Thursday 25 June 2009

Monday 22 June 2009

Friday 5 June 2009

The Nasty Party

Good to see that bad taste on the internet isn't restricted to the Tories and strange members of Conservative Future. A chum pointed me in the direction of UKIP's former Director of Communications who stood for parliament for them in 2001 and 2005 so is probably still an active member who saw fit to take the piss out of 228 dead people on the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Bill Killed

and in a kinky way!
I guess this scene from Kung Fu seems relevant:

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine (Carradine): I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Young Caine (Carradine): No.

Monday 1 June 2009

Integrity and MPs

I was talking with some chums over the weekend and inevitably the topic of MPs and their expenses came up. One of the guys mentioned Iain Dale's blog and his "integrity pledge" and whilt first I had just dismissed it as an empty pledge made when a candidate knows they are unlikely to win a seat, it played on my mind a while longer, particularly the point about second jobs.
BAsically, my view on this is that it is silly to ban second jobs since they give MPs vital real world exposure when they are closeted away in Westminster and these people need to get jobs once they leave parliament. Further to that, I believe that if Iain Dale were selected to parliament now, he would find it tricky to stick to his pledge...
Why? I hear you ask.
Well...Iain's blog is nicely monetised and attracts a very healthy number of readers from whom he can make some dollar through advertising, Additionally Iain makes money from blog related TV appearances and from selling books through his website's Amazon links. So on becoming an MP, would Iain shut down his blog?
There are 3 options I guess - shut the blog, keep the blog running as is, keep the blog running and de-monetise it, hence making it non-financially rewarding and hence not a job.
However, by keeping a blog running, Iain would essentially be keeping a business running, waiting until he leaves parliament when he could re-monetise it which is little different from MPs undertaking part time consultancy or legal work to keep their skills fresh. If Iain shut down the blog then his readers wouldn't automatically return to him 5 years later as they would have moved on. It would make sense for Iain to therefore keep the blog running unless he got a safe seat which would keep him secure for life.
If Iain, or any other MP is selected to a marginal constituency then they need to be aware that their job is quite likely to be made redundant after 4 or 5 years and so they need to keep their skills relevant and keep their hand in business for when they leave. My much laboured point is therefore, if Iain were to keep his blog going whilst in parliament, isn't this essentially having a second job?
This blog is looking like a bit of an Iain Dale obsession but the great man is at the heart of the Tory blogosphere and so a lot of interesting angles lead to him!