Wednesday 22 August 2012

CANT

Jack Straw MP has been at the forefront of recent attacks upon claimants and their solicitors. The latter make too much money, apparently. An interesting stance when , as 'The Times ' reports today , Mr Straw trousered £136,130 over and above his parliamentary salary of £65,738 (plus awesome pension benefits).I am all for everyone maximising their income. It enables one to lead a decent life and to look after children and other dependents.What is rich is a man on £3,882 a week telling solicitors who do not come near this tally that they are overpaid.
The other line ( not necessarily espoused by Mr Straw ) is that MPs say that having outside interests enables them to keep in touch and do a better job. Fine but let them give credit for those external earnings so that if they recveived more than the parliamentary salary they would not draw down a penny from the state.
Finally , Mr Assange. He confuses prosecution with persecution. I thought he was charged with offences falling short of rape. It might transpire that his alleged victims are sick in the head , have spent time in the Priory , are near alcoholics and vicious fantasists . There is utterly no suggestion of this of course so we are left with 2 alleged victims of sexual assault who have been largely ignored . I thought those days were behind us after the most shocking case of the last century , Holdsworth, where a soldier raped a young girl and the Judge , Wien J ( not Wren as cited in the Government Equalities Office report 'Has anything changed' ) said she should have put up with his exuberance , a decision shamefully upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Last but not least on 18th august 2010 Mr Assange applied for a Swedish work and residence permit.