Malcolm Robinson

Over five years each MEP can basically claim at the least a subsistence allowance of 117,000 Euros, staff allowance of 489,840 Euros, office expenses of 243,120 Euros, travel expenses of 60,000 Euros and an accrued pension of £350,000. This does not include the MEP salary of £63,291, which is set to increase to £73,584 after the European Parliament elections in June 2009. So each MEP for a parliamentary term…………….about 1.5 million Euros! And there are to be 751 of them so……………………1.1265 Billion Euros! Remember this is just the figure for MEPs this doesn't include fulltime official EU staff of which there are some 32,140. For some reason I can't find an average wage for them?????

UK contribution to the EU Common Agricultural Policy…….. £17 billion in 2009. Total value of UK agricultural output………£15.5 billion per annum. (Actual profit figure £4 Billion!) UK contribution to the EU Common Fisheries Policy…………….…£3.3 Billion. Total value of UK fisheries output (2008) ……………………………... £629 million! Landed fish and shellfish Uk fisheries…………………………….………. 588,000 tonnes. Dead fish which are dumped into the North Sea every year…… 880,000 tonnes. Defra opening statement…. 'Global fish stocks are under pressure and fishing is threatening or damaging marine ecosystems'. I am not even going to comment, the figures speak for themselves!!!!!!!!!

I find the whole 'self-regulation' a bit bizarre? If MPs break the laws the rest of us have to obey shouldn't they lead by example and take the consequences the same as us mere mortals? The fact that they themselves wrote and passed the legislation is hypocrisy of the highest order! Parliamentary privilege, fine when it protects whistle blowers and members exposing corrupt workings within the state but to use it to cover members caught with their hands in the till is something else! I am pleased the students at last have some fire in their bellies but it looks like they have lost mainstream public support and I wonder if they have really read what were the proposals? The Lib Dem position is quite another part of this and I would say we should all try and make political parties stick to their pre-election manifestos or how else can they expect to be believed! T Dan was in a North East documentary last week as they showed what were really ghettos in Newcastle getting knocked down. This guy is vilified because he took and laid out bungs to get this work done. At least there was some social element in his 'corruption' not like the stuff we see these days where it is all about personal benefit!

Thats OK then...........

Particularly pleasing........ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2010/12/10/mps-rap-liar-stephen-byers-over-lobbygate-scandal-115875-22773194/

Yet more........... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/09/hoon-byers-caborn-fake-lobbying-scandal

The old guy in the picture is Diogenes who used to walk around his town at midday with a lantern. When asked what he was doing his reply was that he was looking for an honest man…… Looking around that lot, Westminster, it would be easier to find a virgin in Ashington!

Heard last night Brian has packed the milk in...........

I was sent this off a mate in Derbyshire whose neighbour had just been ripped off……so something very like this is doing the rounds. Clear message anyway, just let's all be very careful when dealing with unsolicited mail or phone calls!

Bit of a while to wait............

Anyone know who the old guy in the right hand corner is?????

Ever the case with the Toon............ Dignified exit by Chris Hughton the guy seemed a gent. Did you see their defense, Sol Campbell, he's nearly as old as me and I have a year or two on Methuselah!

You might see more Aussie runs.........well done the tourists!

I'm off to join the scouts...........

Looking around outfield Hungary should be of concern. Not directly involved but like the Yanks and their subprime toxic debts things could get pretty ugly very quickly. With most of the Hungarian mortgage paper in Swiss francs and a very high percentage of commercial paper any upward rise in exchange rates between the Swiss and Hungary will almost inevitably lead to defaults. Like gold Swiss francs are seen as a safe haven and they are only going one way at the moment. As Austrian banks have bankrolled a lot of this cross boarder fiscal manipulations any defaults will have a negative effect on them and Merkel and the ECB will consider that too close by half! Trichet has now passed the ball quite firmly over to the politicos; he must be sick and tired of saying one thing only to have the politicians taking a completely different line within days and hours sometimes! So an independent ECB not quite me thinks. Also they are now hiding their toxic bond purchases for some reason, probably trying not to scare the markets with the amounts which at some point will either have to be repaid or defaulted on. Interestingly the Yanks not quite so bashful have announced that they have just bought upwards of 2 billion Euros worth of these toxic bonds so while the Europeans are trying to go down austerity paths the Yanks seem content on printing more and more dollars to paper Europe with? Maybe they don't want to see the same fiscal connectivity between a toxic Europe and the States as the scenario just played out the other way around!

It has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam: A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize. If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call. If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655.

Scary is right, the narrative (Donald Pleasance?) on the first one always put me in mind of Oliver Postgate's Noggin the Nog which I always found a bit disturbing for some reason. ''Of course the really creative types post videos on Vimeo not Youtube. For talent behind the camera...'' and for uncensored political etc. vids eye tube.

No fun getting old............ Arthur is 90 years old. He's played golf every day since his retirement 25 years ago. One day he arrives home looking downcast. "That's it," he tells his wife. "I'm giving up golf. My eyesight has got so bad. Once I've hit the ball, I can't see where it went." His wife sympathizes. As they sit down, she has a suggestion: "Why don't you take my brother with you, and give it one more try." "That's no good," sighs Arthur. "Your brother is a hundred and three. He can't help." "He may be a hundred and three," says the wife, "but his eyesight is perfect." So the next day, Arthur heads off to the golf course with his brother-in-law. He tees up, takes an almighty swing, and squints down the fairway. He turns to the brother-in-law. "Did you see the ball?" "Of course I did!", says the brother-in-law. "I have perfect eyesight." "Where did it go?" asks Arthur. "Can't remember."

Windows Vista

Everyone heard about that 1960s' combo band………….. Mr D and the easy beats!!!!!!!!

Just make it so everyone has to cover the bet to cover the pot then a new pile of chips starts in a different position? IE. Don't let a player cover a 50 chip bet with only 30 chips, they should have done so before the betting got around to them again. That way there is no split pots only the possibility of one or two pots on the table with the winner taking all or the one they covered? Does that make sense?

Practice, practice, practice.......... http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Vo0Cazxj_yc&vq=medium#t=34

Now your just trying to get me into trouble!!!!!

''Paid on the nail''………..for my tuppence worth……. Probably more down to the many Bedlingtonians who made nails and were paid by product. When Bedlington was the centre of nail production in the world of course, not that long ago! As for The Nail, I did read there might have been a Saxon cross on the top of it, which would fit nicely with St Cuthbert etc. but trying to find out when it was put up is another thing! Fascinated with the Boris Karloff story Keith any more to tell?

There is a pane out in a Morpeth bus shelter, bottom of Stobhill Bank, lets see how long it takes to replace because the same shelters here just left at best with gaping holes in.