For goodness' sake

So the Speaker of the House of Commons has quit because MPs have been diddling their expense accounts. For goodness' sake. That's like a load of schoolboys getting caught, standing there looking shocked, then all as one pointing the finger and going, 'He's in charge! It's his fault!'. This expenses system seems to have been in place for decades, certainly since before this Speaker was incumbent. If it was me, I'd be furious! I'd bash my gavel and shout, 'Don't you dare blame me you dishonest bunch of [wotsits]!', but he just apologises!!! What are they going to fob the blame off for next? Things are not perfect. The law is weird in places. We have a PM who looks like this

rather than this.

Deal with it and sort it out people! Don't just keep manoevring for position and trying to keep the newspapers happy. You're not going to achieve anything that way, apart from piss a load more voters off.

Sheesh.

Abolish Money!

Took this at lunch time of the G20 'riots' at Bank. Also been following the fun on Twitter (what has the world come to when we turn to twitter for breaking news? Why can't the proper news sites keep up?) and these are some of the best comments (excuse the screwy formatting, blogger doesn't like it when I cut and paste):

1 person breaking stuff and 200 filming it. Idiots.

Stupid anarchists drinking Starbucks. Right.

*We* own the banks now. Stop smashing them up you idiots!

City workers hanging out of windows waving £10 notes at protesters. A few years ago it would have been fifties and bottles of Veuve.

This is the worst festival I’ve ever been to.

Someone just said it feels like glasto without the drugs.

They've reportedly been smashing windows at that RBS branch for an hour now. How many windows does it have?!

G20 protesters say 'Abolish Money!' Okay, let's start with them: turn all your cash in right now!

"Hippies. They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad" - Eric Cartman

Sshhh dont tell the G20 protesters but the banks have no money - so no point storming them ;)

Can someone tell the man smashing the RBS windows that he (presuming he is a taxpayer) will have to pay for that.

Trannies protest too

Latest placard: "Down with this sort of thing"

Illegal venue rules apply know your exit, watch your back and run as soon as someone up the front starts playing bongos

Shocked at the number of greengrocers' apostrophe's (sic) on the G20 protest banners. Follow the hobbyhorse for grammar crimes.

Can't believe all the fuss over G20. They didn't even win the X Factor and their Bohemian Rhapsody cover was terrible.

Police still in RBS when I left. disabled chap at 'Camp Climate' complaining about wheelchair access

Ask yourself Sarkosy: what would Chuck Norris do?

Lots of unwashed types at the g20 protest - Brighton town centre must be empty today.

OH MY GOD, A MAN HAS SPIILT HIS COFFEE AT THE G20 IN LONDON. IT'S ALL KICKING OFF NOW!!!! OMG!!!!!

14:37, Rage Against The Machine playing outside BofE

I'm protesting against the miserable state of G20 protesters: using my brain, working hard and wearing a Saville Row suit.

Do the protesters know that the additional police will cost the taxpayer? Could they even spell counterproductive?!

Embattled bankers are blasting out James Blunt and Dido through RBS building loudspeakers. Crowd disperse

The G20 protesters have the cutest angry clothes! Apparantly The Gap are basing next season on them.

If this was Paris would there be more burning cars and less standing around doing nothing by now

Just saw a couple of clowns wander past drinking strongbow. Literally and metaphorically.

Anyone else chuckling at all the anarchists with iPhones?"Fight the power, yeah? With your £50-a-month O2 contract."

A G20 protestor penned in with others slammed police "Some of us have to pick children up from school!" Planning's not her strong point eh?

Only things getting through police lines are portable loos. Lombard St, in case anyone needs to go

I keep missing all the constructive suggestions being put forth by protestors on how to remedy the economic downturn.....

Apparently seen in bank HQ window during G20 protest: "While you are here protesting, we are repossessing your homes"

Have the collapsitarians managed to overthrow capitalism at the G20 or are they pausing for tea time?

G20 Protests: All iconography and no ideology.

Which just goes to show that Twitter is used almost exclusively by bored office workers.

Lisa and I popped down at lunch time and saw about the only interesting thing to happen - the policeman that got hit over the head here being dragged back to the police vans, all bandaged up, and about thirty riot police plunging into the crowds amid much shouting. It sounded quite like someone had scored a goal. There were indeed eleventy hundred reporters and rubberneckers and not that many actual protesters. And no one is the wiser what they're protesting for. There were lots of hippy women with push chairs and papooses. Just the sort of thing to take your children to!

Anyway, why are these people causing a ruckus? If they really want to make a difference they should form their own party and their own policies, and run for office. If it works and people like the ideas they'd get voted in. Then they could sort it out themselves.

Blimmin soapdodging grufty hippies.

Greenies

Just come across this article about using waste as fuel (or the failure in this country to do so)
and have been very entertained by the slew of comments afterwards. I am not someone who religiously follows politics (or even current affairs really) - it only serves to depress and annoy me. But I feel guilty about ignoring it and fear this is rather a head in the sand approach. But then you look at the obvious wrath of some of the commenters to that article and I realise that these avoidance tactics could be worthwhile for maintaining my blood pressure.

I started reading Boris Johnson's book Lend Me Your Ears, where the mop-topped one starts by writing about his time as a reporter based in Brussels. At one point, apparently, there was a discussion about the classification of snails, and the upshot was that snails were considered not meat, but fish. Now, no matter what steps of logic you think you're going through within a classification process, when the outcome is something so clearly barking, why would you stick to it? And don't get my father started about some of the rules and regulations associated with farming these days. Apparently they are even coming around and checking you have a tidy farmyard, and fining you if not, and the amount of paperwork he has to do means that he has to spend half the day in the office and not actually looking after the animals on the farm.

If anyone out there can point me to some good clear summaries on the following I would be grateful:

1. The goals of the EU (which I thought was to facilitate trade amongst member countries, not piss all the citizens off)

2. The reasons we (the UK) went into it (other than the above) and the ongoing benefits we reap from it (if any)

3. The reasons why they are legislating now about how high we have to position light switches on the walls of private houses in the UK (which I'm sure has nothing to do with trade, or is it to prevent discimination against short electricians?).