Rochdale, revisited | The Spectator

Rochdale, revisited | The Spectator: "The answer is what I call the British Economic Dysfunction: that our growing economy sucks in people from overseas, rather than reducing dole queues. Unreformed welfare pays people not to work: and I blame the system, not those who follow its perverse incentives. Nor do I blame hardworking immigrants for filling these vacancies."

Pretty much spot on. Pulling in immigrants that pay less tax than the government spends, 11,000 pounds a year, is economic madness. If you pull in low paid immigrants, it just means that those on welfare stay on welfare.

That welfare adds up. 13K a year tax free in lots of cases, for what, 20, 30, 40 years rising with inflation? Half a million isn't unreasonable an estimate. That's a good sized lottery win.

Non Sequitur Comic Strip, September 02, 2010 on GoComics.com

Non Sequitur Comic Strip, September 02, 2010 on GoComics.com

Spot on. Sign up with Lord Blagger, and jump the queue at the Lobbyist entrance.

Expenses – Lords of the Blog

Expenses – Lords of the Blog: "There is of course no formal pay, no holiday or sick pay and no pension so don’t give up your day job if you are coming into the House of Lords!"

Clive Soley advises Lords to sign in, collect expenses and work at another job.

You pay for it.

NHS spunks �7.5k on porn room • The Register

NHS spunks �7.5k on porn room • The Register: "Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust has incurred the wrath of the Sun by spunking �7,500 on a 'special room' kitted out to help chaps deliver vital supplies of man oysters.

The trust's fertility centre shared the cost of 'computer equipment worth �4,625, flat screen TVs costing �2,225 - plus �500 of blue movies' with private outfit North West Fertility."

That's where you cash is going. It's slipping through fingers, and not yours.

Google Reader (287)

Google Reader (287): "The first sleaze row of the new government deepened today when a millionaire Tory donor, who successfully lobbied for the cancellation of a government loan to a promising engineering company, admitted he had wanted to invest in it himself.

Labour accused Andrew Cook – the Tories' largest donor in Yorkshire, who subsidised David Cameron's flights in opposition to the tune of �54,000 – of a conflict of interest after he wrote to the Conservative business minister Mark Prisk in May to warn that an �80m state loan to Sheffield Forgemasters might be illegal under EU law."

Time to get politicians and civil servants out of the decision making process.

You can't bribe all the electorate all of the time.

The Lib Dem MP, the Radio 3 DJ and his dog - Telegraph

The Lib Dem MP, the Radio 3 DJ and his dog - Telegraph: "Tessa Munt, the MP for Wells claimed a single resident’s discount on her council tax, telling her local council she lived alone in her constituency home.

However, the electoral register shows that Mrs Munt is one of three people registered to vote at the Somerset address."

Yet another one on the take....

BBC News - Tory peer Lord Taylor facing expenses prosecution

BBC News - Tory peer Lord Taylor facing expenses prosecution: "Lord Taylor of Warwick has been charged with six counts of false accounting in relation to alleged dishonest claims he made for �11,000 in subsistence costs."

I'm not surprised. Any barister who thinks that its the police who decide to prosecute or not, instead of the CPS is likely to have a very odd view of expenses as well.