300,000 Porn Views in Parliament

We all know that Parliament can be a dirty place. Sleaze, bribes and scandal are all known to have taken place in the Palace of Westminster. So it's not that much a surprise to know that the 'naughty' MPs, Lords and civil servants have been viewing porn like crazy.

Parliament is well known for its sleaze.

300,000 views of porn have been made in the last Parliamentary year according to data received off the Parliamentary servers. That's an average of 800 views a day; quite a lot considering around 5,000 people work in Parliament. The peak months were November, with 114,844 viewings, and April, with 55,552 viewings, some of the busiest months for both Houses. In February however, when most MPs are away, only 15 views of porn were made. Interesting.

Of course for legal reasons we cannot be sure that each view of porn is a conscious decision to go online for a pleasurable time. It could be a pop up for instance. However the sheer gap between 15 and 114,844 makes this seem unlikely in the vast majority of cases.  

"No More Porn" Says Dave.

These porn statistics come after Dave announced he wants to make sure there is a system where everyone opts in for porn. Dave said Porn gives a 'distorting' view of Sex and Relationships and is not good for people. There is however so many holes in Dave's argument factually and practically that this idea is very silly. I wonder how many times the PM has been hypocritical of his own policy?

However, there is a serious reason for pointing out the Parliament porn views and it's that they should be working. Think of all the man hours lost by MPs indulging themselves in gentlemen's special interest literature. Matthew Sinclair of TPA fame said "these figures highlight the fact that many people working in Parliament are spending far too much time on websites that have nothing to do with their job. The internet can be a useful tool for MPs and their staff when it comes to scrutinising Government legislation; however taxpayers expect their MP and those working in their offices to get on with their important jobs rather than spending time surfing questionable websites."

So MPs stop looking at porn and start reading more constituents letters. You have plenty of  time for recreation after work.

Steve Barclay Responds

Do you remember me writing to my MP, Steve Barclay, about Syria (if not jog your memory and look at http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/dear-steve-barclay-mp-re-syria.html). Well he has officially responded and here is what he had to say.

Dear Elliot

It was good to see you in the office earlier in the week [I got leaflets from the office for the March North by-election (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/leafleting-in-march-north.html)].  You recently wrote to me on the issue of Syria.

The Government motion to Parliament – which you can read on the House of Commons website - made clear that the UK would not militarily intervene in Syria without a second vote in the House of Commons, until the United Nations weapons inspectors had reported, and not before the United Nations security council had held further discussions.

I have reservations about the benefit of UK military action in Syria.  However, no such commitment was made by this motion.

I supported the motion which clearly condemned the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, killing so many people on 21st August 2013.

Parliament voted to reject the Government motion, and the Prime Minister has made it clear that he will respect this decision.

Tony Blair misled Parliament in the run up to the Iraq War by falsely representing intelligence reports.  That legacy shapes public opinion today on Syria.

The Prime Minister as a matter of personal conviction, believes Britain should intervene to protect the taboo regarding the use of chemical weapons.  David Cameron deserves credit for listening to Parliament and public opinion, and responding to it.

Kind regards,

Steve

I don't disagree with what Steve Braclay says and the way he voted last Thursday. Personally if I was an MP, like other anti-war Conservatives,  I would have voted with the Government. Its pretty hard to vote against a Bill that says Assad is a nasty man and we're taking this to the UN. But as a debate, it was taken to be a vote to go to war in principle and because so it failed.

But the fact that Steve is dubious of intervening in Syria is quite telling for those who want another vote on going to war. Even with Ed Miliband's support I doubt such a motion would pass. Lots more Conservative MPs will vote against the Government and the majority of Labour still will.

 Steve Barclay in da House.

Alexander Barclays de Pfeffel Johnson

Well you have heard it all now ladies and gentleman, Boris Johnson has said on LBC that if Barclays Bank will give £100 million more to fund Boris Bikes across London Boris will change his name to Barclays Johnson.

Be careful what you say Boris. We'll hold you to that one.

The Mayor of London, Barclays Johnson, riding with the terminator for some reason.

Exclusive: #ThingsEricPicklesSays

Well I've written another news article for the Tab about two students who have gone on a road trip with RT Hon Eric Pickles MP (see http://tab.co.uk/2013/09/03/students-take-cardboard-eric-pickles-to-america/ ). The Tab article however is only so long and so I can reveal more from the interview of James and Daniel, who have taken Eric on holiday, and what Eric has said to me.

I think Eric Pickles is great. A top government minister who is making sure there is total transparency in what is spent, something that he has rightly forced upon even the socialist Nottingham Labour Council. The one in one out policy for rules and regulations has also been a great success and this is a policy all other Tory ministers should follow. But most importantly in my view Eric has brought about greater decentralisation to local councils, it now counts more than ever to elect the right people (which is the Conservatives of course).

 The Great RT Hon Eric Pickles MP, keep up the good work.

I spoke to James and Daniel, who probably share my views on Eric, as they were travelling through Texas in a motor home. Eric permanently sits by a window when the pair are driving looking at the passing sights. 

 Eric Driving the RV.

James and Daniel told me what they have done "was an out there decision based on following Eric. We've known him as an MP and as a politician and thought he had great gravitas." James and Daniel say Eric is also very funny, and I agree, "his salad mockery of George Osborne's burger and re-tweeting pictures of Eric Pickles snow globes show this. We just wanted to bring Eric to us." Nobody else from the Cabinet will do for James and Daniel "no one else is worthy, it's all about Eric."

 Eric's famous response to George Osborne's Byron burger.

When I asked them what they believe the real Eric Pickles thinks of his cardboard cut out road trip James and Daniel said he would probably be "a little baffled. I hope he does find it funny and that his adventure brings a smile to people's faces." Well I can exclusively tell James and Daniel Eric told me "I'm delighted they are taking me on such a wonderful trip without spending a penny of taxpayers' money. This trip has widened my horizons and I'm really hoping to be taken even further afield next year."

Eric also will be pleased to know that his hope of travelling further may be answered. James and Daniel said "one of our friends in Thailand wants him to be sent over. We will then have the brotherhood of the travelling Pickles. But for now he is coming all the way to Vegas." 

 What would you like to drink Eric.

Eric also told me that if he was to go on an American road trip he would take "James and Daniel and [as a special item] the minutes of an annual council meeting of their choosing."

You can keep up with Eric's Road trip here http://picklesroadtrip.com/2013/08/. I also urge Eric to keep up the good work.

 Having a great time on the beach.

Leafleting in March North

Yesterday I got up pretty early so I could get a bus to March, not the month a town near Wisbech, to help out in the March North By-election.

 Lots of In Touch Leaflets delivered yesterday.

There is currently a vacancy on March Town Council for the three member ward of March North. I delivered over 300 leaflets to the good people of March for the Conservative Candidate Andrew Donnelly. Andrew is a man of great experience, having previously served on the Town Council, who has lived for a long time in the ward. A hard worker to go with the rest of the Conservatives in the town who have saved the City Road toilets and started to roll out super fast broadband amongst many things. 

On polling day, which is Thursday 19th September, there will be a choice between Andrew, a Lib Dem and an Independent. This will be an interesting by-election because in the same ward earlier this year the Conservatives held onto one of the seats by just 3 votes. Thus people really need to come out and support Andrew to make sure he gets in, it will be close. 

Out campaigning in a residential area, look at the lovely blue sky.

I'd also like to point out some inconsistencies in what the Lib Dem candidate, the main opposition, is saying. Firstly when talking about a particular empty shop in the town he said 'we can't afford to let March get into a spiral of economic decline'. This is very true, however this shop will in the next few weeks be made into a new Iceland.

As many Lib Dems do, there is also complaints that the Conservatives have cut bus subsidies. This is true but the services that are cut are ones for very late at night so will not leave residents 'isolated' as the Lib Dem claims. As testament to the buses in March I came by Bus from Wisbech very early in the morning.

 Don't vote for the Lib Dem candidate.

One last, and not well thought out, gripe by the Lib Dem is a complaint that only 9/10 of street lights that are currently being replaced will be put back in. This is correct but is because the street lights will be modern and brighter so the extra costs are not needed. Similar things that have happened in other areas of March have led to brighter streets at night, not something to really complain about.

 I also found #ThingsElliottSays lane.

So I'd ignore this waste of time Lib Dem candidate and back the Conservatives. Andrew will make a great councillor for March.

What is a Mansion?

Today we are wrestling with the age old question that haunts the Liberal Democrats. What defines a mansion? Well it turns out that a Lib Dem mansion is a lot pokier than you might imagine.

Since its socialist turn, the Liberal Democrats have been obsessed about a mansion tax. Vince Cable, that great bastion of a command economy, might as well be saying "How dare the rich own mansions especially when they have worked hard to get them. We should penalise them for working hard and they can give money to the state to hand out to the people obviously oppressed. No matter that these mansion owners have added value to the country through jobs, ideas and making people's lives better off. We don't want people like that." Obviously this is all that is wrong with the Lib Dems, if you ignore that they are liars as well. 

 The main pusher behind the Lib Dem mansion tax is Vincey.

So what exactly do the Lib Dem consider to be a mansion? Well if you take the figure of £2 billion, which the Lib Dems want to raise from a mansion tax, you can work it out. But luckily you don't personally have to now because Knight Frank, the London estate agents, has already done it for you. They have found out to raise £2 billion every house valued at £1.25 million will have to have a mansion tax strapped on it. 

 This considered a Mansion if Vince Cable gets his way. Hopefully the occupier gets rather angry because this house is in Twickenham, where Vince Cable is MP. Vote him out.

Near to where I live you can probably buy a small stately home for that amount. But what is it like in London and the South East? Properties there, in the most dense part of the country, are worth a lot of money. Well it turns out that the 'squeezed middle' are going to be having a tough time because 31% of 'mansions' are terraces, 22% of 'mansions' are flats and 11% of 'mansions' are semi detached; the other 36% of mansions are detached (which can range highly in size). So a big majority of houses taxed by the Lib Dems aren't mansions and have middle income owners in them.

This is a terrible idea. A mansion is not a terraced house. Why should we slap a big tax on the 'squeezed middle' who are struggling through but only just. 

But it gets worse. A mansion tax means a revaluation of all people's houses so guess what that means. Yep everyone's council tax is going to increase. So a tax on the 'super wealthy' who live in terraced houses is actually a tax on everyone. And for those who think its just the nutty Lib Dems, well you may be surprised to hear that Ed Miliband has said he will back a mansion tax raising the same amount.

Its only the Conservatives who can stop a mansion tax and thousands of pounds being taken from people, whatever size house they live in. An English man's home is his castle, but government shouldn't be taxing everyone like it is.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

Well it seems again that the voters in the #ThingsElliottSays poll are broadly representative of the nation. Just over 2/3rd of you don't want any form of intervention to take place in Syria with the remainder who favoured war preferring a No Fly Zone to be present. You may ask why I did not include a tactical strike by missiles as a punitive measure? The reason for this is that the missile idea was not at all publicly on the table till around Wednesday morning, indeed there was discussion of troops on the ground as a plausible move by Western Governments.

What is to be done in Syria?

We can't do anything more without causing more harm.	68%
We should supply weapons to the Syrian Opposition.	5%
We should set up a No Fly Zone.	23%
We should put troops on the ground.	5%

Total votes: 22

My views on Syria is quite strong and it is that we should not get involved in a situation where we could not meet any of our objectives and make the conflict worse. But considering our decision not to intervene has already been settled and that I have talked about the intervention itself till the cows came home I will not touch upon it again at this time. What is interesting now is what is going on in the United States. 

 Are the US going to war with Syria?

Looming war with Syria arose because President Obama said on the 20th August last year to a journalist, after some erring, "A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation." This on the spot arbitrary decision without any consultation made by President Obama is example of the terrible foreign policy which we have witnessed during his time in office. 

Let's just say Obama hasn't been great with Foreign Policy, especially in the Middle East.

No wonder that this rather peculiar few sentences from the President has caused so much chaos in his government for we have been constantly unsure of whether the US is going to go to war or not. This whole week we have been waiting for imminent missile strikes by the USA, yet this hasn't taken place. Because of this we get John Kerry, who is a terrible Secretary of State, saying there are "decisions that must now be made" on Syrian Intervention. Then the next day we get a softening feeling from the President on intervention. 

Do you remember John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Elections? I do, just. He ran his campaign as being against the war in Iraq however he had voted for it several times and then conveniently changed his mind when chosen as candidate.

Obama is either too weak to decide or too weak to control his government. It is likely that both of these are happening. Obama has shown weakness before in deciding foreign policy, just look at Libya where the US barley fired the odd cruise missile yet were supposed to be running the whole operation. Also, senior Pentagon people are not at all keen to fire a single bullet into Syria for the strategic mess which it would create. These people are fighting their corner and the President isn't doing well in fighting his.

The Republicans, rightly, and often use this phrase to describe Obama. Who do I use this phrase for? Comment below and the correct answers receive a prize of pride in knowing.

But at last now Obama is letting Congress take the decision of whether to go to war or not. I think this is about time as this is the only appropriate constitutional way for the US government to take military action. It is good in a democracy for the people's representatives to discuss and debate issues especially ones as serious as going to war, taking full account of what their constituents feel. Also they will be able to decide exactly what the approach should be, unlike the President himself. We'll just have to keep watching Congress. 

 It is now up to Congress to decide to go to war, as it should be.

Chaotic, ill-thought out, and weak seems to be the watchword of President Obama's foreign policy, or indeed President Obama himself. I'm a great advocate of the US-UK alliance, it's one that has worked very well before. But I am no advocate of blindly following a President of such a low calibre as Obama. Bring on the 2016 elections. 

Vote in the New Poll on the Sidebar.