One might have expected better from a trougher with her hand regularly dipping into our wallets*, but it seems that Labour MEP Mary Honeyball's garbled, incoherent response to those who objected to her ugly triumphalist stance on the cancellation of the TICAP conference on Tuesday & Wednesday, is all we are going to get.
She has blogged twice since with much more clarity (perhaps the effects of the Friday night taxpayer-funded wine have worn off), but nothing further on her ramblings about Elvis on the moon, bear-baiting, or Tories having sex with kids.
* I should say purses as well, I suppose, seeing as Honeyball is a feminist. But dipping her hand regularly she definitely is. This is what she is entitled to as an MEP (exchange rate courtesy of xe.com):
Salary - €7,000 per month (£80,280 pa)
Constituency Allowance - €4,052 per month (£46,471 pa)
Attendance Allowance - €235 per meeting (£225)
Travel Allowance - whatever it costs to get to Brussels or Strasbourg, all paid for
Personal Travel Allowance (for going outside the EU) - €4,000 (£3,823)
There is also a payment for secretarial services of €16,194 per month (£185,723 pa), and a generous pension fund.
Now, it's very difficult to find out how many meetings Honeyball attended, probably because the EU have only just realised that we might like to know. But I dunno, let's take it as being 50 per year, that isn't unreasonable. And let's say there are 50 claims for £500 travel expenses per year too. On that basis, Honeyball is costing you, the taxpayer, in excess of £350,000 per annum.
I'd venture to suggest, as a London resident (she being a London MEP), that she doesn't do a lot for me judging from her quite astounding blog nonsense in the past couple of days. But then, I'm not a woman.
... as the President sits down this week to an in-tray, of economic despair and two wars, will women’s issues be in the forefront of his mind?
That's right. The world is in a mess, but the President should be primarily addressing diversity and feminism. Good grief.
In Obama's speech on stimulating the economy he spoke of “building roads, bridges and schools, developing eco friendly technologies”. But as these are construction based industries that are dominated by men (just 2.7 per cent of US construction workers are women) such fiscal stimulation is almost to the sole benefit of male workers. To rectify this Albelda proposes an additional stimulus plan for the female side of the economy: “caring for those who cannot care for themselves, healthcare and primary education are the very foundation of a civil society. Investing in these outcomes is as vital to our long-term economic health as airports, highways, wind turbines, and energy retrofitted buildings.” She points out that not only do these jobs disproportionately employ women, but “investments in direct care, education, and healthcare would also go a long way in alleviating poverty.”
Yes, but they don't really create wealth do they, Mary? Which is sort of the point when it comes to stimulating an economy. Obama isn't a feminist because he isn't planning on spending enough on overheads? This is a very strange argument. But entirely Labour in its thinking.
Oh yeah. Do you remember this story too? The one about all our e-mails being logged? Well, that is, as is usual these days, an instruction from the EU. Our Government is required to introduce it. So Labour can't really be blamed for pushing it through in the UK, can they?
Oh yes they can. Because they were the fuckers who voted for it in Brussels. Here is the voting record for Directive 2006/24/EC, with Honeyball firmly in the 'yes' camp. She said yes to ...
The Directive requires Member States to ensure that communications providers must retain, for a period of between 6 months and 2 years, necessary data as specified in the Directive
to trace and identify the source of a communication;
to trace and identify the destination of a communication;
to identify the date, time and duration of a communication;
to identify the type of communication;
to identify the communication device;
to identify the location of mobile communication equipment.
This is the bit I like best though. It was where she really upset the catholics by lambasting the Pope in the Guardian. After he had refused an invitation from the EU on the basis that they were a "militantly secularist" organisation, Honeyball gave him a bit of a roasting. This is what she said in her article:
"Tolerance means defending one's views, hearing out others and respecting their convictions."
Really Mary? Funny that, seeing as you have a completely different view when it comes to pro-choice campaigners (who help pay for your £350,000pa troughing) wishing to hold a meeting in the EU building. Where did your personal tolerance and respect disappear to then? Did it elope with your fair-mindedness and keen eye for prejudice, perchance?
Lastly, get this. Mary was keen to talk about 'democratic processes' with regard to the smoking ban. Quite hypocritical considering not a single voter in London cast a vote for her. Nor can they vote against her. She is the result of a voting system which chooses jobs on the basis of a party list.
A quota is calculated for the constituency - the number of votes required to win one seat. Those who become the party's MPs, will be those placed highest in the party's list of candidates. Voters simply vote for the party, they have no say as to which candidates are elected.
So, to recap. Honeyball is sucking up over £350,000 from us. She will ignore men as she doesn't like them (even Obama), she has also ignored and ridiculed the female originator of the e-mail she received, despite blasting the Pope for not being tolerant of opposing views. She supports fake charities with no accountability to the public, but then why not seeing as she isn't accountible to the public either?
All she has to do is to follow Labour's directives and she will keep her place near the top of the closed party list for the elections in 2009 as part of their ongoing 'diversity' box-ticking exercise, thereby giving herself a better chance of sticking her snout in the very lucrative EU trough for a few more years.
Nice work if one can get it, but please Mary, don't call it democracy.
Banner pic H/T Lawson Narse
Update: Leg Iron doesn't care much for the trougher's methods either.
