The Museum Of Modern Thinking

Finally! Had a decent training session tonight – had a good stretch to start with, and a good long warm-up. Then multiple attacks, lots of pad work and a quick cool down. Whilst hitting the pads, I felt back to my normal self – hitting the pads with not too much trouble, no (well, minimal) pain in my knees, good speed and power.

After the knackering my ankle in my 2nd dan grading, the car crash in Nov 2007, and then trouble with my knees due to something (car / fallen arches / old age), it’s been a long slog to get back to normalcy, but I feel a bit more like my old self again

Well, this is truly an interesting moment – the vote / statutory instrument / parliamentary thingy on Thursday has been scrapped! I would like to think that the amount of pressure quickly generated via blogs, Facebook, TheyWorkForYou, etc. played a part in this decision. Interestingly, I did not see anything about the proposed vote and the whipping of Labour MPs in any media about from the web – nothing on the TV, nothing in print (that I read, anyway), so it does look like “grass roots” victory

I’m pleased that I’ve done something about this myself, e.g. some quick blog posts, spreading the word via Facebook and contacting my MP. I dislike people who complain about things and then do nothing to change it; I despise apathy.

Iain Dale has more analysis on the issue which contains further analysis from Tom Steinberg if MySociety, the group behind TheyWorkForYou.

If you did get involved, give yourself a big Chuckle Brothers pat on the back

This is now getting beyond a joke: Labour are not allowing their MPs a free vote on Thurdsay’s Order to further block publication of their expenses and shield MPs from parts of the Freedom of Information Act.

From The Telegraph:

Labour MPs will be forced to vote in favour of a Government move to withhold details of their expenses claims from public scrutiny, The Daily Telegraph has learned. Despite the workings of Parliament usually being subjected to a free vote, meaning MPs can act according to their conscience, Labour members will be subject to a ‘three-line whip’ forcing them to support the controversial measure when it comes before the Commons on Thursday.

Words (well, safe for publication words) fail me. To force your party’s MPs to vote for something so controversial, so wrong, is beyond belief. Labour obviously have their hands deep in the till and in lots of pies, and are well and truly on the fiddle. If they’re not, then why force a vote? I sincerely hope the Conservatives and Lib Dems MPs are allowed a free vote (I know the Lib Dems are already), but seriously, this is awful. It is beyond George Orwell’s Animal Farm:

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”

For clarification, we’re the creatures who aren’t pigs – the pigs would be Labour’s champagne socialists, drunk on power yet pretending to concerned about poverty and the poor, whilst simultaneous ruining the country and creating even more poor people

I honestly can’t believe the Labour party are forcing their MPs to vote for it, it’s beggars belief that they hold the british electorate in such contempt.

Now, write to your MP and do something about this!

As you may or may not know, all 646 MPs have many allowances (second home allowance, meal allowance, tax- and duty-free drink twenty four hours a day) and a very lax expenses system where they don’t feel the have to account for every little receipt. In the real-word, private sector I and many others have to account for every little item, and rightfully so – it’s the company’s money I’m spending after all.

Some or most MPs don’t feel the same way and have previously fought very hard to keep their expenses secret, which is obviously not right as they are directly accountable to us, the voters. Following a ruling last year, the MPs were told to publish details of their expenses. The “honourable” speaker of the house, Michael Martin, then spent £100k+ of taxpayer’s money trying to block it but was eventually defeated, allowing for the publication of the receipts.

But Harriet Harman, on the day the news of the Heathrow airport thrid runway was announced, quietly and in a most underhand manner announced an order that would effectively block publication of detailed expenses across all categories and exclude MPs from certain areas of the Freedom Of Information Act. This is absolutely disgusting in a democracy, and is very Animal Farm. Thankfully, unlike Ms. Harman, some MPs still have a conscience and are actively seeking to block or repeal the order.

The rumour is that some MPs have abused the system so much, they would have no choice but to resign. Well, good. I don’t want a bunch of freeloading MPs in the commons looking after their own interests rather than mine. And my sentiments go for all politicians, Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, anyone – don’t take the mickey out of the system.

Iain Dale has it covered more eloquently than me, and details various ways you can get involved, which I’ll repeat here:

• You can join a Facebook group (I just have)
• The TheyWorkForYou website have started a campaign that you can sign up to – it will pop-up as soon as you visit the site, enabling you to send a message to your MP

Update: mySociety has further details on their campaign, detailing the background and how to get involved.

Now, as the ABC Warriors would say, “Spread the word”.

P.S. Isn’t the Government always telling us, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”? Draw your own conclusions…

Well, Happy New Year to you all

I had a great Christmas and New Year, it made for a nice long break, which was needed. I received some greta presents, but oddly, a lot of running gear – I think someone’s trying to tell me something. Having man flu over Christmas and New Year didn’t really help (my wife’s still suffering from it), but on the plus side, I lost about half a stone due to no appetite.

I have a few resolutions for this year:

• Pass my 2nd dan in PKA Kickboxing (more training!)
• Get down to 12 stone by running and eating right
• Rant less – to this end, I’ve removed a lot of blogs from my Google Reader that made me more ranty

That’s all I have, three easy resolutions (I hope).

Oh, and make more use of my XBox 360, it shouldn’t be gathering dust!