A Golden Bullet Of Trust

The race is on to find a golden 'trust' bullet to capture the political high ground after the squalid expenses racket, clear the air, make peace with voters and come out with a scrap of dignity. Today Brown delivers a speech on 'crime', Mandelson one on 'enterprise'. How ironic. 'Crime' and 'enterprise' go hand in hand,  as the sordid MPs expenses scandal shows no signs of abating. 

Both Brown and Cameron are scrabbling around to get themselves out of the mess. 

Today there's a once in a political lifetime opportunity for Dave and Gord to grasp the nettle and find a golden bullet without shooting themselves in the foot. The alternative is to let the whole sorry mess rot and fester away and drag any dignity parliament has left down with it. 

Battered Brown's political cabinet will today try to salvage something from the wreckage of his doomed premiership. But Guardianista Blair babe, Polly Toynbee, has launched a devastating attack on bunkered Brown, urging Labour MPs to dump him. With friends like Toynbee who needs enemies. 

Ex-Labour Party general secretary, Peter Watt, has already blown the gaff on the brutal style of Brown tribal politics. He'll look for someone to blame, a scapegoat, a sacrificial lamb for the slaughter. 

McCavity's track record on bold, decisive decisions isn't good but both Brown and Cameron need to restore trust to break free from the stranglehold of sleaze and scandals. 

For both the answer is easy: Tell their  greedy lot  in the most blatant cases to pay back their ill-gotten gains and scram with their tails between their legs.

Today's Telegraph revelations centre on Tory toffs swanking it up on their country estates at the taxpayers expense. Whatever next? The pope's catholic and bear shit's found in woods? 

Anyone who believes the old feudal aristocracy has been transformed into a shiny new liberal democracy is living in cloud cuckoo land. They just packed the wellies in the Range Rover and found a new home in the commons. 

Exposing a rotten culture of ''bung it all on expenses" reinforces the public's disgust with the rotting expenses system. But at the heart is the shocking scandal of the greedy crooks and spivs who've flipped their second homes to  fiddle MPs expenses with one hand and the tax man with the other. 

That is the most damning outrage and indictment of an expenses system which is rotten to the core. And it is that which needs to change now. 

Scrap the scandalous second homes allowance altogether. Replace it with a fixed rate 'London living' allowance for all MPs outside the capital. Ruthlessly cut back the rest of the freebie allowances and expenses which MPs can claim. 

But fat chance that would get past the disgraced commons, speaker Michael Martin.

Labour back-bencher Kate Hoey was shot down in flames with a disgusting display of arrogance when she had the audacity to challenge the speaker and there lies the problem.

Trying to get any kind of reform past New Labour's gatekeeper is impossible while Martin remains in office. 

Hoey is outside the government's New Labour loop. Martin's job has been to set a loop so wide, MPs can drive 4x4s through it, making it a doddle for his cronies to swagger through. 

The Orange Party can spot a handful of decent and honourable MPs and takes its cloth cap off to them. 

Labour's Hoey is one, LibDem Norman Baker and Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell two others. But out of 300 odd MPs not many and none among the rancid New Labour cabinet and ministers and Tory money-grabbers. Only a honest handful as the Telegraph dishes up a daily diet of drip-fed disgrace. 

Both Dave and Gordon needs to act and act now, Clegg too before the Telegraph turns on his lot. Stop the June 4 English local shire and Euro elections turning into an anti-politician shambles.

Withdraw the whip from MPs with blatant and flagrant expenses excesses, make them pay back the cash, name and shame them and hound them out of Westminster. And start with the excuse for a speaker who's turned out to be a national disgrace.

The weekend of spinning and bleating about only obeying orders and "following the rules", blaming it on "the system" are well and truly over and cut no ice in the court of public opinion. Shame on the spinners who fed them those lines.

Brown and Cameron's two sorries were too late. Brown’s disastrous premiership is over. This sleazy scandalous parliament should be over too. What is needed is bold, trusted leadership and a fresh start to clear the rotten air. And that means a general election now.

Brown still needs to find a golden 'trust' bullet and fire a final shot to break out of the relentless round of sleaze and scandals for the sake of his Party.  He should start with a purge of his crooks and second-rate spivs.

But, as the government in waiting, it’s how Cameron deals with the squalid scandals among his own kind that matters most.

As the quest to find that golden bullet to break out of the squalid mess intensifies, for Brown, his bullet has got his name on it.

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Two Sorries, Two Browns, Too Late

Freshly made-up Brown bounced back with a fulsome apology and a new make-over over the expenses scam which has rocked Westminster and left MPs in a cold sweat. Only it was all a tad too late. Darn Dave had got in there before him. 

After hiding away for days in the bunker while the flippin' New Labour expenses scam exploded in his face, battered Brown suddenly found his make-up bag and popped up to say 'sorry', sort of, as he played followed the (new) leader. 

But in a cunning piece of political timing, the spluttering S-word only came out after some front-bench Tories were slammed as a rotten lot of greedy chancers. Cameron had already got in quick with an apology, quick as a flash, last night. Though tomorrow could be a bad day for back-bench Tories bracing themselves for the Telegraph's damaging drip-feed.

Bad timing, crafty political footwork or unable to make up his mind about whether to use Polyfilla or foundation cream?

MPs expenses are a sick joke. But whatever the political colours, it's all too little too late. The Orange Party prefers the pale and interesting look but even with the make-up cannot get its head round exactly which bits Brown is apologising for. 

Is it "the system" of a flipping second homes fiddle which has been festering for years on his watch? 

Is is the stark truth that a decade of power has left greedy cabinet and low-life ministers taking the easy ride on the gravy train?

Or maybe with some Tories in the firing line at last, now was a good day to bury the bad news about his cronies who've been milking the system for all its worth in both houses of parliament. Time to come over all statesman-like. And orange.

Pale-faced Brown was left red-faced this morning after the Sun reported his make-up tips had been left in a taxi by a bungling aide. But no doubt he can claim it all on expenses. Isn't that what Blair did with his make-up bill?

Despite the make-over and half-baked apology hard questions over squalid expenses still remain. Today's 'sorry' has taken the heat off Cameron's Tories and thrown the ball back in Brown's court. 

So why not just scrap expenses altogether? Fix a salary tied to a civil service spine, couple it with a single flat rate London living allowance for all MPs outside the capital and cut back on the over generous freebie first-class travel and the like. 

After all, MPs go into politics to serve the people not feather their own nest. Somehow it's unlikely that radical plan will get past the speaker. 

But what has been scotched is the flammed up spinning plan dreamt up by Blair's knighted MP Sir Stuart Bell to use the smokescreen of a new audit fees office to hide receipts from FOI laws after a timely intervention by the Times. 

Meanwhile back in the real world, for everyone else struggling to make ends meet, it's still the economy stupid. 

No doubt the Supreme Leader is wrestling with the great affairs of state. How to wrong-foot the Tories and knife his own kind in the back, what to do about getting Euro trashed on June 4 and what to do with his own pesky party politicians lining up to have a pop at his premiership.

More worrying is the highly unusual move of Tory peers who usually keep their noses out of commons affairs now calling for a general election to clear the air. For the Tories, that one will run and run.

It will take more than new make-up to make up for a decade of lost time, lost opportunity, lost make-up tips and a lost plot. 

Brown needs to find a magic 'expenses' bullet and fire a final shot to break out of the relentless round sleaze and scandals which have engulfed Westminster and his MPs. He could start with a purge of his crooks and second-rate spivs.

Picture: Brown make-over before and after

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Cameron's 'Sorry' Shows Up Brown

Tory leader David Cameron has been quick to say sorry and urged MPs caught out in the expenses sham to apologise, as revelations turn the spotlight on top Tories, now under fire after the relentless battering of New Labour ministers. Showing bunkered Brown and his bunch of greedy cronies how it should be dealt with, some Tory peers now reckon only a general election can clear the rotten air. 

The Telegraph's revelations reveal a handful of top Tories living it up on the Westminster gravy train of shame but none can hold a candle to the widespread flipping over second homes which is dogging Brown's cabinet and low-life ministers. 

Cameron was in like a shot last night, shortly after the Telegraph story broke, saying his MPs must say sorry over controversial expenses claims. That's a far cry from the dithering and moronic performance of battered bunkered Brown, as the disgusting second homes allowance scam engulfs his greedy bunch of chancers. 

In a sideways snipe at Brown and his New Labour crooks who've hidden behind the rotten rules, blaming "the system", Cameron said: "The public are really angry and we have to start by saying, look, this system that we had, that we used, that we operated, that we took part in - it was wrong and we're sorry about it."

The revelations are deeply embarrassing for some greedy Tories. They got it coming to them and deserved to be named and shamed. Some are promising to pay back their ill-gotten gains. 

Alan Duncan must be cursing the day he dangled a gold-plated Smith-style bath-plug on Have I Got News For You - not a good idea - and Cameron seems to be genuinely hopping mad about the whole affair. But it's not as bad for the Tories as some had feared and others had wished. 

As the Orange Party and others have been pointing out - as well as the bung it all on expenses culture, it is the flipping and fiddling of second homes to exploit the expenses system and milk it dry which is at the centre of the scandal. 

Some senior Tories have come out of it with rotten egg on their faces and should hang their heads in shame but there's nothing in the revelations to touch the wholesale shameful practice of the New Labour cabinet and ministers. Though the Telegraph has yet to reveal the scale of any back-bench Tory scams.

The Telegraph claims Michael Gove and Andrew Lansley both "flipped" properties designated as their second homes to claim for multiple properties at the taxpayers' expense. 

Other senior Tories who made dodgy claims include Alan Duncan claiming thousands for gardening and Oliver Letwin claiming £2,000 to replace a pipe under his tennis court. 

But Gove does seem to have been unfairly branded a "flipper" on his second home designation and just moved homes. 

What no one wanted to hear was another round of bleatings of the tired New Labour line that it was "all within the rules". Cameron didn't disappoint. He said sorry. 

Acknowledge it, say sorry, pay any money back where appropriate, sort it out properly, move on.

Top Tories who punters may have heard off - Cameron and Hague - have come up squeaky clean, though shadow chancellor Osborne, had the cheek to claim for a chauffeur using his office allowance.

Meanwhile the spinning over a "new" audit unit revealed by Blair's knighted MP Sir Stuart Bell which was flammed up yesterday is being shot down in flames as nothing more than a smokescreen and part of a "Labour plot" to keep MPs' allowances under wraps in the future, according to the Times. 

Cameron's lot have got off lightly but then they would. At the heart is the rotten culture of a second homes scam, with greedy New Labour cronies in both Houses flitting and flipping away to feather their own nest.

After a decade of power, familiarity has bred contempt. Contempt breeds greed. Greed breeds corruption and with it the damning, damaging end-game of a fag-end government and morally corrupt ministers. 

The doomed New Labour project is rotting in its own Brown mess. Only a general election now can clear the air.

In highly unusual moves for peers, former commons deputy speaker, Tory Lord Naseby, said parliament had been brought "right down into the pits" and should be dissolved if the expenses scandal continues to rumble on, leaving a fresh vote and general election the only option. And, as William Rees-Mogg puts it in today's Times: "A new prime minister, a new parliament and a new speaker would help to restore public confidence."

UPDATE 10am: After hiding in the bunker for a couple of days Brown finally got round to saying 'sorry'. Sort of. A tad too late old chap.

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Feathering Their Own Flippin' Nest

The horror of the Westminster gravy train shame is exposed in all its gory details in a breathtaking nice 'n sleazy Sunday. At the heart is the rotten culture of a second homes scam, with greedy New Labour cronies in all their Houses flitting and flipping away to feather their own nest, gorging themselves on a taxpayer-funded feast of corruption. 

No Ed Balls in the Telegraph today but no top Tory either, so they must be set for tomorrow. If MPs can milk expenses for all they're worth so too can the Telegraph. 

Instead it was a predicable Sinn Fein briefly putting two fingers up to Westminster and a gaggle of greedy New Labour ministers kicking off with 'Kitty in the City' Ussher, pleading for a full re-fit of her run-down Victorian house on expenses. 

A final nail in the coffin too for doomed Hazel Blears who's already toast. Blindly missing the point, bleating Blears reckons she understands why people 'hate' MPs' expenses. 

It's not MPs' expenses per se that voters hate, it's people like Blears and the greedy bunch of chancers who've flitted and flipped their second homes to feather their nest and fund their lavish lifestyles. It's not just the system that needs changing, it's greedy cranky crooks like Blears. 

It's  bad enough for the public having to put up with the worn record "Playing Within The Rules" played over and over again. Blears and her cronies are crooks and should be hounded out of office.

The gravy train of shame has been rolling merrily along for years. Few took a blind bit of notice as the deliberate culture of greed was allowed to fester away and the arrogant, smug complacency spread like a cancer through the New Labour cabinet, ministers and their pals the Lords.

The Orange Party is still waiting for one of the rabbits caught in the headlights of shame to say sorry and apologise for their greed. It's going to be a long lonesome wait.

The shocking extent of cabinet greed over parliamentary expenses exposed Brown's New Labour ministers flipping their second homes without a by-your-leave and milking the expenses system for all its worth.

New Labour has the most MPs and created a whole gaggle of ministers and pay-roll-MPs with spurious fancy titles to keep them sweet, toe the line and stuff the commons and the lords with their cronies. They are the government. They are the shame.

While the focus is rightly on the troughing pigs in the commons, the Sunday Times is nibbling away at the other outrage in the other Place with revelations over more New Labour peers abusing the system. 

Last week, it was New Labour peer Baroness Uddin, who'd claimed more than £180,000 in overnight expenses, including £100,000 on an unoccupied flat in Kent which she said was her main residence.

Today it's New Labour minister, Baroness Thornton, claiming up to £22,000 a year by designating her mother’s Bradford bungalow as her main home. 'Cash for laws' peer, Lord Truscott, appears to have been employing a similar tactic to Baroness Uddin. Lord Lipsey of Tooting says his main residence is in Wales, entitling him to claim £190,000 of expenses. Baroness Dean nominates a house in Cornwall, rather than her house in north London. 

And so it goes on, ad infinitum. All "within the rules" but that doesn't make it right.

Back in the commons it's hard-work keeping track of all the corrupt comings and goings. Smeargate blogger Guido has produced a splendid round-up. And it's not all about copper-bottomed shits of a Tory MP claiming for poppy wreaths. 

The professional ruling New Labour political class has become the State. Others have to play second fiddle. With a decade of decadence in government, it engulfs both houses in the cushy Westminster world of leather. 

Familiarity breeds contempt. Contempt breeds greed. Greed breeds corruption and the damning, damaging end-game. 

All that's left in the sordid charade, as the Orange Party has previously pointed out, is for New Labour to put up house cheerleader Hattie Harman as the 'acceptable' face of government because she's untainted by the second homes fiddle and the odd old spinner promising a "new" audit plan which was agreed days ago, already on the cards and won't be retrospective. Kind of misses the point.  

Westminster has its fair share of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. But only the ones with little to hide are quick to jump on the bandwagon of outrage. The greedy bunch of chancers have to be dragged kicking and screaming from under their toady stones.

The doomed New Labour project is rotting in its own Brown mess. The bottom has now dropped out. Brown has completely lost it. His rotten government shamed. The country and the economy are being dragged down to new depths. 

Only a general election now can clear the air. A view shared this afternoon by former commons deputy speaker, Tory Lord Naseby who said parliament had been brought "right down into the pits" and should be dissolved if the expenses scandal continues to rumble on, leaving a fresh vote and general election the only option.

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Ministers Sweat It Out On Gravy Train Shame

More of Brown's greedy ministers have been caught with their snouts in the trough as MPs sweat it out in the expenses racket which continues to rock Westminster and fills the air with the rotten stench of corruption. 

For the first time, a little-known Tory has made it to the Gravy Train's hit-list of shame but that brings no relief to Brown's rabbit-eyed ministers who continue to be caught out in the headlights. 

Frantic efforts to explain away the rotten core at the heart of government is falling on the deaf ears of an increasingly angry public drip-fed a daily diet of damaging, damning deceit. 

But spinning efforts continue as ridiculous accusations of 'smears' and 'chequebook journalism' are the only lines of a weak and feeble defence and the obligatory police 'mole-hunt' a smokescreen for a public-spirited whistleblower.

The shocking extent of cabinet greed over parliamentary expenses is exposing Brown's New Labour ministers flitting and flipping their second homes without a by-your-leave and milking the expenses system for all its worth.

But no minister has had the guts to say sorry or even apologise. 

As the Telegraph's round up of sleaze shows no sign of abating, some MPs are reported to be on suicide watch as they break out in a cold sweat. Making them sweat is a start. A fitting punishment for their sins.

Time and again ministers are trotting out the pathetic excuse that they were only acting "within the rules" which is no defence in a war crimes tribunal and cuts no ice in the court of public opinion. 

Acting within a set of rotten rules without an ounce of moral dignity lays bare a greedy bunch of chancers who have become detached from reality.  

Punters meanwhile have to pay for their lavish lifestyles while forced to scrape a living and struggle to make ends meet out of their own pockets. 

Former chairman of the commons sleaze watchdog, Sir Alistair Graham, has said politicians have displayed a “lack of moral leadership” over their expenses.

The Orange Party goes much further. These greed merchants are nothing short of common criminals. They should be made to pay back their ill-gotten gains, hounded out of office with tails between their legs and force a by-election to clear the air of the rotten stench.

Today it's junior ministers who have hard questions to answer about their sordid little scams. 

And that reveals the corruption is not confined to the cabinet but spread through government like a cancer. 

Top of the dung heap is wealthy tourism minister Barbara Follett, who claimed more than £25,000 on expenses for security patrols at her home because she said she didn't feel safe in London.

The Telegraph reveals "street-wise" Follett, along with immigration minister Phil "nappies" Woolas, health minister Ben "changing rooms" Bradshaw and care services minister Phil "living in'' Hope, have all exploited the MPs' expenses system.

Questions are also raised about the expenses of two former ministers, Keith Vaz and Barry Gardiner. 

They come after the newspaper published suspect claims made by Brown and 12 members of his cabinet revealing that Brown paid his brother for “cleaning services” at his private flat.

Ministers are clinging to the hope that revelations over top Tories may take away some of the heat. 

 

But New Labour has the most MPs and created a whole gaggle of ministers and pay-roll-MPs with spurious fancy titles to keep them sweet, toe the line and stuff the commons with their cronies. They are the government. 

As the Telegraph's relentless crusade continues with its revelations, just one lowly Tory has been singled out so far:

• Greg Barker, the shadow climate change minister, made £320,000 after buying a flat with the help of taxpayers' money, and selling it after only 27 months. 

Meanwhile ...

• Phil Hope, the Care Services Minister, has spent more than £37,000 on refurbishing and furnishing a modest two-bedroom flat in south London.

• Ben Bradshaw, the Health Minister, switched the designation of his second home to a property he shares with his partner in west London. Mr Bradshaw now claims the entire interest bill on the property – despite owning only half the property.

• Phil Woolas, the Home Office Minister, claimed for items of women's clothing, tampons and nappies. 

• Barry Gardiner, the former environment minister, made a profit of almost £200,000 after buying a Westminster flat and claiming thousands of pounds to renovate the property. Mr Gardiner's main home is only eight miles from Parliament.

The Telegraph's investigation into MPs allowances from all parties should be applauded as a vital public service but at the centre is unsung hero, Heather Brooke, who started the ball rolling with the arduous task of using the Freedom of Information Act to try to find out the dodgy expenses. 

It was Brooke who fought a  long battle with the government ending in a high court victory which forced a very reluctant government and commons to finally act, while at the same time blanking out crucial cross-checking information needed to nail the second homes scam.

Along with Gurkha Avenger, Joanna Lumley, the Orange Party reckons both deserve Brown's Medal of Courage.

The Telegraph meanwhile is sure to have something juicy stored up for nice 'n sleazy Sunday. 

Will it be bad news for Balls? Or will the Telegraph's vindictive campaign against Tory-boy Osborne reach new lows? Taxpayers and the rest of Fleet Street's finest will just have to wait and see. In the meantime - make 'em sweat.

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If Cameron's Clean Is Brown A Dead Duck?

Ministers are desperately trying to change the narrative hiding behind the smokescreens, as shameful cabinet expenses blow up in their faces. But the squalid truth has been laid bare. The only question now: Are Cameron and top Tories in the clear?

Fighting a belated rearguard action, without a shred of morals between them, New Labour ministers are caught like rabbits in the full glare of the media headlights, rallying round each other to defend their sordid expenses scam. 

Under fire after the Telegraph blew the lid off the cabinet's expenses scandal, the headlines put Brown's name in the frame and his cleaning bill a stain on his character. Refusing to defend his ministers, Brown was left wriggling  and "just getting on with the job". 

Another fine mess ministers have got themselves into. It's like watching a car-crash in slow motion and they have only themselves to blame. Only "following the rules" is a feeble defence that wouldn't stand up in the court of public opinion. 

The spin machine is working overtime trying to dig Brown and his bunch of greedy chancers out of a hole, putting up the smokescreens of 'smears' and 'chequebook journalism'. The obligatory mole-hunt isn't far behind.

Leaping to change the narrative and make out it's all the media's fault are two old hands. 

A senior New Labour MP, at the centre of a row over lobbyists links to parliament, Sir Stuart Bell and uber-spinner Mandelson. Mandelson bleating  about 'smears' is really all a bit rich.

Both should be treated with a large pinch of spinning salt in a pathetic attempt to spin away minister's shameful expenses.

Sure it will involve other political parties and it's a house of commons matter but this is the cabinet for goodness sake. How can any of them ever look their constituents straight in the eye again?

Bell kicked the ball off in March when he popped up on BBC Newsnight with allegations of an 'expenses for sales' scandal: "All of the receipts of 650-odd MPs, redacted and unredacted, are for sale at a price of £300,000, so I am told."

But only few months earlier, Bell was at the centre of a row over lobbyists' links in parliament, accused of failing to fully disclose their connections to business.

Sir Stuart, one of Blair's political knights for "services to parliament", was among three MPs accused by campaign group, Spinwatch, of withholding information from the electorate and parliament about their business activities, reported by the Guardian in January. 

One question lingers. Was Downing Street tipped off there was something in the air before Brown made his foolish YouTube video and made a mess of it all in the commons? 

It all boils down to public trust. And no doubt it may be all change when Tory expenses are revealed. Cameron this afternoon called on ministers to explain themselves. But quite frankly when it comes to expenses, who gives a toss about the Tories.

The Tories are not the government, yet. Revelations would have to be damn damaging to take the heat off Brown. If nothing much is raked up, the mud will stick on Brown and his cabinet, signing their death warrant as elections loom ever closer.

Can any punter put a name to the face of a top Tory? Cameron of course and perhaps Hague. But who cares about Osborne - except his enemies at the Telegraph and a BBC trying every twist and turn to turn the story away from its political masters. 

The shamed government is trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted, leaving the filthy state of the stables behind them. 

Caught with their snouts in the trough and without a shred of morals, they are left hiding behind rotten 'rules' which they've blatantly exploited to fund lavish lifestyles. 

Angry? That's one word for it. Taxpayers can think of many others. 

Interestingly some of the usual ministerial suspects are missing from today's revealing list which could be a taste of something nasty to come as the public is drip-fed the damaging diet. 

Nevertheless, Cameron, Hague and Osborne will now have to pray they'll come up smelling of roses and leave the other lot rotting in their own stench of sleaze and corruption. 

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