Okay lets start by saying I'm not entirely happy about sitting here in my room, gone midnight, and blogging about Jacqui Smith (and I am going against my blogging principles and resisting putting a picture up) but I promised myself I would write a post before I went to bed and distressingly she was the topic I picked.
So Jacqui Smith is in the news again, I must say I, usually, am not someone to get caught up in the public outrage over expenses. MPs are coming from a time when their expenses were designed to top up their earnings and could be relied on for things such as the slight extravangance (I don't include porn under that but we'll come on to that), we are moving on from that now and just as bankers shouldn't be expecting their bonuses anymore MPs shouldn't be abusing their expenses. To keep it general for a little longer, the thing I really hate about the arguments politicians use in the whole expenses debate is the whole "I broke no rules", like no breaking the rules is enough; we're talking about our leaders here they should be held to a higher standard than simply not breaking the rules but I'm possibly being a little naive on that.
Okay so paying for porn on expenses... lets get it clear here the problem is with the public paying for your porn, there is absolutely no issue with watching porn and if everyone has to start apologising for watching porn youtube is going to become a very boring place. A big cheer for Richard Timney though for taking some of the heat for the Home Secretary on this one.
While I am happy to clamber onto the band wagon of a Jacqui Smith slagging match... this topic is really not what we need to shout at her about. What we should be shouting about is what she has come to represent in our government, a government that is so eager to look tough on drugs that it upgrades cannabis without any qualified person (either in the medical profession or drugs enforcement) agreeing that it's a good idea and worst of all a government so eager to look tough on terrorism that she is willing to lock people up for 42days without being charged.
So Jacqui Smith is in the news again, I must say I, usually, am not someone to get caught up in the public outrage over expenses. MPs are coming from a time when their expenses were designed to top up their earnings and could be relied on for things such as the slight extravangance (I don't include porn under that but we'll come on to that), we are moving on from that now and just as bankers shouldn't be expecting their bonuses anymore MPs shouldn't be abusing their expenses. To keep it general for a little longer, the thing I really hate about the arguments politicians use in the whole expenses debate is the whole "I broke no rules", like no breaking the rules is enough; we're talking about our leaders here they should be held to a higher standard than simply not breaking the rules but I'm possibly being a little naive on that.
Okay so paying for porn on expenses... lets get it clear here the problem is with the public paying for your porn, there is absolutely no issue with watching porn and if everyone has to start apologising for watching porn youtube is going to become a very boring place. A big cheer for Richard Timney though for taking some of the heat for the Home Secretary on this one.
While I am happy to clamber onto the band wagon of a Jacqui Smith slagging match... this topic is really not what we need to shout at her about. What we should be shouting about is what she has come to represent in our government, a government that is so eager to look tough on drugs that it upgrades cannabis without any qualified person (either in the medical profession or drugs enforcement) agreeing that it's a good idea and worst of all a government so eager to look tough on terrorism that she is willing to lock people up for 42days without being charged.
Picture from Liberty's Charge or Release campaign against extending the pre-charge detention limitToday the Prime Minister today announced that the second home allowance should be scrapped. So I hope people will be able to stop complaining about expenses and really start looking at the things that actually matter and making their voice heard about the issues and policies that actually effect the country we are living in.
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