What a state British politics has got into, when hardly a week passes without our hearing that an MP is in trouble, in one way or another and is forced to resign or quit the Whip.
I find it extremely sad that we seem to have a growing number of people in parliament, deciding on the most important matters in running Britain, that simply cannot be trusted to act in a decent manner.
It has led, time and time again with by-elections having to be held to replace the MP who has fallen on his or her sword. Most have been Tories, but other parties haven’t been exempt. For me it demonstrates that political parties are simply not vetting their candidates anything like hard enough and what we have been left with is an epidemic of MPs who have been sexually harassing female staff, groping other men or using electoral funds inappropriately, to name just three examples. Britain deserves better than this.
The latest MP to come under the spotlight is the Tory for Fylde in Lancashire. The Times newspaper broke the story that he had telephoned his 78-year-old former campaign manager at 3.15am last December, saying he was locked in a flat by “bad people” and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”.
The sum, which rose to £6,500, was eventually paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from funds raised from donors in an account named Fylde Westminster Group, the newspaper says.
According to a source close to the MP, he decided to pay them because he was scared of what would happen otherwise, but did not have the funds to transfer the money from his own savings.
There are also other occasions where he allegedly used money from the campaign fund to cover his personal expenses.
For example, in 2020, he reportedly sought £3,000 to cover medical bills, but he did not repay the money and instead asked for and received a further £4,000.
It is important to say that at the time of writing, the MP was disputing all the allegations, but has resigned the Tory whip. It has also been suggested that the Tory party knew of the allegations since January but has taken no action.
Frankly, the sooner this Tory government resigns and allows a General Election, the better. And let us hope that all political parties vet their candidates far more than it seems has been the case, because electors need to know exactly who they are voting for before they they go to the polls.
severe sanctions against Russia
Time and time again we have heard that the US, UK, the EU and other countries have imposed the most severe sanctions against Russia and Russian billionaires since the illegal invasion by Russia of Ukraine.
Well, it seems that all these so-called sanctions have meant absolutely nothing, because the International Monetary Fund, which is expert in the field of examining world-wide finances, predict that Russia’s economy will grow faster than all of the world’s advanced economies, including the US, this year.
The IMF predicts that Russia’s economy will grow by 3.2% this year, significantly more that the UK, France and Germany, for example.
Russia has been busy selling billions of gallons of oil around the world despite sanctions and by so doing has been able to finance its war.
Investments from corporate and state owned enterprises and “robustness in private consumption” within Russia had promoted growth alongside strong exports of oil, say the IMF.
It’s a sad world that there are so many of the world’s richest that can put two fingers up at sanctions and will conduct “business as usual” in their quest to make themselves even richer at the expense of countless thousands dying in the conflict.
On the subject of war, the iron shield protecting Israel against attack from Iranian drones and rockets was almost 99% effective recently.
The protective system, supplied by America, saved many thousands of Jews in Israel from dying in the onslaught. There is no doubt that had the shield failed and there had been a huge loss of life, Israel would by now have responded with venom and we would be at the start of a disastrous Middle East conflict.
But my question is – if America can provide Israel with such an effective deterrent to attack from the air, why hasn’t it done the same to protect Ukraine?
Innocent civilians have been dying in Ukraine for two years because of aerial bombardment and it’s an indictment against America that it has not done more to properly protecting them.
It is even worse with Republicans holding up vital money needed to provide weapons for Ukraine. Their selfishness in this shows no bounds – will America end up with a lot of innocent blood on its hands?
anything more daft than British MPs
I don’t think I have heard anything more daft than British MPs backing a plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes.
Called the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, championed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, it passed in the Commons by 383 votes to 67.
It survived despite opposition from several leading Tory figures, including two ex-Pms.
It means that progressively, more and more people in the UK will legally be unable to buy cigarette products.
I am totally in favour of measures to stop people smoking. Smoking has caused millions of deaths over the years and it sickens me to think of the rich who have invested their money into the tobacco industry and have got super rich in the process, and totally ignoring the suffering it has caused.
In a year or two someone of a certain ago will no longer be able to buy tobacco products. So what will happen? He or she will ask an older friend to buy instead. How on earth can this be properly policed? It is a nonsense.
If you want to ban smoking, then close down every tobacco and vape producing factory without compensation, make it illegal for any tobacco product to be imported into Britain, with massive fines and long prison sentences for anyone doing so and make sure that there is no smoking or vaping in any public place.
safe in your own home?
Do you feel safe in your own home? If the answer is yes, then perhaps you should think again.
No doubt a man in Florida thought so – until something crashed through his roof and ceiling, narrowing missing him.
It turned out to be a piece of space junk from the International Space Station.
Not only is the human race leaving millions of tons of rubbish on land and in the sea, it is doing exactly the same thing in space. It has done so since the first rocket went into orbit and there are now thousands of pieces of debris in orbit.
It’s the old, old story – mankind will spend a fortune of a product or project but overlook any consequences until it hits in the bum.
The theory that space junk will all burn up in the atmosphere has been totally debunked and its important that land, sea and now space need a good clean up.
steps to reintroduce bullfighting
I was saddened to read in last week’s Leader that the Vox party in Orihuela was taking steps to reintroduce bullfighting in the city.
I can understand that such a spectacle, which some Spanish describe as a “national sport”, is enshrined in Spanish culture, but today, the vast majority view it as nothing more that people getting some pleasure from witnessing animal cruelty. Many people believe that today bull fighting is an abomination.
Yes Vox, I can understand why you would like the country to go back to a time when Spain was Spanish. But the majority of people now long for the world to be less cruel and more compassionate, and thus bullfighting has no place today.
It’s the same argument as in Britain where fox hunting, cock fighting and badger baiting has become illegal. And yes, many Brits would like Britain to go back a few decades, before many thousands of immigrants changed the face of the country. But we are where we are, and we all have to come to terms with it.
