When Sarah Palin said Obama’s healthcare plan would result in “death panels” that would see bureaucrats making subjective judgements on life and death, she was furiously howled down by Obama supporters. So how should we describe the expert panel of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which decided that patients will be denied a new cancer drug on the NHS under draft guidelines, because it is too expensive?

What makes this situation even more disgusting is the objection to “co-payment”. Pay for what the NHS won’t provide and they’ll throw you off the system completely, withdraw treatment and kick you out - all in the name of “equality”. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Andrew Dillon, the CEO of NICE, is no doubt on a very hefty salary. But he and his death panel of evil accountants deem that a “quality year of life” is worth £30,000 and not a penny more. By contrast they pay Analysts at NICE £39,000 p.a. If another year of “quality life” on Earth will cost more than £30,000, they’ll pull the plug… And who determines “quality”?

The “quality life” value of £30,000 a year equates to…
…two thirds of Speaker Bercow’s home refurbishment bill
…£576 per week (equal to Margaret Beckett’s hanging basket bill or one-third of a duck island)
…£82.19 per day
…£3.42 per hour (six chocolate Santas)
…6p per minute (equal to a minute’s phonecall from BT)
…0.5p per breath*
…0.1p per second

Do you think your last breath was worth more than 0.5p? The government doesn’t.

The Government dithered for far too long before concluding that Northern Rock had to be nationalised.

And in December 2007…

Vince Cable, acting leader of the Lib Dems, told the BBC this morning that nationalisation was the “least worst answer” for the bank, which is currently “bleeding to death”. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Cable has urged the Government to introduce a Bill in Parliament before Christmas to allow public ownership of the bank.

But now in Total Politics…

When the Northern Rock crisis broke, my view was that that [the banks going bankrupt] probably should have been what happened - the government should have rescued the depositors and let the bank go.

Bit different, isn’t it?

Worth noting however is the truly odd way Mr Adams refers to himself in the third person so often. Sure sign of a self important egotist.

Apart from refering to himself as “your man” at every possible opportunity - almost as often as he bashes Britain and the British, who’s cash he gladly takes as an MP however - he rather comically refers to himself as a blog. “This blog has had a busy week.” You can call Gerry Adams many things, but I never knew he was a blog!

Labour’s poster depicting David Cameron and George Osbourne as the so bad they’re funny X Factor twins John and Edward (”Jedward”) with the tagline “You won’t be laughing if they win” has got a good deal of press coverage, far exceeding the impressions the paid billboards will chalk up. In this sense it’s already a hugely effective piece of viral advertising.

But it’s another story that makes me think.

Jedward have faced huge public hostility, hate campaigns on Facebook, and deafening booing at X Factor performances. But last Saturday it was all cheers. The criticism became so unfairly harsh and personal, and they held up so strong, that they have become popular.

Could Labour do the same? The recent argument over Gordon Brown’s letter suggests it’s possible. If The Sun and others don’t want a Labour victory, they mustn’t victimise Brown.

Dr Rowan Williams said that taxation should not be seen as a way of stifling business or redistributing wealth but helping to make the world a better place in which to live. He called for new levies to be introduced on financial transactions and carbon emissions, and an end to the idea that unlimited economic growth is desirable.

The above quote from The Telegraph should shock me, but it doesn’t. Dr Williams, the most senior cleric in the Church of England and a self-confessed “hairy lefty”, is just the latest in a series of barmey bishops making moralising judgements over economics.

I’m reminded however by that quote from Margaret Thatcher: “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions - he had money too.”

Quite how a World without economic growth and with excessive taxation would be better I cannot understand - unless envy is your primary emotional influence - and evidently I am not alone. People vote with their feet, and the C of E hardly needs crowd control. Perhaps they should stick to their job and be a Church rather than a leftist economics think tank.

How do you fly yours, Mr Griffin?

…The wrong way up evidently. Doesn’t every true patriot know how to fly the flag properly?

Eight British soldiers died in Afghanistan in just 24 hours. Their deaths take the number of troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 184; five higher than the 179 killed in Iraq. It has been the most high intensity fighting British troops have faced since the Korean War in the 1950s.

Many of the deaths are due to powerful Improvised Explosive Devices, and many of these IED deaths could have been avoided by proper equipment.

Sadly, as Harwich MP Douglas Carswell talked about last year, the defence industrial strategy is “more about industry than defence. It does more to safeguard the interests of selected contractors than the interests of the armed forces. The DIS is good at putting large amounts of public money on to the balance sheets of a few contractors, but that is about all it is good for…We cannot both shore up our defence industrial base and provide our armed forces with the best value kit in the world; it is a logical impossibility. The DIS is, in reality, a corporatist, protectionist racket. Lobbyists for the DIS on the political left justify it as a means of preserving jobs. The same arguments once trotted out to justify Government subsidy of British Leyland are used to legitimise squandering our defence budget. To those on the political right, the fig leaf justification is about something called sovereignty of supply. The same arguments were once trotted out to justify the corn laws.”

I agree with Douglas Carswell entirely on this. There is no excuse for putting our servicemen’s lives at risk to protect the British defence industry; if a British firm can deliver the goods, great, but if it can’t then it should be No Deal. We must buy the best. Ultimately this is in the best interests of the British defence industry anyway, as it should force them to improve and maybe get some export orders!

But most of all what matters - the ONLY thing that matters - is the safety of our forces. If we are to ask our soldiers to Be The Best, then we must BUY The Best! If seeing a less Union Flags on the Country of Manufacture labels means we see a less Union Flags wrapped around coffins passing through Wootton Bassett, then it will have been a small price indeed.

Only a bird brain would bet on a V-shaped recession these days.

Then we talked about who was to blame.

Then we talked about what to do about it.

There then followed a not so brief interlude during which ice creams and refreshments (including Hobnobs and dog food) were served whilst we discussed duck islands, the intricacies of moat maintenance, the impact of OCD upon breakfast habits and the finer points of astrology.

That over, we talked about how bad the recession would be…

…And now we’re talking about what letter of the alphabet its shape will be on the graph!

The British public discourse has had some strange moments of late, but this really takes the biscuit (but then if it’s Chris Huhne’s Hobnob biscuit we paid for it anyway)…

Do economic ideas originate in Alphabetti Spaghetti?

The deluded think it’ll be a V-shaped recession; sharp drop, sharp bounce back. V.

Some expect a U-shaped recession; a sharp drop with a sharp rebound like the V but after a period of flatness between the two. U.

My bet is on W; in effect a second U-shaped (or V-shaped if you go German and call W ‘double-V’) recession after a small rebound from the first. W.

Rather alarming is the L-shaped recession, a sudden fall then flat-lining; and the Y, a U or V shaped recession followed by a second possibly sharper drop. L and Y.

I suppose we could have N, M, J, Y, and I as well. Maybe a lowercase ‘r’ and ‘h’?

The Great Depression gave us the game of Monopoly, the recession of 08/09/10 looks set to give us Economic Scrabble.

His dedication to Parliament is obviously incredible, there was no need for him to attend the vote beyond his dedication, and despite his role in trying to exempt MP’s expenses from the Freedom of Information Act it is certain Parliament will be a lesser place without him and his experience. A former officer in the 51st Highland Volunteers, he was elected in 1983 and his Parliamentary career included a stint as chief whip and ministerial posts in Agriculture, the Environment and Home Office. He turned down a Cabinet role in 1995 and was diagnosed with MS in 1996.

But Maclean’s decision to step down because benefits of treatment - which will increase his quality of life and expected lifespan - would be cancelled out if he continued an MP’s workload, shows in part how Parliament needs reform beyond what others are considering. Parliament benefits from having a diverse range of Members with diverse experience; but requiring attendance to vote and having MP’s act as uber-councillors/social workers puts many off and - in Maclean’s case - out.

Why can’t MP’s vote by proxy or by electronic means, as they can in Scotland?

Why do MP’s work as uber-councillors?

Maclean said his constituency – the largest in England – deserved an MP who could go at it “full pelt”. But if we have a system where only those with the time, inclination and - in this case - physical ability to attend all the odd-hours Parliament works and act as uber-councillor “full pelt”, the pool of interested applicants is greatly reduced. You’re ruling out anyone with kids really, especially women or single parents, anyone with a health issue…

What we need is MP’s to be MP’s - scrutinising laws, representing us and holding the executive to account. Axe the uber-councillor stuff, set normal hours and let MP’s vote from elsewhere by remote and suddenly being an MP will become compatible with being a normal person - doing the school run, having a family and social life beyond work, having health issues - and we may just then get such normal people.

Tim Yeo MP - sans neck tie

For years now the neck tie has been on the way out. They’re restrictive, uncomfortable, utterly pointless and - worst of all sometimes - an open invite for novelty Christmas gifts.

Businesses have been ‘dressing down’ gradually since Margaret Thatcher sent the bowler hat and umbrella to historic oblivion, and today’s new business - from Google to Innocent Smoothies - is a largely tie free, “smart casual” environment. Creative businesses argue that staff are more creative in a relaxed, individualistic and stuffyness free office.

So why does Parliament still side with Erskine May, the Parliamentary bible of convention, who states that “gentleman members are required to wear a jacket and tie”. Erskine May died in 1886!