny. He is, in fact, the very opposite of funny. He is the new Jim Davidson.'

7) The Mail discovers that a convicted aider of would-be Islamic terrorists cannot be deported because of human rights legislation and as a result travels on the very tube trains, amongst the very people that he was convicted of trying to assist in the killing of. Richard Littlejohn  has his own take on the story.


8) Archbishop Cranmer ties together the fuss over Andy Coulson receiving severance pay after leaving News International and whilst being employed by the Conservative party with the lack of fuss over Chris Patten's  EU pension. The EU pension point is one that I have raised over and over again, most often with reference to Peter Mandelson. Here's part of the Archbishop's article:

'Robert Peston (BBC) broke the story (which some already knew) that Mr Coulson continued to receive money as part of a 'severance package'. His Grace has done a bit of fishing around on this, and such arrangements are not at all unusual under 'compromise agreements': the reasons may relate to taxation, or some clause to stagger payments to ensure the compromise conditions are met. So the issue appears to be that Mr Coulson was apparently serving two masters - in the words of John Prescott, he was a 'double agent being paid by the Tories & Murdoch'.

If that is the principal objection - or perception - how can Lord Patten simultaneously be Chairman of the BBC Trust and in receipt of an EU pension? He readily gave up jobs (with the Global Leadership Foundation, the International Crisis Group and Medical Aid to Palestine) which might have been perceived as a conflict of interests, but his EU pension of around £100,000 per annum continues to be paid.

Lord Patten's pension is conditional upon him doing nothing to harm the interests of the European Union. According to Article 213 of the Treaty establishing the European Community:

The Members of the Commission shall, in the general interest of the Community, be completely independent in the performance of their duties.

In the performance of these duties, they shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government or from any other body. They shall refrain from any action incompatible with their duties. Each Member State undertakes to respect this principle and not to seek to influence the Members of the Commission in the performance of their tasks.

The Members of the Commission may not, during their term of office, engage in any other occupation, whether gainful or not. When entering upon their duties they shall give a solemn undertaking that, both during and after their term of office, they will respect the obligations arising therefrom and in particular their duty to behave with integrity and discretion as regards the acceptance, after they have ceased to hold office, of certain appointments or benefits. In the event of any breach of these obligations, the Court of Justice may, on application by the Council or the Commission, rule that the Member concerned be, according to the circumstances, either compulsorily retired in accordance with Article 216 or deprived of his right to a pension or other benefits in its stead.

...

 

The BBC already manifests considerable pro-EU bias, but Lord Patten is perceptibly unable to address this lest he be accused of acting against the interests of the Union.

Now, Lord Patten may be an honorable man. But, as Lord Prescott has pointed out, there is the perception of a conflict - of being a 'double agent'.

Why, pray, is the media kicking up such a fuss over payments to Andy Coulson from 2007, but not batting an eyelid over the hundreds of thousands of pieces of silver still being paid to keep the state broadcaster in thrall to the EU?'

9) Why are Turkey kicking up such a fuss over Israel and also Cyprus? The answer is not just anti-Semitism, it is also Gas - lots of GAS. Eagle Speak has the full story:

'So, Turkey has been shaking the war stick at Israel, making big noise over the Israeli blockade of Gaza that last year resulted in the stopping of Turkish ship and the violence that followed. In addition, Turkey is most unhappy with the discovery of large amounts of natural gas beneath the waters off Israel and Cyprus.

...

For Cypriots who always had an Arab-envy, seeing their neighbors drawn in oil while they have to import every drop of it, has been frustrating if not intoxicating. Loren Steffy, the business columnist for the Houston Chronicle, reports: “Just as the Israeli discoveries may transform that country from an energy importer to an exporter, a similar find off the coast of Cyprus could turn the island nation into a major European energy hub”.

Terry Gerhart, the Vice President for international operations of Houston-based Noble Energy declares: “Cyprus could be on the verge of a natural gas revolution. Gas will strengthen the Cypriot economy for decades to come. Cyprus will become the Mediterranean’s energy hub”.

Well, maybe - both Cyprus and Israel are going to have some serious challenges - as noted here:

From Israel, there is good news and bad news.

The good news – and it is huge – is that Israel will soon be awash in natural gas. Gas discovered on the country's outer continental shelf will turn the country from being hydrocarbon-deprived to being a net exporter.

Indeed, Israel is set to become so rich that it is laying the groundwork for creating a sovereign wealth fund for overseas investments in order to protect the country from inflation and the shekel from getting too strong.

The bad news is that with Hezbollah poised to control Lebanon's government, Iran has de facto arrived on Israel's northern border. Even without an Iranian nuclear weapon, this is a grave deterioration in Israel's security.

Already Lebanon has asked the United Nations to guarantee that Israel does not violate the integrity of Lebanon's outer continental shelf, where Iran plans to help Lebanon drill for gas.

Geology is about to change the political geography of the world's most combustible neighborhood.

The two huge gas discoveries are in the Tamar and Leviathan fields. Taken together, the gas reserves are estimated at 26 trillion cubic feet or 10 times larger than Britain's North Sea discoveries.

Since its creation in 1948, Israel has drilled on land for oil and gas with very little success. While the Arab Gulf countries have found and produced massive quantities of oil and gas, Israel has scrounged in the international markets for its hydrocarbons, including coal.

Israel's isolation made this difficult and expensive. In recent years, it has bought gas from Egypt. But Egypt will lose its good customer.

Turkey, once Israel's only Moslem friend – until the botched seizure of a humanitarian ship bound for blockaded Gaza – will be affected too. There were plans for a pipeline that would carry gas from Azerbaijan across Turkey and undersea to Israel. That economic boost will no longer be going to Turkey, but instead will probably go to Greece and Greek Cyprus. There have been preliminary discussions between Israel and Greece about shipping gas through Greece, by an undersea pipeline or a liquefied natural gas train, as an entry point into Europe.

So now, we see new headlines Turkey rattles sabres over Cypriot natural gas drilling:

Prospects of an underwater natural gas bonanza in the eastern Mediterranean have sparked a fresh row between Turkey and the divided island of Cyprus that is also embroiling Greece and Israel.

The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, warned last week that he was ready to send warships to the area, both to escort Turkish aid convoys to the Gaza Strip and to monitor Cypriot and Israeli energy projects.

How far Turkey is prepared to escalate tensions will become clearer in coming days.

A Texas-based company, Noble Energy, is due to launch exploratory drilling south of Cyprus soon on behalf of the Greek Cypriots, who represent the island internationally and in the European Union.

Asked about those plans, Egemen Bagis, Turkey's EU minister, warned this month: "It is for this [reason] that countries have warships. It is for this that we have equipment and train our navies."

In the past, Turkey has proved ready to back its positions in maritime disputes with military muscle.

Why is Turkey involved? Ah, the "Cyprus Problem!" '

Turkey invaded and occupied Northern Cyprus but that  gives them a foothold on the island and thus the chance to try and lay claim to Cyprus's gas finds...


10) Finally as the Eurozone gets closer and closer to the abyss, Stop Turkey has an interesting article:

'Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has called for a United States of Europe to be created with Turkey as a full member and Russia as an associate member.

We should "not dither any longer, but get serious with the European core," he said, pointing to the international competition of different world region: otherwise Europe and its nation states will "sink into insignificance" between Asia under Chinese leadership and a re-strengthened America. Schröder supports the goal of a United States of Europe that Ursula von der Leyen[a German politician] had brought up. "The Europe I imagine is more strongly integrated, supplemented with the membership of Turkey and an association with Russia."

Since leaving political office, Schröder has been involved in energy and pipeline projects that involve Russia and Turkey.

He also calls for a joint European finance minister:

"National sovereignty must be relinquished", referring to parliamentary budget rights.

"What the national parliaments give up must go to the European parliament as the highest authority." In addition, he imagines that a "special committee" of the EU parliament could be formed, "consisting of the members of the Euro zone and taking over this monitoring function".

"Great Britain creates the biggest problems." The country is not in the euro, "but the British still want to have a say in the design of the business area." That doesn't go together.'

The answer is always closer union and bringing Turkey into the EU will aid in the destruction of the Judeo-Christian identity of the EU.

Sunday morning catchup

1) The Blaze spots that scientists have discovered a planet with a Death Star revolving around it...

2) The Mail wonders at the labour party's definition of equality.


3) Richard Littlejohn wonders how history would have differed had the IRA not bombed The Grand hotel in Brighton. Would Norman Tebbitt have succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister rather than John Major. I wonder what that would have done to the UK's dalliance with the EU.


4) Watts Up With That isn't falling for thE LINe that Arctic ice is reducing and has the figures to prove it.


5) Max Farquar is not impressed with Anthony Richardson's 'apology' for that video - I remember blogging about the incident at the time.


6) The Anger of a Quiet Man is not happy that he cannot say what a representative of an ethcic minority can say:

'It comes to something when we have to rely upon a representative of an ethnic minority group to say in the MSM what all the rest of us are thinking and occasionally saying to our friends about certain ethnic minority groups. Such is the hold of political correctness and not saying the "bleeding obvious" on our political representatives that for your average (white) politician to say what Baroness Flather did say would be tantamount to political suicide complete with ritual disembowelment from certain sections of certain sections of the media lead no doubt by politicians of the left.'

The subject?

'BRITAIN’S first female Asian peer has stirred up a storm by claiming that some immigrant families have large numbers of children simply to milk the benefits system.'

7) Christopher Booker is still pointing out the absurbity of wind farms in the UK. Christopher Booker talks more sense about thissubject than almost anyone else I read, and certainly more than Chris Huhne.


8) The Globe & Mail have some ideas for alternativeafternoon teas in London. Here's my favourite from their list:

'Men’s Afternoon Tea
TWIST: Men are invited to a tea of their own, complete with more “manly” fare – mini-cheeseburgers and steak sandwiches instead of egg mayonnaise with watercress – and an optional glass of single-malt whisky. Diversions such as backgammon are also offered.
BIGGEST PLUS: Steak and whisky – what’s not to like?
ADDED BONUS: One table may order from multiple tea menus, choosing from the Men’s Tea, the Fashion Ladies Tea or the Gluten-Free Tea.
REASON TO RETURN: At $9.50 (£6) a dram, the selection of whiskies offered is not only broad, but also economically priced.
NOT SO GREAT: Finding the hotel on foot based on the woefully inadequate map available at the website is a frustrating task.
DETAILS: 1 to 5:30 p.m. at The Mandeville Hotel, 8-14 Mandeville Place; West End; mandeville.co.uk. From $42 (£26.50, £32.50 with a glass of whisky or champagne).'

9) Israel National News report that 'Clinton Adviser Greenberg is Behind Israeli Protests'. An interesting article that you won't hear of on the anti-Israel BBC.


10) Watts Up With That also have some facts and figures to show that reporting of Antarctic ice levels are often misleading and alarmist.

The efficiency of Wind Farms - per Richard Littlejohn

Richard Littlejohn in The Mail takes Wind Farms to task, using much that I and others have been pointing out for some time now.

'In percentage terms, how much electricity do Britain’s 3,150 wind ­turbines supply to the ­National Grid?

Is it: a) five per cent; b) ten per cent; or c) 20 per cent? Come on, I’m going to have to hurry you. No conferring.

Time’s up. The correct answer is: none of the above. Yesterday afternoon, the figure was just 1.6 per cent, according to the official website of the wholesale electricity market.

Over the past three weeks, with demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing.

It gets better. As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate.

Even on a good day they rarely work above a quarter of their theoretical capacity. And in high winds they have to be switched off altogether to prevent damage.

At best, the combined output of these monstrosities is equal only to that of a single, medium-sized, gas-fired power station.'

Read the rest of Richard Littlejohn's article, read my recent postings regarding Wind Farms (you could start with this one and this one), dig around the Internet and find out the truth about the efficiency of Wind Farms and then spread the news...

'The BBC has decided to set itself up as the official Opposition. Its news agenda is dominated by 'the cuts'.'

Richard Littlejohn in The Mail has also noticed that the BBC is in full pro-Labour/anti-Tory attack mode at present and he does not approve:

'The BBC has decided to set itself up as the official Opposition. Its news agenda is dominated by 'the cuts'.

Channel 4 News isn't much better, but it doesn't have the reach of the Beeb.

No bulletin is complete without a hand-wringing report from a sink estate somewhere in Britain, warning of the devastating consequences for the 'poorest in society' - even though the full details of the spending package aren't due until October and will almost certainly hit the middle classes hardest.

Reporters deliver their dispatches knee deep in bewildered, multi-ethnic nursery school children - the implication being that 'the cuts' are not only heartless, they're racist, too.

All pretence of objectivity has gone out of the window. Auntie is hell-bent on talking the economy down and blaming everything on 'the coalition cuts'.

BBC editors are determined to drive a wedge between the coalition partners. In a ludicrous interview this week, the Today programme's 'Prince Albert', Evan Davis, kept hounding Nick Clegg over his failure to impose 'progressive' policies on David Cameron.

Would he have given Clegg such a hard time if the Lib Dems had got into bed with Labour in a coalition of the losers? What do you think?

It's a pity the BBC didn't devote even half as much energy to exposing Labour's culture of reckless waste and drunken-sailor extravagance, which has brought Britain to the brink of bankruptcy.

BBC hacks hate the fact that most voters are quite content with the performance of the coalition so far - something confirmed this week by a poll in The Guardian, of all places.

Someone should tell the BBC its beloved Labour Party lost. Get over it.'

I have news for you Mr Littlejohn, the BBC have long been the mouthpiece/attack dog of the Labour party and what they are doing now is little different from what they have been doing for years.

When satire becomes too close to a believable future reality

"The State of Emergency introduced in May 2010 is to be extended for another five years, Prime Minister-for-Life Gordon Brown announced in London yesterday.

Such was the scale of the crisis facing the country that a General Election could only lead to instability.

Labour would continue in power indefinitely, Brown pledged. He was getting on with the job, taking the difficult decisions, which is what people wanted him to do."

Richard Littlejohn imagines life in the UK in 2015, wh's to say that much might come true?

Peter Mandelson and his "blind trust"

Richard Littlejohn has some questions about Peter Mandelson and his "blind trust".

The Phoney Four - unveiled

Richard Littlejohn in fine form with the tale of "extraordinary greed, arrogance and incompetence which led to the collapse of one of the world's great countries". Do take a read.

The end of an era

"The curtain is finally coming down on Britain's longest running unreality show. Now in its 13th year, it has suffered a catastrophic collapse in ratings as viewers have become bored and deserted in droves.

Once hailed as an exciting social experiment, whose sole purpose was 'education, education, education', the series has descended into little more than a repellent freak show.

New Labour has demeaned its contestants and audience alike, coarsened our culture, debased living standards, promoted a climate of bullying and exhibitionism and lowered Britain's standing around the world. It has become a byword for corruption and incompetence, obsessed with sex, greed and racism."

Richard Littlejohn in The Mail on the freakshow comparisons between Big Brother and the Labour Government.

Take a read of:

Richard Litlejohn in the Mail on Peter Mandelson:

"It is simply accepted as perfectly natural that an unelected recidivist, twice forced to resign from the government in disgrace, should be parachuted into the House of Lords by an unelected, utterly discredited Prime Minister and proclaimed 'the most powerful man in Britain'.

The political pack has abandoned any pretence of proper scrutiny, preferring instead the soft option of taking dictation. I realise that even by writing this I could be accused of being complicit in this nauseating flying circus. But someone's got to do it.

Screaming Lord Mandelson represents everything rotten about our so-called democracy - arrogance, cynical contempt for the paying public, institutionalised dishonesty, an exaggerated sense of entitlement and the complete absence of shame.

National treasure, he ain't."

Not a fan then Richard?

The questions Gordon Brown should have been asked

Richard Littlejohn lists the questions that he thinks interviewers should have asked Gordon Brown recently:

"Not for the first time, I'm left wondering why anyone bothers to interview Gordon Brown.

He is genetically incapable of giving an honest answer to a straight question and cloaks everything in a bogus morality.

Brown sticks to his script and drones on regardless of what he has been asked. He lies, dissembles, completely ignores the question, refuses to accept any responsibility for anything, or tries to claim credit for something which is actually nothing to do with him.

Half the time he doesn't even get asked the right questions.

Both Andy Marr and Evan Davis had the opportunity to ask him about his own expenses claims, but flunked it.

It would have been a waste of time, obviously, but the interviews could have gone something like this. . .

'Prime Minister, for the past 12 years you have lived virtually free-of-charge in a grace-and-favour flat in Downing Street. Why were you claiming second-home allowance on a property five minutes' walk from the Palace of Westminster?'

'What people want me to do is get on with the job . . .'

'Actually, what people want is a General Election, but we'll come back to that. You spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on that property, even splitting the cost of a new kitchen over two accounting periods to claim the maximum available...'

'Look, I'm disgusted and that's why we are setting up a National Committee on Constitutional Renewal. . .'

'Why have you now put that flat in your wife's name? Is it to avoid Capital Gains Tax when you come to sell it?'

'Appalled, angry, Presbyterian conscience, moral compass, Gentlemen's Club...'

'Why have you flipped your second home to your house in Scotland and renovated that at taxpayers' expense, too?'

'My father was a Church of Scotland minister. . .'

'Do you regret selling Britain's gold reserves at car-boot sale prices, now that it's risen to over $950 an ounce?'

'I was brought up in a family where integrity and telling the truth. . .'

'Then why don't you just answer the bloody question?'

'This is a global financial crisis, which began in America. I am getting on with the job...'

'Prime Minister, go away.' "

All joking aside, the questions about Gordon Brown's housing arrangements do seem to be off the agenda of all interviewers. I would like to know two things.

First why our Prime Minister who has lived for the past 12 years in grace-and-favour accommodation in Downing Street claimed second-home allowance on a property five minutes' walk from the Palace of Westminster?

I'd also like to know how he justifies the transfer of his flat to his wife, you can read more about that here.


It seems to me that interviewers, especially BBC ones) are too respectful of Gordon Brown, maybe as well they are scared of what he might do in revenge for being asked a really probing question.

Richard Littlejohn on the real expenses scandal

Richard Littlejohn has Alistair Darling in his sights...

"We're talking here about the Chancellor of the Exchequer not just claiming back his stamp duty but charging the taxpayer for an accountant to advise him how to avoid paying tax on his ill-gotten gains.

If this story had come out in isolation, Darling would not only have been forced to resign, the Old Bill would be beating a path to his door.

Think about it for a moment. The man responsible for hiking taxes is using public money to buy the best advice on how not to pay those very same taxes himself.

He has also lied about where he lives to claim the maximum amount in expenses. Darling flipped his address not just once, but four times. One of the flats in question was passed like a tray of biscuits from Gordon Brown to Darling via a dodgy peer called Moonie, last seen being investigated as part of the cash-for-influence scandal. "

Richard Littlejohn is Bob Dylan

"Come gather round comrades wherever you are, And admit that this time, Gordon Brown's gone too far, The men in white coats are approaching the door, The Government isn't worth saving, His performance on YouTube, it was the last straw, He isn't just mad, he's stark raving.

Come loyal backbenchers and vote with your feet, The pollsters all say you will lose your safe seat, It's six-to-four on that you're gonna get beat, The way that this madman's behaving, Your party is heading for certain defeat, For the times they are a-changin'.

Come Cabinet ministers, you all know the score, Put down your red boxes and run for the door, Admit that New Labour is dead on the floor, The roof wasn't fixed and it's raining, Forget Alan Johnson or Jolly Jack Straw, It's not just the leader needs changing.

Come Westminster pundits, you all got it wrong, You told us that Gordon was clever and strong, But then he turned out to be weak all along, Though he pretended the world he was saving, And now that he's finished, you're achangin' your song, Because Gordon is drowning, not waving.

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast, At the General Election, you're gonna come last, The days of dear Prudence are all in the past, You've stolen our pensions and savings, Unemployment and taxes are going up fast, And we're going to vote Call Me Dave in."

Many thanks to Richard Littlejohn in The Mail for that pastiche of The Times They Are A Changing

Jacqui Smith;'s husband - Richard Littlejohn completely misses the point

Richard Littlejohn has a well directed rant about Jacqui Smith, her husband and other Labour .... However he completely misses the point, well two points:
1. Why is Jacqui Smith's husband paying for TV pay-per-view porn, has he never heard of the Internet?
2. Who on earth watches Oceans 13, twice?

No I am not taking this story too seriously, the Labour government is beyond parody and beyond belief - the sooner it goes, the better.

"Malignant, malevolent, mendacious"?

I don't think that Richard Littlejohn is Peter Mandleson's biggest fan. In fact I would go as far as to say that lines like

"Putting this odious, discredited creep back into one of the great offices of state is an affront to any definition of decency."

lead me to believe that Richard Littlejohn thinks that Peter Mandleson might not be an entirely positive part of British public life.

The speech David Cameron won't make

Richard Littlejohn has written the speech he would give if he was David Cameron. He's not and I don't think David Cameron's speech will bear much resemblance to this speech, nor do I think that David Davis would have given such a speech if he had won the leadership election instead of David Cameron. However, it is way past the time that David Cameron and the rest of the Conservative shadow cabinet stopped being nice and cuddly to try and stop the BBC from crushing them, and realise that that a lot of the public have finally realised what this Labour government have got away with for 10 years and want some attacks on this Labour government. Forget being nice, get Gordon.