I had not previously heard of the Corrigan Brothers. They performed at President Obama’s inauguration with their song “There’s no-one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.” Now they have turned their gentle satire onto the MP expense issue. Listen to their song here and smile ruefully – it’s our money they are singing [...]
Entries from May 24th, 2009
Sing a song of sixpence – except it’s sadly rather more than that
May 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
Tags:MP Expenses
No second home at taxpayer expense
May 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
I have always been totally transparent in my commitment not to claim any second home allowance if I am elected MP. Today’s Sunday Telegraph story on the anger of St Albans voters reflects the wave of revulsion I have personally experienced on the doorstep from people outraged at what the Daily Telegraph has revealed [...]
Tags:MP Expenses
St Albans District Council 1 : Labour Government 0
May 21st, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
Overturning the Government’s proposals for house-building in the St Albans Green Belt is a mighty achievement for the Liberal Democrat administration at St Albans City and District Council.
Local Liberal Democrats formed the Hands Off Herts campaign to fight these wholly inappropriate Labour Government plans under their so-called Regional Spatial Strategy to extend Hatfield westwards and [...]
Tags:Hands off Herts·Regional Spatial Strategy·RSS·St Albans District Council
Sir Ranulph Fiennes achieves his Everest – literally this time
May 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment · Sandy's blog
The news that Sir Ranulph (”Ran”) Fiennes has finally got to the top of Everest – or as he puts it, “the closest you can get to the moon by walking” does not surprise me at all. Our paths crossed quite frequently when I worked many years ago for Texaco and he rather bizarrely [...]
Tags:Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Is it the end for Speaker Martin?
May 18th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
Events are moving very rapidly in terms of the Speaker of the House of Commons. I have written previously in this blog of my dismay at his abject performances.
Both opinion polls and comment on the doorstep are showing the huge damage being done to the institutions of democracy by the whole ghastly story of [...]
Tags:Michael Martin MP·MP Expenses·Nigel Quinton·Paul Zukowskyj·Sal Brinton·Speaker
St Albans versus Helioslough – Round Three
May 17th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
Now it has been confirmed that St Albans District Council will consider the new application from Helioslough, we will have to dust off the “Hands Off Herts” logo.
I cannot over-emphasise the destructiveness of the Helioslough proposal. There is no meaningful change in their new proposal. The monster freight terminal they propose would be a [...]
Secondary transfer blues
May 15th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Sandy's blog
To Helen Mair’s in The Park in Marshalswick to meet a bunch of mums whose children did not get any of their ranked preferences for secondary school in St Albans this year. Anne Main, county councillor Chris White and district councillor Chris Brazier were also there in a crowded living room.
It is quite clear [...]
Tags:Bedmond·Chris Brazier·Chris White·Marshalswick·secondary school transfer
Captain Ashdown comes to town
May 13th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Sandy's blog
Paddy Ashdown dashed in to St Albans yesterday on the latest stage of his tour to promote his autobiography “A Fortunate Life”.
Given his current superstar status and his universally admired success as High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, it is worth recalling how much he was sneered at and patronised by his opponents and the media when [...]
Not with a bang but a whimper
May 13th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
This is the way that the story ends: Not with a bang but a whimper.
Today was LibDem day in the Daily Telegraph revelations about the abuse of MP expenses. Do we emerge stain-free? No we do not. But overall the scale of inappropriate expenditure seems to be an order of magnitude less [...]
Tags:MP Expenses
What does a body lying undiscovered for three days tell us about Watford Hospital?
May 10th, 2009 · No Comments · SOS Herts NHS, Sandy's blog
It is perfectly disgusting that a young man’s body could remain undiscovered for three days in Watford Hospital. This is of course the main acute hospital for everyone in St Albans after the government closed down most of the departments at St Albans City Hospital and then reneged on its promise to build a [...]
Tags:Sal Brinton·St Albans City Hospital·Watford Hospital·West Herts Hospital Trust·WHHT