You would have hoped that any Cabinet minister, let alone the best selling historian William Hague, might have remembered that VE Day is in May…
Via Ned
UPDATE:
DT @WilliamJHague: On 8-10 June we will remember all who lived through WW2, fought or lost their l… http://t.co/moZfwk9Y5t
— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) March 16, 2015
UPDATE II:
On 8-10 May we will remember all who lived through WW2, fought or lost their lives http://t.co/ODV0Et6hxu. How will you take part? #VEDay70
— William Hague (@WilliamJHague) March 16, 2015
Got there in the end!
William Hague sensationally claimed to have finally solved the West Lothian question in a snoozefest speech in Westminster this morning. He inserted a hefty caveat, however…
The Tory plan that would be put to Parliament in the case of a majority is apparently a “non-symmetrical” solution. In other words it is unbalanced. In other words it is a not a solution to the age old riddle.
Guido pointed out afterwards that Hague’s old flatmate and colleague Sir Alan Duncan claims that the Tories do not understand vast parts of the UK including Scotland, and given that they are on the brink of a fourth consecutive wipeout north of the border, didn’t he have a point? Hague responded saying the Tories were “aiming” for significantly more than their current single seat in Scotland. He did not say, however, that he believed they would achieve that ambitious goal. Which all but proves Dunky’s point…
£8.4 million of taxpayer cash was spent on 103 SpAds in the last year, a 17% rise on the year before.
Chasing headlines in 2010, Cameron made a big deal of cutting the number of SpAds from 82 to 61. He now personally has 27. Twenty-f**king-seven spin doctors, bag carriers and wonky strategists. No. 10 now has almost half the number of SpAds as served the entire government just five years ago.
Nick Clegg now has twenty special advisers. Nearly double the amount that Jesus got by with.
Why does Esther McVey need a Special Adviser beyond a reshuffle consolation prize, and why is she paid more than dozens of others on the list who report to real cabinet ministers?
Why does the Chief Whip have three advisers at a cost of around £150,000? What are they doing – because there’s no real legislation going through the House?
And finally, Guido cannot fathom why, in his new role as Leader of the House, William Hague still needs three SpAds costing us almost £200,000. Bizarrely Arminka Helic is retained as his adviser on £70,000-a-year, despite recently being ennobled and therefore allowed to claim a £300-a-day allowance in the House of Lords.
What a bloody racket.
UPDATE: Hard to disagree with Angela Eagle:
“Another day, another broken promise from David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
“David Cameron promised to get the cost of politics down but under him the number of Special Advisers spirals ever upwards – the public are now picking up bill of over £8m to pay for his appointees.
“This also shows how you can’t trust a word Nick Clegg says. The Lib Dems used to say that Special Advisers shouldn’t be paid for by the public but as soon as he got his feet under the Cabinet table he broke his word. The cost to the public of Lib Dem Special Advisers is over £1.7million – Nick Clegg alone has more advisers working for him than he has female MPs.”
UPDATE II:
Tories point out that Lady Helić has agreed not to speak in the House of Lords or claim any allowances until she stops working for Hague.
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) December 18, 2014
The Commons decided not to spend the Iraq statement flaying and nailing Tony Blair’s body to the floor of the House (an error, in this observer’s view).
However, Angus Robertson asked whether the Global Maniac should resign his position as Peace Envoy to the Middle East. Tobias Ellwood pointed out that before Blair, there was no Al Qaida in Iraq, and that he created “a vacuum of governance”. Jeremy Corbyn referred to his destruction of that country’s civil institutions. And a number of others expressed relief the Government wasn’t going to send the army in to effect a reconciliation between the sects, factions, death cults and End Times idiots that comprise the Middle Eastern polity.
Gently-spoken, mild-mannered Alistair Burt said governments over there didn’t appreciate what they were facing, and needed to “kill off the ideology and the people who are propagating it”. What, all of them? In the name of diversity, plurality and inclusive democracy?
The only forces that might actually overthrow the medievalists are theologians and feminists. As the latter have more guts than the former let’s send them in first.
Willy kneel?
The Foreign Secretary’s photo op with Brangelina while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is deployed in Iraq earns him a bashing on the front page of the Mail this morning. Speaking to Woman’s Hour this week, Hague defended spending time campaigning with Hollywood A-listers:
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Jenni Murray: “You’re no longer in the closet?”
William Hague: “I am no longer in the closet.”
That explains it: he is a closet feminist…
