Caroline Spelman

As most of my readers do not like long epistles, I have copied part of a letter to a Ministry alerting them of the possible conflict of interest cause by the appointment of Caroline Spelman as Minister. Because this is not a Nanny Paid For By Your Money State, the link is attached and you can read the full article for yourself. Ms Caroline got such a good washing from the last parliamentary watchdog that I am certain that she is cleaner than clean. Very soon I shall join my niece and start believing in Fairies... Sherbet! They are already tumbling out of the closets...

A full copy of the Sunlight Centre’s letter to Defra is included below.

The full letter:

Helen Ghosh
Permanent Secretary
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR

Sent by fax and post to: 0207 238 6118

Dear Ms. Ghosh,

I am writing to bring to your attention a possible conflict of interesting regarding the newly appointed Secretary of State for your department, the Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP.

As you should already be aware, until last year the Secretary of State for your department co-owned Spelman, Cormack & Associates, a food and biotechnology lobbying firm she set up in 1989 with her husband, Mr Mark Spelman, using her maiden name, Cormack. Less than a year ago she transferred her shares in the firm to her husband and resigned her directorship in May 2009. According to Companies House records the company’s registered office was in the Secretary of State’s constituency home until May last year. Her husband, Mark Spelman, remains a director of the company still trading under the Secretary of State’s name in sectors closely related to issues for which she is responsible. Given that the company is still using her maiden name to trade, a name by which she would have been known when active in farming politics in the 1980s, this is clearly of public interest.

The Secretary of State is in charge of negotiating subsidies, quotas and tariff barriers at the EU Agricultural Council, giving rise to a clear conflict of interest between this official role and her close links to a company which has in the past lobbied or may be intending to lobby over such matters. The Secretary of State is also responsible for Genetically Modified food regulations at the same time as her husband’s firm deals with bio-tech industry clients. Ms. Spelman therefore remains linked to a farming and food lobbying firm that she set up, held shares in for ten years, and for which her husband is still using her name and home address for commercially.

In view of this information we ask you to clarify the following:

You get the picture!

RIP 40 Commando Royal Marines. KIA

For the third time in a week I have learned that the MOD has announced the death of another Royal from 40 Commando, killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.

Bastard of the lowest order

Graham Eckerman aka Liam Kissane

A SERIAL fraudster whose vile crimes were exposed by the Daily Record is back behind bars - after callously pocketing handouts intended for injured soldiers.

Graham Eckerman has moved south and changed his identity since we caught him conning his way around Scotland.

But the 28-year-old's game is still the same - donning military uniform and posing as a war hero to dupe members of the public into handing over cash.

Now named Liam Kissane and working as a male escort, Eckerman mocked up fake ID and dressed as a Royal Marine to collect donations for military charity Help For Heroes - then stole the cash.

The heartless hustler made up to £800 a day by asking well-wishers to put cash into a tin or buy wristbands for the charity who help soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

He was eventually caught collecting cash on the day the bodies of three soldiers killed in Afghanistan - two in suspected "friendly fire" incidents - were flown back to Britain.

His most recent escapade, in Lancashire, fell apart when an eagle-eyed passer-by noticed his boots were not standard Army wear.

The drifter is now behind bars awaiting sentence for charges of fraud, possession of a false identity document and making or supplying articles for use in fraud.

On a day when we former regulars await with sadness the name of our latest fallen comrade, this piece of human filth has the effrontery to parade his vileness in public. He is not alone and is rated alongside the cowardly politicians who gained kudos by sending the troops into the danger they are too afraid to challenge themselves. When veterans have been denied the Freedoms we fought for from a regime wholly without moral fibre, it is of little wonder that the cohesive nation has gone. This, at a time when we remember the heroics of our forefathers at Dunkirk.

Do you know how distasteful it is for MP's to scream for homosexual/lesbian rights when they deny soldiers of both sexes theirs? Underpaid troopies face the full horror of the battlefield whilst that evil apologist for Liebers Social Policy, Yvette Cooper, defends their closeting of the types of Sharon Matthews mother and the millions of others more prepared to take than to give to society. Now tell us Ms Cooper of the dubious MP's expenses returns, defend your actions to the Veterans and not your evil, divisive social champagne group, why are the Karen Matthews of multiple children to multiple fathers worth more than the decent 18year old prepared to give their own life? And tell me that this evil piece of human excrement is only mis-guided!

42 Commando Association will be meeting again in Blackpool next month. Let this worthless dross parade his tattoos for real former Royals.

RIP 40 Commando Royal Marines

Another unnamed Royal Marine from 40 Commando annouced as dead.

Empty Bottles (Royal Marines)

Battle, skirmish or all out War, those empty bottles have a score
To settle with those enemies of you and me and our democracy.
Because empty bottles are fighting men,
Who protect us all, again and again
And depart the field not to a hero’s chant,
And feast NOT in fancy restaurants.
Awaiting him is no adulation,
The best wishes of a grateful Nation
Just a Badge he can wear in a Tesco’s queue.
Just a Veterans Badge for a debt so huge.

Golden Mile - for crooks

Tourists conned in hoopla scam

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Hoopla stall which has been prosecuted for conning customers by Blackpool Council

26 May 2010

By Paul Fielding

CONMEN have been targeting unsuspecting holidaymakers on Blackpool's world-famous Golden Mile.

In a legal first, the owner and operator of a hoopla stall on the Promenade has been dragged before the courts accused of ripping off tourists and residents.

Blackpool Magistrates Court heard how the council's trading standards officers raided the premises and confiscated equipment, which was then set up at Lancaster University under laboratory conditions.

There Dr David Lucy was given the task of testing the probability of winning the challenge and worked out the odds of winning were 2,622 to one against.

Councils overgenerous with your money

More than 50,000 council staff receive over £50,000 a year, Telegraph survey finds

More than 50,000 local authority staff are receiving over £50,000 a year, according to a Telegraph survey.

By Christopher Hope and Anthony Kimber
Published: 12:12PM BST 24 May 2010

Eric Pickles, Local Government Secretary, said: "We will require councils to publish more information online on the pay and perks of senior staff, and allow elected councillors to veto high pay packets." Photo: OLI SCARFF

The survey of top earners at 229 unitary, county and metropolitan councils in Britain uncovered more than 1,700 staff who received over £100,000 in 2008/9.

The figures are up by a fifth on the year before and came as council tax continued to increase and private sector workers suffered pay cuts and job losses.