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Over at Guido Fawkes…

When Sarah Palin said Obama’s healthcare plan would result in “death panels” that would see bureaucrats making subjective judgements on life and death, she was furiously howled down by Obama supporters. So how should we describe the expert panel of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which decided that patients will be denied a new cancer drug on the NHS under draft guidelines, because it is too expensive?

What makes this situation even more disgusting is the objection to “co-payment”. Pay for what the NHS won’t provide and they’ll throw you off the system completely, withdraw treatment and kick you out - all in the name of “equality”. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Andrew Dillon, the CEO of NICE, is no doubt on a very hefty salary. But he and his death panel of evil accountants deem that a “quality year of life” is worth £30,000 and not a penny more. By contrast they pay Analysts at NICE £39,000 p.a. If another year of “quality life” on Earth will cost more than £30,000, they’ll pull the plug… And who determines “quality”?

The “quality life” value of £30,000 a year equates to…
…two thirds of Speaker Bercow’s home refurbishment bill
…£576 per week (equal to Margaret Beckett’s hanging basket bill or one-third of a duck island)
…£82.19 per day
…£3.42 per hour (six chocolate Santas)
…6p per minute (equal to a minute’s phonecall from BT)
…0.5p per breath*
…0.1p per second

Do you think your last breath was worth more than 0.5p? The government doesn’t.

Vince Cable was, according to Socialist Economic Bulletin, “one of the first to call, rightly, for the nationalisation of Northern Rock.” Back then the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman wrote in The Times;

The Government dithered for far too long before concluding that Northern Rock had to be nationalised.

And in December 2007…

Vince Cable, acting leader of the Lib Dems, told the BBC this morning that nationalisation was the “least worst answer” for the bank, which is currently “bleeding to death”. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Cable has urged the Government to introduce a Bill in Parliament before Christmas to allow public ownership of the bank.

But now in Total Politics…

When the Northern Rock crisis broke, my view was that that [the banks going bankrupt] probably should have been what happened - the government should have rescued the depositors and let the bank go.

Bit different, isn’t it?

Sinn Fein President and devil lookalike Gerry Adams has started blogging. There’s one that won’t be appearing in my blogroll links!

Worth noting however is the truly odd way Mr Adams refers to himself in the third person so often. Sure sign of a self important egotist.

Apart from refering to himself as “your man” at every possible opportunity - almost as often as he bashes Britain and the British, who’s cash he gladly takes as an MP however - he rather comically refers to himself as a blog. “This blog has had a busy week.” You can call Gerry Adams many things, but I never knew he was a blog!

Labour’s poster depicting David Cameron and George Osbourne as the so bad they’re funny X Factor twins John and Edward (”Jedward”) with the tagline “You won’t be laughing if they win” has got a good deal of press coverage, far exceeding the impressions the paid billboards will chalk up. In this sense it’s already a hugely effective piece of viral advertising.

But it’s another story that makes me think.

Jedward have faced huge public hostility, hate campaigns on Facebook, and deafening booing at X Factor performances. But last Saturday it was all cheers. The criticism became so unfairly harsh and personal, and they held up so strong, that they have become popular.

Could Labour do the same? The recent argument over Gordon Brown’s letter suggests it’s possible. If The Sun and others don’t want a Labour victory, they mustn’t victimise Brown.

Dr Rowan Williams said that taxation should not be seen as a way of stifling business or redistributing wealth but helping to make the world a better place in which to live. He called for new levies to be introduced on financial transactions and carbon emissions, and an end to the idea that unlimited economic growth is desirable.

The above quote from The Telegraph should shock me, but it doesn’t. Dr Williams, the most senior cleric in the Church of England and a self-confessed “hairy lefty”, is just the latest in a series of barmey bishops making moralising judgements over economics.

I’m reminded however by that quote from Margaret Thatcher: “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions - he had money too.”

Quite how a World without economic growth and with excessive taxation would be better I cannot understand - unless envy is your primary emotional influence - and evidently I am not alone. People vote with their feet, and the C of E hardly needs crowd control. Perhaps they should stick to their job and be a Church rather than a leftist economics think tank.

The Corrigan Brothers - who sang such hits as There’s No One as Irish as Barrack O’Bama - have been in touch to tell us about their new song.

Ireland’s Corrigan Brothers, the Band who had the International hit “There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama” and who played at President Barack Obama’s inauguration have sent their new song to every British MP - IT’S the MP’s Expenses Song!

The Corrigan Brothers will help pay back expenses for any MP who will perform the song live with them.

Lead singer Ger Corrigan said “those claims are nuts, we just had to write a song about them and we offer to help pay back the expenses for any mp who will PERFORM THE SONG LIVE (JUST ONCE) with us”

THE LYRICS
I’m only human, I’m your MP
I’ve been claiming excessively
Two toilet seats or clean my moat
A pack of Tampax but I’m a bloke

My swimming pool sprung a leak
66 grand, that was cheap
Ikea bag cost 5p
And twenty quid on a porno movie

chorus
I’m only human
Spare a thought for me
It costs a lot to be your MP
Fluffy dusters and HobNobs
We need these things to do our jobs

A claim for nappies and a Kit Kat too
A glittery seat for my loo
A chocolate Santa
That was me
And decorations for my Christmas tree
I bought a lemon and sent in a claim
I changed my lightbulbs and claimed again
82 quid for a frame on my shelf
A lovely photo of myself

SUSAN BOYLE. Talented victim of hate.

I have seen comments from seemingly normal members of the public such as “I hate Susan Boyle”, “Anyone but Boyle” and, following her shock second-place finish, “The Boyle is lanced”. I am utterly disgusted!

These are mirrored by the papers who tell us she is ’cracking up’, ’breaking down’ and call her a ’spinster’, ’insecure’ and a ‘hairy angel’.

The Press Complaints Commission has now warned newspaper editors not to breach the privacy of Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle by reporting details of her health after she was admitted to the Priory clinic in north London on Sunday evening.

Now the Press have been accusing ITV of failing their duty of care. They could certainly have helped more, but as Amanda Holden has said it’s the Media who are to blame with their awful hatred.

It now appears she may have won anyway! Clips on YouTube displayed the WRONG telephone voting number for Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, it has emerged. The digits of Miss Boyle’s voting number on YouTube had been changed from the correct ‘08′ ending to either ‘07′ or ‘09′ which were the numbers for winning dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith!

More Public-Media hatred has been flung at 10-year-old Hollie Steel. More than 330 complaints were sent to Ofcom, the majority from viewers unhappy that she was allowed to re-start her act after breaking down in tears. Are we really that heartless?

Meanwhile in America, “SuBo” is still ever popular. President Obama has invited her to perform on July 4th at the White House. There is speculation that she might be the godmother for the launch of US cruise giant Carnival’s new ship Carnival Dream (an idea the Mirror seeks to sink), Susan thought to be an appropriate choice because of her success with the song I Dreamed A Dream. And whilst our Times leads ‘The odds are against a real long-term career for Susan Boyle’ the New York Times lists some famous successes to place second;

1. Winston Churchill. Britain’s most revered prime minister of the 20th century, the man credited with saving the nation from Hitler in World War II, lost numerous elections and was tossed out of the government in World War I over a disastrous failure.

2. Beyonce. Her early group Girls’ Tyme lost on “Star Search.” As, by the way, did Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

3. Luther Vandross. Vandross lost the Apollo Theater’s famed Amateur Night competition multiple times before he finally won, then went on to become one of the biggest stars of his generation.

4. Fred Astaire. The best-known and most stylish dancer in movie history was famously turned down at an early audition with the critique, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Can dance a little.”

5. Jennifer Hudson. She was kicked out of the “American Idol” finals before winning a Grammy and an Oscar and selling millions of records.

6. Ronald Reagan. Reagan had two famous losses. He was beaten out by Humphrey Bogart for the lead role in “Casablanca” in 1942 and then by Gerald Ford for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1976. Four years later he won the Presidency, though he never did get a second shot at “Casablanca.”

7. The Beatles. They auditioned for Decca Records in 1962 and the company said sorry, it couldn’t use them.

8. Chris Daughtry. Another “American Idol” also-ran, the chromedome rocker has sold more than 4.5 million records — and been invited back to perform as a star guest on “Idol.”

9. SpongeBob Squarepants. SpongeBob was turned down under different names and wearing numerous different outfits over a dozen years before he finally become a Nickelodeon star.

10. Clay Aiken. He famously finished second to Ruben Studdard on “American Idol” and has gone on to sell almost five million records.

Evidently ‘Dreaming a Dream’ in Britain can seriously harm your health, but maybe not in America.

1. It centralises power in the hands of the Party machines who draw up the lists and rankings.
2. It removes the personal factor - you can’t vote for/against an individual candidate without backing/sackimg the others on his or her party list, and if he/she is ranked high (low) on the list there’s no point as they’ll win (lose) anyway.
3. Minor parties such as the BNP win seats.
4. The government is a weak coalition that no-body voted for…
5. …Formed by a few key individuals in secret behind closed doors backroom deals which are open to (dependent on) bribery and corruption…
6. …In which the policies that won your vote for a party will be traded away to fulfil a politicians thirst for power…
7. …And in which potentially extreme minor parties hold disproportionately large power as the balance of power casting votes…
8. …And will be able to hold the weak government to ransom with threats of pulling out.
9. The link between an MP and area is greatly reduced.
10. Look at Italy.

When an extremely bored historian of the future come to write about the downfall of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons - between writing ‘The Extended History of Bus Timetables of Mid Perthshire’ and ‘The Complete History of Onions’ - he will no doubt ponder at what point the situation tipped so precariously as to make Martins survival as official “silly man in a silly black dress” Impossible.

Was it when he attempted to take to court taxpayers using Freedom of Information laws to free up information about taxpayers’ money - using taxpayers’ money! - and so making himself target of Douglas Carswell?

Was it his mangled attack upon those reformist MP’s such as Kate Hoey where he criticised her for telling the press her opinions (I can’t give you his exact quote, I am still awaiting translation into a recognised modern language).

Or was it his pathetic apology that made no apology, and was read out from a piece of A4 paper clutched infront of him like he was a 6-year old ‘Third Shepherd’ at his first school nativity play? (It was just so awful, like a primary infants school pupil reading Biff & Chip [formerly Janet & John] with a moments pause before each word as the brain desperately attempts to recognise and synthesise the phonics infront of it: “The. Cat. Sat. On. The. Expenses. Form.”)

We will of course never know. What we do know however is our Parliamentarians’ whole hearted commitment to equal opportunities. For a man with such a problem speaking to be given a job entitled ‘Speaker’ is surely proof - either that or they all have an ironic sense of humour!

But now it is all over, no longer will we need to press Teletext to bring up the Subtitles when watching BBC Parliament. Now at long last we must find a new Speaker.

If Parliament were television the aspiring candidates would now be parading across Westminster Bridge in a powerful manner to Prokoviev’s Dance of the Knights (aka The Apprentice theme), each making bold statements of their own brilliance. Unfortunately Parliament isn’t reality television so we won’t get a 12 week “job interview from hell” in which the applicants fail miserably in their tasks of rebranding Margate and launching a breakfast cereal and set to a backdrop of swooping helicopter footage and dramatic music. There will be no “Pants Man”, only Claim for Pants Man.

Each of the applicants will however claim to be a White knight riding to slay the dragon of sleaze, but few of those listed currently are. Some have their own expenses issues, most have been too keen to defend Parliamentary money grabbing. To my mind only Frank Field and Kate Hoey are legitimate candidates of those currently being discussed; but it was Douglas Carswell who made this resignation happen, and having slayed the dragon’s keeper it is he who should finish the job from the Speaker’s Chair!

Saint George doing some seasonal dragon slaying.

Happy St George’s Day to all my blog readers!

Be sure to read my latest article on ConservativeHome, celebrating today and all it means.

Also check out this article by Boris on his celebrations in London, this New Culture Forum article and an old blog post by Dan Hannan.

St George wouldn't like the fox hunting ban one bit!