Engerlanders.

During an exchange of ideas on Mr Dales blog Hutton thread, with a spineless Walter Mitty called Wyrdtimes , it made an observation regarding my tartan hen, (which I had become very fond of,) as a "chicken." As there is no such thing as a chicken this side of the border, and to avoid any similar confusions due to pig ignorance I have replaced my tartan hen with a wee appropriate logo for Wyrdtime and his ilk should they pass this way again.

The irony that this piece of cyberslime has not been able to grasp is that if you visit his blog it says, "For England." Followed by "nothing to see here move along." say's it all really. You see England and the so called English nationalist, has suffered more than Scotland and our identity. Because we are in possession of more back bone and moral fiber our identity has remained strong and confident over the centuries, whilst England became mired and confused in Britain, thinking Britain was there's by right, and so Britain became England in their subconscious mind. Scotlands national identity is much much stronger than Englands and this can be the cause of animosity in some BNP minds. Hence the BBC being regarded as the EBC etc etc. And the mentality that Scotland is just a branch office in a region that really ought not to have any head office function. I am now thinking, HBOS, Dunfermline, etc etc.

It is only in the past decade that we have seen the emergence of the Georges Cross as the national flag of England at rugby and football matches, when they previously sported the flag of all the nations of the UK the Union Jack. The clue is suopposedly the word Union. Suddenly the penny dropped and out popped St George to save the day.

It has now become serious as England is slowly waking from it's arrogant Empire induced coma to find that they are no longer "in charge," of the world and that they them selves are being ruled by a cabal of nasty vindictive Scots who are destroying all before them as they fight like dogs to keep there snouts in the trough and save their beloved party.

Scotland your time is now, grasp the thistle.

Saor Alba

Dunfermline Building Society

If there was any doubt in anyones mind on the scale of treachery, malevolence and sheer bigotry now being appled to Scotland by the Westminster establishment, then the blatant lies now being told by Darling on The Dunfermline Building Society will erase that doubt.

The double standards and hypocrisy is just breathtaking.

Moridura has done a great article, much better than I could and covers all the bases.

Trough feeders

I really enjoyed the discomfort and stumbling performance of Mr Piggy Pickles on Question time, about 42 minutes in.

That clip has to be one of the classic Question time clips ever. He basically said that because he has a job like most people do, (at the moment,) that he can justify claiming for a second home instead of commuting like we all do, and he just kept digging and digging. The epitomy of greed and avarice.

Our Gurkhas

The treatment of these fine soldiers continues to be a national digrace, in line with the contempt shown to all our forces by cynical snobby elite career politicians who are far to engaged with screwing the taxpayer for golden parachute pensions and better expenses.

BBC Scotland and the Broadcasting Commission.

Ask yourself why the BBC is funding a Persian channel for the benefit of Iranians when licence-fee payers in Scotland do not have an equivalent. You could ask a similar question about BBC Alba, the Gaelic channel. Even those of us who value the Gaelic tradition question why this tiny community is so well served when mainstream Scotland is so neglected.

A bloody scandal. Please God let the Scottish people spit in the eye of Westminster at every election opportunity, so that we may secede from this bigoted union.

The BBC is nothing more than a blatant proaganda tool staffed by frightened journalists.

We shall remember...

An excellent article in the ST on Lee Johnston who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. Politicians should have this article in front of them in future when they are voting from the comfort of their armchairs in cabinet to send our forces to war.

The cabinet headed by the PM should also be required to attend the arrival of every coffin from these wars and attend the funerals and meet their families, show respect and compassion and think about the real cost of their decisions.

Great quotes.

A sophistical rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.

’Benjamin Disraeli on Gladstone

I run a tight ship here not a shite tip. Winston Ingram The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.Calvin Coolidge Brown and Browne - and Tony.. and a lot more of your corrupt and poisonous party - I wish with all my heart that I was not a part of your Armed Forces, because I utterly despise you, and everything you stand for, and every lie that passes your lips slashes a knife across the oath I swore to Her Majesty. I am, unfortunately, not in a position where I can terminate my service in rebellion - I shall therefore do my job and continue to serve to the best of my ability, but it is because I love my country, I respect my Queen, and I have to do it for my family.Fugly

MacCavity skewered and kippered.

Only a demented deranged fool would grin manically whilst being right royal humped twice in one sitting, as the French and Germans walk out. Please someone make him go.

Submarine deaths due to failure.

Yet more evidence of the contempt that the MOD exhibit towards our service personnel. The UK government has thrown away the covenant between the Parliament and the services.



This poem is as apt now as it was when it was penned.

We are the not dead.
In battle, life would not say goodbye to us.
And crack-shot snipers seemed to turn a blind eye to us.
And even though guns and grenades let fly at us
we somehow survived.

We are the not dead.
When we were young and fully alive for her,
we worshipped Britannia.
We the undersigned
put our names on the line for her.
From the day we were born we were loaded and primed for her.
Prepared as we were, though, to lie down and die for her,
we somehow survived.

So why did she cheat on us?
Didn’t we come running when she most needed us?
When tub-thumping preachers
and bullet-brained leaders
gave solemn oaths and stirring speeches
then fisted the air and pointed eastwards,
didn’t we turn our backs on our nearest and dearest?
From runways and slipways Britannia cheered us,
but returning home refused to meet us,
sent out a crowd of back-biting jeerers
and mealy-mouthed sneerers.
Two-timing, two-faced Britannia deceived us.

We are morbidly ill.
Soldiers with nothing but time to kill,
we idle now in everyday clothes and ordinary towns,
blowing up, breaking down.
If we dive for cover or wake in a heap,
Britannia, from horseback, now crosses the street
or looks right through us.
We seem changed and ghostly to those who knew us.
The country which flew the red white and blue for us
now shows her true colours.
We are the not dead.
Neither happy and proud
with a bar-code of medals across the heart
nor laid in a box and draped in a flag,
we wander this no man’s land instead,
creatures of a different stripe – the awkward, unwanted, unlovable type –
haunted with fears and guilt,
wounded in spirit and mind.

We are the not dead, by Simon Armitage.

Bisto Kids on the gravy train.

NO STRANGER TO A GOOD RODGERING SESSION IS OUR NIGEL. HE LOVES TO GET IT UP THE TAXPAYER.


THE BISTO KIDS LIVE ON

Bisto KidsThose of us who remember the Bisto Kids need not grieve at their apparent passing; as long as there is Her Majesty’s Royal British Imperial Labour Party, lovers of the gravy will flourish, particularly, lovers of the taxpayers’ hard earned cash. The latest to come up with a good wheeze is the Minister for Small Business, Nigel Griffiths, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, and former Edinburgh councillor; his idea was to take a legacy of £68000, buy an old shop, and then hit the taxpayer for £10000 a year to rent the shop. He has to be commended for his financial acuity (very sharp practice) at having a 14.7% return on his investment, not a figure to be sneezed at when bank current accounts are paying out 2-3%; of course, he did not tell anyone, apart from the taxman. He most certainly did not include it in the House of Commons Register which requires disclosure of all property purchased, and all sources of income therefrom, feeling that this might be misunderstood, and him an Honourable Member, too.
===============================================================

Banksters or Politician, pick your witch?

The political and corporate elite have carved out a nice niche for them selves in grabbing as much money as they can, before the whole pack of dominoes goes flat, the double six is getting closer.

What I wonder is, can a politician get elected on a moral values and openess and honesty ticket, and does one exist? Is Cameron the man? The SNP despite many failed efforts to the contrary have managed to keep a reasonably clean sheet.

The EU appears to be rotten to the core with corruption, is Obama going to bring in a new era of probity and high moral standards? r will he be swamped by the Banksters tsunami?


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Minister: All 133 South East MPs should be banned from claiming £24,000-a-year second-home allowance

Under Mr McNulty's proposal, 133 MPs who live within 60 miles of Westminster would be banned from claiming the £24,000-a-year second-home allowance.

A further 25 Inner London MPs are already unable to claim ACA and receive the London allowance instead, which rises to £7,500 a year from April 1.) Of the 133 in the 60-mile zone who are currently eligible for ACA, 26 choose not to claim it.

That leaves 107, who have pocketed £8,725,000 in the past five years. Among the 26 who elect not to claim ACA are 23 Outer London MPs who take the London allowance.

A further three within 60 miles of the capital - Tories Adam Afriyie and Robert Wilson and Labour's Martin Salter - have never claimed ACA. The list below includes MPs who have claimed the ACA between 2002/03 and 2006/07, the last five years for which records are available.


Outer London constituencies:

1. Barking: Margaret Hodge (Labour), nil
2. Beckenham: Jacqui Lait (Tory), £93,469
3. Bexleyheath and Crayford: David Evennett (Tory), nil
4. Brent East: Sarah Teather (Lib Dem), nil
5. Brent North: Barry Gardiner (Labour), £86,687
6. Brent South: Dawn Butler (Labour), £37,245
7. Brentford and Isleworth: Ann Keen (Labour), £87,325
8. Bromley and Chislehurst: Bob Neill (Tory), £22,100
9. Carshalton and Wallington: Tom Brake (Lib Dem), nil
10. Chingford and Woodford Green: Iain Duncan Smith (Tory), £27,789
11. Chipping Barnet: Theresa Villiers (Tory), nil
12. Croydon Central: Andrew Pelling (Independent since 2007, previously Tory), nil
13. Croydon North: Malcolm Wicks (Labour), £9,138
14. Croydon South: Richard Ottaway (Tory), £101,808
15. Dagenham: Jon Cruddas (Labour), £103,117
16. Ealing North: Stephen Pound (Labour), £16,848
17. Ealing Southall: Virendra Sharma (Labour), entered Parliament
in 2007
18. Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush: Andrew Slaughter (Labour), nil
19. East Ham: Stephen Timms (Labour), nil
20. Edmonton: Andrew Love (Labour), £100,303
21. Enfield North: Joan Ryan (Labour), £95,932
22. Enfield, Southgate: David Burrowes (Tory), nil
23. Erith and Thamesmead: John Austin
(Labour), £87,328
24. Finchley and Golders Green: Rudi Vis
(Labour), £32,211
25. Feltham and Heston: Alan Keen (Labour), £87,803
26. Harrow East: Tony McNulty (Labour), £52,598
27. Harrow West: Gareth Thomas (Labour), £79,579
28. Hayes and Harlington: John McDonnell
(Labour), nil
29. Hendon: Andrew Dismore (Labour), £42,967
30. Hornchurch: James Brokenshire (Tory), nil
31. Hornsey and Wood Green: Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem), nil
32. Ilford North: Lee Scott (Tory), nil
33. Ilford South: Mike Gapes (Labour), £104,650
34. Kingston and Surbiton: Ed Davey (Lib Dem), nil
35. Leyton and Wanstead: Harry Cohen
(Labour), £104,701
36. Mitcham and Morden: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour), £7,800 (now claims London supplement)
37. Old Bexley and Sidcup: Derek Conway (Independent since January 2008, previously Tory), £104,651
38. Orpington: John Horam (Tory), £34,583
39. Richmond Park: Susan Kramer (Lib Dem), nil
40. Romford: Andrew Rosindell (Tory), £104,699
41. Ruislip Northwood: Nick Hurd (Tory), nil
42. Sutton and Cheam: Paul Burstow (Lib Dem), nil
43. Tottenham: David Lammy (Labour), £25,263
(now claims London supplement)
44. Twickenham: Vince Cable (Lib Dem), nil
45. Upminster: Angela Watkinson (Tory), £82,886
46. Uxbridge: John Randall (Tory), nil
47. Walthamstow: Neil Gerrard (Labour), nil
48. West Ham: Lyn Brown (Labour), £7,370
49. Wimbledon: Stephen Hammond (Tory), nil

Within 60 miles of Westminster by road, according to RAC:

50. Aldershot: Gerald Howarth (Tory), £104,091
51. Arundel and South Downs: Nick Herbert
(Tory), £43,663
52. Ashford: Damian Green (Tory), £101,064
53. Aylesbury: David Lidington (Tory), £80,731
54. Basildon: Angela Smith (Labour), £86,754
55. Basingstoke: Maria Miller (Tory), £43,712
56. Beaconsfield: Dominic Grieve (Tory), £79,510
57. Bexhill and Battle: Gregory Barker (Tory), £99,460
58. Billericay: John Baron (Tory), £104,692
59. Bracknell: Andrew MacKay (Tory), £102,644
60. Braintree: Brooks Newmark (Tory), £42,110
61. Brentwood and Ongar: Eric Pickles (Tory), £73,492
62. Brighton Pavilion: David Lepper (Labour), £53,076
63. Brighton Kemptown: Des Turner (Labour), £67,324
64. Broxbourne: Charles Walker (Tory), £43,465
65. Buckingham: John Bercow (Tory), £104,701
66. Castle Point: Bob Spink (Independent since
April 2008, previously Tory), £104,094
67. Chatham and Aylesford: Jonathan Shaw
(Labour), £73,639
68. Chesham and Amersham: Cheryl Gillan
(Tory), £104,680
69. Chichester: Andrew Tyrie (Tory), £104,294
70. Crawley: Laura Moffatt (Labour), £61,457
71. Dartford: Howard Stoate (Labour), £68,446
72. East Worthing and Shoreham: Tim Loughton
(Tory), £104,628
73. Epping Forrest: Eleanor Laing (Tory), £101,411
74. Epsom and Ewell: Chris Grayling (Tory), £86,174
75. Esher and Walton: Ian Taylor (Tory), £104,581
76. Faversham and Mid Kent: Hugh Robertson
(Tory), £104,700
77. Gillingham: Paul Clark (Labour), £102,851
78. Gravesham: Adam Holloway (Tory), £43,091
79. Guildford: Anne Milton (Tory), £25,037
80. Harlow: Bill Rammell (Labour), £86,992
81. Hemel Hempstead: Michael Penning (Tory), nil
82. Henley: John Howell (Tory elected June 2008), nil
83. Hertford and Stortford: Mark Prisk (Tory), £94,848
84. Hertsmere: James Clappison (Tory), £79,963
85. Hitchin and Harpenden: Peter Lilley (Tory), £98,489
86. Horsham: Francis Maude (Tory), £70,499
87. Hove: Celia Barlow (Labour), £43,744
88. Lewes: Norman Baker (Lib Dem), £100,982
89. Luton North: Kelvin Hopkins (Labour), £8,894
90. Luton South: Margaret Moran (Labour), £87,206
91. Maidenhead: Theresa May (Tory), £19,030
92. Maidstone and the Weald: Ann Widdecombe
(Tory), £31,478
93. Maldon and East Chelmsford: John Whittingdale (Tory), £95,440
94. Medway: Robert Marshall Andrews
(Labour), £83,416
95. Mid Sussex: Nicholas Soames (Tory), £99,635
96. Mole Valley: Sir Paul Beresford (Tory), £55,941
97. Newbury: Richard Benyon (Tory), £6,874
98. North East Bedfordshire: Alistair Burt
(Tory), £86,356
99. North East Hampshire: James Arbuthnot
(Tory), £104,686
100. North East Hertfordshire: Oliver Heald
(Tory), £104,049
101. Rayleigh: Mark Francois (Tory), £98,373
102. Reading East: Robert Wilson (Tory), nil
103. Reading West: Martin Salter (Labour), nil
104. Reigate: Crispin Blunt (Tory), £101,859
105. Rochford and Southend East: James Duddridge (Tory), £43,656
106. Runnymead and Weybridge: Philip Hammond (Tory), £104,159
107. Saffron Waldon: Alan Haselhurst (Tory), £103,247
108. Sevenoaks: Michael Fallon (Tory), £93,596
109. Sittingbourne and Sheppey: Derek Wyatt
(Labour), £103,750
110. Slough: Fiona Mactaggart (Labour), £10,713
111. South Cambridgeshire: Andrew Lansley
(Tory), £96,320
112. South East Cambridgeshire: James Paice
(Tory), £92,634
113. Southend West: David Amess (Tory), £102,683
114. South West Bedfordshire: Andrew Selous
(Tory), £104,696
115. South West Hertfordshire: David Gauke
(Tory), £16,038
116. South West Surrey: Jeremy Hunt
(Tory), £26,089
117. Spelthorne: David Wilshire (Tory), £104,701
118. St Albans: Anne Main (Tory), £42,495
119. Stevenage: Barbara Follett (Labour), £104,698
120. Surrey East: Peter Ainsworth (Tory), £81,566
121. Surrey Heath: Michael Gove (Tory), £43,744
122. Thurrock: Andrew Mackinlay (Labour), £75,407
123. Tonbridge: John Stanley (Tory), £103,451
124. Tunbridge Wells: Greg Clark (Tory), £41,786
125. Watford: Claire Ward (Labour), £95,694
126. Wealden: Charles Hendry (Tory), £104,650
127. Welwyn Hatfield: Grant Shapps (Tory), £5,378
128. West Chelmsford: Simon Burns (Tory), £88,083
129. Windsor: Adam Afriyie (Tory), nil
130. Woking: Humfrey Malins (Tory), £83,141
131. Wokingham: John Redwood (Tory), £84,521
132. Wycombe: Paul Goodman (Tory), £73,970











Minister's £60,000 expenses for parents' home: 'Rumbled' Tony McNulty drops claim... then calls for it to be curtailed





Sudden U-turn: Tony McNulty has stopped claiming the second-home allowance

Another Labour Minister has been caught out in an expenses scandal after effectively admitting he had been wrong to claim £60,000 of taxpayers' money for a property which is his parents' main home - not his.

Employment Minister Tony McNulty performed a dramatic U-turn and announced he had stopped claiming the controversial MPs' second-home allowance after being challenged by The Mail on Sunday.

Even more astonishingly, he said that 133 MPs who, like him, live within 60 miles of Westminster should be banned from getting the £24,000-a-year handout.

Mr McNulty and his wife, chief schools inspector Christine Gilbert, have a combined annual income of a third of a million pounds and between them own two London homes worth £1.2million.

They live together in a house she owns just three miles from Westminster. Yet he has been claiming up to £14,000 a year in parliamentary expenses to help pay for the second house in Harrow where his parents live, 11 miles from the Commons.

The MP has been able to obtain the money because the house he owns is in his Harrow constituency and so qualifies him for the secondhome allowance. Initially, when Mr McNulty was approached by this newspaper on Friday he pointed out: 'It is all within the rules.'

But later, he changed his tune. When it was put to him, 'Do you accept it all looks very odd?', he replied: 'I do.'

He then compared his own unconvincing defence with that made by Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, who said they were 'only obeying orders'.

'It's not against the rules - though I suppose you might say that is the Nuremberg defence,' he observed.



He then suddenly announced that he had decided to stop claiming the allowance, which he has benefited from ever since becoming an MP in 1997. He said he had 'reflected' on the issue and stopped claiming the grant, officially called the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA), in January.

Asked if he had informed anyone in authority of his decision, either at the Commons or in the Labour Party, he replied: 'No, no one.'

The only person he had told was his wife, he said. He was adamant that it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision forced on him by this newspaper's investigation.

As if to emphasise how much he regretted his actions, Mr McNulty, who is also Minister for London and tipped to run against Boris Johnson for London Mayor in 2012, made an impromptu call for a major purge of MPs' expenses.

Mr McNulty has claimed at least £60,000 on this suburban home in which his parents James and Eileen live

Harrow: Mr McNulty has claimed at least £60,000 on this suburban home in which his parents James and Eileen live



Hammersmith: McNulty's wife Christine owns this home, where they both live

His plan received a mixed response from Labour MPs who would be affected. Crawley MP Laura Moffatt said: 'It doesn't affect me because I don't have a second home.' Asked how she squared that with her claim of £61,457 between 2002 / 03 and 2006/07, she hung up.

Dagenham Labour MP Jon Cruddas was more positive. 'This idea should be kicked around, it's a discussion which should be had.'

He said those who live within 60 miles of the capital should be forced to commute every day like any other worker, and lose their second-home allowance. Currently 159 MPs live within that radius. Twenty-six Inner London MPs already cannot claim the ACA - worth up to £24,000 a year - and of the remaining 133, 107 do claim. Mr McNulty's proposal could save taxpayers about £2million a year.

Mr McNulty said: 'There are senior Shadow frontbench figures who live five miles further away from Westminster than me who claim the lot...' before quickly adding: '... and that is entirely appropriate.'

Asked if he would be happy to sacrifice the £103,117 he claimed between 2002 and 2007, he said: 'If that is the agreed view of Parliament.'

But one MP who asked not to be named, said: 'Just because Tony McNulty has been rumbled does not give him the right to lecture those of us who need the money.'

Christine Gilbert

Combined wealth: Christine Gilbert owns two London homes worth £1.2m with husband McNulty

Asked on Sky News' Sunday Live why he was claiming expenses on a property where his parents live, Mr McNulty said: 'I use it considerably. I work there at weekends when I am in the constituency.

'I have said clearly that I was probably spending one or two nights a weekend there early on when I was an MP. It probably is less now.

'But I think I can do my job more effectively by having that base in the constituency. I think I can do my ministerial job more effectively by having a place in London.'

He explained why he stopped claiming the allowance in January: 'By Christmas, I decided - not least with the direction mortgage rates have gone in and a whole range of other factors - I reflected on it and thought I could probably do without claiming it.'

Mr McNulty said he believed there were 'anomalies' in the ACA system for MPs' second homes and thought it should be looked at.

But he insisted he was not casting aspersions on the second-home claims made by 130 other MPs whose constituencies are within 60 miles of London. The 'overwhelming' majority of claims were entirely legitimate, he said.

Any review of the system could look at the Scottish system, under which MSPs with constituencies within commuting distance of Holyrood cannot claim second home allowances, or a flat rate pay increase for all MPs in return for giving up ACA, he suggested.

It is the latest in a series of rows over MPs' expenses. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed how Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claims £20,000-a-year expenses by arguing her London 'digs' at a house owned by her sister is her main home, not the substantial house in her Midlands constituency where she lives with her husband and young children.

Until October, Mr McNulty was Ms Smith's deputy at the Home Office. He denied his change of heart had anything to do with widespread condemnation of her conduct.

This is how Mr McNulty has cashed in on the ACA. Shortly after becoming Harrow East MP in 1997, he bought a house in Harrow, which is now worth an estimated £300,000.

He divorced his first wife, fellow Labour activist Gillian Travers and moved into the house with his parents, James and Eileen. By 2001, he had moved to Hammersmith to live with former headteacher Christine Gilbert. Ms Gilbert, also a divorcee, had bought thehouse - now worth about £900,000 --in 1994.

The couple married in September 2002. On their wedding certificate, both gave their address as the Hammersmith house, although in a Commons debate on data protection in 2005, Mr McNulty appeared to suggest his main home was in Harrow.

'I have no copyright on "Tony McNulty".' he said. 'I have no copyright on November 3, 1958 [his birthday]. I have no copyright on . . . [he then gave the Harrow address].'

In addition, he is on the electoral register in Harrow, not Hammersmith, where his wife is registered.

MPs can claim ACA on the mortgage interest payments on a second home - which means those members who have paid off their mortgage can receive nothing.

According to Land Registry documents, Ms Gilbert did not have a mortgage on the property when they moved in together, but Mr McNulty disputed this and insisted Ms Gilbert did have a mortgage at the time.

However, after they set up home together, both took out mortgages on their respective homes. Land Registry records show Ms Gilbert took out a loan on the Hammersmith property with the Bank of Scotland later in 2001, while Mr McNulty took out a fresh loan on his Harrow house with the same bank in 2003.

Enlarge Scandal after scandal

Scandal after scandal: How The Mail On Sunday has relentlessly exposed how MPs cash in on their expenses

Mr McNulty said he used the loan to 'pay off some debts'. His wife had used hers to buy a maisonette beneath the Hammersmith home to make it bigger. Around the same time, Mr McNulty's second-home expenses nearly doubled - from £7,400 in 2001 to £14,000 in 2002.

Mr McNulty confirmed his wife is still the sole owner of the home, but he pays half the cost of her mortgage.

The weakness of Mr McNulty's second-home allowance is laid bare by a 'golden triangle of expenses' map which shows how close they are to each other - nine miles - and to the Commons. The Hammersmith home is nine London Underground stops fromWestminster, the Harrow house just eight stops from the Commons.

Since 2001/02, the first year for which figures are available, Mr McNulty has claimed a total of £59,998 in second-home allowances. In the past five years he has claimed £52,598.

Assuming he claimed a similar amount from 1997 to 2001 and in the current financial year, he is likely to have claimed up to £100,000 in second-home allowances in total.

Asked if he had told the Commons Fees Office, which pays MPs' expenses, of his decision to stop claiming the ACA, Mr McNulty said: 'I haven't

. . . I have been too busy. I was planningto do so at the end of the financial-year.' Had he told Labour Whips or Party officials? 'I'm not sure it's a matter for party officials.'

Asked what had brought about his change of heart, he said: 'I have always felt some discomfort in claiming the money, to be frank. I decided that it's simply time that I stopped --partly because mortgage interest rates have gone down and partly because I can do without it.'

Asked if he planned to pay back the money, he indicated he would not. 'It's not that I shouldn't be claiming. I just feel a lot happier in myself in trying to make sure that I am as sensible as I can be with taxpayers' money, and that is what I have done.'

He pointed out he had never claimed the maximum £24,000 a year ACA. When he became a Minister and acquired the use of a chauffeur-driven limousine, he stopped claiming for travel to and from his constituency. Nor did he claim goods for his Harrow home using the notorious 'John Lewis list', nor for the council tax there.

Mr McNulty said the Commons should consider following the lead set by Members of the Scottish Parliament. Those who live within 90 minutes of the Edinburgh Parliament, roughly 60 miles, cannot claim for a second home. But MPs have been resistant to such reforms. Last July, they threw out an independent review body's proposal to cut £10,000 from the secondhome allowance for Outer London MPs such as Mr McNulty.

The Commons 'Green Book' which sets out the rules on expenses makes it clear that ACA claims must be 'above reproach' and that MPs 'must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you' is benefiting from public funds.

MPs are also 'strongly advised' to avoid subletting or renting out any property on which they claim ACA.

Mr McNulty and Ms Gilbert met when he was a college lecturer and Harrow councillor and she was the council's director of education.

She became chief executive of Tower Hamlets council and was Ofsted's chief inspector three years ago, for which she earns £225,000 a year. Mr McNulty earns £104,050, and both have gold-plated pensions.

Since being elected MP for Harrow East in 1997, Mr McNulty has earned a reputation as an outspoken and popular MP. His robust defence of Labour's record has led to him being used increasingly as a Government spokesman - and yesterday on BBC Radio 4, Jonathan Dimbleby dubbed him 'the Government's flak jacket'.

Last month he admitted he could not survive on the £60.50-a-week Jobseeker's Allowance. The McNulty-Gilberts earn that much in an hour and a half.

The trials of Elmer Fudd.......

Elmer Fudd srikes again. Salmond does have a very anoying smile on his coupon especially when being interviewed on telly. But who could blame him he must howl with laughter every night before he says his prayers after FMQs. Mr Fudd cannot have any more feet left to shoot holes in, what a fud.

By Tom Gordon
Labour leader’s attempt to personalise battle with Salmond backfires

HE WAS held up by Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray as an example of a youngster let down by the SNP's apprenticeship policy.

Lewis Doig, from Tranent in East Lothian, was described in parliament as a despondent young man left high and dry by the government when he was given his notice on the building site where he worked as trainee.

But Gray was left with a red-face last night when Doig said he was actually five days into a three-week apprenticeship trial when the Labour leader claimed the 19-year-old was facing certain redundancy and did not know where to turn. Only urgent government intervention would help his constituent, Gray told Alex Salmond at First Minister's Questions on Thursday.


Gray made the same claim in his weekly internet broadcast the following day.

However, on Friday Doig learned that his trial employment had evolved into a full-time job and he was able to take up a college place and complete his apprenticeship.

It has also come to light that Doig was expelled from a training place at college for fighting a fellow student, and is something of a minor internet celebrity thanks to a drunken foul-mouthed YouTube video.

Gray said in Holyrood that his 19-year-old constituent was recently given his notice because of a lack of building work and attacked Salmond at First Minister's Questions on Thursday.

He said Doig faced the dole just three months short of finishing a four-year qualification as a joiner because the SNP was failing to guarantee people apprenticeships. Mentioning him by name six times, Gray spoke of "the respect that we have for young Lewis".

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, however, Doig revealed that when Gray told Salmond urgent intervention was needed to save his apprenticeship, he was already a week into a trial period with a new employer.

On Friday, he learned he would be kept on long-term, allowing him to take up a college place and complete his training.

Also, in a video titled "Doigy Steamin" posted on YouTube last year, a youthful Doig is shown in a less flattering light, rolling on the ground drunk and using obscenities, including: "Let me get up, I'm gonna kick f*** oot ye."

The clip was posted last October by one of Doig's friends, giving Gray's team ample opportunity to find it before Thursday's clash. In it, Doig sways wildly before falling to the ground, then laughs: "Where's ma hoose? Take me tae ma hoose, please. Here, who's this c**t? Scott's the f***ing coolest c**t of all."

Doig said the episode was filmed several years ago, at the start of his apprenticeship, and he hoped it would now be removed.

There is no suggestion that Doig is currently involved in any form of bad behaviour.

The unravelling of Gray's attack raises fresh questions about his judgment, and that of his team.

When Gray succeeded Wendy Alexander as leader last September, he and his team decided to make more use of individual cases at First Minister's Questions in order to contrast Salmond's rhetoric with facts on the ground. The tactic can backfire badly if there are any loose ends.

Kenneth Gibson, SNP deputy convenor of Holyrood's education committee, said: "Iain Gray should be less desperate to drag constituents into First Minister's Questions and more concerned with getting his facts right."

A spokesman for Gray, added: "Iain Gray wrote to education secretary Fiona Hyslop a month ago on behalf of his constituent. We are glad to hear that efforts by his employer will help Lewis finish his apprenticeship, but call on Alex Salmond to follow through on his budget promise of an apprenticeship guarantee for all apprentices facing redunancies."

Macbeth

Had to put this on here along with this post from Richard Thompson. Can you imagine Tavish in this, with Ming the Merciless as the other.

We shall remember them.

Three more soldiers die in Afghanistan. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading on Afghanistan. John Reids famous remarks, about not a shot being fired will now be echoing in many peoples conscience. Although not his, as he picks up directorships and consultancy work with private security companies for example, who surprise surprise have just pulled down a massive MOD contact. The reputation of private security is not good with the Army after events in NI.

Reading this mans blog has changed my opinion a wee bit. If we can, with the US and other countries roll back the Taliban, it does seem to be a good cause as the Taliban are pure evil.

It is a dilema when people like Mugabe are allowed to get away with mass murder, and stuff his bank accounts with stolen revenue from the Zimbabwean people. Should we not be changing his regime?

However it is important that whilst not agreeing with the political shit that happens we continue to offer our moral support to these warriors as they do what they can.

The Pakistan situation is not helping and it looks like getting a lot worse, the area is a volcano waiting to erupt.

Muriel Gray in the SH.

This piece by Muriel Gray in the SH has really hit the nail on the head. There was something about the whole protest that just did not add up and Gray has nailed it.

It was like a BNP march that was on last year after they won a by election, where they were flying Saltires and Welsh and Irish flags, that still had the creases in them and looked brand new. Spuriously trying to claim they now represented mainstream UK political opinion.

These Muslim protesters looked exactly the same, all their clothes still had the creases in them as they had just been taken from their packing, and looked just to brand new. The trainers and track suit bottoms were just to much.

I still say that these marches are complete bollocks and all these soldiers want is quality family time or maybe even some quality time to be alone with their thoughts and get their heads sorted before the next op which will not be far of.

Andrew Marr in Edinburgh.

Just watched Andrew Marr from Edinburgh. He had Douglas Alexander and Alex Salmond on. At the end of his first chat with Alexander he said, "thank you both very much," which he quickly corrected, just shows you the effect Wendy has had on him.

However nice to see the BBC broadcasting from Edinburgh.

Former Defence Secretary John Reid faced fierce criticism yesterday as it emerged the world's largest security firm had won a huge contract from the Ministry of Defence weeks after taking him on as a consultant.

After the events in NI and the failure of private security defending the Army, this latest snout in the trough revelation from New Labour leaves a very distinct odour of vomit. It is people like the thugs Reid, Ingram, Hoon and Browne who have caused many of our service people to loose their lives and health through their lack of support, lies and downright contempt. Whilst they are busy filling there pockets as fast as they can stuff the cash away.

Was it always like this or am I just getting more cynical or is the press getting better at finding these crooks out?

Diomhair is back.

It seems I may have been a wee bit hasty, as the Diomhair programme is available on You Tube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/chicmac1

So perhaps I had tried to view another users channel, or perhaps the paranoia got to me, or perhaps Chicmac put it back up. My apologies to MI5 ;o)

Either way Chicmac well done you are a star, I will nominate you for the Freedom of Scotland, which will itself soon be free due to information such as this. No one can see this and not be angry.

State sponsored censorship

I was going to blog on MI5. However I know see that the Diomhair programme has been removed from You Tube. So if that has been done by the BBC then they must equally remove all the other material on there. BASTARDS.

There is no doubt in my mind that the security services are behind this and the carry on with the Scotsman and Herald forums.

It just shows how truthfull and damaging this programme is to the Britnatz state.

It will resurface of that there is no doubt.

Saor Alba.

State sponsored propaganda campaign.

Whilst following a link from another post I inadvertently stumbled into a blog which I generally avoid like the pox, in it I found the following, who would salivate over this:
====================================================================================
“Coupled with the intellectual case for Scotland (or the case against Britain) is a kind of arrogance: that Scotland is a more moral nation than England. When I mentioned this to George Kerevan, a senior editor of The Scotsman and a prospective parliamentary candidate for the SNP, he said, “I think Alex Salmond would agree with that.” When I was waiting, in the company of some older delegates, for a train from Perth to Glasgow, a younger man who had recently lived in London joined us. “Let me tell you,” he said, “they [the English] have not got our values. They don’t care about society. They are different from us.” I said this was nonsense; the older men looked embarrassed and the younger man moved away.”
====================================================================================
And a woman threw a shoe at Jim Murphy and cried, "Scottish not British."

Or remember the Newsnights car with English flags on it being left in the Gallowgate, to be trashed by thugs with scarves covering their faces because they knew they were being filmed by the Newsnight crew that paid them to do it.

What desperate transparent stuff.

Here is a true story. It concerns a woman who had moved to a lovely wee fishing village in the North East, which I know well, and opened a restaurant. She had a lot of trouble retaining staff to work there. The woman was from Essex.

One day she had friends visiting from Essex, and was having a drink with them in the local pub. She was impressing them with her boasts of how cheaply she had bought her house and attached business, after selling her semi in Essex. How beautiful the country was. But a country that was spoiled by one thing only, it was full of Scots.

She then went on to denigrate the local population saying they were shiftless and lazy and would not work for her.

Being a wee village the word spread instantly and needless to say several months later she felt it wise to go back to Essex. No one would work for her and she was ignored in the village. I wonder why.

Some months later a story appeared in a national news paper about racism in Scotland and how this poor women was destroyed by racist Scots.


See how it works.

Imagine a Scot behaving like that in London or Essex.

OK job done Brown in the USA

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Brown in the USA

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Brown in the USA

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220289&title=brown-in-the-usa


This is funny can someone advise me how to upload video clips to my blog post please thankyou.

Anglo Saxon Treachery

A loyal patriot has put the Diomhair, bbc Alba now on YouTube, well done. It is essential that this is given the widest possible coverage if you read this and you care about Scotland please please pass this on in e-mail, blog, word of mouth, and forum it will open a lot of blinkered eyes.

Albino deer hoax.

Roe Deer

##################################################################################

Dead Sheep
If that is a Roe Deer, then I am The Flying Dutchman who only comes once every seven years. It's a dead sheep for christ sake.

Looks like it has had a shave as well. Kirkconnel is funny like that.

We shall remember them.

The only thing I feel like blogging is to say how sad I am that Northern Ireland has once more been tainted by violence. My condolences to the loved ones of the dead soldiers and the injured. We shall remember them.

MOD TREACHERY

SAS Officers do not quit without very good reason, I make no apology for highlighting this again and again.

The MOD and UK politicians have blood on their chubby little pointed greedy hands, a thousand curses on them all.

From The Times

March 7, 2009

A former senior SAS officer in Afghanistan has said that the Government has “blood on its hands” over the deaths of four soldiers killed by a roadside bomb.

Major Sebastian Morley, who resigned last October from his post as the most senior reservist SAS officer in Afghanistan, said that army commanders and Whitehall officials ignored his warnings that “unsafe” vehicles would lead to the deaths of soldiers.

Major Morley, 40, stood down after what he called the “unnecessary deaths” of four soldiers when their Snatch Land Rover hit an anti-tank mine in Helmand province in June last year. Among the dead was Corporal Sarah Bryant, the first servicewoman to be killed in Afghanistan.

Major Morley accused Quentin Davies, the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, of telling an “unacceptable lie” when he said after the deaths that commanders could choose which vehicles they used in combat.

Related Links

• SAS chief quits after blaming poor kit for deaths

“I had to resign,” he said. “I had warned [the Ministry of Defence] time and time again that there were going to be needless deaths if we were not given the right equipment, and they ignored this advice. There is blood on their hands.”

Mr Davies later expressed regret if he had caused offence by his comments that casulaties had resulted from commanders choosing the “wrong piece of equipment”.

But Major Morley said: “A government minister is on record telling a lie about four deaths, and this is unacceptable. For him to reverse his position now is too little too late.

“To accuse an operational commander of having a choice, and for that man to have made a choice that led to death, is to accuse him of negligence.

“There was no other vehicle to use. The simple truth is that the protection of these vehicles is inadequate and this led to the unnecessary deaths.”

He also referred to the Snatch Land Rover as a “mobile coffin”.

Major Morley told The Daily Telegraph that operations in Afghanistan were “worthless” and said: “This is the equivalent to the start of the Vietnam conflict – there is much more to come. We hold tiny areas of ground in Helmand and we are kidding oursleves if we think our influence goes beyond 500 metres of our security bases. It’s just crazy to think we hold that ground or have any influcence on what goes on beyond the bases.

An MoD spokesman said: “UK forces are better equipped than ever before, with new technology and state-of-the-art armoured vehicles continuing to arrive in Afghanistan.

“The clear advice of commanders is that Snatch remains mission critical for certain roles. We accept that Snatch is not suitable for high-risk environments, but it is adequate for the job it is given.

“It is true that in an area the size of Helmand province there is a limit to how much ground we can hold. But that does not mean we are not making progress. We are.”

Over the past four years 37 British troops have been killed in Snatch Land Rovers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BBC ALBA

Seems that BBC Alba has not been assimilated by the Unionist Borg. This programme tells the story of the duplicity and dirty tricks of the Unionist establishment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g8hg3/Diomhair

I have been trying to download it as it is only available for a few days on BBC i Player, but I cannot make the downloader work, my intention was to put it on You Tube as it should be kept for posterity and wider viewing in future.

Saor Alba.

MEDIAWATCH

From Mark Calney,Los Angeles

(California Democratic Party activist)

Alan,
I saw Broon speaking live on the television to the US Congress yesterday. I was absolutely amazed. He sounded as if he represented some poor undeveloped nation in Africa or Asia and not the British Empire. Emblematic was his absurd attack on off-shore tax havens, as if the British banking houses and un-Commonwealth had nothing to do with the matter - from the Jersey Isles to the Caribbean - ad naseum. That was dire pandering to populism. If the British oligarchy truly wanted to shut down its illegal banking practices, it would already have been done. And his faint praise of FDR to promote a new British-dominated Bretton Woods System carried more of the stench of fawning propitiation than one of dominance. There is amble and hysterical concern amongst the vassals of the Empire that their "special relationship" with the U.S.A. is in dire jeopardy. The President did remove Winnie's bust from the Oval Office (much to the world's relief) and did snub the Broon. Witness today's edition of the London "Tory-agraph" that attacks Micelle Obama as the "Lady MacBeth" behind the President's refusal to bend his knee to her Majesty's PM. If the President continues to act in the footsteps of FDR, the British oligarchy may scream and flail but the rest of humanity will rightfully rejoice.

I also received a short report from our youth that attended the special seminar at the Washington DC Library of Congress on Robert Burns sponsored by Scotland. They were quite excited and thought that what Alex Salmond presented was quite good.

All my best,
Mark

POLITICS NOW STV

This article by Moridura is excellent and unsurprisingly is what is happening with Scots and Newsnight and Newsnicht, which have now like The Scotsman just become New Labour press releases. What with Glenn Campbell, and his twin sister Kirsty Wark assaulting the ears with there patronising grating accents, Politics now is a refreshing change and for me at least is my political programme of choice. BBC Scotland continue to be a joke.

Ponsonby had Gray by the short and curlies and boy did he let him have it. The hypocrisy of Labour is offensive, even to Labour supporters, even Gray as dense as he is must see it.

72% Of people now want a referendum on independence, and the anti-Scottish, anti-Democratic Unionist cabal are running scared, because they know that Scotland wants independence. This will blow back in their torn faces.

We could not do any worse than the UK who are now going down the Mugabe road and printing money. History is once more being repeated and the IMF will soon be running the UK.

Mandelson is now trumpeting the UKs green credentials, and picking up on the message Alex Salmond has been highlighting for years on renewables. What a pity it was only guacamole and not shit in the cup the young lady threw over him, today.

SAOR ALBA.

BROWN

Gordon Brown's desperation for "special relationship" with Obama is embarrassing

The Telegraph, Toby Harnden.

Gordon Brown hasn't even arrived here in Washington yet and I'm feeling slightly queasy. Of course, Britain should want to be a pre-eminent ally of the United States. But do we need to be quite so crawlingly needy and obvious about it? The way the British government craves approval from President Barack Obama is humiliating, and very probably counter-productive.

If you want an example of how embarrassing the transatlantic wooing has become then check out this Times article by Gordon Brown designed set the tone for his visit to Washington tomorrow. Here are a few lowlights from the article, and a couple of other examples of gratuitous obsequiousness.

1. "Winston Churchill described the joint inheritance of Britain and America as not just a shared history but a shared belief in the great principles of freedom and the rights of man - what Barack Obama has described as the enduring power of our ideals - democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope." (Gordon Brown article)

Where to begin with this? First of all, is it sensible to cite Winston Churchill when Obama has just returned the Churchill bust loaned to President George W. Bush? Second, the implication here is that Churchill talked of "democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope" as being enduring transatlantic principles. In fact, this is a line from Obama's victory speech on election night and he wasn't talking about Britain. Does Brown think Obama won't notice?

2. "And as America stands at its own dawn of hope, I want that hope to be fulfilled through us all coming together to shape the 21st century as the first century of a truly global society." (Gordon Brown article)

Is it really necessary to describe Obama's election as representing America's "own dawn of hope"? Hope was Obama's campaign slogan (and one suspects that the word getting quoted back at him by people asking for something might be getting a little tiresome) and this platitude-laden sentence reads like it came from "Hello" magazine.

3. "I have visited America many times and have many friends there, and as prime minister I want to do more to strengthen even further our relationship with America." (Gordon Brown article)

It's great that Brown has holidayed in Cape Cod but no one in the US really gives a monkeys about that and mentioning it seems a tad, well, desperate.

4. "And there is no international partnership in recent history that has served the world better than the special relationship between Britain and the United States." (Gordon Brown article)

This before meeting a president who built his campaign on having opposed the Iraq war and has written that the US "can no longer afford to go to the UN prepared for war, armed only with the signatures of Britain and Togo". Maybe it was still on the laptop from Tony Blair remarks alongside President George W. Bush.

5."That is why President Obama and I will discuss this week a global new deal, whose impact can stretch from the villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London and New York- and giving security to the hard-working families in every country." (Gordon Brown article)

Global new deal? Obama's domestic agenda is in many respects an attempt to secure a 21^st Century New Deal. That's ambitious enough. For Brown to suggest an Anglo-American-led "global new deal" that can give security to "hard-working families in every country" is so far-fetched as to be meaningless.

6. "I'm obviously delighted to be here on the day after you were sworn in as Madame Secretary, as Secretary of State, and three months to the day since America voted for change, and two weeks to the day since President Obama issued his clarion call, not just to the American people but to the global community, to come together to tackle shared challenges." (David Miliband, Foreign Secretary)

This was uttered last month after Miliband's talks with Hillary Clinton. Quite apart from the diplomacy of citing the "change" slogan that Obama used to defeat Hillary, is it really necessary to be so publicly pleased that Obama beat John McCain? It's transparent fawning and will be seen as such by the Obama administration.

7. The White House hands back a bust of Churchill. Big deal - shrug it off. But no, Brown responds by packing his suitcase with a pencil holder made from the timber of HMS Gannet, a framed commission of HMS Resolute and - I didn't make this up - all seven volumes of Sir Martin Gilbert's Churchill biography.

After the Brown!

THE BROWN CURSE

Thanks to The Ranting Penguin for blogging the following:
====================================================================

Still trying to get my head round this in the Telegraph:

"A senior economic adviser to Gordon Brown said the City of London was all-important to the Government and “the rest of the country can be turned over to tourism”, it is claimed today.

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

Last Updated: 6:08AM GMT 03 Mar 2009

==================================================================

It reinforces the blog I did yesterday. Not only are our forces being betrayed but the "hard working families," that Brown and his kind so cynicaly use again and again as a prop for their dreadfull rhetoric, the British working class are betrayed, and it seems being driven to parties like BNP that recognise that.

Nothing and no one is sacred in the craving of this megalomaniac for international status and recognition. Oh he will get it for all the wrong reasons.

Our grandchildren will curse his name as they pay of the debt. That is if they have not gone to Canada or Australia.

BRITISH LOYALTY!

The death of young Ivan Cameron will have touched us all. Bringing a child into the world is a big step for parents. To have that child born seriously disabled is dreadfull. To then have the child grow and become a loving family member, who needs total support 24/7, giving the best that parents can to ensure decent quality of life, knowing that one day that life will be cut short, takes courage and fortitude and a deep well of stamina. My heart goes out to the Camerons.

My heart also goes out to the parents of loved ones who make the ultimate sacrifice for a country that does not really appreciate them, and sees them as a necessary evil. On the very day that Ivan Cameron touched our hearts, four service men dies in Afghanistan.

The same MPs who suspended business in Westminster, in support of the Camerons, took the decision to send our forces to Iraq and Afghanistan. The same MPs who now condone these forces operating in Afghanistan in equipment that is frankly a bloody joke in this day and age. The same MPs that are bending over backwards to prevent the public from seeing the expenses that they snuffle at the trough of the tax payer.The same MPs that sent our forces to war to invade a sovereign country on a "thats it then." Three words that condemed 10s of thousands of people to death and many more to a lifetime of mutilation humiliation poverty and pain.

I am sure it was the right thing to do to suspend the business of the house for Ivan. His father is one of their own and will value that gesture of solidarity. What a great pity that the under paid under protected men and women, we ask to put their lives on the line for us cannot feel that solidarity. They feel betrayed and hung out to dry. The butt of endless jokes from American troops who are incredulous that soldiers have to endure what ours do in 2009.

When it come to digging deep and looking after our own we fall short time after time. There are veterans of these campaigns now living in poverty and misery because of a lack of after care by the MOD.



As the father of a serving officer who's son has has served in Iraq, I cannot begin to explain how it feel every time the phone rings or someone rings the door bell. You hear a car door slamming in the street at 3 in the morning and hold your breath praying that no one rings your bell. 328 families have had that dreaded knock in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign.

149 from Afghanisatan.

And 179 from iraq.

"British workers for British jobs," a cheap nasty throwaway remark by a cheap nasty PM. Who when it suits him pops up in Iraq purely to have his photograph taken and flash his insane rictus smile at all he meets. When it comes down to the wire his remark is betrayed for the utter posturing lie it is just like the New Labour party.

I fear for our country now that I can see what is down the road, knowing how cynical and utterly ruthless these greedy career politicians are. They really do not give a shit that the UK is about to enter one of the darkest periods of our history, they have stuck there heads in the trough and the bunker mentality has now taken root at the heart of the government. They are in a gold lined teflon bubble. Damn them all to eternal hell.

Vince and HBOS deal unravelling.

FROM SKY NEWS

The dossier was submitted during an unsuccessful legal challenge to the merger

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable has tabled a parliamentary question asking if the document still exists, and if its contents can now be revealed.

The Treasury dossier was submitted in evidence during the unsuccessful legal challenge in December and January by opponents of the merger.

The Merger Action Group fighting the decision to waive competition law to allow the merger to go through took its case to a two-day hearing in London, but lost.

The secret dossier was clearly central to the Government's case for riding roughshod over competition law.

MAG spokesman Malcolm Fraser

It believes the Treasury document, which was not made public, sets out why Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling thought the takeover was the only option.

The group also believes that copies of the document have been destroyed.

MP Vince Cable

Mr Cable's parliamentary question asks if the original still exists, and if so, whether Mr Darling will now reveal its contents.

He said: "There appears to be a lot of murky dealings surrounding the Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS, involving the Government and the Lloyds board.

"It is important, both for taxpayers and shareholders, that we have more transparency about what actually went on when the takeover was being pushed through by the Government."

Mr Cable's question also asks what advice was given to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson by the Financial Services Authority about the merger and what alternatives his department considered.

MAG spokesman Malcolm Fraser said: "The secret dossier was clearly central to the Government's case for riding roughshod over competition law.

"Now that the takeover has gone through and the extent of HBOS's financial losses are now known publicly, why should the contents of the dossier remain secret?

"If it is no longer in existence, why not? What is the Government hiding?"

A Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform spokesman said: "We've kept all the records that informed the Secretary of State's decision."

FROM MEDIAWATCH.... INGRAM BIGS IT IN SUNDAY HERALD

Labour this Labour

The Sunday Herald
01 Mar 2009

Senior Scottish MP in forged letters mystery

Letters defending Adam Ingram in local press were faked

ASENIOR Labour MP has refused to comment on a forgery row involving fake letters about him being sent to a local newspaper. Former defence minister Adam Ingram is not responding to questions about how a 75-year-old Labour member’s name was used to defend the MP’s record in a series of letters. Councillor Michael McCann, the MP’s aide, also declined an invitation to discuss the subject on Ingram’s behalf.

I n g r a m , w h o r e p r e s e n t s E a s t Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow, was criticised recently for having the largest-declared outside earnings of any Scottish MP. The long-serving politician makes up to £ 170,000 in consultancies and non-executive directorships on top of his £ 63,291 salary. The revelation was followed by two letters being published in the East Kilbride News under the name “ Tony Carlin”, a former Labour councillor and party member.

One of the letters challenged the criticisms of Ingram’s outside earnings:“Adam Ingram has served our town as both an elected councillor and as a member of parliament with distinction. He has fought for people across the constituency and has delivered for them.”

It p ra i s e d h i m a s a “ t i re l e s s campaigner” and noted his “indefatigability”. The letter also attacked the local Green Party for its criticisms of Ingram’s extra-parliamentary jobs: “[ The] Green Party are against the redevelopment of the town centre, in fact, they are against any development in the town, full stop.”

Another letter, again from “ Tony Carlin”, hit out at criticisms of the first piece of correspondence. However, the East Kilbride News has since reported that the two letters are forgeries.

Adeline Pandolfino, Carlin’s daughter, told the newspaper that her father had neither authored the letters nor given his permission for his name to be used. She added that, if individuals did not want to put their own name on letters, they should “remain anonymous”.

The typed letters had a superimposed signature at the bottom. The Sunday Herald left a message for Ingram and emailed him questions, but the MP declined to respond. Councillor McCann was also given the opportunity to comment, by email and through calls to his home and mobile, but he too did not get in touch.

However, both Ingram and McCann have commented on the outsideearnings row in the local press.

In a letter to the East Kilbride News, McCann responded to Green Party criticism of Ingram by stating: “Kirsten [Robb, Green Party activist] opposes the South Lanarkshire Local Plan and she opposes the redevelopment of the town centre.”

Ingram, in a separate publication, defended his five other jobs: “ The companies I am associated with came to me and suggested that because of my background, knowledge and experience, that I may be of assistance to them.”

McCann is expected to be the next Labour candidate in the constituency, if Ingram opts against seeking another term. Carlin declined to comment. Pandolfino said she intervened in order to clear her father’s name.

John Wilson, an SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said: “Given his position, Adam Ingram should make clear what his view is on this serious matter.”

Robb said: “ These bogus letters are disgraceful. Adam Ingram should answer questions.”