Scum

There is no other word for it… those people in the EU parliament who, so filled with their own sense of importance, have seen fit to allocate £262,000 on a party to toast the new European Union constitution in Strasbourg this week.

According to The Sunday Times, £25,000 will be spent on inviting two grands penseurs (thinkers) and 20 grandes plumes (columnists) from states holding referendums on the constitution. Those invited include Adela Cortina Orts, a Spanish philosopher, and Jeremy Rifkin, the American author of The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream.

A further £70,000 will be used to bring over 100 regional journalists "to ensure maximum coverage". Participants will attend a £56,000 "round table event" and a lavish lunch in the chambers of Josep Borrell, the Spanish president of the parliament. Other expenditure includes £31,000 on internal decorations and £56,000 on external ones.

But in the same category goes Tony Blair who, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph
used the Queen's Flight for his Egyptian holiday 'freebie', costing the hard-pressed British taxpayers up to £100,000

He and his family enjoyed the use of an RAF 32 Squadron BAe 146, which is also used by the Queen and the Royal Family, to fly to Sharm el Sheikh, paying only the standard commercial air fare for the privilege.

His excuse is that the trip included a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the King of Jordan, the King of Bahrain and that he had made a "significant number of phone calls to other world leaders" during his stay.

I would remind our readers – as if they needed it – that there is no such thing as free money. All of this comes from the taxpayer and, as I am wont to observe, if you don’t pay your taxes you go to jail.

These people have no moral authority whosoever. They are worse than the shoplifters or the muggers who at least do not pretend to be anything other than what they are. Tarted up in their finery, with their airs and graces, these people think they are soo important. They are not. They are scum.