HBG

The MP expenses scandal, phone hacking, daily Levensen and other public enquiries, the MPs committees, do we need them?

What have they taught us? Our MPs are bent, the police are bent, journalists are bent, it seems all public officials are bent (and I've forgotten Prince Andrew).

Wouldn't it be better if the general public didn't know? We're becoming a laughing stock.

Domino

No, just makes us more like most countries, perhaps it is a virus you can catch from the EU ?

A public enquiry serves no useful purpose other than to provide a good little earner for a retired judge or similar, they usually take longer than a Spanish corruption case.
At the end of it no one does anything about it, no one gets prosecuted, no lessons are really learnt. But a printer gets some extra work for a while.

The recent Rebekah Brooks revelations (so what did she actually do with that horse?) prove that the evidence she gave was all lies - or was it just poorly asked questions.!

HBG

I'm sure some minor miscreants will be prosecuted, just like the silly MPs and Lords who got sent down because as well as being bent, they were unbelievably stupid, like the clown who claimed for a mortgage long after it had been paid off. Or the Lord who claimed overnight expenses although he lived a short walk from the House of Lords.

Some junior officials may be prosecuted for a £50 bung from Murdoch, while the people at the top, receiving hundreds of thousands in hospitality won't be touched, nor will the main villain running the whole show, Murdoch himself.

That's what these public enquiries are for, to show the plebs that something is being done, while nothing is being done, apart from creating a smoke screen to hide the truth.

Perhaps it's better that way, if we got in an army of investigators to find out the truth there would be no one left to run the country, they would all be banged up.

Domino

well if they were all banged up we would need to build more prisons so that would solve the crisis in the building industry

but there are always young and eager cannon fodder who want to do their bit for their country - and themselves.

just a shame the didnt do anything to a certain Baroness who lives in a Housing Association property near the HoP whilst claiming for rent and travel for an empty flat in Kent. Understand they have even considered letting her return to the Lords to collect her attendance allowance so she can pay back what she owes, probably at £5 per week which will take a lifetime as she falsely claimed over £100k.

HBG

Maybe they do some good after all. James Murdoch has just resigned.

Lynn R

This would fit nicely into the 'What made you smile today' thread, as far as I'm concerned! Great news, I hadn't heard this until you posted.

I wonder if he will end up on the Government's Work Experience Programme, stacking shelves at Tesco or Poundland. Somehow I doubt it.

Public inquiries are too long, too costly and have insufficient 'teeth' - but can you imagine what depths of depravity politicians, media tycoons, senior police officers et al would stoop to if the threat of their actions becoming public knowledge was lessened?

HBG

The Leveson enquiry is bound to become one of the biggest comedy hits in years. We've got police officers using their job's credit cards to buy gallons of champagne, slagging each other off in public, that nice boy, Paddick is now running for London's mayor, and the secret workings of our anti-terrorist branch are no longer secret.

Cameron is riding about on a police horse given to the editor of the Sun as a present and throughout it all Prescott is twittering away like a naughty schoolboy.

What must the rest of the world think?

HBG

Maybe I'm going mad, but it looks as though I'm going to reply to myself.

'Well, Harry, it seems that nobody gives a flying **** about your topic.'

' Maybe it's not controversional enough, it's not about poofs or racists.'

'Who gives a **** if the Old Bill cop a few quid, or Murdoch, who's he?'

The next time I post, I'm going to write about rabbits.

jackytoo

I find it difficult to get heated about a load of celebs MP's and royalty getting their calls hacked. OK there are a couple of sob stories amongst them trimmed up by the press, not many. If a Lib-dem gay boy is calling gay chat lines, why shouldn't the public have a right to know. Journalism has always been a dirty business, if it wasn't we would be back in the 1940's when all the great and the good were perfect They could use the press for their own benefit, sell their stories to hello about happy families and that's all we would know. Murdoch may fall in the UK but there is always another to take his place....what about the sleazebag who owns the Express, along with OK mag and some porn channels.

HBG

Back in the halcyon days when I was living in Essex, with red braces and a GTI parked outside, my son and his girlfriend asked if they could keep a couple of white rabbits in the house.

I love animals and consented. A few months later I returned home and found a sea of white rabbits in my home, they were everywhere. Unfortunately, none of them were house trained.

I had a word with my boy and he rectified the situation. We both learned from it. He now keeps Koi carp, and I have a Doberman. We live a few thousand miles apart.

I still like rabbits though, and will never eat them. My new wife, who pretends she's Spanish, sometimes buys conejo and tries to pass it off as chicken, but I know the difference.

Domino

Business as usual in the UK ??

Domino

Why ?
what has it got to do with his day job ?

you would be the first to complain about any simple breach of your personal data or information, even if it was you that left it on the park bench or put in the bin without shredding it

please no dual standards would be a nice start to sorting out the whole mess.

and remember that it is only you, me and the old lady next door in this world who doesnt have a small (or large) secret they would rather someone somewhere not knowing about.

rgds

jackytoo

Someone who puts themselves forward to speak on behalf of thousands of people shouldn't have a secret lifestyle, be it a closet gay or someone like Prescott with a Mistress. Why should they set themselves up as Mr Perfect in the media when they are just the same as anyone else.

Don't see why the hearings should make the UK a laughing stock. Most countries will have barely heard of them. Look at all the scandals that have been going off in Spain for a couple of years. Average person in the UK with no link to the country will not have heard anything about them.

Domino

I don't remember the guy putting himself up for the Mr Perfect title.

Surely we are past the days when anyone running for public office has to prove they have a wife and 2.5 kids at home ?

David Mellor pushing the wife a 2.5 to the farm gate to meet the press was sickening and his local electorate showed him how much.

It is such attitudes that keep so many gay people in the closet, the fear of the ridicule. Especially when if allowed to make the announcement in their own time would receive a shrug and "well we all knew that, what took you so long"

jackytoo

Brown is rumoured to be gay but hasn't come out. Haig has never come out and we know he is....Same as the Beckhams, selling themselves as a happy family brand product for millions when he had a side interest. They deserve to be exposed. They play the media and earn millions from it or high office but they only want printed what their PR puts out.