Government Watch

The www.weownit.org.uk report that is mentioned in the Guardian article was crowdsourced. An excellent use of time and money. They always need more, though.

About the Land Registry.

"All four companies have links to offshore tax havens. This isn’t illegal - there’s no suggestion these companies have been up to no good. But do we really want to flog off a trusted public service, that doesn’t cost the taxpayer a penny to run, to companies with links to shadowy tax arrangements?
Two of the four firms in line to buy the Land Registry have stakes in other companies which could benefit from access to Land Registry data if they expanded to the British market. The government’s own watchdog has warned privatisation would be bad for business - our investigation proves it. "

This is from 38 degrees. They have a letter for you to sign to send to your MP to try and stop the sale.

Cameron's position is looking decidedly dodgy at the moment. We already know that he is a dead duck if the vote is out, with the horror that entails. Yet one other reason to vote remain. But there is now a move regardless of how the vote goes to get ride of him and a general election before Christmas!!

There are a couple of Tories, Norris and Brigden, calling for a vote of no confidence. This is generally thought will not materialise, but it shows the level of opposition within the Tory party.

There is also a gathering opinion that the war and resultant injury, will not be healed. We await what happens to the Tory party with interest. However there is no doubt that they have a keen sense of survival and are very good at showing a united front regardless of how much they hate each other.

Can there be a general election? I doubt there will be, the Tories will choose a new party leader , get shot of Cameron and the leader becomes PM

It depends on what happens with the Tory election fraud.
17 police forces have asked for time extensions to look into the matter now.
If they are found guilty there will have to be by-elections and the government could lose its majority.

Then if so Jen they couldn't hang on four years

Trouble is that one if the first things the coalition govt did was to pass a bill making parliaments a fixed term of five years - not as it had been a maximum of five years. I suppose this law would be fairly easy to repeal though if there was sufficient backing. I think it more likely that the Tory party would elect one or more new leaders and try and carry on.
It also is not so far fetched that Boris could end up being PM - did you see the report yesterday how the 'veterans' in USA are going to vote for Trump as they don't like Hilary Clinton !! Nothing to do with their political ideas - simply personality. All very worrying really.

"The Eurosceptic chairman of the European Scrutiny committee told the Telegraph he has grown infuriated by the Prime Minister’s “monumentally misleading propaganda” and demanded a more conciliatory tone.

He said he was “certainly considering” submitting a letter calling for a no confidence vote and gave the leadership 10 days to drop “inaccurate” warnings over leaving the EU.

It can be no comfort to Cameron that, at 4pm today (May 30), 72 per cent of 11,164 voters in a Torygraph poll called for him to face a vote of ‘no confidence’. That means 8,038 readers of the Tory-supporting rag want him gone, while only 3,126 want him to stay."

Interesting.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/122946

A petiton calling for a general election and the government response to it. There can be one if parliament votes for a vote of no confidence.

I wonder who started the petition? My bet is a backbench Tory.

Unfortunately not. Someone called Eleanor Machin.
This is interesting, though, suggesting that Cameron has possibly done the worst thing possible for the Tory party.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/05/30/could-the-futility-of-the-referendum-debate-be-the-precursor-for-change-to-something-better/

Just read the Richard Murphy link. Someone commented that this government has no real foreign policy - it is all domestic and a large part of that is addressing the problems in the Tory party like the referendum.

I think is a result of the type of upbringing these ex children of Eton experience. They are taught how important they are and that they are future leaders.

This results in adults who simply are unable to look further than their own needs and interests.

Certainly sounds like the present government. I have often thought they appear to be just playing at politics. If anything goes wrong the grown-ups will pick up the tab.

Yes they have always reminded me and sounded like schoolboys particularly Osborne.

No wonder Cameron had to hide behind Sadiq Khan today, and let him do most of the talking.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bill-cash-becomes-third-tory-mp-to-say-he-is-considering-no-confidence-vote-in-david-cameron-a7056146.html

More than 50 MPs ready to vote against Cameron if Brexit wins.

If the referendum results in remaining in the EU, I sincerely hope Cameron has the cojones to kick these people into the long grass. His days are numbered anyway, so doesn't have to watch his own position, but he might stand some chance of leaving with some kind of reputation of having a backbone (somewhere). He needs to stand up to them - and not with Eton-style put downs and sneering.

This is terrible. I hadn't realised that it was over five years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-36410791

The government definitely needs to do something about these homes. Of course, it will blame the austerity it inflcted on us all for its inertia.

Interesting article by Ken Loach. He says no point in Cameron watching his film as it would make no difference to Cameron's ideas.
Loach had said he would maske no more films, but he came out of retirement as he was so infuriated with how this government treats the poor.

www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/31/ken-loach-i-daniel-blake-punishing-the-poor-david-cameron

About the land registry. MPs think that if it is privatised it could be left open for money laundering.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/03/scores-of-mps-demand-land-registry-privatisation-be-called-off

secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c06ee3/2d1c5aab/63d6aac3/4622c3e8/2854701543/VEsD/

The government is sitting on a report about the harm fracking could do to the environment. Petition to sign.

This is brilliant.

"18 months ago, Monsanto's vast chemical-agricultural empire was rock solid.

Now, after over 2 million of us ran 20 campaigns, with millions of signatures, messages, phone calls, stunts, advocacy meetings and media stories... the future of the 'Monsanto model' is actually in question!!

The European Union just refused to grant Monsanto a new license for its flagship product - the pesticide glyphosate. This is massive - glyphosate accounts for up to a third of all Monsanto's revenue! "

We really do need to stay in the EU.

The Conservative candidate for mayor of the North East has resigned from the party in order to boost his chances of election!

www.thecanary.co/2016/06/13/putting-lipstick-pig-thats-end-result-billions-spent-government-projects/

This is depressing. I hope someone gets into trouble for this. I am sure other countries can sort their IT out. Why can't we?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/23/michael-fallon-damages-imam-suliman-gani-sadiq-khan

There is some justice in the world.

Land registry. Common sense seems to have won the debate yesterday.

"That this House notes the important role the Land Registry plays in registering the ownership of land and property in England and Wales; further notes that the Land Registry has made a surplus in 19 of the last 20 years and paid back £120 million to the public purse in 2015 alone; believes that any privatisation of the Land Registry will have serious consequences for transparency and accountability in the UK property market and hinder efforts to crack down on corruption and money entering the UK property market via offshore jurisdictions; expresses grave concern that all the potential bidders for the Land Registry have been found to be linked to offshore tax havens; notes that the Government has acknowledged that property can provide a convenient vehicle for hiding the proceeds of criminal activity; notes that the Prime Minister stated in July 2015 that there is no place for dirty money in Britain; regrets the Government’s decision to seek short-term profit at the expense of the public interest; opposes the proposed privatisation of the Land Registry; and calls on the Government to reconsider that proposed privatisation."