government of the people

John Moir, 47, admitted driving whilst disqualified at Ipswich Magistrates' Court

It is the 44th time he has broken a ban, but he was not sent to prison

In 2010 he ran down Simon Jacobs, 46, but the serial criminal, whose recklessness on the roads left his victims in a coma, was given only 18 months, and served only half. It is an absolute insult. 

Moir, also a convicted thief, has previously said that nothing will stop him driving while disqualified, For his latest offence he received a suspended sentence.

Is there anyone reading this who doesn't think it’s a sick joke, and that he should have been punished?

Karen Armitage, a lesbian mother-of-one pocketed almost £50,000 in benefits by claiming she was an unemployed single parent despite being in a civil partnership with another woman.

Karen Armitage, 42, even tried to claim her partner, Micheala Axall, was actually her mum when the seven-year deception came to light.

Despite the years of deception Armitage avoided jail term because the judge felt she was not 'a danger to society

Another sick joke you would say, and most people would argue that she should have been punished.

Miller FINALLY resigns after expenses row. The Prime Minister has stubbornly stood by her for almost a week, but finally conceded defeat after Culture Secretary resigned

The Prime Minister was forced to admit he had underestimated the depth of ‘raw’ public anger as he finally accepted the resignation of a tearful Culture Secretary.

Miller had been claiming expenses that she was not entitled to. Something that any ordinary person would have probably faced a court. But after initially being told to pay back £44,000 by the Independent standards commissioner

Mrs Miller was ordered to repay £5,800 in over claimed mortgage expenses, by the standards committee made up of her own peers. She was also found to have broken the MPs’ code of conduct in her belligerent attitude towards the independent parliamentary standards commissioner. In other words she tried to pervert the course of justice.

DO YOU START TO SEE A PATTERN HERE? THE GOVERNMENT ARE TAKING NO NOTICE OF THE WISHES OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND STICK TO THEIR OWN BLINKERED OPINIONS UNTIL FORCED TO ADMIT THEIR ERRORS.

Anyone who criticises the government is instantly declared a maverick. Tory MP Michael Fabricant was sacked as the party’s vice-chairman last night over his ‘uncontrollable’ behaviour on Twitter. His outpourings have caused alarm at Tory high command in recent months. He was outspoken in his criticism of rail link, and when he Tweeted,  ‘about time’ when Miller finally resigned yesterday morning. The heirachy couldn’t get rid of him quick enough.

It is about time they started listening, because people have had enough of our professional politicians and there is a new kid on the block in the shape of Nigel Farage, who is going to spoil their party.

The whole edifice is corrupt from top to bottom, and people are looking for someone trustworthy to take the helm.

"government of the people, by the people, for the people" 

Miller has resigned as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Maria Miller has resigned as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, largely after a lot of defiance to public opinion, and even her own colleagues.

Mrs Miller has harmed her party, and politics in general.

Feelings are especially strong among those Tories who will fight marginal seats next year, and makes it harder for the party to win the seats that will decide the outcome of the next election.

Mrs Miller is generally regarded by colleagues as personally pleasant and affable, albeit a bit distant. But to voters, she has looked like another politician on the take who was caught out and then resorted to legalistic dodges and trickery in order to cling on to her job.

Most of the anger at Mrs Miller is not at her actions but her manner. Her brusque apology to the Commons was seen as insufficient and her behaviour has come across as graceless and evasive.

Much of the rise of Ukip and Nigel Farage is down to Mr Farage’s ability to present himself to voters as an honest man in a world of liars, someone who speaks his mind while others just offer bland soundbites and follow the party line.

Undoubtedly, the Miller saga will fuel the rise of Ukip.

Mrs Miller's camp had, on Tuesday night, attempted a fight-back after days of newspaper headlines, by suggesting she was a victim of a witch-hunt because she was dealing with press reforms recommended in the Leveson report.

In fact she has been her own worst enemy by claiming expenses that she was not entitled to.

 Parliament's sleaze watchdog ordered her to pay back £5,800 of wrongly claimed allowances on the house in Wimbledon, southwest London, which she sold for a £1.2m profit in February. However, it emerged that the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards had found that Mrs Miller should have paid back £45,000 in expenses claimed on the home but this was over-ruled by the Standards Committee of 10 MPs and three independent members, who do not have a vote.

Once again it has led to calls for an end to a system where MPs are allowed to police their own expenses.

When interviewed pm Sky News, Nadine Dorries MP said that. expenses HAVE to be abolished and that the word expenses is toxic. She suggest that MPs should only be able to claim accommodation expenses, and not expenses in relation to a second home, plus travel expenses.

After her resignation, Cameron sent her a letter in which he says;

I think it is important to be clear that the Committee on Standards cleared you of the unfounded allegations made against you, a point which has been lost in much of the comment in recent days.

So why has she had to pay back  £5800

He further says;

“You have been responsible for successfully handling two of the most controversial issues with which this Government has dealt”.

But these are some of the things that have polarised the country.

Cameron is now facing a difficult time at Prime Minister's Questions and a meeting of the Tory back benchers, for his lack of leadership in trying to support Mrs Miller.

DO YOU TRUST OUR POLITICIANS?

Culture Secretary Maria Miller was today ordered to repay £5,800 in expenses and apologise to the House of Commons.

An investigation by the Commons standards watchdog found she had overclaimed on mortgage bills in 2008-09, and the money must be returned.

The Committee on Standards spent almost 18 months investigating her use of the taxpayer-funded second home allowance.

Kathryn Hudson, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, apparently said: 'Throughout my inquiry it has been difficult to establish information and evidence to the standard of proof which I would have wished.

'It has also been difficult to find evidence to corroborate information provided by Mrs Miller’.

'Many of her responses to my questions have been very general and required repeated probing.'

In other words it appears as though, Maria Miller tried desperately to cover up her sins.

Just yesterday a young woman was convicted after spending money that had been paid into her bank account by mistake.

This claiming of expenses by Maria Miller was no mistake. It was a deliberate action and she got caught out. Why is she not subject to arrest.

Why is it the Committee on Standards who investigated and not the Police?

Politicians are at their lowest level of trust with the electorate, and there is no wonder. Time and time again they have been shown to be liars and criminals, that expect to get away with it, simply because they have MP after their name.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could return to the age when politicians who were caught out committing some indiscretion would resign instantly, but no, today Cameron stood up and defended Miller.

Is there any wonder that Farage is progressing at the pace that he is?

The press sniff at Farage and call him a "Comic figure".

Well lets ask who has held a proper job outside politics? Cameron, Milliband, Clegg or Farage?

Welcome to the lunacies of the European debate.

We the electorate are the comics if we keep voting for political science students who are full of their own importance and know as much about real life and people as I do about knitting. The Labour Tory and LibDems need party leaders who have had a career outside of politics so they can bring something to the party?

The three party leaders are professional politicians with zero experience in the real world. 
Farage has arrived on the scene, and whilst I accept that he will never form a government in my life time, he has shaken the tired political village in the UK. Our politicians are being forced to listen to what the general population wants, and react.

It’ beginning to look like he who pays the piper is calling the tune - again!

Why voters deserted Hollande and Socialists in French local elections or Should we expect the same for the UK traditional parties?

The huge swing to the right in France in the municipal elections was an expression of huge dissatisfaction with president François Hollande and his Socialist-led government.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party made huge gains, the Front National exceeded its own official expectations, and the Socialists were humiliated.

So how come the clear winners of the municipal elections were the UMP, with an impressive showing for the FN?

What went wrong for the Socialists?

The government has gradually alienated all its traditional voters…

Many blue collar workers, and another traditionally left-voting category, teachers, are fed up. Many are furious about a change in pensions, and education changes that appear on almost a weekly basis. Immigration has been treated as a subject that shouldn’t be discussed openly.
Public sector workers, nearly always solid Socialist supporters in France, fear for their jobs after Hollande’s pledge to find 50 billion euros worth of savings as part of the highly contentious Pacte de Responsibilité. (Under this pact, businesses will no longer have to pay social charges for their employees, in return they must create jobs - the shortfall in government revenue will be offset by 50 billion euros of cuts in state expenditure).

Many people are angered by the government’s law allowing gay marriage. The government has certainly alienated many of its traditional voters.

Add to that a failure to produce results on the biggest issues which affect the whole country:

Unemployment is at record levels, there has been virtually no progress on reducing the country’s deficit and there is huge resentment over taxes which the president himself conceded in January had reached the limits of acceptance. For many low-income families, a boost in purchasing power is a priority.

The result was the many voters on the left punished the party by abstaining defecting to the Front National.

If Hollande had hoped that a good showing by the Front National would split the right wing vote, he received a bitter awakening. Apart from in some towns such as Avignon, it was often the Socialists, not the UMP, who lost supporters to the FN.

Why?

Marine Le Pen, an excellent TV performer, has unquestionably improved the image of the Front National and modernised the party.

Le Pen rejects the label extreme right for her party and has threatened to sue media organisations who describe her party as such, though she has not yet done so.

She is vehemently anti-EU and has gained many working class voters with her insistence that Brussels now runs France.

On immigration, some analysts say there are 2 FN electorates: where, the FN collects voters from the right, sometimes from well-off areas, as demonstrated in a by election in Brignolles last year. In northern France, in towns such as Henin-Beaumont, FN voters appears to come mostly from the disaffected poor .

In opinion polls FN voters frequenlty cite rising crime figures as the reason for their decision to choose the party.

The UMP benefited from an almost tangible dislike of Hollande's presidency and his government and appears to have led to an emotional groundswell of support for Sarkozy’s party..

What happens now?

In May, French voters will go to the polls again in elections to the European Parliament, followed by Senatorial and then regional elections. Hollande is being urged to act quickly to demonstrate that he is listening to voters and will make changes.

Today there will be a cabinet reshuffle, headed by a new prime minister, but on the much more important matter of where France is heading and how it gets there, Hollande is in an almost impossible situation, and knows that if France fails to make economic cuts, both the EU and financial speculators will lose confidence in the country with potentially dire consequences.

One of the most telling aspects of this election was that Hollande and the government were so surprised by the scale of their losses in both the first and second rounds.

It is striking how cut off they and France’s left-wing Paris-dominated intelligentsia and media appear to be from the views of ordinary people elsewhere in France.

They do not appear to understand the annoyance of ordinary non-Parisian French people, who want jobs, more purchasing power, less crime and feel they are never the beneficiaries of government handouts.

Many business people are leaving France in droves for China, London or the USA, attracted by what they see as more business-friendly climates.

But those lower down the social scale often cannot leave France and they’re getting increasingly angry.

This is almost a complete description of the situation in the UK, and unless politicians from the traditional parties wake up and come out of their 'my turn your turn' attitude to elections then they will be in for a complete shock!