Only Four Face Expenses Fiddling Charges

Four MPs and peers could face jail of up to ten years for fiddling their expenses after files on a Scotland Yard probe into alleged fraud was handed over to state prosecutors.

The Telegraph disclosed last week that just six MPs and peers are facing criminal charges of fraud following police investigations into the wide-spread scandalous abuse of parliamentary expenses.

The Telegraph reports those facing prosecution are: New Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, and peers Baroness Uddin, Lord Hanningfield and Lord Clarke of Hampstead.

Out of all the crooks, cheats and chancers in the House of Shame, the CPS has been handed files on four, who have not been officially named, with two more expected to follow.

Specialist police working with the Legg audit have been investigating expenses abuses since the MPs' sordid scandal was exposed by the Telegraph over the summer. The Sunday Times has taken the lead in hot pursuit of Lords a-leaping around phantom 'second homes'.

Both Brown and Cameron have said they expect prosecutions, according to the Telegraph.

But it is the Director of Public Prosecutions who will decide whether there is a 'reasonable' chance of conviction and if it is 'in the public interest' to bring prosecutions. Hmmm? No decision is expected until the New Year.

Even if the MPs and peers are charged, it is unlikely any trial would start until well after the general election.

Meanwhile MPs Shahid Malik and Tony McNulty will face no further action over their dodgy expenses claims, according to the Telegraph. Police have ruled out criminal investigations into the second homes 'flipping' scam or capital gains tax avoidance fiddle.

The parliamentarians could face jail terms of up to ten years if found guilty of fiddling their expenses. Politicians found guilty of fraud or false accounting face maximum penalties of 10 or seven years in prison respectively. All the MPs and peers deny criminal wrongdoing.

Top picture: Clockwise from top left: Lord Clarke of Hampstead, Baroness Uddin, Lord Hanningfield, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine. (Telegraph)

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Rogue Poll Sends Parties In A Tizz

A rogue poll has sent political parties in a tizz offering a meagre crumb of comfort for a fag-end government and its lamentable leader. Election weary voters were given only a short respite from hard core politicking. Now it's all hands to the pumps of a sinking ship.

A sure sign of political unrest and uncertainty comes when a single poll out of kilter with other polls is seized on to make political capital.

The 'surprise' Ipsos/Mori poll in yesterday's Observer should be taken with a pinch of salt.

As Anthony Wells over at UK Polling Report points out: "the big difference between MORI and other pollsters is that MORI do not politically weight their sample."

It's all down to the sampling and the political weightings, as Wells makes clear:

"Part of the reason for the shift in MORI’s voting intentions since last month is that their sample appears to have had significantly fewer people who voted Tory in 2005 and significantly more people who voted Labour in 2005."

Push polls, used extensively during the US presidential campaign, are common place in the run up to elections.

Taken on dubious face value, the poll cuts the Tory lead over New Labour to a narrow six points with the Tories on 37 per cent, Labour on 31 per cent and the Lib Dems down in the dumps on 17. A far cry from, er, the last major poll a couple of weeks ago.

But that didn't stop everyone and their political dog putting on their best Sunday spin, with the Observer proclaiming: "Poll boost for PM as confidence in economy grows". Yeh, sure.

The LibDem loving Observer even put a smile on the face of glum Clegg, jumping on his dream of a 'hung' parliament: "Chance of hung parliament as Conservative lead falls to 6%". LimpDems hanging on the coat tails of a hung parliament. Every wet liberals dream.

Tories have a fight on their hands to form a workable government. But that was always the case with an electoral system rigged in New Labour's favour. Even with a consistent double digit poll lead, Tories are not home and dry.

Cameron has managed to position the Tories as a 'government in waiting'. Boy George has done well to turn into Honest Osborne. But the sales pitch to voters is still 'David Cameron's Conservatives'.

The spectre of Cameron as a hyped up heir to Blair still haunts, is difficult to shake off and for many a turn off, despite the Sun banging the drum for Dave.

Dave's dithering EU referendum shuffle was a watershed. For the first time it seemed Cameron was heading for a Bernie Ecclestone moment even before he was in Downing Street.

Any politician who has to fall back on the lame of excuse of being 'a pretty straight kind of guy' to deflect deflated trust, faces an uphill task to win hearts and minds in the battle to contact and convince voters.

As the election approaches, the Orange Party believes the polls will have less to do with a 'hardening' of New Labour support, more to do with a 'softening' of Tory support.

Would-be Tories voters could well turn to UKIP if they were not such a joke and embarrassment. Hanging over New Labour is the traditional 'Liberal' enemy. Hanging over both main parties is the dark shadow of the BNP.

Buried in the Observer poll report was a salient sliver of truth which should send a shiver down the spine of the struggling Supreme Leader. A question over the party leaders which never saw the light of day in all the poll spin.

Brown is still down. Cameron is still on his uppers.

"Brown's personal rating remains in the doldrums. Only 34% of people are satisfied with his performance, against 59% who are dissatisfied. David Cameron had approval ratings of 48%, with 35% against."

What is clear is that the election grid is now fixed whoever carries the burnt out baton in the dying days of the doomed New Labour project.

Sealed with the sham of a Queen's Speech. Sealed with a deliberate campaign to increase the scandal of postal votes. Sealed with the outrage of pulling a squalid rabbit out of the hat close to election day.

Soon the recession depression will be officially over. Brown's BBC cheerleaders can finally wheel out their unrealistic but reassuring 'Upturn' graph. Couple that with a promise to pull troops out of the Afghan killing fields - sometime. Things can only get better but who will clean up the mess?

For voters a stark choice still remains. Who do they trust to place a firm hand on the economic tiller? Who do they trust to get to grips with a decade of lies, deceit, failure and disaster?

And who do they trust when a rogue poll is placed in a New Labour supporting newspaper on a wet Sunday to give Beleaguered Brown a much needed bounce?

UPDATE 7pm: A new Angus Reid Strategies poll for politicalbetting paints a very different picture. Conservatives 39%, Labour 22%, LibDems 21%.

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EU Empire's Squalid Stitch-Up

Two unelected non-entities are the faceless faces of an EU superstate in an outrageous stitch-up by Europe's ruling elite. Cunning Brown pulled a fast one, slipping his quangocrat crony into a top job, leaving a shocking undemocratic legacy. EU can't make it up.

The UK already has an unelected head of state and two unelected prime ministers in Brown and Mandelson. Now a new boss of the EUSSR is set to join them with a New Labour crony by his side.

Van What? and Baroness Who? An obscure unelected president and foreign minister of an all powerful faceless facade, now call the shots on sovereign domestic, foreign and military policy.

In a rare show of solidarity, unlikely bedfellows the Mail and Guardian came to the same conclusion and same front page headlines - The Great EU Stitch-Up.

Riding rough shod over democracy, a staunch Belgian federalist and former health authority chairwoman were plucked from obscurity for the two powerful jobs, after Euro Club 27 met behind closed doors to stitch up a deal to chose their new president and foreign minister.

In the true spirit of squalid EU 'democracy' and taste of times to come, the two jobs were decided - over a slap-up dinner.

Did any of the 500 million citizens anywhere in Europe get a look in? Did any elected MEP have a say?

Warmongering Blair was out on his ears after failing in his life-long bid to rule a new EU empire. Finally scuppered as some EU leaders refused to buy into all the Blair hype and the shame of his illegal Iraq war. A Merkel-Sarkozy pact put an end to the sham of a charismatic charlatan.

Sensing the game was up, Brown pulled the plug on Blair to plug one of his appointed cronies, Mandy replacement trade commissioner Ashton, for the powerful foreign ministers' job.

Mandy's dreams of landing the foreign 'secretary' job in the EU or government have been dashed. A pantomime dame left with the onerous task of spinning for a fag end government and stage managing a doomed New Labour farce.

Now a political appointee who has never been elected to anything will have the most influential job in the EU bureaucracy. A political counterpoint to Belgian president Rompuy which paves the way for a Sarkozy placeman to run the EU economy and the City.

Ashton's meteoric rise from head of Hertfordshire health authority to EU high representative was a surprise to say the least. "As unelected as she is obscure," observed the Guardian.

But as unelected New Labour leader in the Lords, Ashton helped steer the sham of the Lisbon treaty through parliament without a referendum - the very treaty which created her plumb new job.

Now heading up a vast EU diplomatic service with embassies around the world, Brown's placeman is also responsible for Europe's security and defence policy.

Blair may be gone and Brown soon to follow but their legacy of a new EU superstate lives on.

Democracy has been ripped to shreds, with a bunch of unelected EU commission 'civil servants' masquerading as a government. An EU president and 'high representative' represents the unaccountable bureaucratic EU superstate.

The EU treaty failed to set limits on the size and scope of the EU government. An EU superstate with new powers over defence and foreign policy creates a chilling new Empire. A totalitarian dictatorship for the 21st century.

In was Blair who gave one of his empty promises that when it came to all things EU it was time to "let the people have the final say". But the 'people' were not allowed the luxury of democracy when it came to 'electing' an EU president or foreign 'minister'.

An ever expanding EU superstate is looming on the horizon, way past its original 1975 sell-by date - with laws imposed from Brussels, with over-arching powers over foreign and military policy, with a couple of unelected nobodies running the show for the EU club's ruling elite.

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'Boney' Blair Meets His Waterloo

Warmongering Blair has been thrown out on his ears after failing in his life-long bid to rule a new EU empire. The Orange Party can breath a small sigh of relief. Sky's Boulton broke the news: "Blair's hopes are over...Brown has decided that support is declining for the ex-PM...he is not going to table his name at the meeting...to choose the President."

Would the EU really have gone for a president with "a taste for war" and blood on his hands after Iraq? An 'El Presidente' who came under relentless attack from Hague? An EU president who would get up the nose of the new Tory government?

'Boney' Blair and arch-rival Brown had been working the phones and contacts book until the bitter end.

But Blair's cunning plan was finally scuppered as some EU leaders refused to buy into the Blair hype and politics of false hope and discredited optimism.

A Merkel-Sarkozy pact put an end to the sham of a charismatic charlatan. 'Mummy' Merkel had had her fill of 'Mr Flash'.

Sensing the game was up, Brown 'pulled the plug' on Blair to plug one of his quangocrat cronies, Mandy replacement trade commissioner Ashton, for the powerful foreign ministers' job.

The new EU is now up and running to ride rough shod over democracy with an ever expanding superstate.

In the squalid world of power politics, all roads led back to Blair. The Orange Party has long believed scheming Blair had been plotting away to be top EU dog well before he was booted out of Downing Street.

Biding his time, swanning around the world stage. Collecting meaningless titles and lucrative jobs in the elite club of the filthy rich. All carefully stage-managed until his plumb dream job was up for grabs.

Blair's EU ambitions started early, according to Oborne, who asked: Did Blair betray Britain for years in his bid to become EU president? "Within months of his winning the 1997 General Election, his aides were confiding that his long-term aim was the then non-existent post of European President."

Old habits die hard for original Gang of Four. The Orange Party never bought into the hype that Mandy returned to the Brown fold out of love for his old enemy.

Mandy was cheerleader for Blair's EU quest, pulling Brown's strings and propping up the struggling Supreme Leader in return for a Blair favour.

Now Mandy's manipulation to install pal Blair as president of a new EU superstate has ended in failure. Billy-no-mates Brown has outlived his usefulness. Will Mandy drop Liability Brown after his earlier skullduggery to protect brand Blair and prop-up Brown?

Mandy is left with the onerous task of spinning for a fag end government and covering up a decade of disaster and failure. Stage managing a doomed New Labour pantomime while Blair wanders in the wilderness, raking in a fortune without any real power or influence.

Wiping the blood off his hands, Teflon Tony is left with a guest appearance at the Chilcot whitewash into his illegal Iraq war. But New Labour continued to sing to the tune of His Master's Voice, refusing to face up to the shame of their fallen idol who took the country to war on the back of a pack of lies.

Blair may be gone but his legacy of a new EU superstate lives on. A shameful legacy to his years of self-serving power. Democracy has been ripped to shreds, with a bunch of unelected EU commission 'civil servants' masquerading as a government.

The EU Lisbon treaty con fails to set any real limits on the size and scope of the EU government. An EU superstate with new powers over defence and foreign policy creates a chilling new Empire - a totalitarian dictatorship for the 21st century with vast control over the military.

In 2004, Blair gave one of his empty promises that when it came to all things EU it was time to "let the people have the final say". But the 'people' were not allowed the luxury of democracy when it came to 'electing' an EU president.

Blair was in the running until the last minute. His downfall signalled the end of a doomed love affair with brand Blair. The end of the undemocratic swooning by European leaders who'd built their own reputations on the back of Blair's hyped up hope.

Born-again Blair in one of the most powerful posts on the planet would have been a recipe for disaster.

What remains is an ever expanding EU superstate, way past its original 1975 sell-by date, with laws imposed from Brussels, with over-arching powers over foreign and military policy.

Thankfully not presided over by a war criminal, massaging his ego and bank balance.

The UK already has an unelected head of state and two unelected prime ministers. Now a new boss of the EUSSR is set to join them with a New Labour crony by his side. An obsure unelected president and foreign minister of an all powerful faceless facade, calling the shots on sovereign domestic, foreign and military policy.

Update: EU leaders still have the hots for Herman van Rompuy (above). Crazy name, crazy guy!?!

Mid picture: Private Eye

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Queen Used As Election Pawn

The Queen is being used as an election pawn in a party political broadcast to parliament. The shameful charade of New Labour's 'Queen's Speech' is set to test the water with a manifesto and "smoke out the Tories". An insult to the public and total waste of time.

'Announcing populist measures to "smoke out" the Tories on policy, Brown has signalled the start of a bitter election campaign,' thunders The Times. Not in a news conference. Not in a party political broadcast. But through the age old tradition of Wednesday's official opening of parliament.

The Queen's Speech has been reduced to a glorified New Labour press release with Pussycat Peter's paw prints all over it.

Reading from a prepared script, it's left to Her Maj to set out her government's 'legislation' for the coming year. But none of the measures will see the light of day. Not least because of looming across the board spending cuts.

Missing from the 'manifesto' will be the budget and pre-budget report, increasingly used to set policy with key announcements.

Using a Queen's Speech in this way is an insult to voters and affront to parliamentary democracy. The Orange Party isn't turning yellow but LibDem leader Clegg has a valid point.

The "glitz and glamour" of the Queen's Speech, he said, would be "based on a complete fiction" because there were only 70 parliament days between now and the last date to dissolve parliament.

That kinda blows out of the water commons cheerleader, Harman's insistence that "the majority of the bills in the forthcoming Queen's Speech would become law before the general election".

Laws take, on average, 240 days to pass through all stages. If Bottling Brown finally gives the public what they want and calls the election before going all the way to the wire, then time is even tighter.

Then strict election broadcasting laws kick in. Parliament grinds to a halt. The commons won't see MPs for dust as they scurry off to begin the election battle proper.

Tough times call for tough measures to tackle jobs and the recession, a decaying social culture and downright distrust of the political system. Instead an election gimmick is being used to sound out the public mood, shore up the struggling Supreme Leader's precarious position and try to wrong-foot the opposition.

Mention parliament to voters and only one thing springs to mind - the disgrace of the MPs' expenses scandal.

Clegg has called for the Queen's Speech to be cancelled and replaced with emergency reforms to "clean up politics".

Parliament could usefully use its time to clean up its act with a fresh start ready for voting day, instead of trying to water down Kelly with an MPs' expenses stitch up.

Using precious time to restore trust, sounds a pretty sensible idea. "The one gift this failed Parliament can give its successor is a fresh start," said Clegg.

Battling Brown has finally fired the election starting gun but it feels like the parties have been limbering up with an increasingly bitter campaign for donkey's years. A weary public is fed up with all the dithering and dilly-dallying.

Using a Queen's Speech as a party political tool ahead of an election isn't new. But this one smacks of party politicking like no other. Voters will see through another shameless New Labour smoke and mirrors sham. Using taxpayers cash to get some free publicity is a cheap stunt.

Using the speech as rearguard action to whip up flagging support from core voters in the vain hope of preventing total wipe-out is a dodgy way to dupe voters.

As Clegg said, it will serve as "little more than a rehearsal of the next Labour manifesto" and "an attempt to road test policy gimmicks".

The floundering ship is sinking fast in an ocean of failure and disaster. Half-baked unfunded policies are now the order of the day in a stagnant Whitehall. It's a sure sign of election time when U-turns come thick and fast.

Voters feel in their bones that it is time for a change. Beleaguered Brown has lost public confidence. Cameron is the PM in waiting. Isn't it about time the fag-end government showed the electorate some respect?

Instead ministers are left with little to do but dish out dollops of Brown sauce to an election battle weary public.

Top picture: Private Eye cover 1964. Mid picture: Private Eye

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Poster Boys Are So Last Year

An old Mirror and sparkling Sun are squaring up for the election battle with a taste of things to come. Today the Mirror reveals 'poster boys' to stop Tories in their tracks. So last year.

After the Sun bashed Brown over 'that letter', today the Mirror puts up a poster. The latest brainchild of the New Labour campaign team. Put on a bit of showbiz slap. It's like, so cool and modern.

The Orange Party has taken advice from a ten year old. Apparently they are a popular musical duo on a television programme.

According to the Mirror it shows Cameron and Osborne as the X-Factor 'Jedwards' of politics. What a sad state of affairs when the only hope for a struggling Mirror would be to bring back Piers Morgan.

All parties have used attack ads. That's par for the course. And in the distant past some have been very effective, capturing a public mood. But only when they are underpinned with a public issue.

Wheeling out a big poster is kinda old hat. A viral internet campaign? Now you're talking.

Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting is not impressed: "The message from this latest ad is that Labour has no real idea how to fight the coming campaign."

Attack and counter attack? Here's one prepared earlier: Another fine mess they've got us into.

Bottom Picture Credit: Someone with a sharp brain, mischievous mind and copy of Photoshop

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Hollow 'Victory' For Team Brown

Team Brown is spinning a "resounding victory" at Glasgow NE, to prop up their lamentable leader. But the reality is bad news for Brown. Behind the hype lies record voter apathy.

A very different message from the spin has been sent to Westminster. Voters are deserting the Party in droves with two-thirds not bothering to vote.

With 'comfort', 'resounding' and 'victory' all in one sentence, the BBC proudly proclaimed: 'Labour has claimed a "resounding victory" after comfortably winning the Glasgow North East by-election and seeing off an SNP challenge'. The figures tell a different story.

If New Labour could not win in safe Glasgow NE they could not win anywhere. Resounding sure, resounding voter apathy is more accurate.

Out of 62,475 eligible voters the turnout was a pathetic 32.97%. Around 40,000 didn't bother, preferring to stay at home rather than stomach New Labour. A record low for a Scottish by-election and 12.8% down on the 2005 general election.

In the end, New Labour won Glasgow North East with a majority of 8,111. Only a third of those eligible cast their vote.

New Labour spinners are shouting from the rooftops they got sixty percent of the vote. They got sixty percent of a very low turnout.

Beleaguered Brown's future was riding on the outcome of yesterday's by-election, triggered after disgraced commons speaker Martin quit in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal.

Glasgow NE is rock solid Labour. Unite union cash was poured into the campaign. The Martin Mafia tried every trick in the book with a demolition job on the SNP candidate. Voters should have been be out in force.

Instead they stayed at home. Only around 15% of voters in a New Labour safe seat could be bothered to come out for them.

Of the votes, more than 6000 were postal votes, around one-tenth of eligible voters. A staggering 30 percent of actual votes cast. A shocking number of voters were registered to cast their ballot by post, highlighted yesterday by the Orange Party, more than double since the last general election, raising fears of election fraud.

Now the SNP has called on the Electoral Commission to investigate whether New Labour abused the postal vote system, after a sudden surge of 1,100 postal votes less than three days before the deadline.

Everyone and their dog had been in Glasgow banging the drum for Brown.

The struggling Supreme Leader even put his neck on the line with a final push for votes, writing a personal letter to 4000 households in a last minute blitz on wavering voters.

On voting day, New Labour swung into action mounting a huge get-out-the-vote campaign with more than 450 MPs and activists flooding the seat.

Glasgow NE was always about the general election and propping up Beleaguered Brown. All that was needed was a ringing endorsement for the struggling Supreme Leader.

Reading from a script prepared earlier by Downing Street, winning candidate Bain was well on message: "This is a resounding victory for Gordon Brown and Labour ... They have backed Gordon Brown in his efforts to secure our economic recovery."

Like heck. Voters preferred to stay at home rather than prop up New Labour. Voters who did bother have re-elected a Party that left their area to rot in one of the biggest deprived slums in Europe.

The result may put off Brown plotters ahead of the general election. But the Glasgow NE result was neither a Brown endorsement nor a New Labour dawn outside one safe seat.

The only crumb of 'comfort' for a fag-end government was it managed to hold on to a seat it was always destined to win anyway. Take that away and what is left is a very hollow victory indeed.

Top picture: New Labour 'victor' Willie Bain

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