Planet Zog!

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Sir Patrick Cormack, Tory MP for South Staffordshire, has suggested to the Committee on Standards in Public Life that MPs pay be doubled to more than £130,000 in return for scrapping their second home allowance.

Labour have condemned the MP as being ‘out of touch’, while the Lib Dem spokesman correctly observed that he ‘must be living on planet Zog’.

He got that right!
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Something For Everyone

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There’s an awful lot of tosh spouted in the media as a result of the win of Tory candidate Chloe Smith in the Norwich North by-election yesterday.

Most of the papers talk about a ‘blow’ to ‘Bronco’ Brown’s Labour Party. A ‘blow’? Hardly - was it not widely expected?

Brown (who wisely stayed away from the hustings) says the result was a ‘disappointment’, though his party takes comfort in coming second in the poll and not being relegated further. David Cameron talks about the result being a ‘historic victory’. The Liberals are happy to have maintained their position in third place, and UKIP are triumphant that they beat the Green Party into fourth place.

Considering the variants at place in this poll in which voters stayed away in their thousands - dissatisfaction with the present government, general unhappiness over the issue of MPs expenses (including those of the previous MP), the economic situation, Afghanistan and half a dozen other issues - the bi-election result was no surprise at all.

There was something for everyone in this poll! Including a very attractive new MP who is now the youngest in Parliament!
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