the worthless Rowan Williams the what for. By the way, doesn’t it perfectly express the nature of the current dominant culture that Williams—a promoter of sharia, a rationalizer of terrorists, a fellow traveler with leftists, and a non-defender of Christianity and Britain—should now come rushing to the defense of crooked MPs and call on the public to leave the poor, “humiliated” dears alone?
THIS IS NO TIME TO END THE EXPENSES SCANDAL EXPOSE
May 25,2009
ONCE again, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrated how ill-equipped he is to provide the nation with moral leadership. His gift for striking the wrong note is uncanny.
This is the man who expresses his support for the introduction of sharia law in Britain, tells us that terrorists “can have serious moral goals” and fails to defend Christianity against the onslaught of Marxist ideologues across the public sector. now, in typically ill-judged fashion, he has waded into the deepening crisis over MPs’ expenses.
He wails at the “systematic humiliation” of our politicians, urging that the flood of revelations be brought to a halt, otherwise “a heavy price” will be paid by our democracy. But Dr Rowan Williams could not be more wrong. The scandal has been the best news for our democracy in years. It has highlighted the epic greed and dishonesty that has dragged our country to the brink of ruin.
It has struck fear into the hearts of our corrupt politicians, at last making them accountable to the voters who have been forced to pay for their extravagance.
The damage to our political system has been done entirely by the MPs themselves through their endemic culture of deceit.
They are the ones who have been indulging in the “systematic humiliation” of the British public by their organised larceny. If Dr Williams had a stronger sense of morality he would recognise that the expo- sure of the politicians’ thieving is a powerful form of justice.
Contrary to what the Archbishop argues, the revelations should continue until every single one of the 646 MPs in the commons has been held to account.
At present, only about 200 of them have had the searchlight turned on their behaviour and already the findings have been truly shocking, ranging from demands for manure and duck houses to subsidies for lavish property empires. yesterday, another batch of serious abuses were uncovered, including the failure of Labour’s Eric Joyce to pay 40,000 pounds in capital gains tax on the profit he made when he sold his second home in London last year.
Joyce has the highest expense claims of any MP in the country, having raked in over 1 million pounds since 2001.
Politicians have desperately tried to hide their grasping conduct from public scrutiny.
They spent no less than 300,000 pounds of our money in launching unsuccessful legal actions to prevent the Freedom of
Information Act applying to their expenses and when that failed, some of them tried to change the law so they could keep their abuses secret. even now, as the edifice of their rotten system crumbles, they are still trying to mislead us.
Last week, for instance, the Labour MP for norwich north Dr Ian Gibson, with a trumpet blast of self-righteous zeal, claimed to have published his expenses online. But what he had kept hidden was that he allowed his daughter to live rent-free in his taxpayer-funded London flat, a serious offence against Commons rules. He is now under investigation by the Labour party and faces possible deselection.
Instead of showing any contrition, too many disgraced MPs have posed as victims. characteristic of this self-pity was a hysterical outburst from Tory MP nadine Dorries, herself a keen exploiter of the allowance system. Warning that some of her colleagues are “seriously beginning to crack” under the pressure, she compared the campaign on expenses with the US witch-hunt of the Fifties led by Senator Joe Mccarthy against suspected communists.
Her comparison was as ridiculous as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks. What we are witnessing is not Mccarthyism, which was based on false rumour and allegations, but the exposure of crooks through the use of their own documentation.
The investigations into MPs’ corruption must continue. Indeed, they should be extended right across our civic institutions, for the practice of ripping-off the British taxpayer is now widespread in the public sector elite.
It can be found in the House of Lords, where abuses are rife, as reflected in the suspension of two Labour peers last weekfor accepting money to put down amendments to legislation. It can also be seen in the European Parliament, whose members can easily achieve millionaire status through their manipulation of expenses.
The same grubby spirit can be found among too many quangos, whose main purpose seems to be the provision of comfortable berths for over-paid executives. In this self-serving world, quango boss James Braithwaite, chief executive of the South East of England Regional Development Agency, last year claimed 50,000 pounds in taxi bills.
Entitlement is the prevailing ethos of the liberal elite, whether it be in local government, the commons or the quangos. What is so sickening is that these people are willing to grab our money yet they hold the opinions of the majority in contempt.
They sneer at mainstream views on immigration, the EU, multi-culturalism, human rights and the punishment of criminals. They think that their dogma is superior to the natural, patriotic instincts of the people who pay their lucrative salaries and expenses.
We no longer have democracy in Britain. We have government by a Left-wing conspiracy. But, in the fury over this scandal, the people may at last have found their voice. The establishment may be starting to crumble.