Some Pension Fat Cats Named

Click here for the latest on the Jail the Whitehall 600,000 Campaign from The Slog. A quote from the conclusion to the much more detailed posting is as follows: I could carry on giving examples of this kind of self-donated largesse forever and a day. This is not a political issue any more: it is one of apolitical justice. There are two things that make this scandal infinitely worse than banker bonuses and MPs' expenses: 1. Some bankers are actually incredibly good at what they do - and, on pre-agreed criteria - more than achieved their profit targets. Most of the Whitehall troughers have presided over abject failure. 2. While MPs working an expenses system is infuriating, it is a minute cost to Britain compared to the extra trillion Pounds these civil service peacocks have awarded themselves since 2006. The initial objective of this campaign remains the same: to establish a simple principle - regardless of past agreements on pension accumulation in the civil service - which dictates NO FUNDING, NO BENEFITS. It is outrageous that these leeches should expect us to pay for their retirement when they quite knowingly gifted huge sums to themselves knowing there were no budgets to pay for them. But after this, our central question is still, "Who authorised these unfunded awards, and when will the Serious Fraud Office be called in to investigate?"

WRITE TO YOUR MP: 'NO FUNDING, NO BENEFITS' Email and comment thread wherever you can to ensure that this greed does not go unpunished. This is what the internet is for: use it,or lose it.

Obscene pensions, EU waste and Lost Democracy

Click here for update on the "Jail the Whitehall 600,000". There is a Daily Telegraph report from November 2006 on the 1.7 million pensions available even then and against which this blog has long campaigned, read it here. We wish The Slog much success in its campaign and hope the reference to interest from The Sun in today's post bears fruit, for the blogosphere has so far proved ineffective in arousing the public in the huge criminality at play in the governance of the country over recent years; The conomic crisis might also do the trick, as hinted at in this from today's Telegraph web pages. A quote:

Yields on 10-year Swiss bonds fell to 1.02pc as investors flocked into the ultimate safe-haven asset, now outperforming gold.

No country in the developed world apart form Japan has ever seen 10-year yields drop below 1pc. Rates remained significantly higher during the two great depressions of the 1870s and the 1930s.......(blog editor's highlight)

While it concludes....

The next phase of the crisis will see revenge by all those who have already taken a big hit, or expect to do so: whether under water on their mortgages, unemployed, dependent on health support, or state employees. Democracy will have its way.

Well we can indeed hope that will be the case, but how it will play out given the apparent powerlessness of the nations states to prevent runaway EU expenditure, reported elsewhere in the same newspaper's pages, remains to be seen!

Cut the Pensions of MP Maggots as this blog has URGED!

The only means we can properly get back at the filth in Westminster is to put them all on basic state pensions as this blog has been urging for some time! Here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Carole Malone in the News of the World is beginning to understand some of the anger, linked here - a quote:

And when MPs talk about the tough times facing the British people, what the hell do THEY know about it?

There are no tough times for them. They just bank their salaries and stick everything else on the taxpayers' tab knowing that when they get kicked out of office they'll own (probably outright) two beautifully refurbished homes. They'll have a gold-plated pension, a hefty savings account and a couple of lucrative directorships.

Demented Darling's Budget

Can any sane person be expected to believe Darling's assumptions for the British economy, they make the entire Budget unbelievable and are as follows: Economic Growth 2009 Minus 3.5% 2010 Plus 1.4% 2011 Plus 3.5% What unbelievable claptrap from this grossly incompetent threesome: Debt 175 Billion in 2009/2010 173 Billion in 2010/2011 (Even with his projection of 1.4% Economic Growth) Debt he says will peak in later years at 79% of GDP.... Some hope! These filth have temporarily rendered us all powerless but with this burden on future generations those who follow us will one day get even! Withdraw the pensions of these MP Maggots!

Withdraw MP Pensions

The following was written this week by veteran and honourable Labour MP Frank Field, read "Darkness at the Heart of the Labour Party" in full from here. BUT note especially the full implications of these two sections: Week after week MPs have been turning up but with almost no serious work to do. There is the odd bill to be sure. But there is no legislative programme to speak of. Even the debates that are put on to fill in time are ones that deny MPs a vote. The whole exercise is vacuous.... It is this contrast between how we should be behaving, and what has been exposed, that is the real killer. A necessary government information machine has been corrupted by a spin that seeks not to inform but control and, if needs be destroy. And it has been in existence for over a decade. Yes indeed, more than a decade I would argue as far as the lack of a proper legislative programme is concerned, for the John Major years started the period of abdication of Parliament's role to the EU. Eventually the MP who have destroyed democracy and screwed the Nation for these decades must be held accountable, an oppressed and bankrupted country cannot be expected to compliantly provide the obscene pensions that the Westminster filth have contrived for themselves, perhaps with the odd exceptions for the likes of Frank Field.

Treasures from the Threads - Number Thirty-three

A Comment to the article linked from my posting below on pensions: This was alway's going to be a problem but Brown made the situation ten times worse by robbing the pension funds of millions of people. Every day more people reach retirement age to discover what they long suspected that very little is left of their pension. When Brown preaches morals the roof should fall on his head. He has blood on his hands because like everything this cowardly man does he kills through stealth. People have committed suicide and many more have died through poverty and worry because of the actions of Brown. He like all the rest of his bunch of thieves have a golden retirement to look forward to while those people who simply worked to support themselves are left to rot!. Now these low interest rates are well below true inflation those who have tried to save have been kicked in the teeth leaving them living off their savings. These people in government are far too busy fiddling their expenses to worry about the state of private sector pensions. kenherts on April 10, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Withdrawing MP Pensions

This blog's campaign (eg here) to get a political party to adopt a policy which will withdraw the pensions of all MP elected since John Major's election victory and the next election is certain to gather ever more support and eventual success as the scandal of their allowances continues and cuts in private pensions such as those announced this week for 5000 AON employees become more widespread. This will ensure the removal from power of the three main political parties unless they adopt a policy on pensions very close to this total cut. Jeff Randall in the Daily Telegraph, once again writes and comments as if he is a daily reader of this blog, I quote:

....Nowhere is this more evident than in – brace yourself – MPs' pensions. On top of all their treats, including free bath plugs, chintzy lamps and Sky dishes, they benefit from a pension scheme, the generosity of which amazes many who are in it. One former MP told me: "I have a Westminster pension, which to be honest, given what I did to earn it, is not far short of a scandal."

The MPs' scheme is among the most lavish ever devised. It is paid for through modest contributions from members and a handsome top-up from the Treasury. Even so, the Financial Times discovered this week that, applying accounting standards used in the private sector, the MPs' fund has a shortfall of nearly £230 million.

For mere mortals, this would be worrying, raising the spectre of hardship in old age. No such concerns for MPs, however, because you and I are going to fill the hole. We will be compelled to shovel in more cash. No wonder the trustees are relaxed. Yes, not content with taxpayer-funded second homes, televisions the size of double duvets, and subscriptions to red-hot movies, parliamentarians will henceforth enjoy an increase in the exchequer's donation to their pension pots from 27 per cent to 32 per cent of an MP's salary.

It's tempting to say that this cannot go on. Unfortunately, it can – and probably will. The gravy train is being driven by its beneficiaries. Devoid of shame, they have no motive for unloading unseemly perquisites. The Prime Minister has ordered a review of MPs' pensions, which is due to report this year, but who really believes that meaningful cut-backs will be accepted?

Read the entire column, linked here, for it concludes with some refreshing news from Ireland.

Parliamentary ex-official confirms MP will sabotage any expense reforms

The report is in The Guardian from which comes this quote:

Sir Roger Sands, former clerk to the House of Commons, writing in today's letters pages, questions the ability and resources of the anti-sleaze watchdog, the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL), to be able to tackle the problem.

He warns: "Members of parliament are distinct from other elements of the public service, such as judges, army officers and senior civil servants, in having this ability to overturn, or covertly sabotage, the findings of the independent review body."

He predicts: "Unless this fundamental issue is addressed, a further review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life ... will only serve to delay for many months, or even years, a solution to this problem which has so deeply and distressingly damaged the public's trust in the central institution of our democracy."

A commitment to withhold the pensions of these thoroughly unsavoury characters, who will clearly stop at nothing to continue their fat lives doing 20% of any normal job, is now essential! See my earlier post of today and others tagged MP Maggots or MP Pensions.

MP Expenses at PM Questions. Pension Withdrawal Required!!

The collective moan in Parliament to the raising by the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, of the public's burning burning topic of the moment - namely the grotesque expenses claimed by the many maggots in Parliament, shows just how out of touch these vermin are with the public mood of outrage and just how unlikely are any chances for real reform. Therein lies the wonder of my plan to withdraw the pension rights (or as a compromise severely curtail such rights) of sitting MP simply because the plan has zero reliance on the maggots now occupying the green benches of Westminster. A minor party such as the English Democrats or any other with no MP, merely needs to adopt a promise to enact such legislation upon its first election and it will be surely a small matter of time before it holds the necessary majority. The certainty of such an outcome could even act as sufficient stimulus to get the present thieving rabble to remove their grubby grasping hands from the public pocket.

National Newspaper joins this Blog's Campaign on MP Pensions

The Daily Mirror Opinion Column, linked here, as reported on the Radio 4 Today Programme has this:

MP pensions display contempt for the taxpayer

• 
• 

1/04/2009

To dip into the public purse to pay for MPs' unacceptably generous pensions is to display a grotesque contempt for ordinary taxpayers.

Parliamentarians should be offering to give money back - not ask us for more, especially after the recent expenses scandals.

There is no conceivable justification for paying MPs pensions worth considerably more than those of other public servants.

MPs should agree to retire on the same terms as nurses and teachers - but we're not holding our breath..

For Labour/LibDem MPs 5th March is their date with destiny

Unsurprisingly there has been no minor political party in Britain yet prepared to step forward and accept this blog's challenge to make it their policy to withdraw parliamentary pensions from MPs voting against next week's referendum amendment who were elected on their party's exactly opposite policy. Labour MPs fearfully obeying their party's three line whip on this matter should perhaps wake themselves to a far greater danger. Down the years to come, as the reality of our lost democracy and poverty caused by oppressive foreign rule and control becomes daily clearer, their names will remain perpetually on the record, invitingly offering themselves as scapegoats to new governments charged with resolving the damage caused by these MPs' treachery. When I wrote my novel 'Millennium Blitzkrieg' a dozen or more years ago, predicting the oncoming disaster for the year 2014 few believed what I foretold was ever remotely possible. Now, if anything, the timetable seems to be coming forward and my direst forebodings seem comparatively mild. In another twelve years or so your typical Labour or Lib/Dem MP, contemplating this weekend the treachery being proposed by their party leaders will almost certainly regret the stain their names will carry after next week. Use the extra day afforded by this leap year to think again! When the totalitarian jackboot is clearly pushed down on Britain's neck for all the presently thoughtless voters to clearly see and suffer the consequences of their lost democracy and economic clout, then perhaps those responsible now staining the benches and polluting the air of the House of Commons with their presence, might well ponder that breaking a three line whip would have been as nothing compared with the outrage and potential economic consequences they might down the years then rightfully face. Elsewhere across Europe, democratically elected parliamentarians should ponder the same! After all, as I posted yesterday, it is only now in France that some real anger is evident and petitions being raised - AFTER THE REALITY OF THE PARLIAMENTARY RATIFICATION OF THE LISBON TREATY- only now that the true depth of the betrayal is being understood. The internet will ensure that the voting record will be retained and readily available for all time! MPs! Think well before you vote, ten years is nothing in politics, when do you hope for your pension after a lifetime of fiddling your expenses, will the suckers in the electorate still be prepared to pay when that time comes? What worth your non-receipted perks, extraordinary housing allowances and ill-gotten inflation linked pensions when you are all finally and fully rumbled? Dump Speaker Martin, allow a Referendum and regain some conscience, or else we all seem doomed!