Pakistani spies in Parliament

blares the Telegraph, here.  Well, of course there are.  And certainly every time there is a visit to Parliament by an important Pakistani figure, and every time there is a meeting of certain All-Party Parliamentary Groups, then oh yes, the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, is there in force.  No surprise.  Though what did surprise me was how easy it was for the spooks to get in.  But the Pakistani government using the ISI to channel funds to its fight to regain Kashmir, as it sees it, well dodgy. (CIA Ghost Wars in Afghanistan, anyone?)  But still no surprise.  However, there was, and probably still is, an All-Party Group on Kashmir, which I may have joined at the time, I cannot remember now, but in whose activities I took no part.  Because I did not want to be funded, directly or indirectly, by the government of Pakistan, especially on anything to do with Kashmir.  Others had fewer scruples.  The Telegraph names them, but for ease of reference they are, among others, present and former MPs and Lords Paul Goodman, Lord Ahmed, Humfrey Malins, Khalid Mahmood and Martin Salter.

I did warn him.  But this group was very important to Mr Salter's work as the MP for Reading  
Reading East  Reading West.

Mr S is back in Reading by the way.  Last time he appeared, briefly, HMV declined to report the matter when I informed them of it.  Will they now?  His camper van is parked anew at Gratwicke Road Tilehurst.  He has a lucrative contract in Australia, which he will apparently fulfil at a distance, as you can read here.  Well, he is used to remote working.  He did his parliamentary work at a distance, often citing "speaking engagements" around the country as the reason for not voting on important matters.  When it came to the Iraq war he just lied, and said he had voted against the Government motion, when in fact he had done the whips' bidding and abstained.  He did his constituency work at a distance, spending his time in Reading East and using the megaphone of the Reading Evening Post to communicate with his constituents in Reading West.  His Reading West election campaigns were funded and operated by the machinery of Reading Borough Council.  At your expense, people of the Ding.  Anyway, he is back to pursue his new political ambitions, the lucrative post as chief executive of a national charity he informed us in 2009 was coming his way having failed to materialise.

Coming soon, to a His Master's Voice headline near you.