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SOMETHING TO PONDER OVER
Common knowledge?
Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following employee statistics:
29 have been accused of spouse abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
9 have been accused of writing bad cheques
17 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card .
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shop-lifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
Which organisation is this?
It's the 635 members of the House of Commons, the same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us inline.
What a bunch of *^->/*;s we have running our country - it says it all. And just to top all that they probably have the best "corporate" pension scheme in the country .
If you agree that this is an appalling state of affairs, please pass it on to everyone you know. It's time to stand up to this lot.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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Wow, Nigel,
Is that really true? I'm horrified. And I'm fairly politically aware [Treasurer of the ward LibDems]. I thought of sending it to my MP, but maybe he doesn't deserve to be tarred with that brush. He's gay and out and was nevertheless shocked when I turned up at the committee rooms wearing electric blue lycra (I suspect he thought I was teasing him, because as I'm married he didn't suspect me of being gay). I think he's one of the good guys.
But I can't imagine any party having a selection panel who would choose people of this kind as a parliamentary candidate (well I exclude being a defendant - there may be no shame in that). So what is the proportion in the population at large? Maybe we are worse, on the whole, than our MPs.
How about other places? Are Congressmen more liable to skeletons in their cupboards? My impression is that the press and public in the USA are less forgiving about such 'lapses' than we are. But maybe anything is forgiven if they speak loudly and publicly about their 'faith' and go regularly to church?
Love,
Anthony
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For my money there's too many similarities between the two native criminal classes in the UK and the US, The Commons and The Congress..... i wonder if one reporter simply copies the work of another, and whaich one is correct and original?
Found this on the web in one minute...
"WASHINGTON, DC -- A new investigation reveals an astonishingly large number of wife-beaters, drunks, shoplifters, check-bouncers, business failures, and drug abusers in the U.S. House and Senate -- which ought to make Americans think carefully before turning to Washington, DC for moral leadership, the Libertarian Party
said today.
"Mark Twain once said Congress may be America's only 'distinct criminal class' -- and this new study suggests he was correct," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "If even half these charges are true, expecting Congress to serve as a moral
role model is like asking Bill Clinton to serve as a poster boy for monogamy."
According to an investigation by Capitol Hill Blue, an online publication that covers federal politics, a remarkable number of U.S.
Representatives and U.S. Senators may have spent as much time in a jail cell as on Capitol Hill.
After researching public records, newspaper articles, civil court transcripts, and criminal records, Capitol Hill Blue discovered that:
* 29 members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse.
* 7 have been arrested for fraud.
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks.
* 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses.
* 3 have been arrested for assault.
* 71 have credit reports so bad they can't qualify for a
credit card.
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges.
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting.
* 21 are current defendants in lawsuits."
[Updated on: Sat, 05 April 2008 15:15] |
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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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Hi
I dont agree, we all live a long time, and we all make mistakes, MP are no different, there was a time that if you were gay you would have to give up your post.
We have moved on. i think a fraudster is a clever person. drink driving well bad es but you dont hang them for it. wife abuse well thats not nice but i know women who beat up guys..
I know someone who spent 23 years on and off in prison, and what a well nice guy.
what you see is what you get.
what you need is a wealth of knowledge and they do have that.
But we are due to change and it will be the tories back, wow so different i dont think so.:-/
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Dear John,
Who is it you don't agree with? Me or Eldon? Would you vote for a fraud or jailbird or wife beater?
I do hope you are wrong and that we don't get another Tory government to replace the conservative government we have. If this government tolerates child poverty to the extent that they don't even AIM to eradicate it before 2012, I hate to think what real Tories will do.
But the only party that begins to lean towards social justice is the LibDems and what hope is there of a LibDem government when Clegg is so illiberal as to imitate Cameron most of the time. But there are decent LibDems.
Love,
Anthony
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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I honestly don't think that MPs are particular worse than a typical cross-section of the public. In fact I'm inclined to think they are better simply by virtue of not being elected if there are any major scandals in their past.
As Eldon said the accuracy of these numbers are questionable. But even if they are true, I don't hold many of the things against elected leaders. There are better people for a lot of political positions, but there are worse people, too.
I don't like political hypocrites, however. If they are preaching against something they have done themselves (former marijuana user trying to set harsh penalties for use) I really get pissed off.
When I was running in the election there were a lot of things I was worried about coming out- in particular regarding my relationship. Nothing did because I was a nobody candidate, but even so I can understand the worry a lot of politicians face. Drink driving is common, as is drug use; bankrupting a business usually means they gave it a shot and got unlucky; writing a bad cheque means they forgot to check their bank balance before writing it. Abuse charges- while more serious- is still something that a lot of people can have problems with. Anger management is especially hard for professionals in high-stress jobs- like politicians- I'd think.
I judge politicians on their policies far more than their personal lives. I do need to be able to trust them to do what they said they would, but beyond that I don't really care, so long as they enact policies that are in line with my beliefs.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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I really don;t think this is in any way exceptional in what we laughingly call a representative democracy. The Knesset, Israel's Parliament, has just gone into its "Spring Break" and a newspaper this weekend did a photo thing about the Knesset's "Hall of Shame". Six members (out of 120) are being investigated by the police for some kind or another of criminal activity, mostly to do with money - and one of them is the Prime Minister himself; one member has already been charged with misappropriation and awaits trial; and one member has been found guilty of the local equivalent of "bribery and corruption" and awaits sentencing.
Last year we had a cabinet minister convicted of "an indecent act". And there is the ongoing saga of our former President who is charged with nothing less than rape, and the trial should open (if it is not postponed yet again) next week.
Not bad for a country of only 6 million.
I don't think that today's politicians are any better or any worse that their counterparts were say a century ago (when Britain was ruled by the Liberal Party, Anthony). It's just that the media today make it impossible for the politician who is a scoundrel to hide behind "respectability" and "distance". Gone is the era when the governing classes were held in some kind of awe. Today they are exposed "warts and all" in unforgiving flashlights.
Just my twopennyworth.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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acam wrote:
I can't imagine any party having a selection panel who would choose people of this kind as a parliamentary candidate
Anthony, since you mention the LibDems. I understand that David Lloyd George, (who did not know my father) was "a bit of a bounder". And let's not forget dear Jeremy Thorpe. Oh, and one other thing about the LibDems: proportional representation can be an absolute catastrophe. Believe me, I know: we have it here - and once you have it it's almost impossible to get rid of it.
Don't misunderstand me, Anthony: when I lived in England (way back in the last century) I almost always voted Liberal (unless the Labour guy stood a reasonable chance of ousting the Tory). I am delighted that my constituency, which in my day was a Tory stronghold, is now represented by a LibDem. (See, I do try to keep up.) If I were eligible to vote in the UK (which I'm not) I am sure that I would vote LibDem.
And one last thing. Looking back over all these decades I still think that the greatest tragedy that ever hit British politics is that Jo Grimond never had the opportunity to govern. He would have made Britain great and would have created a great society. Spilt milk.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Yes, indeed, JFR,
Lloyd George was more than a bit of a bounder and in those days you could get away with a lot more than today - such as selling peerages. And I feel sorry for Jeremy Thorpe who wasn't able to be himself (as I wasn't in those days). And Jo Grimond too - what a pity!
But I don't agree with you about proportional representation. The dreadful thing about Thatcher (and Blair) was that they could ride roughshod over all objections, however well founded. They could (and did) lose the argument and then pass the bill with a three line whip and there go our civil liberties. The UK now can lock people up uncharged for longer than anywhere in the civilised world - and this reactionary government is talking about doubling the period to 56 days. And the media is supine about it and always reports it as "suspected terrorists" that can get locked up! What it really means is that all they have to do is find a policeman who says "I suspect you" and then they can lock you up.
My father used to say that when Franco got control in Spain all he had to do was make laws that everyone would break and then he could put whoever he liked in prison. Well we are getting close to that.
But I rant and this stuff isn't appropriate for APOS, is it?
Love,
Anthony
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Yes, JFR,
I do think representatives ought to be honest about money and tell the truth, but I'm less sure about indecent acts as more or less all of my sex life until 1967 consisted of imprisonable acts of that kind (oh for the good old days!)
Rape is a particularly nasty crime in my opinion.
But I don't have to defend what the Liberals did a century ago. And I don't think that there ought to be a classification that divides people into the governed and the governing.
And I think that laws and customs ought to accept, even welcome, a much wider range of behaviour so that there isn't anything that the gutter press could dig up against an honourable person. Not only are we excessively judgmental but we fail to distinguish between what ought to be excused and what is truly reprehensible.
Love,
Anthony
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Benji
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: August 2007
Messages: 297
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Yeah, I remember when they posted that story about Congress, I guess it should be updated to include "sexual escapades"
[Updated on: Mon, 07 April 2008 16:17] |
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Like engaging in sexually explicit emails with male pages? LOL.
They say there are two things a Congressman should never be caught with... a dead girl or a live boy.
Mark Twain wrote that there are two things the public should never be exposed to the methods of how they're made... sausages and public laws.
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