The perfect word to describe Little Miss Dorries’ outburst on R4 this morning. I woke to hear her dolcet tones telling us that MPs should be paid three times as much, that the expenses scandal would have been better handled if the media had kept their traps shut and that we should stop worrying our pretty little plebian heads about MPs getting rich at the taxpayers’ expense.
Oh. My. God.
I thought politicians were supposed to reflect the public mood?! Has she been out of her cocoon lately? There is not a wage-earning man or woman in the nation who thinks that this business is acceptable. This issue has engaged people in political debate like no other that I can remember. More people are angry about this than are angry about the Iraq war. With the Iraq invasion there were many in favour. I have not heard a single person defending the way MPs have been boosting their property portfolios at our expense. Show a bit of humility you stupid cow.
Dorries argues that MPs are not paid “commensurately” to their “professional” level. That outburst, Ms Dorries, shows that you are too thick to take orders at McDonald’s. Mr BOM has time and again showed that MPs are over-paid by comparison with their public-sector administrator peers.
I have to say that I think this whole charade shows how badly we have been choosing our “representatives”. It is time for a change. There are clearly not 646 people in Britain with enough of a brain and the willingness to scrutinise the government. The current lot can’t even bear to be scrutinised themselves. We need a clear out.
Lots of people are now saying that we should have open primaries. I could not agree more. I went to one where I used to live a couple of years ago. The local Tory party had short-listed a genuinely diverse band and put the final selection to the local voters who showed up on the day. By no means all were Tory members. Many of the local Labour guard turned up to see how the system would work. I worked beautifully. The candidates all gave a short introduction to themselves and then were quizzed by the audience. We really felt like we got to know their strengths and weaknesses. I suspect that most of the people in the room left thinking “this should happen everywhere”. Make it so, Mr Cameron.
A taxi driver said to me when this scandal was first breaking “at least when we were run by the aristocracy there wasn’t all this grasping, they were rich enough to look after themselves”. Politics is not a profession. Politics is not a way to get rich. Politicians never miss an opportunity to tell us that it is a noble calling, that they are proud to “serve”. It’s time to put your money where your mealy mouths are.
Well it seems that Dickiebo has found an interesting example:
http://dickiebo.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/can-there-be-a-decent-politician/
The typical argument against open primaries seems to be that people from other parties might come in and vote. I’ve always thought that was the point. By allowing everyone to vote for a candidate, you’re more likely to have a candidate more people will like.
Nadine appears to have gone completely bonkers this morning. Apparently the whole expenses scandal is an elaborate conspiracy by The Telegraph backers in order to install racists and celebrities in Parliament.
Okay…
Nadine has certainly not covered herself in glory over this whole incident. Having been forced to explain her living circumstances to deflect the expenses story, I was expecting her to sensibly lay low for a while. Coming out fighting was not exactly a measured response.
At last. A site that doesn’t appear to be locking me out.
65k on its own doesn’t sound particularly high for a job which may only last 4 years. It’s not that the politicians are so grasping …
… it’s that they’re so bloody useless and the country has gone right downhill on their watch.
[...] Eyes is also having a go, quite rightly, at Ms Dorries for her excessive chutzpah. According to Nadine, it seems, the fact that so many MPs are crooks is just shows that MPs need to [...]
“A taxi driver said to me when this scandal was first breaking “at least when we were run by the aristocracy there wasn’t all this grasping, they were rich enough to look after themselves”.”
And at least they played lipservice to manners and were capable of shame – now, we have chavs with more money than they could spend in a lifetime.
I’m not so sure about the aristos not being grasping – but I’ll let that slide.
Burning Our Money made a very good point this morning about whether the current crop of politicians will have the moral authority to introduce the stringent spending cuts and tax rises necessary to get us out of this economic mess following the revelations about their expenses.
Seeing how it is quite likely to be the Tories who have to make those cuts and tax rises and seeing how they are already burdened with being seen, rightly or wrongly, as the party of the wealthy looking after the interests of the wealthy I think that could lead to some “interesting” discussions.
Nadine will know that they have genuinely bought a psychiatrist into the Commons in the last week to look after stressed out MPS.
Post Offices were told they may have to close. These were private business. There was 2 years before the situation was resolved, followed immediately by the POCA decision, now the Royal mail sell off. How much stree does this cause the owners. never knowing when their time will be up or their income streams cut?
If you bought a pub would you have known that the government was about to make your purchase worthless with their taxes and regulations and bans? Which manifesto was that in?
Corner shops are to be hit by the smoking ban too. It will damage their profitability, whatever the merits of preventing smoking, they may have to close.
Bankers were under super stress, which MPs were happy to allow and even encourage if it deflected attention from their regulatory failures.
If you are a teacher you may suddenly have had to completely change your working practices and methods. You may suddenly have had your school merged or closed.You must undergo a CRB and sex offenders check, even if you have no criminal record ever.
If you were a policeman, you are now a social worker…
Companies are going bust and people are being made unemployed. Unemployed with mortgages to pay, families to feed and bleak prospects.. Students can’t find work.
And so on..
Stress. STRESS! She has no idea. Try getting to work yesterday with the tube down. Not everyone can get a cab and claim it on expenses.
{I can obviously, but if it looks like I might have to stand down I will become an ordinary person. Not a happy thought}
Dorries is currently making an ass of herself (surely not..?!) on the ‘Jeremy Vine’ show, having been brought on to talk about how terrible MPs all feel, and how they are all afraid there may be a suicide.
Public sympathy isn’t exactly flocking to her..
I’ve never been part of the Nadine love-fest. Despite Iain Dales constant encouragement. And ‘Wife in the North’ annoys me so much; stuck-up silly cow.
I agree with BQ and JuliaM – they are afraid there might be a suicide? You can’t make it up; they are so afraid that their wanton theft has been found out and someone may react by ending their life? Whilst I would always sympathise with anyone contemplating suicide, the circumstances of this fear.. words can’t express just now. Not with all the farmers who were driven to such in the foot and mouth crisis, the miners, steel, car industry, fishing, etc. etc.
She has highlighted the problem perfectly, though. She does not understand the difference between salary and expenses
That is the one, single, glaring bit of thievery that has annoyed me the most.
I heard her getting a tad hysterical on ‘Today’ – ‘lost the plot’ was my initial thought. I haven’t seen her biggest fan, Mr Dale, say anything about the lovely Nadine and her outbursts.
Hello everyone!
Hoggers – Yeah saw that and laughed/cried. With my non-sterotyping attitude on I will say that I am certain that there are many if not a majority of honest MPs and that we should not tar them all with the same thieving brush. Obviously the sane ones will not attract as much Telegraph attention as the criminal ones.
Stu – The Labour people at the Tory primary presumably thought they could vote in an unsavoury Tory candidate. They were disappointed by the short-list anyway and the chosen candidate cannot be attacked along the usual TOFF! lines…
LFAT – Quite!
EK – You are right, 65k is not a lot if you consider politics to be a career. That is exactly what I am arguing against. I reckon it should not be a full-time job and that it should not be aspirational in terms of cash. It should effectively be community work not a cushy job.
Julia – Haha yes how true!
Stan – Quite!
BQ – Virtually everyone is having a shit time of it at the moment, it just shows how out of touch MPs are thinking that a bit of criticism is “soo unfair!!”. I wouldn’t wish their suicide on their families, or rather I think suicide would be too good for some of them. They should be locked up for a long time. Pour encourager les autres…
Philipa – nor have I, but I think that is because she is so holier than thou on abortion and families.
Patently – yep, same here
Ranter – Dale is too much of an insider to properly criticise his friends.
Phew! thanks for all the comments ladies and gents!
[...] brothers do take it to a whole new level (links to the interviews via Plato says and commentary by Behind blue eyes and of course the inestimable Leg [...]