Democracy. UR Doing it Wrong.

Democracy is a form government in which state-power is held by the majority of citizens within a country or a state. It is derived from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía), "popular government", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos), "people" and κράτος (krátos), "rule, strength" in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC.

What do you reckon Gordon? Think Jacks right and your job's safe?

Another Day, Another Legal Action For Jacqboots Smith

HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith is being sued by a British man who claims she allowed his torture while he was being held on suspicion of terrorism in Bangladesh.

Jamil Rahman, a civil servant who grew up in Wales, claims he was interrogated by MI5 officers in between beatings by Bangladesh security forces.

Mr Rahman said he gave false confessions, including one that he masterminded the 2005 terror attacks on London.

He said he was detained in 2005 by a Bangladeshi intelligence agency and was stripped and beaten. He alleges he made the false confession before being questioned by two men who said they were from MI5.

*******************************************************************

Old Holborn has issued Citizen's Arrest Warrants for MPs who, are believed by him, to have committed criminal acts. More from him here.

H/T to the Brilliant GOT for the poster above.

Jacqui Smith in The Shit Again.

Anthony Weaver, from Holborn in London, has applied for a summons before a district judge in Jacqui Smith's constituency in Redditch, Worcestershire. 

He alleges she defrauded the public purse of between £116,000 and £200,000 by claiming her main residence was her sister's London house. 

Mr Weaver, 62, said he wanted to prosecute Ms Smith under Section 2 (1) of the Fraud Act 2006. 
He appeared in court to try to start a private prosecution against the home secretary over her expense claims. 

The judge adjourned the case, advising Mr Weaver to contact Scotland Yard. 

"I am not going to grant or dismiss the summons," said district judge Bruce Morgan, sitting at Redditch Magistrates' Court.  

"It is my belief that the course on which this should proceed is by you making a complaint to the Metropolitan Police and finding out whether or not they are prepared to carry out an investigation. 

"If they decide not to do so, that does not deprive you of your right to come back to court." 

There you go Jacqui. The Law of Unintended consequences may be about to bite you in the arse again. Do you still think that tacking the DNA retention law change onto the butt end of an SI is a clever idea?  Still believe that ID cards and data retention is the best thing since free porn (for you anyway) on cable TV? The shit is coming home to roost. It's your shit, and it will bury you, and your obscene laws.

"If you believe a Member of Parliament is guilty of fraud go to your nearest magistrates court, type out four lines alleging the fraud and ask for a summons.” 
Anthony Weaver 

UPDATE: Guido is reporting that an appearance by Mr Weaver before the beak will take place on 26th of June. Not sure if that is just to re-apply for a summons, or, if Jacqboots will be required to attend also.

Post office-style queues proposed for pubs

Mail On Sunday

Drinkers in pubs are to be told to stand in a queue and banned from ordering more than two drinks at a time at the bar.

Plans drawn up by Liberal Democrat-controlled Oldham Council, may all 22 pubs in the town centre of Oldham comply with the new rules. The 2003 Licensing Act allows police and trading standards officers to apply for variations in a pub licence if there is concern about drink-related violence and disorder.

Rope barriers similar to those used in shops and post offices will be installed to keep customers in line.

Mark Hastings, of the British Beer And Pub Association, said: 'We have no problem with tackling problem drinking but this is not the way to go about it.

'These measures are costly, unnecessary and totally disproportionate at a time when around 40 pubs are closing every week.

'People aren't going to want to drink if they have to queue up as if they're in the post office.'

Licensing committee member Derek Heffernan said: 'There would have to be some form of barrier so people couldn't push past, either a rope or perhaps something stronger.

'It would be the end of buying a round but we have to do something to calm things down. There have been fights and stabbings and it's not right that people going out for the evening have to worry about being attacked.'

Fellow Lib Dem councillor Mark Alcock said: 'This is the first time since the new licensing laws came into force five years ago that a local authority has reviewed all the licences in a town at the same time.'

But there was a furious response from industry leaders, who say the plan will lead to more pubs going out of business.

Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association Of Licensed Multiple Retailers, said: 'The proposals are ridiculous and our members are up in arms. It's expensive and unnecessary.

'It's a nanny-state response and shows the council to be out of touch.'

Drinkers in Oldham yesterday were equally unimpressed.

Margaret Moran Missing?

Serious concerns are growing for the welfare of humiliated Luton South MP Margaret Moran after her staff said she is 'not feeling well' and that they 'do not know exactly where she is'.

 "When questioned on the whereabouts of Labour MP Ms Moran this afternoon (May 21), her communications officer Allan Davies said: "I honestly don't know at the moment.

"She's not doing any interviews or making any comments at the moment. She's not feeling very well. It's personal, I don't want to go into any details.

"She's under a lot of stress - that's why she's not giving interviews at the moment.
"We don't know her exact location at the moment. You can imagine the strain she's under."

Luton South Labour Party Association chairman Mohammed Hussain said he has not spoken to Ms Moran for 11 days.

"It's a serious cause for concern. I'm no wiser as to where she is."

Maybe she has Swine Flu? Something is definitely going around in Westminster. At first I thought it was just foot-in-mouth disease, what with Nadine Dorries and Steen gobbing off. But, now it looks as if it may turn out to be far more serious.

Best quarantine the lot of them before it spreads.

54% Want Election NOW

A Populus survey for ITV News At Ten showed that 54 per cent backed demands for an immediate poll and only 38 per cent did not.

The Prime Minister is resisting calls from Tory leader David Cameron for a snap election in the aftermath of revelations about MPs' expenses that have rocked the House of Commons.

So Cap'n Chaos, don't you think you should do what your employers tell you to do?
Or, are you the fwightened little wimp that everyone believes you to be?

BTW; That election broadcast your lot did tonight. Fucking hilarious.
Put me right in the mood for a general election that did.

Dedicated Followers Of Mammon

Two Conservative MPs – Sir Peter Viggers and Anthony Steen – will resign their seats at the next election. Sir Peter will step down as MP for Gosport in Hampshire "at the direct request" of David Cameron after spending tens of thousands of pounds on gardening, including a £1,645 bill for a floating "duck island", while Mr Steen, the MP for Totnes in Devon who claimed £87,729 on his luxurious country house, will also leave the Commons.



Steen has now "unreservedly apologised" for saying the public should not have been allowed to see what he claimed.


Three Labour MPs – Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Margaret Moran, who claimed £22,500 on expenses to treat dry rot at her "second home" over 100 miles from her Luton constituency, will be summoned next week to a disciplinary panel to defend their claims. Gordon Brown has warned that no MP who has "defied the rules" on expenses will be allowed to stand at the next election. 

Ex-minister Elliot Morley, suspended by Labour following reports about his expenses, has told the BBC that he can prove he did not over-claim on purpose.

The Parliamentary Labour Party took action against Mr Morley after he claimed £16,000 for a mortgage that had already been paid off. 

Mr Morley said he was sorry for making the claim, but promised that "I will demonstrate that it was a mistake". 


This is Not a Picture of Margaret Moran the Member of Parliament.

According to the Financial Times it is also alleged that Margaret Moran used parliamentary resources to help a company partially run from her constituency office win up to £50,000 of public funding and business sponsorship between 2006 and 2008. 

Hundreds of documents seen by the Financial Times dated from 2006 to 2008 show that Ms Moran used her parliamentary staff to write funding bids for Equality Networks (EQN), a non-profit group of which she is the non-remunerated chair, telling one that the salary the individual received was tied to working for EQN. Michael Booker, her fiancé, is one of two company directors. Her constituency office also helped organise “great networking opportunities” at EQN conferences with ministers personally invited by Ms Moran.

When EQN bids for funding were unsuccessful, Ms Moran repeatedly used Commons-headed paper to intervene with local authorities and Whitehall departments to express her “concern and amazement”.

A statement authorised by Ms Moran in response to the FT stated that “Margaret has never written any letters for EQN on parliamentary headed notepaper”.

However, the FT has seen copies of letters written by Ms Moran in 2007 on Commons-headed paper supporting EQN funding bids and personal invitations to EQN events sent to businesses on Commons headed paper.

MPs remain entitled to two pay-offs so long as they serve until the general election, rather than resign immediately. MPs who step down, or lose their seats, at an election are paid a "resettlement grant" to compensate for loss of salary. It ranges between six months' and one year's pay depending on age and length of service.

An MP aged between 55 and 64 who has been in Parliament for 15 years will be paid a year's salary – £64,766 at current rates. The first £30,000 is tax-free. In addition, all MPs can claim a maximum of £40,799 for "winding-up costs" to pay off staff and end office leases. They also benefit from a final salary pension scheme heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. 

General Election Would Mean Chaos.

Captain Cuntin' Chaos. That's you that is Gordon.

Running away as usual Gordon. Can't face reality can you?

All those little slips of the tongue you make give the game away don't they?

You can't avoid the inevitable forever though.

Just do what Dave tells you, and let the electorate decide your Party's fate.

NOW.

Dan Hannan is Furious Now.

Dan Hannan:

"Labour, at the end of its term, is descending into senility: what the poet calls "second childishness". It is returning to its oldest instincts: regulate everything, create more quangos, swell the state sector, prohibit private activity (in this case, MPs' outside interests). But when has this approach ever succeeded? Banks were largely self-regulated before New Labour passed the Financial Services Act, and I don't remember them getting into anything like the mess they have since. Haringey social services ticked boxes and followed procedures virtually to the letter, resulting in the horrible death of Baby Peter.

In any case, the House of Commons already has an external regulator. It's called the electorate, and the sooner it completes its audit in the form of a general election, the better."

Margaret Moran's Behaviour Unacceptable According To Brown

Tom Bradby from ITN asks Brown:

what he would say to members of the public who think ordinary people would get punished more severely if they behaved in a comparable way to MPs. Does Brown back Margaret Moran (the Luton MP who claimed around £20,000 for dry rot in a home many miles from her constituency)?

Brown says:

That Moran's behaviour was "totally unacceptable". He says that she should be investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards before a decision is taken. (We didn't know that case had gone to the commissioner.) It sounds likes he's just terminated Moran's career.

Another journalist says anyone caught shoplifting who tried to get off by paying back the money would not get away with that. Why could Blears get away with that?

Brown says: 

That Blears's behaviour was "totally unacceptable", but Blears was not breaking any rules. That's the strongest criticism he has made of Blears in public. Sounds like her government career may not last much longer.

Cameron's Conservatives. By Ray Collins age 6 and a Half

Cameron's Conservatives

A Ray Collins and The Liebore Party Production.

Well done Ray. I'm even more convinced now, that Labour isn't fucking worth a toss.

From Red Rag to Blue Tat.

H/T The Daily Referendum.

Mark Thomas Instructs Solicitors on MPs Expenses

PRESS RELEASE - Thursday 14th May, 2009

Today Mark Thomas, political activist, commentator, performer, writer and comedian has instructed his lawyers, Leigh Day & Co to write to the Speaker of the House of Commons threatening legal action unless a full transparent review is urgently ordered into the scandal of MPs expenses.

Mr Thomas has been advised that the approach peddled by MPs in the press that their unreasonable expenses are within the rules is not correct. In fact, the current scandal has been largely caused by attempts by many MPs to stretch the rules far beyond their ordinary meaning and an unwillingness by the House of Commons Department of Finance and Administration officials to rein them in.

The letter requires Speaker Martin, as Chair of the House of Commons Commission to take urgent steps to commence a review of the Department’s actions in dealing with MPs’ applications for expenses. The following steps are set down as the bare minimum requirements:
To obtain and publish independent authoritative legal advice & guidance on the meaning of the MPs’ expenses rules, to be consistent with other guidance applicable to the public where similar words are used
To appoint independent accountants to audit all claims by MPs in the current parliament against the legal advice and guidance obtained
To consider auditing all claims by MPs back to May 1997, applying consistent principles which would be applied in cases of false/excessive claims against other public authorities or the HMRC
To explain publicly what sums have been wrongly paid out to members and to set out proposals for recoupment where overpayments have been made, such recoupment to be no more favourable to MPs than the system for recovery of benefits overpayments or income tax underpayments
To report possibly fraudulent claims to the Metropolitan Police fraud squad for investigation. 

The Speaker has been given 14 days to respond, failing which Judicial Review proceedings may follow.

Mark Thomas said:

“MPs are not above the law. If they have wrongly claimed expenses they should be made to repay. If they have acted fraudulently the police should be involved. This is what would happen to all of us as members of the public if we tried to fiddle public money.  

Fraudulent benefit claimants are not allowed to form committees comprised of benefit claimants to investigate their misdemeanours. Nor can exposed tax cheats offer to pay back money because they are ‘concerned about how it looks to the outside world’ and then walk away with no repercussion.

If I need to go to court I will be making a public appeal to cover the legal costs of the case, which I’m sure will have overwhelming support! ”

Richard Stein, partner at Leigh Day & Co said:

“The main problem here is not the rules governing payment of MPs’ expenses, but how they have been applied. Many MPs have made claims which do not properly fall within the rules. The rules say that MPs have a responsibility to satisfy themselves that expenditure claimed has been ‘wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred’ for the purpose of performing their Parliamentary duties and that overspent or mischarged amounts may be recovered. The House of Commons authorities must now take steps to make sure this happens”

H/T Calling England

It's Time Mr Martin.

Labour MPs Paul Flynn and Gordon Prentice, both members of the influential Public Administration Committee, have signed up to a motion of no confidence, which will be tabled on Monday or Tuesday by Tory Douglas Carswell.

Cabinet ministers, MPs and his predecessor Betty Boothroyd all called time on his calamitous handling of the MPs expenses scandal.

Mr Davies, the MP for Shipley, said: 'The Speaker hasn't just lost the confidence of the House, he has lost the confidence of people in the country. 

'The institution of Parliament has become discredited. It is going to take years to recover. If we're going to turn it around, an essential first step is to remove a Speaker who has come to symbolise all that is wrong with Parliament.'

I Got Tagged.

I got tagged, courtesy of Sue at ihatejacquismith. Eight things that I hate. I don't actually really hate anything or anyone, but some things can make me feel  an anger so extreme, that an exclusion zone has to be put in place around me, in case I explode, and the bile projected dissolves the object of my ire. Here are a few of my [least] favourite things.

I feel like that Gordon. Every time I fucking hear your voice. Its got to the point, that I can't even turn the TV or radio on without feeling fear that I may hear your slurred speech or catch a glimpse of you gurning features. You're an embarrassment to the whole Country. You passed your sell by date before the 1997 election. You're simply the worst.

Jacqboots. Fucking hell a one woman plague. Distaster after disaster and she still has a fucking job! She's still promisesing money to companies for invovment in the ID card debacle. It ain't going to happen you silly cow. You and your party are history and you fucking know it. Stop wasting everyone's time and money and piss off.

Jack Straw. For being so contemptuous of the English and for making sure his little secrets saty hidden from the light of public scrutiny. You keep your "precious" safe while you can Jack.

All good things must end and Gordon is going to make that happen sooner than you think.

The First lady of the Privy Trough and Seal, for her services to misandry and inequality

Plod that makes up law as he goes along. Had a bad day? Well just fucking take it out on a motorist that looks like he might be happy. 

The D.O.H and their advisory groups that pretend to be speaking on behalf of the public.

Just fuck off and stop pretending you care about my health. You don't, you care about your bank balances and your need to meddle where you have no right to go.

Stop telling me I'll get cancer if I look at picture of someone smoking you shits. You're making me ill with your fucking peurile shit.

The fucking twats that complain about humorous ads like the one above. For fucks sake, get a sense of humour you dickheads.

This Pair.

They epitomise the outbreak of "Being Offended" on behalf of others that infests the BBC and Local Authorities.

Sign The Petition.

Petition requesting an Election NOW

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to call a general election immediately.
The last two local elections have shown that the people are no longer prepared to tolerate Nu-Labour without a mandate. Gordon Brown is a spent force and MUST now immediately go to the country - anything less will be be outright political fraud and maintenance of their expensive troughing lifestyles at all cost.

A nod of the bonce to Alan Wallace

Bid to dissolve Parliament amid row

Former Commons deputy Speaker Lord Naseby said an early general election was needed to save the "foundations of democracy".

Nothing to Hide - Nothing to Fear.

HM Revenue and Customs played down a report in a Sunday newspaper that it was about to begin an investigation into whether some MPs had deliberately dodged capital gains tax when selling their second homes.

Did Brown Ever Have a Moral Compass?

Sunday Times

Peter Watt, Labour’s former general secretary, has spoken out with the aim of demolishing any residual claim by the prime minister to the moral high ground. 

“Publicly, Gordon talks about values and his moral compass, but actually the way he conducts himself behind the scenes is anything but that - it’s brutal,” said Watt, who played a pivotal role in the handover of power from Tony Blair to Brown. 

Watt  who was closely involved in planning for the “election that never was” in autumn 2007,  said: “No matter what anyone says, the election had been called and was then cancelled.”

Resign NOW Gordon. You have no authority left. You're a bad joke.

Resign and claim political asylum in some gordforsaken hole on that other planet, you seem to inhabit.

Margaret Moran MP

Telegraph: Second home 'flip' paid £22,500 dry rot bill

Internal records show that the Commons' authorities considered that Labour backbencher Margaret Moran's arrangement broke the "spirit" of the rules but felt powerless to stop her taking advantage of the loose system of Parliamentary allowances. 

The semi-detached house, a hundred yards from the seafront in Southampton, is a two-hour drive from both Parliament and Miss Moran's marginal constituency of Luton South.

Thanks to GOT for the idea of the morphing.

Does MP mean Miss Piggy?

UPDATE: Video no longer works. I've replaced it with a piccy.

Update 2: Margaret Moran has agreed to pay back the £22,500 she took for the dry rot bill.

After being overwhelmed by complaints from angry constituents, Miss Moran has backed down and agreed to repay all the expenses money she received for the shared property in Southampton. 

In a statement she said: "I have at all times sought to serve my constituents in Luton South with honesty and integrity. I have always tried to act with decency and to do the right thing. 

"The expenses currently in question were claimed in full consultation with the Fees Office in the House of Commons, and I have always followed their guidance and stuck to the rules. 

"However, I do understand constituents' anger at the current fees regime, which is why I will be repaying the full amount claimed for my home in Southampton."

Margaret Moran, Trougher Extraordinaire.

From Iain Dale:

"The troughing disgrace of an MP switched her second home to a holiday home - yes, a holiday home - 100 miles from her constituency and nowhere near Westminster. Within days she was trousering £22k of your money to pay for a dry rot problem."

Southern Daily Echo

"A LABOUR MP switched her second home to a house in Southampton 100 miles from her constituency just days before spending £22,500 on doing it up, it has emerged. 

Backbencher Margaret Moran spent thousands of pounds over four years decorating and refurbishing three separate properties, switching her designated second home between Westminster, Luton and Southampton. 

The Luton South MP, who earns £64,766 a year, apparently spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money treating dry rot at her and her husband's house in the city – 100 miles from her constituency – days after switching her ''second home'' there."

More Than A Bad Hair Day For Gordon.

Couldn't resist it.

The original was funny enough though.

You can see it on Tory Totty's blog.

McNulty. Police Considering Investigation.

Guardian:

Employment minister Tony McNulty could face a police investigation over his controversial expenses claims, police said tonight.

Scotland Yard confirmed it was considering a complaint that McNulty may have "obtained pecuniary advantage by deception".

Brown In Need Of More Sticking Plasters and Bandages.

Gordon Brown today blamed "the system" after new revelations about cabinet-level expense claims inflicted a fresh blow on the government's authority.

The prime minister, who was forced to defend his own expenses claims, said that the new information justified his decision to press for wholesale reform of the system of parliamentary expenses and allowances.

"The system doesn't work," Brown told the BBC. "I've said it doesn't work; it's got to be changed. We voted for change and that change has got to come quickly."

Asked whether MPs ought to learn to live in the "real world", he said: "Absolutely. That's why the system's got to change. I've been determined over these past few months ... The system's wrong. It's not the way to work."

It's never your fault is it Gordy? I don't think this one started in America.

It was a bit closer to home wasn't it.

Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, admitted:  voters would be "very angry" following the publication by the Daily Telegraph, of fresh details of how ministers exploited parliamentary rules to maximise the amount they could claim from the taxpayer.

Harman told GMTV: "I know people will be very angry and concerned about this, but I do want to reassure people that we have recognised there's a problem and we've already taken action on this."

She also insisted that British politics did not have "the level of corruption" that was found in "many other countries" and that the government had already started to reform the rules.

Never mind what happens in other countries, you have a duty to the electorate in this one. If you know that members of the Government have been acting corruptly Harriet, as an Officer of the court and a Cabinet Minister, don't you think you should have reported them to the Police?

Is there something you haven't been telling us?

Unredacted Expenses To be Revealed in Daily Telegraph.

Snippets here.

Brown, Straw, Blears are named.

Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/

Go4th got Wordled

Prezza could probably use this as a speech.

http://www.wordle.net/

Wordle Your Blog

Five minutes of fun.
http://www.wordle.net/

Dear Derek is Nice.

Is There Life After Labourlist?

Ian Dale has the lowdown on Del's future.

We Want You To Go To The Country Now.

Stop ignoring us Gordon

Cameron knows, that you know, that we know, that you have lost touch with reality and that you are doomed.

Stop telling everyone else what to do and, instead, listen to what they are telling you to do.

Michael Savage v 2nd Home Sec.

You can buy his book from his website here.
Be quick before The Home Suckerterry orders it to be banned or burnt.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith published the names of 16 of 22 people banned from the country since October for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred. Along with Savage, who has called the Quran, the Muslim holy book, "a book of hate," Muslim extremists, jailed
Russian gang members and a militant Israeli settler were banned.

But the San Francisco-based syndicated talker, who made a the "name and shame" list of people banned from entering Britain, may have been shocked himself to find some of his opponents, including civil libertarians, defending him.

Civil libertarians say the move illustrates the increasing willingness of countries, including the United States, to "use their borders as a weapon of censorship," said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Banning Savage in Britain could create an example of "the Streisand Effect," said Danny O'Brien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seeks to preserve "freedoms in the networked world." In 2003, singer Barbra Streisand attempted to have photos of her Malibu beachfront home removed from an online site. Publicity from her legal effort, which she lost, inspired more than a million people to view the property online.

He said he is preparing legal action against Smith and the British government. To be included in such a group is both defamatory and dangerous.

"This lunatic is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing people in Russia, she's putting me in a league with Hamas murderers who kill Jews on buses," he said. "My views may be inflammatory, but they're not violent in any way.

Listen to his comments on The Right Hon Jacqboots below:

"This Witch"

Ministers Want Google Tax

Nice One Labour.

Control is your answer to fucking everything.

All stick and never any carrots

Well, not long now. 51,000+ have asked you politely to leave.

Don't hang about too long, because if you do, those nice polite people may decide that sticks are the answer to their problems as well.

What Do We Want?

Stop speculating about the leadership of the Labour Party.
We want you all to leave.
Consign yourselves to the dustbin of history
and give the Country some hope.

Grate Britain

Saw this at the Screech's place. (so I nicked it!)

Hateful Harmperson Isn't A Contender?

Your lips were moving Harriet.

The Demise of Labour.

Here's Hoping That May Marks The End.

Hoon.

Vote it up

Blears Savages Gordon Brown.

"YouTube if you want to," says Blears in interview.

HoC Censors Expenses Details.

THE House of Commons has decided to censor some of the most important details of MPs’ expenses claims due to be published this summer.

The Commons fees office has told members that the only details of their expenses to be published will be the date of the claim, what was claimed for and the identity of suppliers of office goods.

Some backbench MPs were on “suicide watch” because of concerns that the expenses might show double claims for hotel rooms, exposing extra marital affairs.

MPs are now likely to be told that they are allowed to delete details of hotel stays if the names of the hotels have not been blanked out by officials.

It might prove to be pointless however, if those CDs surface again.

Prezza Giving It Large.

Alien Skull Found on Mars.

An oddly shaped space boulder appears to show eye sockets and a nose leading to speculation it might be a Martian skull

Internet forums are full of chatter about the picture, taken by a panoramic NASA camera known as Spirit.

Reminds me of someone who hasn't been seen around for a while.

Someone is Lying.

From Dick Puddlecote's blog:

A critical vote in the House of Lords is looming next week for small newsagents who are being seriously threatened by plans to prevent tobacco products going on display across Britain. Cigarettes would have to be sold from out of sight under the counter under new legislation.

The vote is due next Wednesday, and retailers are extremely upset. They say the move will damage their businesses — especially as it could cost £1500 to install a special gantry to store the products.

The Ministry of Health asked anti-smoking organisation ASH to check on the cost, and it claimed the figure for the gantries was just £120. This figure was sent by health minister Lord Darzi to every member of the House of Lords.

When the supplier, 4 Solutions of Canada, heard about this, it pointed out the individual cost would be approximately £450 — and this did not include any of the installation costs, which would be around £1000. They also pointed out that the costs of the gantries for all the outlets in Britain could be over £30 million.

Neither ASH nor the Ministry of Health has corrected the information they have given to the members of the House of Lords in advance of the vote.

Clarke Isn't The Only One To Be Ashamed

Mr Eugenides and an old one from DK