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MarkMcIntyre

Listed below are comments made by MarkMcIntyre between Friday, 30th January 2009 and Tuesday, 22nd September 2009.

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Old Father Thames Restored 12:11pm on 22 Sep 2009 Hooray! As for the commenter who said its unimportant whether you're north or south of the river, on the map Pimlico is the closest stop to Nine Elms, and don't you think its relevant that Southwark is on the opposite side of the Thames to St Pauls? Plus the river /defines/ London. Its the single biggest landmark.
When panic shapes policy 2:14pm on 11 Sep 2009 My kids' school has a "walking bus" with parents helping out every night. These people will evidently now need to be vetted and I believe most of them will either stop helping or fail to comply.

And yet how could they possibly abuse children while walking them home in the company of 30 other kids and half a dozen adults?

The law is, again, an ass. Registration should be confined to roles which involve potentially dubious contact. Sports coach, one-on-one tutoring - fine. But parent classroom helper, PTA volunteer at the summer fair, don't be silly.
A new style of Speaker? 12:20pm on 23 Jun 2009 On the question of expenses, only full disclosure will satisfy the public. If MPs knew their constituents would be combing their claims with a fine-tooth comb you can bet they'd keep the list clean. Personally I don't have an issue with reasonable claims for maintaining london flats or for that matter employing your spouse as PA - most family businesses do the same. So let the new speaker concentrate on the real fiddles like tax avoidance and 'researchers' enjoying holidays at the taxpayer's expense, not about bath plugs and dodgy videos.
He failed to lead 4:11pm on 19 May 2009 Just to set the record straight on "democracy" - we have a representative democracy, carefully tuned so that there is normally a clear majority. This avoids the chaos of more 'representative' systems (consider italy or israel) where a succession of minority governments are so powerless that the real power becomes wielded by civil servants. We do not want that!

As for Martin - he's been made a scapegoat, but its too late, the covers are off and the public now truly knows the depth to which some MPs have sunk. I hope Brown comes through on his promise to deselect MPs who made truly bogus claims. I hope Cameron comes through on his promise to expel the crooks. I hope all parties come through on proper reform on MPs pay.

But I doubt this will happen. MPs will be 'deselected' by the voters, not their bosses. The next govt will, with trumpets blaring, set up a Committee to review the whole thing - to report in 2020, or when hell freezes over...
A question of when, not if 11:53pm on 18 May 2009 Its absolutely typical of this situation that MPs, instead of blaming themselves for putting in outrageous expenses claims, are trying to blame the speaker for not stopping them. Its indicative of the state of denial that MPs are in.
From unthinkable to unavoidable 6:56pm on 12 May 2009 WhiteEnglishProud's idea is interesting - but has he worked out the cost? A one-bedroom flat in london will cost you at least 200K so we're talking about 60-120 million quid. And the tax payer would have to pick up council tax, utilities, repairs etc.
And remember that housing costs are only one element of 'allowances' and 'expenses'. Don't forget admin staff (expensed), constituency office (expensed) etc...
My YouTube shame - part two 1:13pm on 15 Apr 2009 What aspect of copyright law are you infringing here?

A live football match does not fall into any of the categories covered by copyright (literary, CG, dramatic musical or artistic work, crown or parliamentary copyright, database, sound recording, film, broadcast, cable or published material). You should dispute this with youtube and force the FA to prove their claim.

The T&C mentioned by others are between you and the club. If the club or the FA think you've breached those T&C its still not a copyright matter but a contractual dispute.
The Battle of Broughton 12:43pm on 06 Apr 2009 "Its not like google are doing anything the average person cannot".

Actually they are. The average person cannot photograph every single inch of every street in London, Oxford, etc and display them all in a searcheable and browseable on the world's most popular website. The point is, its not just about taking the photo, its what is being done with it.

Oh I agree google has the legal right to do this. But ts legal to sell machine guns to 3rd world governments. Its legal for airlines to charge you to have a pee on the flight. That doesn't make it right or appropriate.
Bash-A-Banker 00:53am on 10 Feb 2009 Blears clearly hasn't been near a Bank senior mgmt team in her life. The most reckless bosses I've worked for were female, there seemed almost to be a culture of out-ladding the lads.

Heres a tip: If you want to minimise risk, try empowering your watchdog and risk managers, and make it illegal to sack whistleblowers.

By the way pf those 170,000 RBS employees, 169,000 will get zero bonus this year. Guess which ones they'll be?
Bankers and responsibility 12:50pm on 30 Jan 2009 "curing a drug addict... by giving him a prescription"...

This is an excellent metaphor because it is EXACTLY how you do cure drug addicts.

You stop them taking stupid risks with dodgy drugs (loans) by providing them with a safe clean supply of the drug (money). Remember, if you cut off the drug (money), the addict (bank) dies of cold turkey.

So the Govt is absolutely right. Stop the addict dying, give him the help and education he needs to live cleanly, then wean him off the drug carefully.

Anyone with an eye to history will know that "cold turkey" will give us a 10 year depression and half the population out of work & homeless.

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