Shamik Das


Monday, March 22, 2010

Forget Byers, Hoon and Hewitt...

Byers-Hewitt-Hoon

Margaret Moran remains the grubbiest MP of all

Margaret-Moran-21-03-10THOUGH most of the attention, understandably, has been on Stephen Byers and fellow ex-ministers Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon in the wake of the Sunday Times/Dispatches investigation into lobbying, dubbed “Labour’s cash for influence scandal”, very little scrutiny has been placed on the other politician caught up in the affair - Luton South MP Margaret Moran.



Moran, unlike the other three, actually suggested she might start work immediately for the ficticious company, which is bad enough, considering she has another seven weeks’ MPs’ salary to collect before she cashes in on the parachute payments and pension, but made even worse by the fact that, since her propensity to put her hand in the expenses jar was exposed, she’s spent the past ten months off sick, unable to work.

She seems more than willing to work for this private company, however, and looked right as roses when “interviewed” by them. A picture of health, Moran claimed she had access to a “girls gang” of current and former ministers, among them Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears - also caught up in the expenses scandal - and Caroline Flint and Harriet Harman. The ST takes up the story:

“Moran had appeared quite feisty during the 90-minute meeting. She offered to arrange meetings with ministers and civil servants, adding that it was important ‘never to underestimate a glass of wine, a few nibbles, a photo opportunity’.

“She suggested she was well connected with a ‘girls’ gang’ of ‘mates’ whom she could ring on behalf of clients.”

The report adds:

“However, back in her Luton South constituency, the MP who had the second-highest expenses of any MP and had to pay back £22,500 she claimed for treating dry rot, was not so readily available.

“After she had left the meeting, a second reporter phoned her constituency office, saying his mother wanted to see Moran about a housing problem. ‘She’s not doing any appointments,’ came the reply. ‘She’s not very well at the moment.’”

As regular readers will know, it’s not just the dry rot, the flipping and the over-claiming that did for her, but a steady stream of other, equally serious allegations she has failed to deny, including a few I myself investigated and put to her last May, again to no avail.

This is what I discovered:

“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.”

I further revealed that:

“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.”

I’ll leave the final word to a former employee of Moran, one of the sources of the above allegations, who texted me on Saturday afternoon - and I kid you not, this came, by chance, before the latest news broke, to inform me his former boss’s unwanted place in the dustbin of history was already assured:

“Page 62 & 63 of book titled ‘Crap MPs - 40 worst members of parliament in history’, & aparently [sic] it goes bak [sic] som [sic] way.

“Number 10 of 40 (litl [sic] harsh) - guess who it is?”

Left Foot Forward: Campaigners turn up heat on Byers
Tonight, 8:00, Channel 4: Dispatches: Politicians for Hire

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Europe is not enough as Messi and Rooney zero in on South Africa

Messi-v-Rooney

DO YOU feel the buzz, well, punk, do ya?! Just 85 days and counting till the biggest show on Earth and only 115 days to the final...

I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it, the excitement, the anticipation, the expectation, heightened by the performances of two of the world’s finest in the past few days. I’m speaking of course of Leo Messi and Waaaaaayne Rooney, whose prolific form has sent their teams soaring to the top of their leagues and into the final stages of the European Cup.

Any other season and that Saturday night in Castille would be the highlight, the final port of call of a sizzling season in the sun - but not this year, this is 2010, this is World Cup year, and, though Spain and Brazil (and possibly Holland) are the strongest favourites, no one will bet against Messi’s Argentina or Rooney’s England - or maybe both - making it to the World Cup Final in Johannesburg on the 11th of July.

In his past 11 games Rooney has scored 16 goals - seven of them headers, including the winner in the League Cup Final - while Messi’s recent run has seen him hit eight in his last four, including a brace in last night’s Champions League stroll over Stuttgart, the highlights of which you can see below:


Apologies for the commentary, only slighly less sensical than Jon Champion and Jim Beglin on ITV last night!

So where do we go from here? The draw for the quarter finals of the Champions League takes place tomorrow, after which Rooney has eight more league games and a possible five in Europe plus two for England (v Mexico and Japan), while Messi could feature in another 12 league games for Barça, maybe five more in Europe and friendlies against Canada and Israel before heading down to South Africa.

Then it’s America, Algeria and Slovenia for England; Nigeria, South Korea and Greece for Argentina - after which we move into the last 16 and beyond, where the big boys face off, extra time, penalties, quarter finals, semis and the big one, four months from now...

Vuvuzelas booming out across the land, the charcoal aromas of a million braais drifting into the air, gazelles, wildebeest and springbok galloping into the sunset, 736 of the world’s best footballers, hundreds of thousands of fans, billions more watching on TV.

One country. One trophy. One world. One winner. May the best men win.

Lionel Messi 2009/10 stats from ESPN Soccernet
Wayne Rooney 2009/10 stats from ESPN Soccernet
Download the Mirror’s World Cup wallchart

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Is Boris taking his lines from Hergé?

Tintin-Johnson

BILLIONS of bilious blue blistering barnacles (as Captain Haddock would say)! It looks like dear old Boris has been stealing ideas from M. Georges Prosper Remi, aka Hergé, the finest cartoonist of all time.

Nothing wrong with that of course, indeed one can only dream of having the creative freedom to drop in a few references to Thomson and Thompson or Professor Calculus somewhere along the line, but then I’m not being paid £250,000 for a few hours’ work.

So what exactly did the blond buffer do, I hear you ask; well, in his aforementioned column, as part of a snidishly unsubtle attack on Ed Balls, in which he fantasised about grabbing the schools secretary's tie and “end[ing] what is left of my political career with one almighty head-butt”. It’s how they do things chez Bullingdon, you see...

But I digress; to the plaigirism we go, and, having blathered on about the merits of Greek and Latin, Boris eventually says:

“They are also a giant universal spanner for other languages. Suppose your kid scrapes her knee on holiday in Italy. You are much more likely to administer the right first aid if you know that caldo means hot rather than cold – as you will, if you know Latin.

“Suppose you are captured by cannibals in the Mato Grosso, and you find a scrap of Portuguese newspaper in your hut revealing that there is about to be an eclipse; and suppose that by successfully prophesying this event you convince your captors that you are a god and secure your release – I reckon you would be thankful for your Latin, eh?”

Hmmmmmm... Now I wonder where he got that idea from? Maybe, I dunno, from reading Prisoners of the Sun in between head-butting poorer kids in his youth, where Tintin finds a scrap of old newspaper, chooses the moment he is to be burnt at the stake as the exact moment of an eclipse, beseeches the sun to re-emerge and is deified by the Incas who release him and his friends.

Y’know, in a way this has actually made me like him; ’tis good to know he takes guidance from the little Belgian. What odds, I wonder, on Boris buying a first-class seat on Virgin Galactic, Destination Moon?!

Friday, March 05, 2010

Bizarrest map ever?

Reverse-underground-map

NOW this is what you call a map!!

View it in full, and admire the sheer, unalloyed insanity of it all!

But seriously, viewing this map has made me appreciate just how lucky we have it “Norf of the river”, and how poorly served by the tube Souf Laaandeners are.

Annnnnnnnyway, what would old ’Arry Beck have made of it all?! :-P

Hat tip: My old friend and Old Labour PPC Max Freedman

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Michael Foot RIP

Michael-Foot

9th FEBRUARY 1950: Michael Foot, who passed away today, addressing a meeting in a street in Devonport watched by his wife, film director Jill Craigie, sitting in the car beside him.

A world apart, a world away. No internet, no mobiles, no pagers; no rolling news, no blogs, no spin... unimaginable eh?!

Read the eulogies and reminisce, on The Guardian, Labour List and at Left Foot Forward, and for the most glowing, well written and emotional of obituaries, read Tribune.

I’ll leave the final word to David Miliband, who tweeted:

“Michael Foot led a remarkable life. I remember meeting him on the Tube in the 80s; for a famous speaker he really listened ... Ironic to hear news of Michael Foot’s death while welcoming south african president. He hated apartheid with a vengeance.
Got it in one; a man who fought the horrors of Fascism and Apartheid, from the thirties to the eighties, standing up to terror wherever it arose, in all its forms, at any time.

Truly a giant among men.

Michael Foot: 1913–2010