I've always maintained that neoconservatism should not be seen as a genuine political philosophy, but merely as a smokescreen for old fashioned pillage and plunder. Greed is the driving force behind neoconservatism- a theory hardly disproved by the behaviour of most of the MPs who have signed up to the principles of the Henry Jackson Society.
First, there was Michael 'Flipper' Gove. Then David 'The Minister who can't change a light bulb' Willetts. Then Stephen Crabb. Then Michael Ancram. Then Chris Bryant. Then the unlovely, self-adoring Denis Macshane, a man who loves to see his name in the papers but probably wasn't too happy to see this article. And now Ed Vaizey.
Have a look at the stories regarding these dishonourable members. They claim to be 'democrats'- well, let's hope the British public give them the Order of the Boot at the next election; that's if their party leaders don't derail them first.
UPDATE: Now here's a funny thing. Attempts to add details of Dennis Macshame's abuse of taxpayers money have been deleted from his wikipedia page, apparently because they were not sourced. I wonder if our friend Philip Cross, the diligent wikipedia editor could help out here? Philip is so quick off the mark when it comes to editing my page- why, a certain little neo-con blogger with an obsession with trying to smear me, only has to make an attack post on me on his blog and up goes Philip, or his little pal '212.135.157.237'. to add a reference to it on my wikipedia page. But Philip doesn't seem to be quite so keen on adding a reference to the Daily Mail story on Denis Macshane's page. That's strange, because he's shown a great interest in editing Macshane's page in the past. And also, the page of Macshane's former wife, the late newsreader Carol Barnes. In fact so incensed was 'Philip' when I once referred to McShane by his original name 'Denis Matyjaszek' that he darted over to my wikipedia page to insert the maiden name of my wife, failing to see the difference between a woman who takes her husband's surname on marriage, with a careerist politician who hypocritically berates the British for not being 'pro-European' enough, while changing his original Polish surname.
Come on Philip, anyone would think you that instead of being an 'impartial' wikipedia editor, you were somehow heavily biased towards Mr Macshane. To prove them wrong, here's a little test for you. Simply go to McShane's wikipedia page and add a reference to the Daily Mail story. Here is the link. It's an approved source, so no problems on that ground. We'll be watching the page on a daily basis to see if you put it up.
Oh, and by the way, I'm really looking forward to meeting you at the 2010 Wikimania conference. We've got so much to talk about.
9 comments:
Neil, we need people like you from the honest Left to stand as anti-corruption candidates!
Let's kick all of these money grubbing Blairite spivs and liars right out on their greedy arses!
what a bunch of sewer rats
Douglas Hogg, an unmistakable Tory and duly anti-war, is banished from Parliament.
But the Henry Jackson Society's Michael Gove, David Willetts, Stephen Crabb, Michael Ancram, Chris Bryant, Denis MacShane and Ed Vaizey are not.
Funny, that.
first anonymous: many thanks for your kind words. we certainly need to do something at the next election.
david: yes, interesting isn't it? These HJ 'scoopers' will cling on for their dear life, they're not just MPs, they represent very powerful interests. and those powerful interests will want them to stay on in Parliament.
GET MCSHANE!
MacShane has been getting away with this for years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/dec/21/uk.labour
'Minister may have to repay office expenses
Rotherham's MP, who clashed with peer over Afghanistan, now believes he is the victim of a smear campaign
* Kevin Maguire and Steven Morris
* The Guardian, Friday 21 December 2001 01.27 GMT
The junior Foreign Office minister, Denis MacShane, could be required to repay several hundred pounds after admitting claiming domestic gas, electricity and telephone bills as part of his constituency office expenses.
The Rotherham MP yesterday wrote to the Commons standards commissioner, Elizabeth Filkin, seeking "clarification" over the costs after a prominent party member in the South Yorkshire town made a series of - substantially untrue - allegations against him. '
We’re living through a coup d’etat, and no-one seems to be talking about it. The aim of the current “expenses scandal” is plainly to bring about the abolition of parliament. By the end of this summer, if all goes according to plan:
1. Parliament will be suspended “due to a collapse of public confidence”.
2. A strictly temporary, interim, non-partisan Crisis Committee will take over the governance of the country. It will be fronted by celebrities (Richard Branson, Prince Charles and Joanna Lumley), but its membership will mainly consist of bankers and lawyers.
3. The temporary committee will become permanent because the right moment for a return to elections will never quite arrive.
4. Most of the people who visit this blog will be in internment camps by xmas.
Of course, to allow this to work, you’d first of all need a right-wing newspaper to arrange the sacking of the Speaker, and his replacement with someone who was willing to obey its orders ... which could never happen, surely?
And why is there a coup right at this moment?
To pessimistic leftists it may seem incredible, but the truth is that what we might call the “telegraph faction” (in politics, business, media, and so on) is sincerely terrified that socialism is about to make a comeback. Almost every day of the last few months the Telegraph itself has carried long articles fiercely arguing against a revival of socialist ideas - a revival which it clearly believes is imminent, and must urgently be opposed.
After the defeat of the miners, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, telegraph types believed that they had won the class war and that was that: all over, happy ending. And then - a mere couple of decades later - capitalism collapses! The collapse is (from their point of view) sudden and inexplicable.
Suddenly, all intelligent people are talking of capitalism as finished, and discredited bonkers Bolshevik ideas (nationalisation, taxing the rich, and so on) are talked about widely and openly. Left-wing ideas are, for the first time in a generation, common sense. Bankers and capitalists are hated and despised, to the extent that they're not even safe walking the streets.
Many right-wingers believe that if they don't stop the rot now, a huge reversal of their victory is inevitable within months. They are having one of their every-few-decades panics about revolution.
The advantage of the expenses scandal (apart from the fact that it’s all true, of course) is that in the short term it removes the crisis of capitalism from the news entirely, and gives people elected representatives to throw rocks at in place of unelected rulers - while, in the longer term ... who knows where it might lead?
I worry about fellow HJS stalwart Marko Attila Hoare being left out of the gold rush. As a pal of Kamm he must be getting a taste for truffles and foie gras by now - humbler fare such as burek and ćevapčići may no longer do for our eminent historian. Let's hope that Marko gets a piece of the action and can keep up with his well-heeled chums.
Neil
Macshane wiki page has been edited to and the Daily Mail story is linked /referenced
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