It is clear that Ministers are using the public purse as their own personal home improvement service where everything comes for free.

It is a dreadful state of affairs and what is worse is that people like Peter Mandelson just try to brush off the revelations as attempts to smear the Cabinet. The smearing is being done by these politicians themselves and you can bet that the next few days will see politicians wheeling out the same phrases like “We did not break any rules but it is clear that there should be a review”.

Mandelson and his friends need to understand that something does not have to be illegal in order for it to be wrong. The government is morally bankrupt and if people like Harriet Harman seriously think they have nothing to be ashamed of then they are simply wrong.

How’s this for a comment:

“MPs believe in the cause of public service and that’s why they’re in public service and I believe our House of Commons is not scarred by corruption on the scale of other political systems.”

What an idiot. She is basically saying that it is OK as long as the UK is not as corrupt as other countries. These fools should be slung out of office, slung out of their second homes paid for by the taxpayer and slung out of their jobs, plain and very simple.

Shame on them.

The investigation into the incidents that day that led to those terrible deaths is a litany of confusion, poor organisation, substandard facilities and plain incompetence.

The families of those who died continue their campaign for justice, but what does justice mean for them?

Still nobody has taken responsibility for the events that day. It might be hard to blame any one person or organisation for the tragedy, but it is clear that some people made terrible decisions that led to at least some if not all of the deaths.

The tragedy also represented for me the first of New Labour’s deceptions. Jack Straw, shadow Home Secretary at the time, said he would launch an enquiry to decide whether the Hillsborough enquiry should be reopened, if New Labour got in to power in 1997.

Once in power, Straw decided that there was not enough evidence to reopen the enquiry, despite several major problems with the initial one. To me, that was New Labour’s first deception and now look at the political culture they have fostered.

The banks have had the lot.

Unbelievable.

Politics really has changed hugely even in the 20 years since I studied it, the major change has been that politics is now a financially viable career option.

But should someone enter politics because of the potential financial rewards?

Labour has shown politics in the UK to be a filthy business where the opportunity exists to run an enterprise that can employ family members, pay for one or even two homes and allow you to claim back the cost of any minor domestic charge as an expense. Even a plug for your sink can be claimed back from the taxpayer.

Why are MPs allowed to have their lives almost completely funded from the public purse? It has become the case that there is no element of having a calling to serve the public, only a calling to cream off the public purse.

To say that her husband submitting an expenses claim on her behalf for TV and Internet connections including two adult films is a “Private Matter” is a joke.

How can it be private when money is being claimed from the public purse? If he was paying for these films himself, that is most certainly a private matter but as soon as he decides that it is appropriate to claim the cost of these films back from the public, it most certainly becomes a public matter and one that should result in Jacqui Smith losing her job.

What does a cabinet minister have to do these days to be kicked out of office?

Remember that Labour effectively won the 1997 election on the wave of criticising the Tories for being the party of sleaze but with the likes of Prescott, Mandelson, Donorgate and many more, Labour are far, far worse because they absolutely refuse to accept any wrongdoing and immediately shuffle like weasels in support of any of their chums who are caught with their fingers in the till. Gordon Brown really ought to be ashamed of himself for supporting Smith so blindly when this is so clearly wrong.

The most interesting thing about it is the incredible overreaction from Absolute Radio who have made him apologise, despite not receiving any complaints about the joke at all. Apologise for nothing, old man!

Try to make sense of these comments from Absolute:

The comments made by David Jason were unacceptable and Christian O’Connell distanced himself from them live on air.

We consider the views of our listeners to be very important and have received no complaints about these comments.

We will continue to monitor any complaints and Christian O’Connell will issue an on-air apology in tomorrow’s breakfast show.

How can you continue to monitor complaints when you haven’t had any? Whoever wrote that wants lynching for ridiculous use of the English language to try and generate a scandal where none exists.

Perhaps Absolute are so scared by the failure of their relaunch that they are trying to drum up some controversy or portray themselves in a favourable light after BrandRossGate.

You can guarantee though, that O’Connell, the world’s funniest man (in his own opinion) has said some far more offensive things on the radio. In fact, I find the fact that he is on the radio offensive.

Maybe Absolute would like to allocate someone to continue to monitor complaints like that. They would certainly be busy.

I was only looking to port my existing number to a non contract SIM.

I find it amazing that in 2009, a company that claims to be a major telecoms provider does not offer users any service at all in a country at the heart of the European mainland and one of the world’s financial centres.

Perhaps now these airports can be operated by companies who will welcome passengers and make air travel enjoyable again. I hope the BAA will also up its game with some much-needed competition.

At first I expected the usual “Italians will stab you, don’t go around in groups of less than 50″ advice but this is just an intelligent guide to the areas to avoid.

It highlights routes that are mainly used by hardcore Roma fans to get to the Stadio Olimpico and also to stay clear of areas like the Campo Dei Fiori (which has most of Rome’s late night bars).

It worries me what the Roma fans will do if they get eliminated. The 2009 Champions League final takes place there and UEFA have already warned that any acts of violence will mean that the game is moved. I think the Roma fans will take the attitude that if their team won’t be in the Rome final, then nobody will.

At present, banks are hoarding cash in order to offset losses already incurred, or due to be incurred, on the pumped-up, worthless assets they hold.

So, to encourage the banks to use their cash to lend to the public and businesses in the form of mortgages and loans, the Bank is considering ‘inventing’ the existence of more money and using that to purchase these bad assets from the banks.

Freeing up this cash held on deposit should increase the amount of lending available to the public, hopefully kicking off the property market and demand for goods and services.

The policy had limited success in Japan so what do you think?

Could this be the easy way out that the UK Government is looking for?