After PMQs saw David Cameron level a “baldemort” jibe at Liam Byrne yesterday, Paul Goodman over at ConservativeHome has reimagined some senior Tories, minus the hair.
Surprisingly given the folklore of his blonde mop, Boris doesn’t look too bad as a shiny slaphead. Osborne and Cameron, however, don’t seem to fare so well.
Given the volume of commentary on his growing bald patch, this does not augur well for the prime minister.
After Scrapbook wondered out loud as to the progress of CCHQ’s investigation into the Nazi stag do attended by MP Aidan Burley, the Birmingham Post reports that the prime minister will take sole responsibility for disciplining the “honourable” member for Cannock Chase:
“David Cameron will personally decide the fate of Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley, once an inquiry into the Nazi-themed stag party attended by the MP reports its findings this month.”
Despite the prime minister’s remarks around Holocaust Memorial Day, one could be forgiven cynicism given that Cameron has already written to Burley asking his anti-union TURC campaign to prepare a “report” on activities by union representatives.
But this could yet become an issue in the French elections if Savoie prosecutor Patrick Quincy decides to charge Burley and his mates.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney has been under attack of late over his personal fortune and how he came to it — so it may not have been altogether wise for him to go in front of a camera and say that he isn’t “concerned about the very poor”.
While Romney, who was being interviewed on CNN, went on to qualify his remark: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair I’ll fix it”, expect this to feature strongly in attack ads such as the above.
Then again, given the sort of thing that’s greeted with applause at Republican debates, perhaps it wasn’t a gaffe.
Embattled Mayor of London Boris Johnson today unveiled a cut in City Hall’s share of council tax- but only amounting to enough to buy a single onion each month.
The council tax cut, to each Londoner, is worth a measly £3.10 per year, or 26p per month. The Labour group in the London Assembly contrasted this Boris’ astronomical public transport fare raises: bus fares up by 50%, and zone 1-4 travelcards up by an average of £8.75 each month.
After a series of bruising polls, showing Ken Livingstone taking the lead in the Mayoral race for the first time, Boris’ team are clearly eager to gain the upper hand. But given that they’ve followed up a pathetic smear attempt with such a measly tax cut, they don’t seem to have gotten it yet.
Interestingly, the cut could alternatively buy a tin of Tesco value beans a month, or a pack of salted peanuts a year.
A former Conservative council leader has been arrested on suspicion of corruption. Councillors Jim Taylor and Bob Bibby were detained , along with three other people, as part of what police described as an “intelligence-led operation”.
Cllr Bibby was the leader of Bury Council, until Labour took power after victories in last May’s elections. Bibby subsequently stepped down from frontline politics — around the same time police started an investigation into a controversial planning application in June of last year.
The only statement that the Conservative Party were willing to issue was “It would be inappropriate for us to comment while a police investigation is underway.”
A bit like it would be inappropriate for a councillor to accept bribes, then.
The government tried to snatch benefits from disabled children yesterday, just three weeks after David Cameron schmoozed with celebrities such as Gary Barlow at a Number 10 charity party for Children In Need. The coalition faced revolt in the House of Lords over reforms to welfare that would take £1,400 per year from kids with conditions such as downs syndrome and cerebral palsy.
While the Downing Street PR machine previously pushed their “charity reception” story – including paparazzi photos and coverage of Samantha Cameron’s dress – the hypocrisy of the prime minister was laid bare yesterday after he was defeated on a measure which would push many disabled children into poverty
The government proposed to cut support to children who did not require night-time care, such as the profoundly deaf. But a revolt was organised by crossbencher Baroness Meacher, who described the move as “unacceptable”, claiming it would increase hardship for disabled families . Meacher’s amendment to prevent the cut was passed by 246 votes to 230.
The government has already said that it will seek to overturn all defeats when the bill returns to the Commons today.
By Scrapbook’s reckoning (please correct us in comments), Fred Goodwin is just the ninth person to have been stripped of a knighthood since World War II. Alongside dictators, spies and fraudsters, the former banker can derive some comfort from the exclusive nature of this group:
Order of the Bath
Knights Commander
Dames Commander
Knights Bachelor
Welcome to the club, Fred.
A Tory councillor was paid an astronomical £1,133 for attending one meeting that lasted a mere two hours and 23 minutes. Cllr Jennifer Millar-Smith – whose remuneration for the session equates to £7.92 per minute – is married to Conservative MP Henry Smith.
Benefiting from generous local rules, which remunerate council members with a one-off flat rate to oversee committees, opportunistic Cllr Millar-Smith chaired the Parking Enforcement Scrutiny Panel on just one occasion and was paid full whack regardless of her lack of work.
In the wake of the expenses scandal, her MP husband claimed:
“I am looking for ways to reduce the burden of my office on the taxpayer.”
But the honourable member for Crawley looked to increase the largesse of the taxpayer towards his household by, erm, employing his councillor wife as his secretary.
Even the Conservative-leaning Tory Taxpayer’s Alliance have waded in on the criticism with their campaign manager labelling the payment “over-generous”.
This is Tory speak for “even we can’t justify this”.
