Weekend Diary: The Speaker Must Be Very Proud
Jonathan Sheppard and his wife spend £18k a year commuting. He thinks his own train might be cheaper.
20 Aug 2011, 22:02
Mr Bercow must be proud
* This week I took delivery of 26 used railway sleepers to turn into raised beds. I am now having second thoughts. Given we now know that season tickets will be rising by 3% above the rate of inflation that means my wife and I will be forking out over £18,000 for our two season tickets. Does the Transport Secretary really understand just how much money you have to earn before tax to pay for that? Forget tax freedom day, we celebrate season ticket freedom day. Given the cost I think it could soon be cheaper using the railway sleepers to lay my own track down to London.
* We are now hearing stories that because all the thugs involved in the rioting have been given custodial sentences, the prison system is creaking at the seems. Well there is a simple answer. We need to offer more prison places. Why can't we adopt the attitude of Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has a vacancy sign over his jail, and houses inmates in a tent city when the cells become full. Early release due to prisons being full is a nonsense, and always has been.
* I am currently collating some of my interviews for a Best of Tory Radio book. Yes don't all rush at once down to your local bookstore. I am in the midst of typing up a transcript of an interview with Lord Tebbit, which I have to say is as fascinating as the day I did it. One quote that really made me laugh was his views on trade union reform. "My Trades Union reforms were radically different to Ted Heath's. His failed. Mine succeeded." Quite.
* So Sally Bercow has gone into the Big Brother House. Another reason not to watch it, I suppose. OK so that is a little churlish, but those people who suggest that what she does has nothing whatsoever to do with the Speaker as she is a person in her own right really do need a bit of a reality check. Do you really think she would have been offered such a gig were she not married to the Speaker? She is not in there as Sally Bercow. She is on TV as Sally Bercow, wife of The Speaker. How very proud he must be.
Comments (4)
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So what do you suggest that Mr Speaker does about his wife?
Rein her in?
Tell her what she can or cannot do?
Order her to behave in a decorous fashion befitting her role as the Speaker's wife?
Put her across his knee and beat her with her hairbrush until she abides by his orders?
I would suggest that you grow up, accept the reality of the 21st Century and accept that Mrs Bercow can do what she wants without her husband's approval and that what she does, for better or worse, is a reflection on her not on her spouse!
21/08/2011 06:54I wonder if Mr Speaker knows what vajazzles are yet
21/08/2011 07:39Alwyn.. who has suggested that Mrs Bercow can't do what she wants?
Reading what you want to see me thinks.I am just pointing out that the reason she is seen as a "celeb' is wholly down to the job of her husband. Sorry.. a fact. I wonder how many times Sally Bercow gets written up as just Sally Bercow, or Sally Bercow, Wife of the Speaker. No no... no relevance at all
So if what she does is not reflection on her spouse are the actions of rioters no reflection on their families... or is that not a 21st century view too?
21/08/2011 09:07"Does the Transport Secretary really understand just how much money you have to earn before tax to pay for that?"
No. Because the transport secretary claims expensive things like that back as allowances. Paid for out of the tax on yours...
It's kind of like the financial equivalent of getting a kick in the face right after getting a kick in the face.
21/08/2011 11:13