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Two south london court cases this week in relation to knife assaults:-

Exhibit A

A Teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing his friend with a steak knife

Exhibit B

A crazed knifeman who believed he was the Messiah and stabbed his best friend to free him from the devil is back living just yards away from his victim

Gordon Brown on off balance sheet finance:-

I think the problem that we got to a year or two ago was that we had so much off-balance sheet not disclosed that a lot of the major banks and institutions didn’t know themselves what their liabilities were.

There’s no doubt that off-balance sheet activities by the major institutions and in the sub-prime market more spectacularly have led to problems for the big institutions

The first thing we have to agree is that the financial institutions will deal with the off-balance sheet activities,

Amount of PFI related, off balance sheet liabilities that Gordon Brown refuses to report in the transparent manner that he urges others to do - £29bn

Number of homicide victims, england & wales - 2006/2007:- 784

Number of occupational deaths at work - 2006/2007 1,400

Rate of homicides per million population - 14

Rate of occupational deaths per million workers - 38

Violent street crime consumes enormous political, media and academic energy. But, as hundreds of thousands of workers and their families know, it is the violence associated with working for a living that is most likely to kill and hospitalise.

HSE enforcement notices fell by 40% and prosecutions fell by 49% between 2001/02 and 2005/06. The collapse in HSE enforcement and prosecution sends a clear message that the government is prepared to let employers kill and maim with impunity

Male life expectancy in Rushey Green ward, Lewisham 1999 to 2003 - 72.1 years

Male life expectancy in Rushey Green ward, Lewisham 2000 to 2004 - 71.8 years

Male life expectancy in Gaza Strip, Palestine (2008 est) - 71.01 years

Male life expectancy in Queens Gate ward, Kensington & Chelsea, 2000 to 2004 - 86.8 years

London Figures Gaza Strip Figures

joan ruddock has removed the mysterious statement that went up on her website a few days ago (referred to a couple of stories down), rebutting allegations of sleaze/impropriety in relation to MP’s expenses

i wonder if this means that she can no longer stand by the comments made in the statement

or is it simply a case of joan jumping the gun and responding to a story in the mail on sunday that never actually went to press

mind you joan is not known for her consistency - making noises locally about trying to prevent the closure of post offices but then quietly voting for the continuation of the closure program in parliament springs to mind for example

(statement can still be viewed in the google cache page)

i’d never realised before that all of our three MP’s for the lewisham area are/were married to other labour MP’s

Joan Ruddock (Labour MP for Lewisham, Deptford) is married to Frank Doran (Labour MP for Aberdeen North)

Jim Dowd (Labour MP for Lewisham West) is married to Janet Anderson (Labour MP for Rossendale & Darwen)

Bridget Prentice (Labour MP for Lewisham East) was married to Gordon Prentice (Labour MP for Pendle) for 25 years until they divorced in 2000

they are in good company however

Lewisham born Alan Keen (Labour MP for Feltham & Heston) is married to Ann Keen (Labour MP for Brentford & Isleworth) who in turn is the sister of Sylvia Heal (Labour MP for Halesowen & Rowley Regis)

Our esteemed mayor’s wife kris hibbert is a former councilor who now works for the london councils organisation

plus ed balls & yvette cooper, harriet harman & jack dromey, the brother & sister team of wendy & douglas alexander, the milliband brothers, plus no doubt a few more

they all have very similar voting records on most issues however i’d put that down to being new labour lackeys in their own right rather than anything else

all very cosy

an interesting comment has appeared on joan ruddock’s website relating to sleaze allegations from the mail on sunday

We are not involved in any sleaze allegations except of the newspaper’s own making. Details of expenses claimed by MP’s are available to the public on the Parliament website. I have not made any claims for costs on the London home I share with my partner Frank. He (in common with most other MPs) has claimed the living away from home allowance. The claim covers the interest payments on the mortgage taken out to purchase his constituency home in Aberdeen. No claims have been made on the subsequent loan taken out for entirely private reasons. No rules have been breached and we will not hesitate to take legal action against anyone who suggests otherwise. No further comment will be made.

can’t find anything on the mail on sunday’s site as to what the story was about, however a couple of observations about joan’s comment

I have not made any claims for costs on the London home I share with my partner Frank

I don’t doubt this for a minute however i do wonder what the £106k that she has claimed over the last 6 years in ‘incidental expenses’ and £12k in ‘london supplements’ were spent on?

Also, her statement is quite specific that she has not made any claims for the costs on the London home she shares with Frank Doran (MP for Aberdeen North). As this statement is presumably a carefully worded response to said sleaze allegations i wondering how telling it is that she doesn’t make the same claim about her partner Frank (who claimed £127k in incidental expenses over the last 6 years)

He (in common with most other MPs) has claimed the living away from home allowance. The claim covers the interest payments on the mortgage taken out to purchase his constituency home in Aberdeen.

In addition to the £127k mentioned above, over the last 6 years Frank has also claimed another £119k in additional costs allowances which is the category of expense allowance that MP’s can utilise to pay for second homes and is what Joan refers to above as a claim to cover interest payments on the mortgage taken out to purchase his constituency home. £119k is an awful lot to be paying purely in interest costs over a 6 year period, I wonder what else is included in here

I’m not suggesting Ruddock & Doran are doing anything wrong, however the situation where public money is used to reimburse MP’s the interest costs of mortgages they have taken out to buy second homes is despicable. This allows MPs to build up equity in property free of any costs to themselves and subsequently pocket the profits when said homes are sold. Surely anyone with an ounce of decency or any principles would recognise that any value realised on the holding of second homes paid for by the taxpayer should be returned to the taxpayer?

Also note the attempt by Joan to close down debate on the topic by introducing talk of legal action

another day another murder on the milford towers estate

it appears that the unwritten policy of containment that has been adopted by the police & council over recent years in relation to milford towers has filtered through into the press with this incident not even warranting a separate story to itself in either of the local rags and indeed having to share a news story in the news shopper about a free map being given away in woolwich libraries