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Today's Mail on Sunday reports:

Labour has been plunged into a cash-for-access row after three former Cabinet Ministers were secretly filmed discussing how they could help a fake lobbying company – with one boasting that he was a ‘cab for hire’ for £5,000 a day.

In the most damaging revelations, ex-Transport Minister Stephen Byers (above) claimed that he managed to save ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ for one company by using his influence with his successor Lord Adonis over a rail franchise.

Mr Byers also claimed that he had boosted the business interests of Tesco by phoning Peter Mandelson, and said that he could bring Tony Blair to meet clients of the lobbying company which was, in fact, a front for an undercover operation.

Mr Byers is seen boasting on camera that he persuaded Lord Adonis to alter the terms of a rail franchise on behalf of National Express, a move worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the company.

Read more about this story, which tells you everything you need to know about how British ‘democracy’ works in 2010, here.

And don’t forget to watch the New Labour money-grabbers being caught in the act on Dispatches on Monday night on C4.

UPDATE: Peter McKay writes:
All three are former Labour Cabinet ministers. All three are disciples of Tony Blair. They are the true Heirs to Blair.
Messrs Byers and Hoon, along with Ms Hewitt, are small fry in the murky waters of public/private commerce. Blair is the Great White Shark.

And in case you missed it, here's the latest news on the Great White Shark.

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I’ve long argued that the great divide in British politics is not between Labour or Conservative but between the arrogant and pompous political elite and the rest of us.

Here’s another example of the snobbish attitudes of those who lord it over us.

Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Winterton today claimed that MPs should continue to travel first-class on trains because passengers in standard carriages are 'a totally different type of people'.

In an astonishing outburst, Sir Nicholas said that people travelling on cheaper standard tickets had 'a different outlook on life' and were unlikely to be working or studying during their journey.

The MP's extraordinary comments came after he told Total Politics magazine
said he was ' infuriated' that politicians had to travel with ordinary members of the public.

Sir Nicholas spoke of his outrage that he has to 'stand when there are no seats'.

Sir Nicholas told BBC Radio 5 Live's Stephen Nolan show today: 'If I was in standard class, I would not do work because people would be looking over my shoulder all the time, there would be noise, there would be distraction and, I am sorry, if I am doing work I want to concentrate on that. Why do businesspeople travel first class?'

Asked whether he thought standard-class passengers behaved differently from those with first class tickets, Sir Nicholas replied: 'Yes, I do. They are a totally different type of people.

'There are lots of children, there is noise, there is activity...
'They have a different outlook on life. I very much doubt whether they are undertaking serious work and study, reading reports and amending reports which MPs do when they are travelling.'

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm very pleased that I do have a 'different outlook on life' from the appalling Sir Nicholas.

Sir Nicholas Winterton: First class wally.

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This article of mine on the New McCarthyism, appears in the First Post.

It all started with Glenn Hoddle.

When historians of the future debate when it was that Britain went from being one of the freest countries in the world, a place where people were able to express their honestly-held views and opinions without fear of comeback, to one where they could not, they're likely to fix on the date of 2nd February 1999.

For it was then that Hoddle, the England football manager, was dismissed, not because of poor results, or flagging team morale, but because of the views he had expressed on reincarnation and disabled people in an interview with a national newspaper. Even Prime Minister Tony Blair felt it would be a good move to jump on the anti-Hoddle bandwagon. He described the England manager's comments as "very offensive" and argued that it would be "very difficult" for him to stay in his position.

The sacking of Hoddle set a highly dangerous precedent for hounding someone out of their job for expressing the 'wrong' opinions on matters quite unrelated to their work.

The procedure is usually works like this: a public figure expresses opinions to which the New McCarthyites take exception. The public figure, fearing his livelihood will be threatened by the whipped-up hysteria his comments have generated, is pressurised into making an embarrassing - and completely unwarranted - apology for what they have said.

Ten years on, the latest recipient of the 'Hoddle treatment' is Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. Speaking on Channel 4 News, the sanctimonious Labour MP Denis MacShane (above) called for pressure to be exerted to get Ecclestone to stand down after he had criticised democracy and cited Adolf Hitler for his ability to "get things done". (It is actually rather difficult to deny this. After all, the big problem with Adolf Hitler was that he did manage to 'get things done' - more is the pity.)

MacShane's demands for Ecclestone to go were echoed by pressure groups from outside the UK: there were calls for his resignation from the president of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder. And a senior German Jewish official called for him to be boycotted by Formula One teams. Dieter Graumann, a vice-president of the Central Council of Jews, said: "No team should work with him any more."

But although many people would take issue with the tastelessness of Ecclestone's assertions, we might ask what on earth do his views on Hitler, Saddam and the Taliban and the merits of different political systems, have to do with his stewardship of Formula One?

Ecclestone caved into the pressure and issued toe-curling apologies to the Times newspaper and the Jewish Chronicle, where, despite having expressed no support for Hitler's persecution of Jews in his original interview, he nevertheless felt obliged to state: "Most of my mates are Jewish people, I spoke to two or three very prominent people today, Jewish people. One of them said to me, 'Bernie, you're more Jewish than all of my friends'."

In 2007, it was pop star and former art student Bryan Ferry's fate to experience the wrath of the new McCarthyites for praising the iconography of the Third Reich, in an interview with a German newspaper.

In the furore which followed, Ferry was pressurised, like Ecclestone, into issuing an apology, in which he made it clear that he, like every "right-minded individual" regarded the Nazi regime "evil and abhorrent". "I trust that he will never make the same mistake again", said the former Labour MP Lord Janner, ominously.

Since the Hoddle affair, it has become increasingly common for people to have their livelihoods threatened for expressing opinions which are at variance with the officially approved positions.

Last December, PC Graham Cogman, despite fifteen years of service, was sacked for his opposition to gay sex. An NHS nurse, Caroline Petrie, was suspended for two months because she offered to pray for a elderly patient.

David Booker, a charity worker in Southampton, was suspended under 'diversity' rules after telling a colleague, during an informal night-shift discussion, that although he was not homophobic, he did not agree with same-sex partnerships. And Treasury civil servant Azad Ali was suspended for views he had expressed on Middle Eastern conflicts on his blog - though he has since been reinstated.

It could reasonably be said that at no point in Britain's recent history has expressing honestly-held opinions been such a high risk activity as it is today.

Due to the pervasive influence of political correctness, the efforts of vociferous single-issue lobbies and pressure groups and the passing of illiberal laws which infringe freedom of speech - such as the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006, we are fast approaching the stage when only views within the officially approved parameters can be voiced without fear of comeback. And the parameters are getting smaller and smaller.

In the Britain of 2009, don't express disapproval of gay partnerships or you may be labelled a homophobe - or, in the case of David Booker, be suspended from your job. Don't criticise Israel too strongly or you run the risk of being labelled an anti-semite. Don't express a belief in reincarnation and the concept of karma. Don't say that you disapprove of contemporary 'democracy' and admire some dictators. And whatever you do, don't appear to offer a sliver of even grudging respect for any aspect of Nazi Germany, even the art-work.

Democracy should mean encouraging people to voice opinions freely and without fear. And it certainly shouldn't mean only being allowed to express opinions which the political elite or certain lobbies and pressure groups deem to be 'acceptable'.

Although the interventions of clowns like Tony Blair and Denis MacShane make the whole thing seem ridiculous and amusing, the sight of politicians coming on to our television screens to call for the heads of sporting figures for expressing their honestly-held opinions/the 'wrong' views, constitutes a threat to our freedoms which is in fact extremely serious.

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In my First Post article on the influential neo-con faction in the Conservative Party I wrote:

Just as significant has been the way Cameron has protected his neocon allies during the expenses scandal - although they were arguably among the worst offenders. Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, who was described by the Daily Mail's political commentator Peter Oborne as "one of the most notorious milkers of the expenses system", for spending thousands furnishing his London home before 'flipping' to a new property and claiming £13,000 in moving costs, came under no pressure from Cameron to stand down. He is likely to play a major role in the next Conservative government.
So too will fellow flipper George Osborne and Ed Vaizey, who claimed for over £2,000 in antique furniture bought from a business owned by David Cameron's mother-in-law.

Well, when it comes to protecting George ’Flipper’ Osborne, it seems that Dave will have a very hard job on his hands after this news.

The Mail reports:
If he (the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner) launches a full-blown inquiry it would mean a cloud hanging over Mr Osborne's career for months, until a verdict is reached. It will also fuel discontent on the Tory backbenches over the harsh treatment meted out to MPs outside Mr Cameron's inner circle over their expenses claims. Though several members of the Shadow Cabinet, including Mr Osborne, have repaid money to the Commons fees office, senior MPs complain that they have got off lightly compared to others.

The 'senior MPs' are quite right to be incensed about the double standards on show here.

UPDATE: Guido Fawkes has more on Osborne here.

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The Daily Mail reports:

he had 'flipped' the designation of his main home, to avoid paying capital gains tax on either the sale of his house in the country or the subsequent sale of his flat in London. He has agreed to repay £6,500 to the taxman.

Then it transpired that he has also repaid £1,470 to Parliament for unspecified office expenses for which he now realises that he should not have claimed. He has twice billed taxpayers for advice from his accountant on filling in his tax return.

Mr Bercow now has his hands on a job which, even if he is sacked tomorrow, gives him a pension of £40,000 a year for life. In his pitch to the Commons, he talked about reform and the need to be a 'different style of Speaker' in public, but in private has called for MPs' pay to be increased to £100,000

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Britain’s new Speaker, Tory MP Mr John Bercow.A man who got the job not because of his popularity- but because of his unpopularity-Labour MPs voted for him to annoy the Tories- who can’t stand him.

That such a self-regarding mega-creep has been elected to such high office is surely only further proof of "what a desperately pathetic little country the United Kingdom has become'.

I've never met Bercow, but my father has and found him to be extraordinarily bumptious. It's an opinion that seems to be widely held.

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I’ve written before on how keen Parliamentary supporters of the neocon Henry ’Scoop’ Jackson Society seem to be on ‘scooping’ British taxpayers’ cash.

Today’s Mail on Sunday has more. It’s not often a story in a leading British Sunday newspaper originates as a comment posted on this blog.

Bravo to regular reader and commenter ‘Coventrian’ for his brilliant detective work regarding the Brothers Matyjaszek and the ‘European Policy Institute’. And remember, if you are a British taxpayer- its YOUR money that is being 'scooped' here. No wonder Macshane has such a broad grin in the photograph above.


Labour MP Denis MacShane charged taxpayers more than £8,000 for ‘translation services’ carried out by a mysterious think-tank run by his poet brother.
The former Europe Minister submitted more than a dozen invoices to the Commons bearing the heading of the European Policy Institute (EPI), with each bill justified by just one line – ‘research and translation’ – followed by a demand for fees ranging between £550 and £950.

The names and signatures on the bills, sent between August 2005 and January 2008 and totalling £8,050, have been blacked out by the Commons censors, but The Mail on Sunday has established the EPI is controlled by his brother Edmund Matyjaszek.
Mr Matyjaszek, a 59-year-old poet and playwright, kept the surname of their father, Jan Matyjaszek, while his brother adopted the maiden name of their Irish mother, Isobel MacShane, when he joined the BBC in 1969.

The link between the siblings is not apparent from the documents submitted by Mr MacShane.

The EPI appears to have a ghost presence on the internet, with the only identifying information appearing to be the London phone number of a direct-mailing company called European Marketing Services.

The company, which has its website registered in the name of an ‘Edmund Matthew’, is listed by the Poetry Society as the contact point for its Isle of Wight branch – which is run by Edmund Matyjaszek.

Last night, when he was initially contacted, Mr MacShane said: ‘It is no secret that I do more work for Europe than any other MP, and people connected with the institute help me with that. That is all I can really help you with.’ The line then went dead.
A couple of hours later, Mr MacShane, who served as Europe Minister between 2002 and 2005, sent a text message saying: ‘The EPI was set up 20 years ago by a network of people on the Left working in Europe and the US. It has organised conferences and published books and reports.

‘Ed is my brother, but simply administrates it. The claims refer to work in connection with my well-known Parliamentary activity on European and global politics. When I stopped being Europe Minister, I used the EPI to claim for research and translation relating to my work as an MP on European politics.’

Mr MacShane was first dragged into the expenses controversy when The Mail on Sunday disclosed last month that he claimed nearly £20,000 a year in expenses for an office based in the garage of his South Yorkshire home.

The claim, totalling £125,000 over the past seven years, covered the costs of running his official constituency base from the shabby-looking garage at his semi-detached home in Rotherham.

According to literature distributed by ‘Tongues & Grooves’, a poetry club, Mr Matyjaszek ‘has had more than 80 poems published, many of them prizewinners in various competitions.

His prize-winning play The Consultation on the Israel/Palestine issue was performed at Sevenoaks Arts Festival.

‘Poetry-reading is a particular interest, and he has written and performed scripts on subjects as various as the War Poets, John Donne and Ted Hughes.’
The telephone number given to book him for readings is that shared between the EPI and European Marketing Services.

Mr Matyjaszek’s wife answered the door last night at his £500,000, stone-built home in an exclusive area of Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, and said he was not available for comment.

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I've always maintained that neoconservatism should not be seen as a genuine political philosophy, but merely as a smokescreen for old fashioned pillage and plunder. Greed is the driving force behind neoconservatism- a theory hardly disproved by the behaviour of most of the MPs who have signed up to the principles of the Henry Jackson Society.

First, there was Michael 'Flipper' Gove. Then David 'The Minister who can't change a light bulb' Willetts. Then Stephen Crabb. Then Michael Ancram. Then Chris Bryant. Then the unlovely, self-adoring Denis Macshane, a man who loves to see his name in the papers but probably wasn't too happy to see this article. And now Ed Vaizey.

Have a look at the stories regarding these dishonourable members. They claim to be 'democrats'- well, let's hope the British public give them the Order of the Boot at the next election; that's if their party leaders don't derail them first.

UPDATE: Now here's a funny thing. Attempts to add details of Dennis Macshame's abuse of taxpayers money have been deleted from his wikipedia page, apparently because they were not sourced. I wonder if our friend Philip Cross, the diligent wikipedia editor could help out here? Philip is so quick off the mark when it comes to editing my page- why, a certain little neo-con blogger with an obsession with trying to smear me, only has to make an attack post on me on his blog and up goes Philip, or his little pal '212.135.157.237'. to add a reference to it on my wikipedia page. But Philip doesn't seem to be quite so keen on adding a reference to the Daily Mail story on Denis Macshane's page. That's strange, because he's shown a great interest in editing Macshane's page in the past. And also, the page of Macshane's former wife, the late newsreader Carol Barnes. In fact so incensed was 'Philip' when I once referred to McShane by his original name 'Denis Matyjaszek' that he darted over to my wikipedia page to insert the maiden name of my wife, failing to see the difference between a woman who takes her husband's surname on marriage, with a careerist politician who hypocritically berates the British for not being 'pro-European' enough, while changing his original Polish surname.

Come on Philip, anyone would think you that instead of being an 'impartial' wikipedia editor, you were somehow heavily biased towards Mr Macshane. To prove them wrong, here's a little test for you. Simply go to McShane's wikipedia page and add a reference to the Daily Mail story. Here is the link. It's an approved source, so no problems on that ground. We'll be watching the page on a daily basis to see if you put it up.

Oh, and by the way, I'm really looking forward to meeting you at the 2010 Wikimania conference. We've got so much to talk about.

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Well, I don't write much for the Daily Telegraph so I can't be accused of being a toady and I certainly don't agree with many of their editorial positions.

But bravo to the paper for spilling the beans over MPs expenses. It would have been easy for the Telegraph, which supports the Conservatives, merely to have published the details of Labour MPs expenses. But to their credit they've turned their guns on the Tories too. The Daily Telegraph has done the British public a great service, unlike The Times which has throughout taken a much softer, elitist line. (is it any wonder given the unpopular editorial positions it is taking at present that the sales of The Times are now down to a paltry 600,000 a day and the paper is losing around £1m a week ?)

Bravo too to the blogger Guido Fawkes, who has also played a blinder on this issue.

I've long maintained that the real divide in British politics is not between Labour and Conservative, but between the MPs and the rest of us. After the latest revelations does anyone out there disagree?

Public contempt for British parliamentarians- of all parties- is at an all time high.

So what's the answer for those who feel totally disgusted with the behaviour of our elected representatives and who want something very different?

Watch this space for some suggestions.

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