Gordon Brown's Webcast

I've rejigged this from a parody into a fisking, so if you saw it before I altered it then that is why. It's about Gordon Brown's cringe inducing webcast.

Going round the country I have been struck by the comments that are made by young people when I meet them about the jobs they want to do when they grow up.

I meet large numbers of people who want to be doctors and nurses, many who want to be teachers and firemen and ambulancemen and many who want to be in the caring services. And when I ask them why they want to do what they plan to do, they say because they want to make a difference.

But mostly because you've wrecked the economy so completely that a public sector job is the only hope they have of getting a job that won't be taxed to the hilt in order to pay off the colossal public debt you have created.

But these days I rarely meet anyone who wants to be a Member of Parliament when they grow up, at least not once you introduce yourself as Gordon Brown MP. and that is a shame, because I think MPs can make an enormous difference to people they represent.

You've certainly 'made a difference', think of all the people who might still be in work if you had never been an MP.

Now the vast majority of MPs I know do an excellent job. They are in public service not for what they can get, but for what they can give.

Yet the issue of expenses is casting a cloud over the whole of Parliament. So MPs need to have the humility to recognise that the country has lost confidence in the current system, because carrying on regardless even after the public has made clear that they have lost confidence in them would be ridiculous.- To restore our faith in Parliament, and the good that it can do on the public’s behalf, we must commit to tightening up the system of allowances urgently. How? byy renaming the system MPs allowances as 'investing in MPs' perhaps.

- the additional costs allowance - or second homes allowance - should be abolished and replaced by a flat rate daily allowance. This will reflect the fact that MPs do incur extra costs from working in two different places but it should be based on attendance in the House of Commons. Because obviously houses are cheaper if you use them less often.

While the committee on standards in public life looks into the issue more fully, we will ensure there is greater transparency on second jobs held by MPs. Where members of parliament have a second source of income from second jobs, every payment should be declared with a full description of what it is for and who paid it. There shall also be a full declaration of the hours worked for the payment received.

This isn't obviously related to expenses but you want to use it to bash the Tories, many of whom have directorships or City jobs, so it is a cardinal point on your moral compass.