Yesterday the Torygraph quoted Otis saying there would be “mayhem” in the approach to the election expected next May. Today protester Otis Ferry has had guns and other property seized by police after a raid on his home. I suspect those two events are correlated. Officers took away legally-held guns, a computer and other items after an extensive search of the 21-year-old’s house on the outskirts of Shrewsbury.

Otis is currently on police bail following his arrest after the incident and has since vowed to defy a ban on hunting when it comes into force in February. Ferry, who is the joint master of the South Shropshire Hunt, stormed the Houses of Parliament in September during a debate on fox hunting.

You read here first, and I read it in the Shropshire Star.

“We’re reforming too – so that we become more productive in the public sector, we cut out waste and get value for your money.”

Speech, 19 March, 2004

The Torygraph’s Spy column has obviously stung the Follets with this; “Champagne socialist MP Barbara Follett has been under fire for claiming £20,000 in expenses to pay a mortgage on her London pied-à-terre, even though her £2 million constituency house in Stevenage is an easy half-hour commute to the Commons.”

Statement on Barbara Follett MP’s parliamentary expenses

Barbara Follett makes no financial gain from being a Member of Parliament – in fact her work is heavily subsidised by her husband, Ken Follett.

The expenses she claims from the House of Commons Fees Office amount to less than half the actual cost of doing her job. She puts her entire salary back into her office, taking nothing for herself. But, as this does not cover all the costs, Ken subsidises her.

In the financial year 2003-2004, it cost Barbara £275,695 to do her work as the MP for Stevenage. Two thirds of this amount went on paying her staff in her Stevenage and Westminster offices.

But she claimed only £118,214 in expenses. She contributed her entire salary of £55,118 to meet some of the difference. The remaining £102, 673 was met by Ken.

Ken Follett said: “I’m not complaining – I’m very happy to help Barbara serve the people of Stevenage in this way. We have released these figures only because some newspaper stories have given the impression that our lifestyle is being subsidised by the taxpayer. In fact, it’s the other way around.”

Barbara and Ken Follett

Wonktastic punditry to be expected across the blogosphere today. Guido will still be concentrating on the important things, like John Prescott telling that essential part of Britain’s unwritten constitution, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning “Fox-hunting? Cor blimey! What are we getting worried about fox-hunting for? Iraq’s a very serious question, fox-hunting isn’t.” So non-serious that they invoked the Parliament Act. (Incidentally, can it be true that Tony Banks was boisterously swigging champagne and singing the Internationale with a few other class warriors on the night they saved the fox?)

The second most amusing blog for British political junkies is Recess Monkey. But this is not without cost for the poor blogging primate himself. The time pressures of campaigning, working and blogging means he has no mate, and its getting increasingly worrying. His needs are simple, as one would expect he has an interest in bananas and females. But alas, the pictured perfect girl with the banana spurns his romantic interest. Despite his attempts to woo her attention with frequent references to her campaign needs and his many posts about her on his blog, including a pathetic drunken denial – “NO – I HAVE NO ULTERIOR MOTIVE! I am pure in both heart and deed.”



Am I too cynical? Its getting dangerously obsessional – there are laws against cyber-stalking / internet grooming. In a last ditch effort to impress her he is now proposing to make the Palace of Westminster a politically correct banana zone. All because the lady loves bananas!



His desperation has got so bad that he admits that he has taken to hanging round wonk-filled think-tanks looking for girls. Its evidently reached total crisis point, on Sunday he went so far as to go on national radio to broadcast his plea for female company.

Guido (virile but married incidentally, with an heir on the way) fears for the poor monkey, where will it end? Monkey needs loving!

UPDATE : He’s now got Linda Perham MP to propose an EDM on Bananas to impress Ms Banana Link. He’s arranging a photo-opportunity as well… Monkey – let it go son, there’s plenty more bananas on the tree.

If you work in the Commons, and I know many of Guido’s readers do, this will worry you. 1,500 staff, but not MPs, who were strong-armed into the Portcullis pension scheme managed by Norwich Union and Axa may be worse off as a result – particularly if you are near to retirement. Tory MP Howard Flight has contacted the Financial Services Authority with his concerns…

On the other hand if you are a judge, lucky you! Lord Falconer, the PM’s former flatmate and fellow barrister has persuaded Tony that including judges in the controversial pensions cap plan could discourage wealthy barristers from joining the bench. They will now not be affected by the new rules, announced in this year’s budget, that allow individuals to claim tax relief only up to a cap of £1.5m of their pension savings. Handy if Cherie becomes a judge, eh?

Fatty Falconer argued that the cap on pensions could otherwise discourage barristers, who take a big pay cut to join the bench and cannot return to their former work after joining the judiciary to increase their earnings near retirement.

John Prescott, spoke out against the plan on behalf of the working classes, arguing it would be unfair and politically controversial to exempt well-paid namby-pamby lawyers from rules that apply to the rest of society. David Willetts, the Tory pensions spokesman, also criticised the move as “one rule for part of the public sector and one different one for everyone else”.