As The Spectator guy said… The Prime Minister seems to be indestructible… for the present…. From the BBC: “ 1803 The Spectator’s political editor, Fraser Nelson, says that for Mr Brown to survive cabinet unrest, backbench plots, an economy in recession and abysmal election results, he must be a “Terminator prime minister. It seems like nothing can kill him.”
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The Prime Terminator is back!…
GuidoFawkes reports that there were cheers in dealing rooms throughout the City today at the rumour that Brown had resigned… the rumours were false and Downing Street had to put out a statement that the Prime Minister was ‘getting on with the job’. Cabinet shuffle coming… will anyone want to be in it?.. and how long can Brown last? Friday? Sunday night / Monday morning?
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Dealing room cheers at Brown going… but false rumour!…
4th June: News up on Insite Law
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4th June: News up on Insite Law
On Monday 1st June I am hosting Blawg Review… it will be #214 in an unbroken record of Blawg Reviews going back over four years. I enjoy reading Blawg Reviews – my blawg review is an anaconda of a review… it is now just over 22ft long….. I write most of it when I am pissed…. there is a lot of coverage… and much talk about marketing, twitter and Geeklawyer’s woodwork skills… It’s not just a blog carnival; it’s the law! ~ a fool in the forest The Carnival of Law Bloggers Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law.
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Coming soon.. 1st June…Blawg Review #214
On Monday 1st June I am hosting Blawg Review… it will be #214 in an unbroken record of Blawg Reviews going back over four years. I enjoy reading Blawg Reviews – my blawg review is an anaconda of a review… it is now just over 22ft long….. I write most of it when I am pissed…. there is a lot of coverage… and much talk about marketing, twitter and Geeklawyer’s woodwork skills… It’s not just a blog carnival; it’s the law! ~ a fool in the forest The Carnival of Law Bloggers Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law.
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Coming soon.. 1st June…Blawg Review #214
Fairly busy writing Blawg Review #214 for Monday 1st June… It may be that I have lost the plot because it appears to be over 12 feet long already… an anaconda of a Blawg Review… well there we are, but at least it is comprehensive …I even manage to get @Geeklawyer in despite the fact that he managed to leave me and a host of others outwhen he hosted Blawg Review – Prince of Darkness edition. The Telegraph continues to reveal tales of woe about MP expenses, the latest furore being that Cabinet Ministers and up to 30 MPs have claimed tax advice on expenses. The Inland Revenue is now investigating these expenses as expenses incurred in complying with tax laws are not deductaible, apparently…. so there may be a few more cheques for the politicans to write. I can’t be bothered to give The Telegraph any more links – so here is the story from The Independent. Laters…
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Claim expenses for getting advice on expenses and tax liability… way to go……. brilliant!
As the slot was still available – I am pleased to report that Ed of Blawg Review has allowed me to host Blawg Review on 1st June. As it happens, many interesting things happened on the 1st June in history including, would you believe, in 1812, a US president asked Congress for approval to declare war on the United Kingdom. It was also the date on which the smoking ban came into force in 20007 in England. So.. as you can imagine, this will allow me to encourage all bloggers to take up Smokedo – Smoke yourself fit with Charon … it is working for me. Soon, I shall paint myself green… and I will get that seat on the train when I leave Victoria late at the end of one of my journeys to get over refreshed with mates in London. Watch the movie
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Blawg Review 1 June
Tory grandee Sir Peter Viggers forced to quit over £30,000 gardening bill Times: The purge of Conservative MPs caught up in the expenses scandal intensified last night as David Cameron forced out a grandee who had claimed £30,000 for gardening. Off with their heads? As Gordon dithers while Westminster burns, rejects Cameron’s calls for an immediate election and admits that a conservative government being elected at a snap election would cause chaos Richard Gordon, QC, writing in the Times states – “Thinking the unthinkable is what constitutional lawyers are paid to do. Many are now saying that with the daily revelations about improper expenses claims from beleaguered MPs the Queen should step in and dissolve Parliament — against the Government’s wishes — forcing a general election to compel MPs to stand for immediate re-election after a scandal on the scale of that of the pre 1832 rotten boroughs. Trust has now been destroyed. It can, so the argument runs, be rebuilt only by a neutral third party, the Queen, and not by a self-interested and wholly discredited cabal of politicians. ” I suspect that an immediate election would do more harm than good at present and The Queen would be best advised to keep well out of this sorry mess. The prospect of an immediate election at a time when we are in the midst of a serious financial situation is not one that appeals greatly – a view quite possibly shared by many who sit back and reflect on the wider picture. While The Queen may have constitutional prerogatives to dissolve Parliament, in the event that she stays her hand, the timing of the next election will be at the discretion of Gordon Brown – assuming, of course, that the Labour Party men in togas, knives hidden within the folds of cloth, do not call upon the prime minister late of an evening shortly. Far more interesting is the nature and scale of the cull of MPs coming. Tory grandees are dropping like flies. Hogg, Steen and now Sir ePter ‘Donald Duck’ Viggers are standing down… what will Gordon Brown’s Star Chamber do. Hazel Blears, we are told by the PM, has behaved unacceptably. Unacceptably enough to be removed? There are others, at a senior level within the Labour Party who should be considering their position. They may also have to look at their shoulders frequently to see if their collars are being felt by PC Plod. Jonathan Fisher, QC , in a most interesting article in The Time today writes: ” A police investigation into the MPs expenses scandal will swiftly identify false accounting as the criminal offence most likely to have been committed by the most egregious of the SW1 claimants. ” Bar Boy , commenting on my blog yesterday wrote: “Do any of you grown up lawyer experts have a view over those of our esteemed parliamantarian troughers who also happen to be barristers, such as Hogg, Straw and Hoon. No one, to my knowledge, has yet commented on this aspect. The Bar is very insistent, to the point of being annoyingly repetitive, when banging on about standards and conduct, blah, blah, yawn etc. Should, for example, Inner, now be making an example of governing bencher Straw, and passing him the pearl handled revolver ? ” He has a point. I may be making a telephone call to the Bar Council this morning and make yet another nuisance of myself. *** Insite Law Magazine has been updated – major update of news, blogs, law reports – and I have a new Best Seller books *Carousel*. In the spirit of our times, so I stay within the rules and I am transparent, I disclose a personal interest in what follows…. So if you want to buy your books for the beach etc – buy them through me and you will laze on the beach secure in the knowledge that the derisory commission offered by Amazon of 5% will go straight into my Rioja acccount and this may give you a warm glow. It will certainly give me one! To be honest… I am not bothered about the commission… I just liked the Bestseller carousel widget… I am into widgets. Have a look and see what is selling well at the moment in the bookshops and on Amazon!
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He’s Ducked!…
The end of the beginning… the beginning of the end? The Speaker has gone.. Long live The Speaker. Michael Martin stepped down before the Cleggian ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in a selfless act of self immolation to unite Parliament. With his departure the MPs are now speculating on who will be the next Speaker and will drag the new Speaker to the Chair on or shortly after 22 June. Finkelstein, however, wants to ban MPs from betting on this. History was made yesterday – but will Parliament take the opportunity to change, to reform? Michael Brown MP writes: “Future A-level history students will be answering questions not only about the Long Parliament and the Rump Parliament, but also about the “Moat” Parliament (otherwise perhaps known as the “Manure” Parliament) presided over by Speaker Martin – the first Speaker to be forcibly removed from office in 300 years.” Andrew Grice, also of The Independent suggests that the Westminister Gentleman’s Club is dead and the power of the men in tights is coming to ane end. The Leaders of all the principal parties will now move to discipline members who have broken the rules. Is this the return of the Star Chamber ? Not literally, of course – but the Conservative ‘Scrutiny’ committee and Brown’s.. ‘whatever it gets to be called Tribunal’ will, surely, have to pass judgment on those who have erred? One small difficulty that Brown faces, of course, is that his own Chief Whip has a bit of a problem with food expense claims running at £21 a day for some years (£18,000 in total) according to some reports. the Whip’s Office is, of course, responsible for internal discipline. Will we see the departure of leading ministers? Hoon and Blears, for example? The Justice Minister who resigned last week may well be among those put to the Sword. The Speaker has gone and will be replaced. This is only the end of the beginning. What follows now – and quickly – may shape our democracy perhaps more even than the now largely irrelevant Magna Carta. *** Major update on Insite Law Geeklawyer on ‘This filth thinks he is above the law’ | Other blog posts noted | All the most impportant law news | Profession update | law reports… and more…
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The end of the beginning… the beginning of the end?
