Anything to Declare?

This evening I have been having fun with the Register of Members' Financial Interests.

I can tell what you're thinking - that man knows how to live... Well, you may think that, but it really is quite interesting. Honest. So; what have the great and the good been claiming?

Well, here are a few examples, taken from the 2010-2012 register, as at the 16 April 2012 update. I'd like to say they have been taken at random, but in reality it's more a selection of prominent and topical figures, starting with the three party leaders.

David Cameron declares an honorary life membership - worth £1,150 p.a. - of the Carlton Club, gifted by  the Ellesborough Golf Club to him as leader of the Conservative Party. 

He also declares discounted Personal Training rates to a value of £4,475 from Celebrity Fitness Trainer Matt Roberts (or, at least, his company). It appears that this was offset by a personal donation to a charity of his trainer's choice. The question is, though, if the discount is £145 per session, what's the full cost?!

Finally, Cameron declares income from Residential Property in London.

Next up, Nick Clegg. Short and sweet, he declares an honorary life membership  of the National Liberal Club - worth £560 p.a. plus £280 joining fee - gifted by the club itself to him as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Ed Miliband (or Edward, as he is listed in the register) declares a number of contributions to his office - some of which relate to his leadership campaign. Briefly, though, these are:

£15,190.08 from Unite

£5,000 from Lord Evans of Wakefield

£34,712 staffing costs for May to December 2011 (plus a computer) from Lord Sugar of Clapton (yes, that Lord Sugar)

£1,889.40 towards office costs from Eddie Izzard

£8,950.80 as a donation in kind for employment costs of a member of staff for 20 days(!) of work

£50,305 staffing costs for January to December 2012 from Lord Sugar of Clapton

Harrods Christmas Hamper valued at over £660 from the Sultan of Brunei (I do wonder how many Greggs Pasties that contained...)

Vince Cable has a contract with Atlantic Books for book on state of economy (£15,001 - £20,000)

My MP, Dawn Primarolo, has a nil-return.

Jeremy Hunt received £1,000 per month for 2 hours a week's work "of an advisory nature" for Hotcourses Ltd through 2009. His constituency party also received gifts (reportable to the Electoral Commission and, under new rules, no longer required to be declared on the Members' Register as well) totalling £12,550 in 2011.

In addition, he received support for his office costs from Hotcourses Ltd and a Mr John Lewis (no, not that John Lewis). He also declares rental income from half-shares of a holiday house in Italy and an office building in Hammersmith.

Danny Alexander received two BAFTA tickets (worth £750 each) from Pinewood Studios.

As I said, a not-too-random but intriguing sample - why not have a go yourself!

Enjoy!

Andrew

K25 Part 4 - Cherry Bomb

It's the end of the month, which can only mean one thing - it's time for another treat from Kylie as she celebrates 25 years in pop. This time out it's a video from the Anti-Tour of B-Sides, Demos and Rarities and is of her singing Cherry Bomb - a B-Side from the single releases of "Wow" and "In My Arms".

Here she is:

Andrew

The Daily Mail and Labour are Wrong

...but you probably knew that.

The Daily Mail carried the following front page headline today:

You can read the story online here. In it, they report that Labour has thrown its weight behind the Mail's campaign to "Block Online Porn". They suggest that the Government's proposed "Opt Out" system - in which Internet Service Providers will have to ask people if they want access to porn - is due to Cameron's relationship with Google and a consequent reticence to take stronger action to block content. They further report than an all party group of MPs is also in favour of an "Opt In" system.

When I saw the headline, and read at the first couple of paragraphs of the story, my first thought was that the just that I thoroughly disapproved of the idea. My second thought was - I'll blog about that later. So here is that post...

...as it turns out, the blog is going to go in a different direction from the one I first envisaged. I'm not going to rant about how if children are accessing porn, the responsibility lies with the parents. I'm not going to argue that the Mail's proposal is an attack on civil liberties and Labour's support for it is symptomatic of their authoritarian tendencies - although it is and it is. And I'm not going to say that if I want to access porn, I don't want to have to inform my ISP - although I don't.

I'm not saying I don't think action is inappropriate - but the government is absolutely right to focus on an opting out basis, rather than an opting in. I think the proposals need additional work but the foundation is there. Responsibility has to lie with parents to manage their children's internet access and teach them how to be safe online - not the state. Something, I'd have thought the Mail would be in favour of; after all, they're normally against the Nanny State...

Anyway, as I said, I've decided not to blog on the substance of the story. What I do want to do is make some observations on the way this story is presented. 

Whilst I hadn't heard of either Shadow Media Minister Helen Goodman and Shadow Justice Minister Jenny Chapman have - and so question the idea that "Labour have thrown their weight behind" the campaign, it transpires that this is in Ms Goodman's portfolio. I would point out, though, that both these MPs are members of the Christian Socialist Movement, and this may have something to do with them being vocal on this issue.

After reporting the shadow minister's attack on Cameron's "cronies" and suggesting this is what is stopping the Government from going further, the article proceeds to report than an "all party group of MPs" had produced a report on the subject. For the average reader, I imagine that this puts them in mind of the Select Committee structure. A broadly representative committee of backbench MPs conducting enquiries, taking evidence and producing reports on specific areas of government policy or concern. 

In fact, this was a self-selecting cross-party group of parliamentarians, largely consisting of Conservatives, although there were some Labour members (including Helen Goodman) and two Liberal Democrats (Annette Brooke and Jo Swinson) on the enquiry panel. Whilst it is billed as an Independent Report, the document was sponsored by Premier Christian Media whose home page promotes their "Safety Net" campaign on this very issue.

There is an attempt to conflate the issues of pornography and grooming for sexual abuse. This is a spurious argument and similar to the justification for proposals to store details of internet-based communications. Their is also a one line denial that the an opting in system would be an attack on Civil Liberties without any explanation as to how (or, rather, how not) this is the case. Interestingly, neither of these issues rates much of a mention in the report referred to above.

This conflating of children accessing porn (which it turns out is more prevalent in Middle Class homes where it appears the parents are happy to sub-contract childcare to the laptop in the kid's bedroom) with grooming and abuse is further attempted by the positioning of a tragic story of a girl being groomed on Facebook before being raped and murdered right underneath this article online.

Tragic as that story is, it isn't a justification for large scale censorship unless you're opted in - and even the Mail's proposals wouldn't tackle the problem of grooming.

Anyway, although the story was front page in the paper copy of the Mail, this article on Kim Kardashian (no, no idea either) had a much higher billing on the online site. Ironic, as it's about alleged nude pictures of her and is illustrated with a shot of her in swimwear - as well as having a link to said nude pic. Perhaps ISPs should start offering an opt-in service for those that want to  access the Mail Online...

Andrew

NOW! That's What I Call a Tune! 29

This week's entry features the Senegalese musician and would be politician, Youssou N'Dour. 

I'm not overly acquainted with his work but have always loved this track which reached number 3 in the UK -  probably on the strength of it featuring Neneh Cherry. Sadly, it was N'Dour's only hit. Of course, such a statement betrays a Anglo/European/Western view of the world which forgets that there are huge tracts of the world where Chris Brown and Madonna (atop the singles and album charts at the time of writing) are less well known than local/national/regional/continental stars such as N'Dour.

Here is Youssou N'Dour feat. Neneh Cherry with 7 Seconds:

Andrew

Homecoming: A Video

Earlier this year I posted this on the campaign for equal marriage and earlier this month I posted this picture of the cover of attitude posing the question "Have you heard the one about the Iraq Veteran who can fight for his country but not get married?"

Now, a video has been produced in support of the campaign for equal marriage, which takes up the theme of being able to serve one's country but not to marry one's partner. It's called "Homecoming" and you can find more about on the Pink News, here. More seriously, you can find the government's consultation on the subject here.

Just one warning for the emotionally disposed, I fear this is supposed to be quite sentimental. If you're that way inclined, keep a Kleenex handy:

Andrew