Gordon Brown Has "code of ethics" plan...

[Hondo]

Now Gordon Brown wants a code of conduct or code of ethics. Ever notice how all politicians jump on the "code of ethics" band wagon every time things like the MP expenses become public? Ultimately, assuming the idea doesn't fade away when the outcry stops, they will come up with something with few specifics, countless loopholes, and impossible to enforce with any meaning. All this while, you guessed it, on your time and money. It's kind of like paying a burglar to make you a list of things you need to do to keep someone from breaking into your house and then having him break in using a way he forgot to list.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6401975.ece

Mr. Brown, allow me to try to save you time and money.

If an elected official needs someone to explain proper conduct and ethics to him, he shouldn't be an elected official to start with.

If the elected official conducts his business aboveboard and in the light of day, open to public review, then his constituency can decide his ethics and conduct. He is, after all, their employee.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Now Gordon Brown wants a code of conduct or code of ethics. Ever notice how all politicians jump on the "code of ethics" band wagon every time things like the MP expenses become public? Ultimately, assuming the idea doesn't fade away when the outcry stops, they will come up with something with few specifics, countless loopholes, and impossible to enforce with any meaning. All this while, you guessed it, on your time and money. It's kind of like paying a burglar to make you a list of things you need to do to keep someone from breaking into your house and then having him break in using a way he forgot to list.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6401975.ece

Mr. Brown, allow me to try to save you time and money.

If an elected official needs someone to explain proper conduct and ethics to him, he shouldn't be an elected official to start with.

If the elected official conducts his business aboveboard and in the light of day, open to public review, then his constituency can decide his ethics and conduct. He is, after all, their employee.


You of course forget that the masses that vote for pompous theiving windbags usually are blinded by the fancy phrases such as "transparency and ethical practices"

The masses if educated and paying attention by a media that truly exposed true corruption and stupidity with the public trust, many of these windbags would never be re-elected.

[Hazell B]

If an elected official needs someone to explain proper conduct and ethics to him, he shouldn't be an elected official to start with.



Fiero, come and live in my area and apply for government.
You've already won my vote :up:

I get that most people who can claim expenses in their working life will fiddle a few quid here and there, but I don't get the scale of our officials and their theft (there's no other word for it) at all. How can they sleep at night?
Meanwhile, they want to tax me more for things they can claim back at my expense.

The result is I've changed my vote and will not be paying one single penny in income tax this year or next even if it means me having to shut up my business for six months a year. Bugger the pikey lot of them :down:

[Mark in Oshawa]

Hazell....good luck on not paying the income tax...you know how the government is, they want it, even if you don't have it. Cant imagine what they will do when you wont give it to them....

[Hazell B]

We only pay if we earn enough and I'm 100% sure I can re-invest just enough to keep the earnings low. It's happened by bad luck and expansion in previous years so the only difference is that I'm now making sure I don't make much profit rather than being forced into it.

I'm also opting out of the National Insurance I pay by choice each year.
Sod this country and it's dodgy chavs, leaders and spongers. I'm sick of paying for them all.

[Hondo]

I've been in business for myself and know it's a damn shame when you're afraid to make too much money, because you'll lose money. Theres a dividing line on that business income where if you keep ramping up slowly, you'll get killed on taxes unless you can jump a couple of levels all at once. You ought to get some more chickens. By the end of the year you may be able to sell the eggs for £20 apiece. Thats if you don't need them yourself.

[Hazell B]

I'm saving the eggs, Fiero. I figure if I keep them a year or two, just until they're rotten beyond the average human's sniff-and-gip stage, they'll come in handy for BNP and UKip press conferences.


I hear there's a roaring trade in hurling eggs and mine will work in every sense of the term :D :D :D

[Mark in Oshawa]

We only pay if we earn enough and I'm 100% sure I can re-invest just enough to keep the earnings low. It's happened by bad luck and expansion in previous years so the only difference is that I'm now making sure I don't make much profit rather than being forced into it.

I'm also opting out of the National Insurance I pay by choice each year.
Sod this country and it's dodgy chavs, leaders and spongers. I'm sick of paying for them all.

A Conservative is born....

[Hazell B]

No, I stopped voting Tory too.

;)

[Mark in Oshawa]

Hazell, I can understand why...I should have said a small "c" conservative.

That said, it isn't like you can vote for anyone else. A pox on both their houses I suppose. IT is why voting participation keeps dropping because the large parties of the right or left usually are filled with hacks and crooks who soil the name of the good guys and women who actually are trying to be the best they can be.

We have much the same issues here, and likely will face an election before the summer is out. The opposition Libreals are seeing good poll numbers and PM Harper is on borrowed time with his Conservatives. The problem is they just have a bad image and conservative politicians as a rule don't have the charisma with the people that the parties of the left seem to have, whether it be in the UK, Canada or the US of A.

Good luck...maybe go in and spoil your ballot?

[Hazell B]

Having opted for a Conservative vote for 22 years in all but one local election (where I went Lib Dem as the guy's policies were perfect IMO) I'm now fully Liberal Democrat. It's a protest vote in the hope that UKip and BNP protest voters won't outnumber me and mine.

I'm fighting a losing battle, though :(