We had to laugh – even though it’s far from amusing.
Despite the touchy-feely ‘green tree’ image he’s trying to project, the Eton toff Cameron was never going to change the basic Tory animal from being a sleazy, moneygrabbing, self-seeking con-man.
Citizen readers are no doubt as shocked as we are by this revelation. Who’da thought it?! After months of revelations over sleazy upper-class Tory MPs defrauding the taxpayer over their expenses, you’d have been forgiven for assuming that all MPs would be whiter-than-white from now on, albeit with a few brown stains around the edges.
Nevertheless, it seems that well over a fifth of prospective Tory candidates who think they have a good chance of becoming MPs at the next election, are already working as lobbyists or public relations consultants on behalf of businesses and other interests. Would that be in exchange for money, do you think?
“Several acknowledged that they had set up meetings for clients with Shadow ministers, MPs and officials. More said that they had been asked to provide advice on the party’s direction. A few admitted to having pressed clients’ cases to Tory frontbenchers”, says the Times.
So much for Cameron’s promise to usher in a “new politics”. Once a party of sleaze, always a party of sleaze…
What a bunch of fools are those who heap scorn on the NHS.
Tory MEP Hannan especially.
The Tories have always tried to destroy it through under-funding, and Labour are now too timid to raise taxes to pay for it properly, so a wonderful idea has been bodged up… by politicians.
Those of us who have had cause to use it will admit that there are some minor faults caused by under-funding and an over-dependence on immigrant labour to staff it (the fault of our own morally bankrupt society, and poor educational standards in schools where every child wants to be a pop star, overpaid footballer or hairdresser rather than a nurse or doctor…).
But when it comes to saving lives – for that is what the NHS does, every minute of every day of every year – our National Health Service is a shining gem in the flawed setting we call modern Britain.
The Citizen has reason to be grateful for the wonderful care provided by the NHS and its poorly-treated staff.
The British taxpayer has paid for the NHS over many years and now we’re in danger of letting every idle immigrant, asylum-seeker and freeloader milk it dry at our expense. Sit in the waiting room of an NHS doctor’s surgery or hospital and you’ll see the flock of foreigners queueing up to have their free medical care, operations and drugs… at our expense.
Don’t let these fools and redneck American Republicans (Sarah Palin, for one…) criticise a British institution that most countries would dearly love to have as their own.
Wealthy old Etonian George Osborne, with his family trust fund holding 15% of the toffs’ wallpaper boutique Osborne & Little (wonder how they’re doing in the recession?), wants us all to face the ‘home truth’ that we must work hard for our money to get out of the current recession.
Before his speech in Birmingham, Osborne no doubt received a detailed briefing on the concept of ‘work’, an activity of which he had no previous knowledge, but he obviously grasped the essentials pretty well: make sure you get the plebs and voters to do the work for you.
The prospective Tory Chancellor (or should that be ‘chancer’? -ed.) went on to say “Our banks hold up a mirror to the worst excesses of society”… and presumably he’s been looking into it… in between totting up his receipts from the ‘patrons’ listed in his official declaration of Members Interests, that is:
Mr S Robertson of London
Mr Michael Hintze / CQS
Lord Harris of Peckham/Harris Ventures (is that the carpet-seller?)
Mr Jeremy Isaac
Mr Julian Schild
Sir John Beckwith
Hugh Sloane
AP and Mrs B Yerolemou
Lady Serena Rothschild
Andrew Scott
Hugh Sloane
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Grant Thornton
The European School of Management
The Boston Consulting Group
Smith and Williamson
Brevan Howard Asset Management.
Money for nothing, George?
It’s probably the one subject where he can claim expert knowledge.
Gordon Brown is dragging his heels on reforming the way we fund our politicians.
We at The British Citizen believe that the old system of party politics is, in any case, no longer right for Britain in the 21st century. One of its many flaws is certainly the whole question of party funding, which clearly favours wealthy or financially powerful organisations and individuals rather than the interests of the British people as a whole.
Unless major reform creates a level playing field for the funding of our elected representatives, government will continue to represent fewer and fewer of its ordinary citizens, protecting instead the interests of the wealthy and powerful who fill its coffers with large donations.
Reform is therefore well overdue, and we must not entrust any reform of party politics or funding to politicians themselves, nor anyone appointed by politicians.
The British Citizen wants impartial auditors, arbitrators or ombudsmen to be chosen to investigate and make practical recommendations to the people, without political spin or interference.
Only then can we decide for ourselves how we want to elect and fund our democratic representatives.
Only then can we have faith in the decisions they make on our behalf.
Reform needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.
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