Shamik Das


Saturday, May 30, 2009

Tune in tonight on ITV, 6:45pm, for the grand final of

"Oink oink oink oink oink oink oink!!!"

AFTER three weeks of allegations of flipping, double-dipping and moat cleaning, tonight, at long last, the final of the reality show that's gripped the nation.

With the Telegraph's treasure trove of revelations, like all good things, seemingly coming to an end having held the public in thrall for the past 23 days, the time is nigh to pronounce the greediest, evilest piggy of them all in the eagerly anticipated final of Britain's Got Troughers.

Of the 646 MPs who entered the auditions way back when, we've whittled the list down to the final 14. You'll notice many star names are missing, many odious individuals who've submitted dodgy claims. Rest assured, their time will come, and we won't have to wait much longer than June next year, when the voters have their say, but for now, this un-super 14 will have to do.

The felonious fourteen who've made it through are, in order of depravity, Margaret Moran, Michael Martin, Julie Kirkbride, Andrew MacKay, Anthony Steen, Ann Winterton, Elliot Morley, Ben Chapman, Sir Nicholas Winterton, Sir Peter Viggers, Christopher Fraser, John Smith, Douglas Hogg and Ian McCartney.

Yes, they've all been forced to stand down from the Commons, but that, surely, isn't enough; tonight they'll be fighting for their miserable lives, battling to avoid being the last pig stying and the hangman's noose that goes with it.

Judging will be the three main party leaders, Labour leader Gordon Brown, Lib Dem lothario Nick Clegg and Tory tosser toff David Cameron, fingers on buzzers, ready to end the career existence of one of their former colleagues in the ultimate reality TV show.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil: Gordon "Piers Muppet" Brown, Nick "Amanda Hoe" Clegg, David "Simon C***" Cameron

So what delights can the audience expect? Douglas Hogg riding a gondolier round his moat, Sir Peter Viggers doing a dance routine with his tropue of ducks, to the tune of "Five little ducks went out to play", Anthony Steen sitting on a pile of money taunting the plebs and serfs before him, sneering at their petty jealousy and Christopher Fraser hosting a one-man version of Gardeners Question Time.

On the Labour side, Micheal Martin doing his best Rab C Nesbitt drunk Glaswegian impression (no change there then), Messieurs Chapman and Morley in top hats à la Bradford & Bingley, offering mortgage advice, Ian McCartney demonstrating how to quaff the perfect flute of the finest champagne taxpayers' money can buy and John Smith doing whatever it is he does.

To the married couples we go, with Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton telling distasteful jokes about Chinese cockle-pickers and the like, and Julie Kirkbride and Andrew MacKay as the League of Gentlemen's Tubbs and Edward Tattsyrup: "This is a family business for family only; there's nothing for yoooooooouuuuuuu here..."

But the winner, if there's any justice at all, must surely be Labour MP for Luton Southampton Margaret Moran, just about the most contemptible human being on the planet, who, to this day, still denies she's done anything wrong, and has still failed to appear before her constituents or the media.

Undoubtedly the most talentless of the lot, she does, however, possess one useful attribute: namely, a face just begging to be punched. The puce, chubby bouche that every taxpayer would just love to rearrange.

She could just sit there, atop the stage as audience members take it in turn to exact their revenge, and my, wouldn't that revenge be so sweet...

The Daily Telegraph: The Expenses Files
ITV: Britain's Got Talent

Friday, May 29, 2009

CMJ MBE

Well done: Prince Charles pins the MBE on CMJ's chest    Well pleased: A proud CMJ shows off his MBE outside Buckingham Palace

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS, cricket broadcaster and journalist, receiving his MBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace yesterday.

One of the voices of Test Match Special, CMJ joked with the Prince about England's chances of winning back the Urn, to which he replied 'the Australians are awfully good, aren't they?'

Quite! Awfully good versus just plain awful. Just 40 days to go...

Cricinfo: Ashes countdown
May 2008: Ding gong!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Mes-si-si-siiiiiiii!

"Campione, campione, ole, ole, ole!"

¡VIVA España! ¡Viva Catalunya! ¡Viva Barça!

No shame in losing to the better team. We just didn't turn up yesterday; after the first ten minutes there was only ever going to be one winner.

Et-to Fer-gae: Samuel Eto'o fires Barcelona into the lead    Don't Mess: Lionel Messi holds aloft his match-winning boot

And to all those Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea fans, when was the last time any of you won anything? That would be four, three and two years ago respectively.

English champions, world champions and League Cup winners: not a bad haul for a "bad" season! :)

Barcelona 2-0 Manchester United

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Illuminators

The goaliest event of our time: Perfect for their return

ALL eyes will be on Rome tomorrow night with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo poised to light up the Eternal City in what promises to be a Champions League final to remember.

Two great teams, two great clubs, football played the right way, adhering to the right philosophy, no crooked Russian money and no cretinous scum like Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and John Terry to spoil the party.

Are you watching Mr Abramovich?!

Whatever the result, football will be the winner.

Let the countdown begin!

Barcelona v Manchester United: Match preview
Roll of honour: Past winners of the European Cup

Friday, May 22, 2009

The truth about Margaret Moran

"Oink oink!"


• Disgraced dry rot MP 'employed' NINE unpaid interns
• Tried to bully staff into signing off her dodgy receipts
• "Utterly despised" non-troughing Luton North MP



YOU know about the £22,500 dry rot bill; you know about the £4,756.40 kitchen and £2,678 carpet; you know she's corrupt, but do you know the real Margaret Moran, and what it's like to work for her?

Well today, we can delve further into the murky career of the woman who embodies the arrogance, greed and shamelessness of modern Members of Parliament.

It is alleged by one former intern of Miss Moran that she ordered members of staff to work for a 'charity' called "eQuality Networks Ltd" (EQN), a clear breach of official guidelines which state that staff should be used solely for the purpose of assisting an MP in "performing parliamentary duties".

Yesterday's Financial Times contains more details about her links to EQN - which is run by her fiancé, Michael Booker - and the misappropriation of staff thereof, including her use of House of Commons headed notepaper when working for EQN.

The former intern, whose complaints to the authorities fell on deaf ears, was one of nine unpaid interns working for Miss Moran at the time, many of whom were also asked to work for EQN.

HM Revenue and Customs, which investigated the original allegations two years ago, did not have enough evidence to take action against Miss Moran, though they have since toughened the regulations concering unpaid volunteers.

The allegations: A copy of the email I sent to Margaret Moran, to which she has so far not responded

Another ex-employee of Miss Moran has described how she would routinely attempt to pressure staff into signing off questionable expense claims which were then passed to the fees office for approval.

Examples include "ghost" journeys, in which her staff were asked to fill in blank taxi receipts, and expenses incurred while Miss Moran was working for EQN; it is not known how many of these were submitted to the fees office and subsequently paid out.

What has also emerged is her "complete and utter" hatred of Kelvin Hopkins, fellow Luton Labour MP and beacon of thrift who spent a staggering 90 per cent less on second home allowances over the past five years, a mere £8,894 compared to Miss Moran's whopping £87,206.

Remarkably, despite all the evidence in the original Telegraph story and the susequent revelations, from BBC Look East's story that EQN is not registered with the Charity Commission to the Olive Tree uncovering the story of her luxury Spanish holiday villa her local constituency party have expressed their "full confidence" in her.

However, the Prime Minister's recent description of her behaviour as "totally unacceptable" may yet see the trougher nonpareil at long last expelled from the Labour party and thrown out of Parliament.

Miss Moran has refused to answer any of the questions I have put to her, and has failed to return any of my calls.

Saturday 9th May: Moran's second-home scam revealed
Monday 11th May: Moran defends the indefensible
Tuesday 12th May: Moran to pay back money

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Fatty Foulkes should shut his fat face

"Give us more money, give us more pies and give us more porn!"

WITH no-one breaking cover and defending MPs it fell to MSP George "Fatty" Foulkes, who's also a member of the Lords, to appear on News 24 and make a complete tit of himself.

Refusing to answer any questions, he chose instead to lay into the interviewer, BBC totty Carrie Gracie, then turned his guns on her illustrious colleagues John Humphries and Jeremy Paxman, squealing about their salaries and demanding MPs get paid more.

He asked of his interviewer how much she was paid; answer: £92,000 a year, which in Fatty's mind in "nearly double" an MP's salary of £64,766.

Beauty & the beast: Watch the exchange between Fatty and Carrie by clicking on the picture

Ms Gracie's salary is, in fact, only 1.42 times the salary of an MP. It would have been more accurate had she retorted that MPs, in fact, earn "nearly as much" as she does, 1.42 being closer to 1 than 2.

Even now I doubt the chiselling pie-eating clutz would get it; in the world of Gordon Brown and his economically-illiterate cohorts 1.42 is nearly 2.

No wonder the economy's screwed...

The Daily Telegraph: The Expenses Files
Wikipedia: The original Fatty Foulke

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Göring Brown

"Ich bin ein wanker!"

JUST when you thought he couldn't possibly be any unluckier!

Send in the clowns...

Brown's latest YouTube blunder
The dance of the Prime Mentalist

Friday, May 01, 2009

Lights, camera...



U-turn YouTube!

It's the video that keeps giving; every time you watch it you end up laughing even more!!

Unintentional humour: the funniest comedy of all!

July 2008: In the name of Gord, go
June 2008: “Worst Prime Minister ever”