pictures from Gaza

drawn by children and intended to illustrate those children's experiences, are included in an exhibition at Reading Central Library, so if you would like to see them, and it seems like a good initiative to me, then hurry, because the exhibition closes on Saturday 14th January. A correspondent points out:

Amongst the captions alongside the pictures is the following quote: "Many children commit suicide in order to join their martyred relatives in Heaven. Others are angry enough to want to punish the enemy before they go."

Post 7/7 do Labour candidates want to be associated with apologists for suicide bombings? Just a thought.

more beaver than you can shake a stick at

ooh er missus

His Master's Voice published this on 11th January, two days ago, for no discernible reason, given that they used a press release published on Mr Salter's "website" at the very beginning of December, and I commented on it on 8th December, all of which is about five weeks ago. Here it is, for entertainment value:

Martin Salter opposes beaver ‘benefit’January 11, 2010
Angling fan Martin Salter is taking on Natural England and its “ludicrous” plans to re-introduce the beaver to the English countryside.
The Reading West MP, who is also angling spokesman for the Government, no he isn't, he is liaison person for angling and shooting, he has no government job, despite years of toadying used a Commons debate on fisheries five weeks ago to highlight the new fish passage regulations and proposed new rules governing hydropower schemes which are designed to remove obstructions to fish seeking spawning grounds.
He told Parliament: “On the one hand, we are seeking to ensure that migratory fish can run the rivers and reach the spawning grounds.
“On the other, Natural England talks of reintroducing the beaver, the one creature which, by creating dams, will ensure that all our legislation on fish passes becomes absolutely worthless.” no it won't, there were fish in England when there were also beavers, in fact beavers, er, eat fish
Natural England and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species says it is “feasible to re-introduce beavers into England with many consequent benefits, not least for beavers to assist with river and floodplain restoration”.
But Mr Salter rubbished the statement so what did he say then? what cogent arguments did he put forward? call this journalism? shame

no snow angel

Mr Salter spoke up in the House yesterday for the work being done at a school in his constituency to ensure that despite the snow it would open for pupils and parents. Now we're getting somewhere, I thought. The school is actually in his constituency rather than in Reading East, where he spends most of his time and does his photocalls, and this is what a good constituency MP should do. His 15-second intervention got about 17 pages of sycophantic coverage in His Master's Voice, but we are all used to that. But when the time came to vote in the House that same evening Mr Salter was absent. Long gone. Not a dereliction of duty on a par with saying he had voted against the Iraq war when in fact he was absent then too, but still... Mr Salter tells us that he goes back to Reading every night. Indeed I believe he does, and always has. But if his home in leafy Tilehurst is such an easy commute then why does he regularly slope off before close of business to catch his train? And none of this answers why he claimed over £40K of taxpayers' money between 1997 and 2001 for a non-existent London property.

the unforgiven

I thought this post on the Scoop blog, following evidence given by the former MoD head John Day to the Chilcot inquiry on the Iraq war - you know, latest in the series, let's keep having inquiries intil we get the answer we want, namely that killing Muslims is just fine and dandy so long as it is brown-skin people who do it, and by the way let's throw acid over girls who go to school - was interesting. The "surge" policy of the then Bush administration turned things around further north in Iraq, better late than never, but in the British zone in the south there seems to have been a failure of will which led to accommodation with extremists and left the Basra population under attack from the Guardian readers' favourite chaps, the jihadists. Was the then government under Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown too much influenced by those lovely Guardian-reading fans of jihad? Hein? I think we should be told.

not just nasty but...

barely literate, of almost Howarthian proportions, and this from a Winchester educated man! I mean of course Nasty Naz Sarkar, Labour candidate for Reading West, who has posted the following on his (non-interactive) website.

Both Martin Salter MP and I are totally behind Gordon Brown Salter completely failed to express support for Gordon Brown in his media initiative on the subject and believe that Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt’s actions of the last few days are a total distraction.

In the lead up to the election Reading West residents tell me on the doorstep that the biggest issue facing them is the economy. There is a clear difference between how we and the Tories would deal with it.

The Tories measures apostrophe Naz, apostrophe, would deepen the recession and threaten the jobs hard working hyphen Naz, hyphen, people here in Reading. hard-working people what? not just barely literate but incomprehensible too

In particular I am concerned that they would impose harmful cuts on our schools here and possibly axe vital services such as a Sure Start centre or two. or two? how many does he think there are in the constituency? One, last time I looked I would call for them to make the same commitment that Labour has made not to axe and Sure Start centres in this constituency huh? not just a spell check but a barely literate child (who perhaps had attended a Sure Start centre) could correct this but doubt that such a commitment will be forthcoming.

There is no politician at a national level with more experience and ability to help us put in place measures that will tackle the recession and help hard working families through it then Gordon Brown then Gordon Brown what? Then Gordon Brown confessed to a three-way sex romp with Iris Robinson and her toy boy? . And this is why he has got my wholehearted support in the run up to the next election.

Below you can read Martin Salter’s response to Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt.

no do spare us, there might be people in Ulan Bator who have not heard it yet

I don't usually mock the illiterate, but considering the money that has been lavished on this man's educashun and the undoubted fact that he has not had the judgment to get his text checked before publication (or not let Mr Howarth anywhere near it) I am left with no choice. Every time he puts one of these things out Labour lose another 100 votes.

eagle eyed?

those reading the previous post who are well connected (hem hem) may notice that Rhona Brown is someone who, bizarrely, signs emails which apparently emanate from the parliamentary office of Mr Salter, seemingly because he thinks emails are anti-democratic and therefore will not put his name to them. She declares no other source of income and therefore presumably gets a salary from Mr Salter.

the second one, whose entry is similar, has the same name as a total cow called Liz Shannon, with short hair and a very odd fringe, who used to work (maybe still does) for the PLP, and who was no good as a political officer because she believed whatever the last person told her.

the third one appears to be the same person as the Sadie Smith of the late lamented Sadie's Tavern blog, well written and widely read, still linked to on the right of this page though it is no longer active, who described herself on that blog as working for an MP but was always too professional to say which one or to bring her paid job and her writing together. She stopped writing her blog after apparently having some health problems of quite a serious nature, and not generally being very happy with the state of things in her life. These things are commensurate with what often happens to people who are bullied. I REALLY hope nothing of that sort happened to Sadie Smith, but I have seen it happen several times to people, most of them women, who have been associated politically or professionally with Mr Salter. Also, Mr Salter has a stated public position (stated on BBC radio and elsewhere) that blog writing is to be condemned as an anti-democratic practice, which I heard him say in a voice shaking with rage. The groups Ms Smith does or has done work for, as listed in the register, are mostly connected with work against anti-Semitism, a cause (Jew-hating not work against it) Mr Salter has publicly supported, putting his name to a leaflet distributed in his favourite constituency, Reading East, which called for the destruction of the state of Israel.

So - well, let's hope none of these things are connected. Hein?

in the register

the following is an extract from the current register of interests of MPs' staff, that is people who receive a parliamentary pass from an MP (each MP is entitled to three of these)

Rhona	Brown	Martin	Salter	None.
Liz	Shannon	Martin	Salter	None.
Sadie	Smith	Martin	Salter	Paid by The Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism (a charity) to act as clerk to the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism. Receives occasional payments from W4MP website for writing and amending guides. Paid by Messy Media Ltd for contributions to the Westmonster website. Parliamentary Consultant to the Inter-parliamentary Coalition on Combating Antisemitism (conference organisation). Payment received from Total Politics magazine for an article written for that publication (registered January 2009).