John Smith pork-barrell award!

John Smith MP whooping 4 pages in the Glamorgan gem with that carton in it reminded me of this article! I think we should have an new award for him – the pork-barrelling award.

http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

In the national interest. Not. Jan 17 2007

pork-barrelling. That's the practice whereby US Congressmen divy up Federal tax dollars among themselves to pay for pet projects back in their constituencies. The general idea is to buy continued electoral support back home, although there have also been plenty of cases where more direct financial considerations are involved.

Some have argued that such things could never happen here because... well, we have a national government that acts in the interests of the entire nation, not just favoured bits of it.
Yeah. Right.

Last autumn we had the scandal of the electoral "heat maps", which Commissar Hewitt uses to decide which hospitals to let close- ie those in Tory areas- and which to protect- ie those in Labour marginals. In fact, as we later discovered, since 1997, 70% of new hospitals have been built in Labour constituencies.

Then last weekend - blow me down - we learned that exactly the same thing has been happening with schools. Under Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme, 27 out of 38, or 70% of the projects, have gone straight to Labour authorities.

And today we hear of yet another case, this time involving the oldest pork barrel of all- defence.

BOM and the oldest pork barrel of all- defence.
http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

readers will recall the case of St Athan, the MOD's aircraft maintenance facility in South Wales. Just before Christmas, MOD tried to bury the bad news that the base was to lose its maintenance contract, threatening thousands of local jobs.
Not surprising they wanted to bury it because St Athan is slap-bang in marginal Labour country, with the local MP, John Smith, sitting on a horribly wobbly majority of 1800.

Oh, er.

What to do? What to do?

Ah yes. Easy. Simply close some other bases in Tory or Lib Dem constituencies and transfer their work to St Athan.

Which is exactly what's happening Jan 2007. Des Browne has announced that St Athan is to be Britain's new Defence Training Hub, and that training will stop at Blandford Camp in Dorset, and at RAF Cosford in the Wrekin, terminating thousands of local jobs in both places.

And yup, both Blandford and Cosford are in Tory constituencies.

I think the appropriate expession is oink, oink.

PS We can't blog pork barrelling without just mentioning once again a few of the all-time US greats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pork_barrel&action=edit

John Smith MP 4 page advertisement gaff & using children to mislead the public

John Smith should resign for misuse of parliamentary communications allowance and using school children, apparently without their parent’s permission, to mislead the public.

How horrifying is it to suggest that Defence academy is on the school curriculum!

?...On the 31st Jan when headlines where telling us that part, at least a third of a huge £15bn defence training academy ear-marked for St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan was being ditched John Smith MP was looking foolish publishing 4 whole pages in the Glamorgan Gem singing the praises of the academy and himself. He said in large print!! "the door remains firmly open for the whole training programme to be delivered at St Athan - using taxpayers money - his parliamentary communications allowance"

CAMPAIGNERS have condemned the Assembly Government for backing a huge military training project, despite the involvement of weapons companies such as Raytheon associated with cluster bombs.

Many parents will be horrified to read that young pupils at Llanwit Major Comprehensive school were doing course work on the benefits of the defence academy. Are the children being told about the arms companies behind this project? Are they being told about Raytheon’s association with cluster bombs or Sercos links to nuclear weapons? Are they aware of the PCS unions opposition to the privatising of military training? The school has not approached the campaign against St Athan Military Academy for information. The children in the photograph didn’t have the permission of their parents according to Mrs Thomas, deputy head, to appear in this misleading propaganda advertisement where they are pictured showing their work to John Smith or who said "I am pleased that the benefits of the Defence academy provided St Athan are being studied in our schools" Deputy Head Mrs Thomas said “the training has nothing to do with politics, this is a Welsh Assembly Government careers education programme provided by Npower.” She went on to say that questions should be put to John Smith MP.

John Smiths 4 page spread is full of misleading and downright false information. The news that package 2 of the St Athan Military Training Academy was dumped has been on the cards since October 2007. Another wheel has come off this trundling white elephant. John Smith MP should resign for brainwashing and using children to promote himself, war and military training. How many more wheels will have to be lost before John Smith MP stops misleading the public, realise that the whole project is a terrible mistake, and is not going anywhere. I have today complained to the advertising standards agency.

Note - For the whole 4 page spread email me and I will attach it asp.

Plans for £15bn St Athan academy are hit
ic Wales, United Kingdom - 31 Jan 2008
PART of a huge £15bn defence training academy ear-marked for St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan is being ditched The two-part project would have seen all UK defence training centralised in south Wales. But the second part of the scheme, dealing with ...

Part of St Athan defence training centre is dropped
ic Wales, United Kingdom - 31 Jan 2008
PART of a huge £15bn defence training academy earmarked for St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan is being ditched, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.

Derek Twigg MP can't say How many jobs at St Athan

Military Bases: Wales How many jobs?

All Written Answers on 10 Jul 2007

John Smith (Vale of Glamorgan, Labour) | Hansard source

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) military and (b) civilian personnel he expects will be based at MOD St. Athan when the new military academy is complete.

Derek Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence) | Hansard source

The scale of the facility to be constructed at St. Athan is dependent upon the outcome of further work with the Metrix Consortium which is exploring the possibility of a Whole Programme Solution.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2007-07-10a.147282.h