Lobster Blogster

From BBC News 3rd August 2006

The prime minister said he was not surprised "there is anxiety amongst members of the Cabinet" over policy on the conflict in Lebanon.

But he said claims of a split between him and the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett were "complete rubbish".


Quote of the day

Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.

Claud Cockburn (1904 - 1981)


Interesting fact of the day

12 per cent of the MPs in the current government have signed Early Day Motions (EDMs) whilst in government.

Related item: My MP tells porkers - does yours?

Lobster Blogster wrote to his MP recently to ask if she would sign Early Day Motion 2146. The motion is in support of a man called Brian Haw, who has been protesting in Parliament Square for the past five years.

The lobster's MP wrote back and said "I am unable to sign any Early Day Motion (EDM) because only backbench MPs can do so."

The lobster was happy with this until he came across a couple of things which contradicted it. During Prime Minister's Questions, an MP stood up and asked the Prime Minister to sign early-day motion 2519. When the lobster checked the House of Commons information sheet on this he found that the instruction was that "Ministers and whips do not normally sign EDMs."

So when my MP, who is a minister, said she was "unable to sign" "because only backbench MPs can do so", she told me a lie.

The lobster wrote her a second letter. When I quoted the two sources above and said that her answer "appears to be incorrect" I must have upset her, because in one paragraph she wrote "As you seem incapable of believing a sentence that I write...".

In her letter she exhorted the lobster thus: "If you would care to take a look at the Early Day Motion database you will find that no member of the Government has signed an Early Day Motion whilst working as a minister".

Well the lobster did as he was told, and looked in the database. It took the lobster about half an hour to find at least five members of Tony Blair's government who have indeed signed EDMs, the most prominent of which was Harriet Harman MP, currently Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs, a minister since May 1997 who signed EDM 434.

My MP has clearly told me a second lie. I am starting to get her point about not believing a word she says.

The lobster doesn't really want to write back to her until he has found out just how many of the present government have actually signed EDMs. The lobster wonders if anyone else has examples of their MPs lying, and whether anyone should really care?

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PS the lobster's scanner is bust, otherwise he would quite happily post links to the two offending letters here.

Lobster Blogster is not at all pleased with a human who goes by the name of Tony Blair. If you are still a fan of his, feel free to watch this video clip and comment below.