As Putin tried in vain to look young and virile in photoshoots, Sarkozy has tried in vain to look taller. Both have ended up jusy looking silly.

Both need to play the cards they were genetically dealt with and “get over it!”

Coincidentally I am also 5′5″ but have no need for recruiting short people to stand around me. Saying that, my wife is 5′1″.

Source: BBC News

This will save the taxpayer between £4,000 and £6,000 a year per minister.

Sounds all very laudable unless like Mr. Hague you are taking home the following:

HAGUE, Rt. Hon. William (Richmond (Yorks)
1.	Remunerated directorships
		AES SEAL Plc, Global Technology Centre, Mill Close, Bradmarsh Business Park, Rotherham S60 1BZ; specialists in the design and manufacture of mechanical seals and support systems.
			£2,083 for serving on the board. Hours: 3hrs. (Registered 13 August 2009)
2.	Remunerated employment, office, profession etc
		Parliamentary adviser to the JCB Group (ended 31 July 2009); manufacturer of construction equipment. Address: JC Bamford Excavators Ltd, Rocester, Staffs, ST14 5JP. (£45,001-£50,000)
			£4,166.67 for advising the board. Hours: 4hrs. (Registered 13 August 2009)
		7 June 2008, speech at a lunch in London hosted by Orange Business Services. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 17 June 2008)
		19 September 2008, speech at the Azur Business Networking Lunch in London. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 24 October 2008)
		8 October 2008, speech at the Mortgage Intelligence Annual Conference dinner in Newport. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 24 October 2008)
		16 October 2008, speech at the South Wales Society of Chartered Accountants Annual Dinner in Cardiff. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 24 October 2008)
		12 November 2008, speech at the Annual Dinner of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in London. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 15 December 2008)
		27 November 2008, hosted the Growing Business Awards in London. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 15 December 2008)
		1 December 2008, hosted the Institute of Turnaround Professionals’ Awards Dinner in London. (£15,001-£20,000) (Registered 15 December 2008)
		20 February 2009, speech at a dinner in Geneva for the Association of Business Recovery Professionals. (£15,001-£20,000) (Registered 31 March 2009)
		4 March 2009, speech at a dinner in London for the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 31 March 2009)
		Payment of £38.81 permission fee via my literary agent, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, London WC2B 5HA, for an extract from my biography of Pitt the Younger, published in 2004, which another publisher has been allowed to use. (Registered 14 August 2009)
4.	Sponsorship or financial or material support
		Funds have been provided by the following to cover the cost of research in my role as Shadow Foreign Secretary:
			Merebis Capital Management LLP
			Bruce Macfarlane, London (personal donation) (Registered 9 July 2008)
			Alan Morgan , London (personal donation) (Registered 9 July 2008)
			Bruce Macfarlane, London (personal donation) (Registered 31 March 2009)
		The cost of a reception for Ambassadors which I hosted on 4 June 2008 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Hyde Park was met by CQS. (Registered 9 July 2008)
		The cost of a reception for Ambassadors which I hosted on 30 September 2008 at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham during the Conservative Party Conference was met by CQS. (Registered 24 October 2008)
		The cost of a reception for Ambassadors which I hosted on 11 June 2009 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Hyde Park was met by CQS. (Registered 17 June 2009)
		Name of donor: Malcolm Scott
		Address of donor: private
		Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £10,500 cash donation
		Date of receipt: 23 June 2009
		Date of acceptance: 23 June 2009
		Donor status: individual
		(Registered 15 July 2009 )
5.	Gifts, benefits and hospitality (UK)
		19 May 2008, helicopter from Crewe to London provided by Bearwood Corporate Services Ltd, Southampton. (Registered 17 June 2008)
		In my capacity as Leader of the Conservative Party from 1997-2001, I have accepted Honorary Membership for life of the Carlton Club.
		In my capacity as Leader of the Conservative Party from 1997-2001, I have accepted Honorary Membership for life of Buck’s Club.
		My wife and I received tickets for the Conservative Party’s ‘Black and White Party’ on 4 February 2009, paid for by Cavendish Corporate Finance. (Registered 10 March 2009)
		Name of donor: Grand Central Railway Company Ltd
		Address of donor : River House, 17 Museum Street, York, Y01 7DJ
		Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: complimentary first class pass valid for travel on Grand Central services, business use only, expires 31 March 2010. No value received to date.
		Date of receipt of donation: 8 July 2009
		Date of acceptance of donation: 8 July 2009
		Donor status: company, registration number 03979826
		(Registered 15 July 2009)
6.	Overseas visits
		20-23 October 2008, to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Georgia in my capacity as Shadow Foreign Secretary. The cost of my flights was met by Flying Lion Ltd. (I covered the cost of my hotel accommodation throughout the visit.) (Registered 24 October 2008)
		2-4 November 2008, to Israel in my capacity as Shadow Foreign Secretary. The cost of my flight from the UK to Tel Aviv was met by Flying Lion Ltd. The cost of the return flight, and my hotel accommodation in Israel, was met by Conservative Friends of Israel. (Registered 15 December 2008)
		12-14 December 2008, to Bahrain in my capacity as Shadow Foreign Secretary, to attend the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue. The cost of my accommodation and my return flights from Bahrain to London, was met by the IISS. (Registered 15 December 2008)
		15-17 March 2009, to Havana, for meetings with the Foreign Minister and other politicians. The cost of my return flights was met by Flying Lion Ltd. (I covered the cost of my accommodation.) (Registered 31 March 2009)

Source: Register of Members Interests (Highlights on register)

Hats off to the Murdoch machine for going it alone and announcing an “empty chair” policy if a party leader fails to turn up.

It is nice to see that Cameron and Clegg have backed this from the start leaving Brown out in the cold.

I think this election will present the greatest opportunity to have such a debate in a more than a generation. As Brown is trailing massively in the polls he really has more to gain in a televised debate than Cameron. In fact, Cameron has a fair amount to lose by “going live”.

In both 2001 and 2005 Blair refused a live debate on the advice of Campell et al. and wisely so.

In 2001 he would have faced William Hague who is undoubtedly a formidable speaker and who would have been a very tough opponent for both Blair and Kennedy.

In 2005, Blair would have faced Michael Howard whose TV presence was always more unnerving given his “something of the night” reputation.

The main reason for Blair not facing his opponents in 2001 and 2005 was that he did not want to give the opposition parties credibility.

Brown’s problem is that both the Nick Clegg and David Cameron have more credibility in the public eye than he does.

If Brown fails to fill the empty chair then it will be an admission that he can not win the election and would rather hide in shadows until his post-election resignation.

Even if you think he is innocent of the bombing of Flight 103 the scenes of celebration, albeit limited to a couple of hundred people at the airport, were unacceptable.

Compassion for the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing is equally important as compassion for the family of a dying man.

There is nothing to celebrate in this very sad episode.

As with the release of Train Robber Ronnie Biggs earlier this month on compassionate grounds, I have found myself morally torn as to whether this is the ‘right’ thing to do.

Part of me feels that criminals (which is what they both are) should serve they’re time as sentenced, meaning that both Ronnie Biggs and al-Megrahi would die in prison. People against their release (mainly some victims families) have said that as they did not show compassion to their victims, so neither should we vicariously through the state show compassion.

In an episode of The West Wing (Take this Sabbath Day) the US President, Jed Bartlet, agonises about whether to pardon a prisoner who is about to be executed.

Whilst chatting with his personal aide, Charlie, whose mother was killed in the line of duty, there comes one of the most poignant and insightful pieces of TV dialogue I have ever heard:

Bartlet: What happened to the guy who shot your mother?

Charlie: They haven’t found him yet, sir.

Bartlet: If they did, would you want to see him executed? Killing a police officer is a capital crime; I figure you must have thought about it.

Charlie: Yes, sir.

Bartlet: And?

Charlie: I wouldn’t want to see him executed, Mr President. I’d want to do it myself.

I don’t know what I would think if a member of my family was murdered but it probably wouldn’t be too different from the thoughts of Charlie. That is why we must leave decisions of justice to the state.

In the cases of Biggs and al-Megrahi the decisions made to release them on compassionate grounds were probably the right ones. We, through the state, have shown compassion to them because we are better than they are.

Having a pregnant wife this has been a little annoying to say the least.

Muddled advice does nothing to allay people’s fears, it increases it.

We’ve had weeks of people dying of “underlying health problems” which is so vague that it covers all medical conditions.

The media (inc.BBC) are the guiltiest parties in over egging the fear pudding. The main evidence being the last year’s news cycle where the main story has gone from “Credit Crunch” to “Recession” to “Depression” to “Swine Flu” to “Expenses” to “Swine Flu”.

Since the Millenium Bug, the media has become addicted to End of the World scenarios.

For pity’s sake – enough already.

Hebden Bridge Times coverage

We could not have got this far without the hard work of Hebden Royd councillors and officers, Calderdale Councillors and a specific mention for Cllr. Robin Dixon. This is what politics is really about – getting things done.

One final push to get this street brought up to the standard it deserves.

Can we do it? – YES, WE CAN

Borrowed footage and borrowed music on YouTube.

Courtesy of www.liberal-vision.org

Calder Valley MP Mrs McCafferty has defended the payments, which ended last year.

She said: “MPs need help to do their work and I chose Tim as my consultant, which I am perfectly entitled to do. He was my agent, for which he did not get paid, he has helped to prepare my annual report, write Press releases, laid out leaflets and carried out research.

“I could have employed someone else but I wanted the best person for the job.”

Source: Halifax Courier (My highlighting)

A few unanswered questions here:

1. Was the consultancy post in lieu of being an unpaid election agent – if so, was it recorded in her election expenses?
2. Did Cllr. Swift register this work with the Register of Member’s Interests at Calderdale Council?
3. Did Cllr. Swift register with the inland revenue as a soletrader for tax purposes?
4. Was the leader of the Calderdale Labour group laying out leaflets, writing press releases and carrying out research from a political viewpoint (Labour) rather than a parliamentary (Chris McCafferty) viewpoint? Should this be paid for by the taxpayer?
5. Wouldn’t it be better for the public purse for Chris McCafferty to pay an intern or junior MP wannabe for doing this kind of work?
6. Doesn’t the leader of Labour Group on Calderdale have more pressing things to be doing than writing press releases for the local MP?

The Tories are famous in Calderdale for using Ashcroft monies (£25,000 in 2007) for political campaigning but at least it isn’t taxpayer’s money.

After having a little rumage through my local Calder Valley Labour MP, Chris McCafferty’s redacted expenses forms and I came across something quite interesting.

She seems to be paying the leader of the Calderdale Council Labour group, Tim Swift, £1250 per quarter for consultancy fees from her expenses.

As I do not have the money for paying expensive lawyers, I shall not be making any unsubstantiated accusations or assumptions about these payments but I thought it was worth drawing attention to.

By censoring the expenses the Parliamentary Fee Offices has created more questions than answers.

I do hope Chris and Tim are able to “fill in the blanks” so to speak.

Source: BBC News Page 74