If it is so easy to strip honours in retribution, then how come convicted criminals and sleazy cash-takers still sit on the red benches? Fred Goodwin has never been convicted of a crime but has the full book thrown at him, yet ex-convicts can return to the trough when they are out of prison. Once again our lawmakers put themselves above the law…
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Lord Lamont told ITV News…
“I think the PM is just human and Ed Balls is a pretty irritating person”
Somehing of the Knight about some of them.
The LAW MAKERS, ABOVE THE LAW.
Not what I signed up for. Fu-k them all.
Burn the fucking lot of them
Wait until Brown and Blair (and the rest) get their peerages.
Y’know – the actual evil bastards that have actually fucked the country and the economy up, leaving generations with crippling debt, while they personally become multi-millionaires.
Utter scum.
Hang on a minute. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE THICK ENOUGH TO GET CAUGHT.
On that basis then we should be expecting a whole lot more? Don’t think so somehow, it doesn’t work like that. The parasitic political class that now infests this country will definitely look after its own, make no mistake.
Agree. Absolutely sickening to hear politicians on Radio 5 Labour trying to defend this man who brought a bank to its knees, caused thousands of people to lose their jobs, thousands of people to lose their hard-earned pension pots and contributed towards the financial catastrophe which we ordinary people are all having to pay the price for (not Fred, of course, he’s got a great big fat pension.)
I am sure he wont get the pension, as the pension/insurance Companies have most of their assets in purchased government bonds and considering all Western governments are bankrupted due to WAR and profligate policies and will have to default/restructure. Pension money GONE AWAY.
Shouldn’t Gordon Brown be stripped of his Privy Councillor position for ruining the economy and selling gold at a knock down price. The losses to the Country are about the same.
He screwed up Lloyds Banks as well.
He screwed me a couple of times as well.
Of course they are. They are only there because of political expediency or racial quota box ticking. Do you really think the noble Baroness Uddin is there on merit?
These poor sods haven’t got the advantage of built up knowledge of scamming and thieving that generations of hereditary peers have acquired.
We need an elected upper chamber. We’ll stick get the same bunch of devious spivs with an eye on the main chance and a finger in the till, but at least we’ll get new ones every five years.
Democracy is brilliant. It’s ruined by politicians.
There is no such thing as true democracy.
Walking into a church hall every five years and making your mark means fuck all.
And your alternative is?
Democracy isn’t the problem. Political rigging of the system and electorate apathy are.
iDemocracy for direct real democracy let the mob rule! Get rid of the ‘representative’ middle men for good.
1980s – Baroness Thatcher. 2000s – Baroness Uddin … makes you wanna weep.
Indeed. The Baroness currency seems to have been devalued somewhat.
Yeah like the Fraudster Class we Vote for NOW. ha ha ha.
Funny isn’t it? Not an Aristocrat among them. All appointed Lords by the Fraudster Political Class, Not surprising really is it?
Indeed. The hereditary system actually allowed some honest and decent people into the Lords. The kind who would never ever be selected by a corrupt political class, and the sort who would never lie enough to get elected. Some of them had common sense and believed in public service and creating sensible laws based on unwritten but clearly understood constitutional principles.
Now we have the least satisfactory system of all. Where the Lords becomes filled with corrupt political placemen.
… and a lot of them knew how to run large estates profitably for generations, unlike people currently in the news
Yes and they understood the Profligate States WAR cost and would have rained the War Monger Blair in. Also they would not have waged a useless War on the illegal Drug Trade. Legalize them and lets save some money. No wonder the Country is skint. And looks like the STATE is doing or facilitating the selling.
I have to Aggree.
Only two of these have been prosecuted, the ones that havent are Labour. Funny that.
Taliking of royalty and peerages. Anyone seen the queen in Portsmouth?
Lord Archer should remain. In the spotlight, as much as possible.
Just to remind us.
And it’s high time the police went after Uddin, but obviously she has friends in high places and is therefore immune from investigation, never mind prosecution.
No. she’s a muslim. The pc police are too scared to act.
More to the poiint,sadly.
PC now means P*** Cocksucker, complete Khunts the lot of them.
Not the police at fault but their political bosses and senior Labour placemen still in place within the police.
At least 5 Labour ministers and lords should be in prison now, but the political classes close ranks and protect them.
On the basis of this political retribution and revenge on Fred the Shred; as Jackie Stewart stated; Brown should be in the dock for costing this country 10 times what Fred did by selling gold at its lowest level and promoting unskilled Moslem immigrants into and extended families into the country to bolster Labour votes.
Fat, ugly and black…3 out of 3….no chance!!
So should Fred. Just to remind us of the Maximum Imbecile and all his works.
Jeffrey Archer seems quite a minor offender now considering some of the later examples.
£500k of the daily star by lying in court. Do the others get close.
But never mind that, he could have kept quiet and not stood for London Mayor and he’d have got away with it. Thats quite some level of hubris.
… and our friend Handycock still holds the CBE for services to the mentally-handicapped – even though he was thrown out of MENCAP. However it appears he has carried on rendering services of a different sort to the mentally-handicapped – as the ‘sexy texts’ story revealed last year.
I am afraid that is how it works with our Lawmakers, and that is the way it should be. Regardless of whatever I have done, even perhaps, betraying my country, I still expect to receive a peerage in due course. Boaz.
MB : What did Archer do?
From BBC website 2001 : The Old Bailey jury found that Lord Archer had lied and che ated in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, which had printed a story claiming he had slept with a prostitute. The newspaper, which had to pay £500,000…
In the same article : There have been calls for Lord Archer to be stripped of his lifetime peerage. But this looks unlikely so far as there is no legal precedent, except in cases of tre ason. (is that true?)
Leave a cheery comment on Jeff’s blog, why don’t you?
http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/site/blog/1
After all, he has compared himself to Galsworthy, that turgid bore, whereas I myself rank Archer somewhat above a conglomeration of Homer, Shakespeare and Nabokov, were such a prodigy ever brought into the world.
Can someone be De-Lorded?
If you can de-frock a bishop … de-ermine a lord?
I sincerely hope not !
undermine a lord
Yes. You just have to use a silken rope
Britain is slowly giving up on the rule of law. This is an example of mob rule, when democracy tramples on justice.
Seems likely the rule of law no longer applies to bonus payments and the award or removal of honours. This once pround nation is now run by a bunch of self serving pricks and prickesses who celebrate the celebrity culture and their continued survival. An absolute disgrace.
The hypocrisy of Darling on the Toady Programme this morning was breathtaking.
Stating that the government were attacking Hestor on his bonus, whereas anyone with half a brain knows that it it those idiots in the last Labour government; who appointed and gave Hestor his contract; are the ones ranting on their soapboxes against the government “doing nothing about Hestor”.
Of course Humphries gave the unusually fluent Darling carte blanche to rant on with his vitriol without questioning, but Humphries then attacked the follow up Conservative MP.
Thompson’s leaving BBC is long overdue and I am sure he will be found a bureaucratic job in the public or 3rd sector.
But will the coalition government appoint an effective reforming DG in place? Their record so far is far from positive on public appointments.
Let them keep the honours, but bring back the stocks. That’s about the level we are at now.
It’s all populist guff. I had hoped the government would bring hard-headed thinking to the City but they’re a nothing but a load of pink blouses.
Gesture politics – the refuge of our bunch of inadequate and unprincipled politicians.
Exactly. Red meat for the rabid dogs of populism. Naming a scapegoat and dumping on him.
This lynch mob mentality, it’s all rather French.
Some decent sized mobs throwing a few politicians’ corpses into the Thames would concentrate the minds of the rest of those fraudsters.
Gesture politics !! You mean like the Olympics – one very long daily rush-hour panic at great expense to Londoners
It’s not a blouse love, it’s a tee shirt with a nice tight fit.
If it were me, I’d open a big can of beer (do you still get them with topless ladies on?) And say “boo-hoo-fucking-hoo!”
Do you think he actually gives a shit?
Take his pension away, that might make him sit up and think……..
What about Gordon? Is he still an MP, it is difficult to tell.
And Lord Myners who signed off on Fred Goodwin’s pension pot so long as he agreed to go quietly and not attack the government at the time.
You can never trust the Myners! Thought Thatcher got rid of them?
A permanent sick note from his mum. Need never turn up, but can continue to draw a full salary with perks. A Pilgrim MP. Are there others?
I agree troughing politicians should also be stripped of their honours. Doesn’t mean Goodwin shouldn’t.
Careful Guido, the mob rule that you claim has led to Goodwing losing his knighthood is the same mob rule you are hoping will restore the death penalty. Do you really think there isn’t a majority in the country in favour of this targetting of Goodwin ? How is mob rule different to democracy ? When it results in something you personally are opposed to ?
The death penalty has been consistently supported by the majority since it was scrapped. The Goodwin decision was based on media hype on an issue very few people are intersted in. There’s a big difference.
A society with the death penalty is possibly barbaric. A society without one is undoubtedly corrupt.
If the electorate will it, then so be it. But it will require a manifesto commitment and then an act of parliament to restore it.
BBC/Grauniand inspired ‘outrage’ seems to have been enough in the case of Hester and Goodwin.
I have read the BBC website this morning from my bedroom.
Apparently the country has gone hysterical about Goodwin being dethroned.
The only thing people are going hysterical about is that there is only one name on the list.
It shows just how weak the government actually is.
Went to see the Iron lady the other night.
*sighs.
“Baronness” Uddin should not merely be stripped of her Heraldic title, she should be jailed for crimes against taste, decency and the taxpayer.
She only did it because she was disadvantaged due to her rxce.
Fred Goodwin and Stephen Hester have been the focus of a witch-hunt, where token bankers have been done over using the modern media version of hanging, drawing and quartering.
We are about to enter another period where business people are seen as the enemy – rather than as the makers of wealth and opportunity.
The fuck-wit Milliband (with his BBC buddies) have been shining the spotlight on bankers bonuses once again – and screaming about the ‘unfairness’ of it all.
What about Sharon Shoesmith’s £1m pay off because Balls ballsed it up?
What about the BBC’s £1m plus ‘celebrities’ (Alan Hansen ffs)?
What about the unfairness of the way Milliband got his job?
What about the unfairness of us paying £8K a month for housing benefit for people from another country who have never erne worked here…?
What about the producers having to pay for a bloated public sector pension for eternity?
Where are you on these subjects Mr Fuckwit?
Silence…….
The hypocrisy is only matched by the arrogance and belief in public credulity. The same pols and media currently shrieking ‘you can’t target just one man’ over Fred Goodwin were doing just that on Stephen Hester only a day ago!
As a piece of further misdirection it is a work of genius, but running a country, or reporting on its running by the establishment simply trying to trump each other with petty BS on symbols whilst the real money is left alone is hardly going to dig us out of this hole.
I appreciate our media’s role as jackals in winnowing out the weak, but not when the lamest are being spared in cynical hope of ruling via control of the public and hence rating-obsessed statespersonblackhole via the airwaves.
Tonight’s Newsnight ‘guest’ list will be a hoot, especially if matched by Mr. Paxman’s selective ability to demand dodgy claims be corrected.
I’ll make whatever manifesto “commitments” you want you stupid elector cnut. Just like all the other lying self-serving creeps that infest Parliament.
It’s your fault your gullible bxstxrds.
Communism is making a comeback. Super.
What about David Miliband flunking his A levels, but getting into Oxford, courtesy of his Professor Dad’s cronies? He stole a place meant for bright, disadvantaged working-class kids. The Left-wing media are all quiet about 5 jobs David Miliband, raking in the cash and barely turning up in his Northern vote fodder constituency. They were jumping up and down about Hague, Boris, etc, doing the same a few years back.
Calm down, dear, you know very well they’re all arseholes, so why get your knickers in a twist?
When I saw him waving that banana about I had my doubts.
The only set of people in society who get rewarded for criminality and failure are the political elite.
Lord Prescott.
Lord Martin.
How have these two miscreants kept their ill gotten gains, & been gonged as well?
Those two were on my list, too. One “Mr. Speaker” who was thrown out of office for incompetence before shuffling off down the hallway to an automatic seat in the Lords. One obese, utterly useless DPM who felt that sticking fake Tudor beams on his house was in some way beneficial to the taxpayers who funded it.
Soon to be chief of Police for Humberside
Dave — Act now to get all the convicted thieves and fraudsters thrown out of the Lords and Commons — they are worse than ordinary criminals because they are supposed to be representing the public.
DON’T FECK ABOUT — DO IT !!!
Then who would run the country , there would be no one left ?
ever one of the slimey bastards steals £140,000 a year in expences off us
and then use a small part of it to buy their subsidised food and booze also subsidised by us
You forget there are 500 k people on Invalidity Benefit . Chris Grayling is running around everywhere losing his hair trying to find jobs for them.
They could run the country.
Time they abolished the HoL and had an elected Senate.
None of those criminals above would get enough votes to put them back in.
Sssshhh!!! Don’t tell ‘em how the story is supposed to end, Nell
Somebody has to be thrown to the mob for this total failure of all the banking agencies, can’t blame the politicians or the uncivil servants can we, beside he failed, only politicians and uncivil servants are allowed to fail and still get bonuses, corrupt politicians are untouchables anyway.
We should copy the French. Erect a guillotine in the middle of Parliament Square.
you are about 200 years out of date.
What did they do to Chirac then?
I prefer the methods used during the Indian Mutiny – tie the buggers to the business end of a 9pdr cannon, light the bue touch paper then stand back and enjoy the show. Repeat as often as necessary.
A very satisfying method, but somewhat messy and expensive. The guillotine can be operated for nothing as there will be plently of volunteers to haul the blade back up. A look at the basket full of the heads of their corrupt mates will help the few left to focus on staying as honest representatives of the people. But on further reflection it may be better to execute all M.P.’s, Lords, Bankers etc.etc. We’ve got them all on our little list.
Fair point about the others getting “De-titled”. They also should not have had them given in the first place.
However why isn’t Goodwin facing criminal charges? Wait, what he did was actually perfectly legal?
Who made that happen?…….oh, of course. The Mong! :-/
People, you are going to have to hold yourself up to a higher standard, because then the people you vote in will have to match them.
Think independently. Vote likewise. No more parties.
Well said Guido, from a Labour member. I’ve been tweeting that the treatment of Goodwin is classic scape-goating. He is a proxy for political and regulatory failure. Nothing has been done to stop another RBS/Goodwin debacle happening again, yet by defenestrating Goodwin, it at least makes people feel morally superior for a few seconds. Pathetic.
labour tried the “court of public opinion” when they were in power to get round contract law … now the frackers are doing it in opposition where they are safe from a legal backlash. As far as I can see this hysteria being whipped up is via the bbc, guardian and labour inspired coup against the rule of law.
BOB coCROWch for President !
Buck Up Fawkes. Goodwin is distraction activity intended to deflect attention from the real crooks. The real villains, as you say, sit on benches – green and red when it should be park (or preferably Parkhurst).
As somebody pointed out on “Today” this morning though it wasn’t picked up by Mr Humphreys that our gold was sold off at the wrong time by the wrong man but nobody has been brought to book for that misdemeanour.
Thought Humphreys was in good bile spitting little leftie mode this morning.
The BBC are well into their loony lefty rhetoric, constantly interviewing Labour on important issues and only Coalition members on unimportant or potentially embarrassing issues. No Ken or Boris though. The BBC could be now enacting the second longest suicide note in British history. Who will employ these loonies, the New Statesman, Gruniard? No – they will set up even more loony left (non) think tanks with union funding.
When I am Supreme Leader of Scotland, I will confer a Scottish Honour on Fred the Shred and Gordon the Moron.
The only highest award Salmond can give is to stick your name on the ‘Novelty Tea Towel’ of famous Scots and Scottish inventions.
When Salmonella is in power in Lowland “Hollywood” then Scotland’s biggest export resource will further significantly increase. No, not whisky – people.
We gave you James Bond Dennis Law Lulu and the Krankies for Christ sake to say nothing of our North Sea Oil.
You ungrateful English bastards!
Will you give them sanctuary or send them to Libya?
Look. I’ve said this, well I don’t know how many times, you can’t get rid of us without a change in the law!
Now, I think we are required in that process, get it!
Who needs laws when the mob has finally had enough of you corrupt bxstards.
Just make sure Gordon never gets anything. Should be stripped of being an MP.
So what has Ed Miliband said about the Lords? Or his he selective just like Browns servant Tom Watson.
Labour are so selective. Does justice work that way for socialists?
Just the crooks shown in the photographs are costing us £9000 per week.
Always remember these are just the tip of the iceberg, there’s plenty more bent ones keeping a low profile.
The second biggest scandal of recent times was the huge number of MPs who turned out to be dishonest (according to the standards of normal, reasonable people rather than their own cosy rules).
But by far the bigger scandal is that only a handful of them have been made to stand in the dock. All the unpunished crooks in suits mean that MPs will NEVER again be respected by the British public.
If Fred can lose his knighthood without ever being convicted of anything then every MP who was found wanting in the recent exposure should forfeit theirs too.
It will get worse too, all their old expense allowances will be returned to them over time, when the thick electorate are looking the other way.
Ads for Red Diesel?
Where did you get that picture from Guidedog?
Crimestoppers?
It’s the rich, what gets the pleasure and the poor what gets the blame! One law for them and one law for the rest of us. Well that’s how THEY see things…they hold themselves above the law. But slowly things are starting to change….Sir Fred is dead…long live Mister Fred!!!! Well this is a start perhaps some other unnoble Lords ‘n Ladies, Dishonourable Knights, won’t be slleeping so well in their beds. Waiting for their titles and honours to be removed. Then someone will put up a Commission to investigate into the Dodgey Honours System, lasting some years and costing several million pounds, ending with a 1000 page Report, that no sod will read. It’s the same the whole world over….
Interesting that it has taken 6 years and a new government for the railways to admit responsibility for the death of two young girls. If this is what it takes to get justice perhaps we should have a new government every 2 years.
I wonder why the BBC do not interview the minister responsible at the time?
They were found guilty of not doing a proper risk assessment and providing adequate safety measures. They were not responsible for the girls deaths. The barriers were down, the red lights were flashing and the alarms were sounding. The girls ignored this and opened the gates and walked acrss the tracks. Only in no responsibility, blame everyone else but yourself socialist Britain, can it be called Network rail’s fault.
Dear Mr Fawkes – you are spot on with this.
Where are the photos of Brown, Darling, the FSA board and anyone else involved at the time?
Are the politicians protecting themselves? Why aren’t the journos doing a better job?
Honours are for public service, public benefit,. Not being a criminal is not a sufficient condition!!
Funny that everybody is jumping up and down about bonuses being paid ” just for doing their jobs”
Don’t hear the same on the transport guys getting large hand outs just for doing their jobs during the Olympics!
My ex MP was on the the Common Committee who spend £2 million on High Court Appeals to stop expenses being published, he used a Private Members bill to try and exclude MPs from the FOI act to avoid publishing their expense claims.
His 2005/6 additional costs expenses disappeared and his 2007/8 expense claims breakdown also disappeared. He flipped his cumbrian house to avoid capital gains tax and among the many expenses claims to enable him to represent us in Westminster was a quad bike, three plasma tVs for his flat in London and £19.99 for a memorial wreath for Remembrance Sunday.
A year before the last election he informed his constituents his illness (MS) had deteriorated to a level that he could not continue working as their MP and was stepping down. He effectively disappeared from the constituency
and only reappeared to claim his £104,000 when he retired from parliament at the last election. 42 days after that election our serious ill ex MP accepted a working peer appointment in the House of Lords and has now become the Cayman Islands House of Lords representative.
How do they get away with it ?
We need more honest and honourable MPs like me in the Commons.
No this is not about theft of money and /or goods.
It is correct to make this man a point of Reference before similar decisions are made by whoever.
Glad to see a rich mix of backgrounds supporting Labours Claim of a Vibrant Diverse Society.
To scared to put Ashcroft in your picture?