THE NEVER-ENDING SHAME OF ROTHERHAM COUNCIL

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council first received reports of child grooming in the town as early as 1999.  No-one was prosecuted until 2010.  The Jay Report of 2014 exposed collusion to such an extent that both the council leader (Labour's Roger Stone) and its chief executive both subsequently resigned.  The council's director of children's services (also Labour) initially refused to resign, but eventually bowed down to pressure.  Three Labour councillors were suspended by the party (one was later reinstated).  Local MP Sarah Champion was sacked from the front bench after daring to mention the very specific demographics related to the case ie. that the victims were overwhelmingly Pakistani Muslim men and the victims were overwhelmingly white.  A later inquiry deemed the council "not fit for purpose" and Stone's successor as council leader also resigned.

Today it has been revealed that Rotherham Council is continuing to assist the rapists.

Sammy Woodhouse was 15 when she was raped and impregnated by Arshid Hussain.  In a staggering move Rotherham Council have contacted Miss Woodhouse to inform her that Hussain has a 'right to access'.  This is actually much worse than it sounds because Hussain didn't contact the council - they contacted him!  Quite how a man who is serving 35 years in prison is going to have access to the child is left to the imagination.

Sickening.

MOST SHARED: WEEK 188

Shared 1,269 times via the Facebook page, this BTLP original features another young ideologue with plenty of life experience to know that socialism is the best way forward!  If he took off his rose-tinted spectacles for a second he might realise that truly socialist countries are actually very fond of borders, and walls.  It is not so much a case of no bigots, no borders, but more like no leave, no entry!  Twat.

MESSAGE FROM CZECHIA

Richey is in Prague at the moment.  He's sent this picture back and says every Corbyn-loving Marxist should attend something like this for a real education.  Life was grim in communist Czechoslovakia and this place exposes the harsh reallity.

NEW ANTI-SOCIALISM FRIDGE MAGNET

The above design has been added to our range, scroll down the page and you'll see the link on the right hand side.  So if you don't fancy becoming a patron, you can help us by buying a fridge magnet like the one above!

SHAMI TALKING SHITE

Baroness Chakrabarti must have drawn the short straw to go on Marr this morning.  It was a dreadful performance, akin to an MP trying to filibuster a piece of legislation by talking utter drivel for as long as possible.  Asides from the headline-grabbing "Don't patronise me" outburst from Andrew Marr, we learnt nothing new whatsoever.  All we know is that Labour is going to frustrate the Brexit process as much as possible in order to create the chaos necessary for it to have any chance of coming to power.  Labour not putting the national interest first - who'd have thought!!!

MOST SHARED: WEEK 187

Shared 1,464 times via the Facebook page, this BTLP original showcases the disarray that is the Labour Party on Brexit.  All the quotes are genuine, with the exception of poor Diane who we added for a touch of humour.  Lifelong Eurosceptic Corbyn is constantly being undermined by his front bench colleagues.  Within days of Corbyn telling German press that Brexit "can't be stopped" up stepped Shadow Brexit Secretary (and staunch Remainer) Keir Starmer to say precisely the exact opposite, while Thornberry suggested a second referendum must "remain on the table".

Labour would not provide a healthy alternative to the woeful deal that May has drawn up.  All they can offer is confusion, with the party 'leader' trying to pull the party in the opposite direction to that which most of his MPs want to go ie. to remain in the EU and overturn the referendum.

You just can't trust Labour on Brexit!

ANOTHER 'IMPARTIAL' BBC REPORT

We in Britain can't imagine how devastating the Californian forest fires are.  The loss of life and property must be harrowing.  However, we can always rely on the BBC to gloss over such human tragedy when the US President becomes involved.  The Beeb wastes no time in politicising their report and quickly questions his being there.  In eight years of Obama there was no such agenda, no outcry when the Democrat failed to attend disasters - or did.

The BBC bias in this latest report is summed up best in the following screencap ie. we confess some locals held up pro-Trump signs, but we'll ignore them and show the one calling him a moron.

ANGELA'S COMEUPPANCE

The odious member for Penistone and Stocksbridge certainly appears to have got her comeuppance.  Angela Smith, of ardent remoaner fame, has lost a no confidence vote in her constituency.  Not so much to do with the fact she has consistently opposed Brexit in a massive Leave constituency, but her criticism of the Great Leader.  Dissent will not be tolerated in Corbyn's Labour and the Momentum deselection train last night rolled into the steel city and struck her a severe blow.

Ironically she was one of the MPs who backed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn two years ago and supported her namesake Owen Smith in the subsequent leadership contest.  Clearly Angela has had this coming a while.  Since then she has dared to question the re-nationalisation policies of the Great Leader and she is currently peddling a 'People's Vote' petition addressed directly to Corbyn.

It is this ardent and unapologetic remoaning - in the face of a 61% Leave constituency - that leads us to maintain dry eyes when it comes to her current predicament.  Whereas we have struck a sympathetic chord with some centre-ground MPs attacked by Momentum's deselection campaign (Frank Field, Kate Hoey etc), Angela Smith is a vile individual who deserves no such sympathy.  In addition to her Brexit blocking record in the Commons, she has also attempted to conceal her expenses.  In 2007 she voted against publicising MPs' expenses and it soon transpired why - she had claimed almost £11,000 in just two years, including four beds for a ONE BEDROOM FLAT!

Smith has responded to the deselection threat by denouncing her detractors as a "cabal of hard left members", an accurate description, but also vowed to fight on and "prioritise our area and my constituents".  Like you prioritised their Leave vote Angela?

LABOUR CONTROL FREAKS

by Richey Edwards

Over the course of the New Labour government our country faced an unprecedented wave of new legislation.  The number of new laws introduced by the Blair/Brown regimes is staggering, averaging more than two thousand per year, culminating in a record 3,506 new laws as the party left office in 2010.  Many Labour MPs have continued this crazed agenda since leaving government.  Most recently the attention has been focused on new 'hate crime' legislation proposed by several feminist MPs which includes criminalising 'wolf whistling' and 'cat calling'.  At a time when police officers are struggling to cope with serious crime and don't even bother with the likes of car crime and burglary any more, it's hardly appropriate.  But that's Labour for you, a bunch of MPs on a power trip eager to shape your thoughts and actions by way of legislation.

Thanks to New Labour the UK now has more CCTV cameras than any country on the planet, and yet they don't deter criminals.  We are being monitored every day of our lives, but for what purpose?  More than five per cent of the UK population is on the national DNA database, the highest figure in the world, and yet it doesn't reduce crime.  An Englishman's home was his castle before Tony Blair stepped into 10 Downing Street, but New Labour gave various agencies the right to enter your home.  Then there was the smoking ban.

I don't smoke, never have, but I do like to go to the pub now and again.  While the smoking ban appears to have encouraged more people to give up, or vape, and that must surely be a good thing, it has brought many pubs to their knees.  Since the ban came into play 11 years ago this country has lost almost 12,000 boozers, that's over a thousand for every year of the ban.  That can't be good.  Pubs are often the focal point of a local community, take it away and people rarely congregate with others.  Labour knew this.  The smoking ban was never about the nation's health - it was about control.  They are still at it today.

The favourite to succeed the odious Carwyn Jones as First Minister of Wales has suggested that the smoking ban in Wales should be extended outdoors and involve a complete ban in town centres.  Cigarette smoke is a threat to no-one's health in the open air, so how on earth can his proposal be about health?  It's not, obviously.  It's just not good enough for Mark Drakeford that people's actions can only be controlled indoors.

Labour politicians just can't help themselves.  They have to dictate every aspect of our daily lives to an Orwellian extent.  Vote Labour get 1984.

MOST SHARED: WEEK 186

Last week Sadiq Khan literally held his hands up and surrendered to the knife gangs of London.  As if we didn't know already, what he said cemented his position as one of the most useless politicians of the 21st century.  He basically deferred any solution to the diabolical situation facing our capital to his successor(s).  Khan is so weak and inept that he makes both Corbyn and May look tough!

Shared 2,719 times this BTLP original was the most shared post on our Facebook page last week.

IS DIANE OK?

When Diane Abbott appeared on Question Time last Thursday the obvious thing to look out for was one of her trademark gaffes.  However, what she actually left us with was concern for her health.  In addition to her puffed up face, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that her hand was shaking uncontrollably.  In the exchange below, watch her right fist after she rests it on the table...

Uncontrollable shaking is a symptom of Parkinson's disease, not in itself proof that Diane is afflicted, but when combined with her occasionally slurred speech and constant fumbling over numbers, one has to wonder.  Of course she could just have been very angry at Mr Peterson's clearly superior intellect and logic.  Our future Home Secretary does not like being told that she is not the moral judge of what is 'hate speech'!

In addition to Diane's apparent loss of motor function, there is also her occasional disappearances from public life.  For someone 'destined' to be our Home Secretary, this is clearly unacceptable.  Imagine for one second that she was the minister responsible for national security and our nation was struck by some awful disaster.  Sorry folks, the Home Secretary is 'feeling unwell', come back tomorrow.  Or next week.

Finally, the most damning proof that Diane is suffering from a serious illness came during a prolonged absence last year.  Her colleague Barry Gardiner was quoted as saying Diane had a 'serious, long term condition'.  When Diane finally re-emerged she announced that it was type 2 diabetes that had struck her down.  However, this is not consistent with the symptoms she has displayed and if her diabetes is so out of control how come she is pictured on the razzle so often?  Furthermore, how can she seriously expect to hold great office if she can't get her own blood sugar under control for a major TV appearance?

Let's hope Diane recovers from her mystery illness, for one thing she is a reliable source of frivolity and ammunition for those mocking the Labour Party.  She may be a despicable human being, a hypocrite and traitor, but we don't wish ill health on anyone.

TWIT OF THE WEEK

Ban the use of the term 'drivetime' because it is offensive and somehow celebrates a weapon of mass destruction?  Jeremy Vine is entitled to his views, just as we're entitled to mock them.  This one demonstrates snowflakery of the highest order, despite the fact Jeremy was born long before the dawn of millennials.

Many of us are related to or know victims of road traffic accidents, but does anyone actually manage to link it to the name of a popular radio show?  Other than Jeremy Vine, of course.  It's absurd.  By this same twisted liberal logic we must also surely ban bonfire night - as fire has killed millions over the course of human history!  And forget about carving that turkey this Christmas, don't you know knives have killed people too?  So inconsiderate to the victims of knife crime!

Oh, just fuck off.

NEW ANTI-BEEB FRIDGE MAGNET

New design, scroll down the page and you'll see the link on the right hand side.  If you don't fancy becoming a patron, you can help us by buying a fridge magnet like the one above.  To coin a BBC feminist marketing phrase - it's about time!

PAEDO APOLOGIST SANDY MARKS

Thanks to the hard work and persistence of the Islington Gazette we can reveal another sinister individual lurking within the Labour Party.  Her name is Sandy Marks (pictured above) and she is a former mayor and long-standing councillor in Corbyn's own backyard of Islington.  In the course of investigating Islington's child abuse scandal the Gazette uncovered links between Marks and a sinister group known as 'Fallen Angels'.  This disgusting group promoted the abolition of the age of consent and campaigned for the release of five men belonging to the 'Paedophile Information Exchange' or PIE for short.  If that name sounds familiar it will be from the scandal that involved three senior Labour MPs a few years ago - namely Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt.

The links between Marks and Fallen Angels didn't stop her appearing at the 2015 Labour conference, in which she got her wheelchair stuck at the podium and was rescued by none other than Corbyn and McDonnell (see picture above).  Kudos to the Islington Gazette for the hard hitting video below...

BANKS SLAMS CHANNEL 4 NEWS

"I'd rather go and put a revolver against my temple and pull the trigger than go on Channel Four News..."

Arron Banks

Just one of the blows meted out to a persistent Channel 4 reporter that confronted Banks following his Marr interview yesterday.  Watch the full exchange below.

ZEICHNER'S PROJECT FEAR

Project Fear Mark II thunders ahead with the latest round of stark predictions from the Remain/Remoan side.  Last week we had a couple of outlandish Brexit warnings from Labour figures including Diane Abbott and Daniel Zeichner.  The Labour MP for Cambridge stood up in the Commons and claimed that no deal would mean "no holidays".

Leave.EU founder Arron Banks yesterday accused a "very vicious group of Labour MPs" of trying to undermine Brexit.  We know who they are and they make no apologies for it.  Keir Starmer, Ben Bradshaw, Stephen Ki££ock, Dave Lammy and Chuka Umunna are just a few names that spring to mind...

MOST SHARED: WEEK 185

Posted a week ago on Facebook and shared 943 times, sometimes the simple ones are the best!

TWIT OF THE WEEK

Diane, Diane, Diane.  Or 'Dianne' as so many erroneously refer to her.  There's only one 'n' in moron too.  This week Diane has been spouting off nonsense as she does most weeks, when she isn't having one of her mysterious illnesses that is.  On Thursday she gave a speech to the National Police Chief's Council.  How unfortunate for them.

Diane's key message was how bad Brexit will be for our old bill.  She announced to her beleaguered audience that Britain would become a haven for terrorists, gangsters and paedophiles upon leaving the EU.  Presumably she said this with a straight face.  This coming from a woman who is an advocate of open borders, who famously ridiculed Ed Miliband's pledge on immigration controls.

Diane explained to the police chiefs that criminals wanted by Europol would flee to Brexit Britain as a safe haven.  The main problem with this outlandish suggestion is that free movement will end after Brexit, whereas Labour would do the complete opposite and open the floodgates.  And for Diane to preach about terrorists and paedophiles flooding into Britain is a bit rich to say the least.  She is pals with terrorists and her party has overseen the greatest paedophile scandal of our time - namely the Pakistani grooming gangs raping white children en masse up and down the country aided and abetted by a conspiracy of silence within Labour councils (and in some cases more hands on).

She's not just a twit, she's a dangerous idiot.

HUDDERSFIELD GROOMING - FOUR MORE SENTENCED

Four more members of the Huddersfield grooming gang (above) were sentenced today.

Mohammed Akram, 33 - received a 17 year prison term

Asif Bashir, 33, received an 11 year term

Niaz Ahmed, 54, received a five year term

Mohammed Imran Ibrar, 34, received a three year term

The youngest known victim of the Huddersfield grooming gang was 11 years old.  Barry Sheerman, the Labour and Co-operative MP for Huddersfield, has so far tweeted 22 times today, but not a single mention of these hideous crimes.  The Muslim Labour leader of Kirklees Council has condemned them multiple times, why the big silence Barry?

ANOTHER ROTHERHAM GANG CONVICTED

Another week, another familiar collection of paedophiles.  The six Rotherham men pictured were convicted today along with a seventh, who mysteriously 'cannot be named for legal reasons'.  An eighth defendant was acquitted.

The story is depressingly familiar.  The men, all of Pakistani origin, preyed on young vulnerable white girls.  One of the victims reported her abduction and rape in 2002, but South Yorkshire Police did nothing.  Another fell pregnant and her parents understandably sought an abortion.  Another told the trial that she had slept with 'at least' 100 Asian men before the age of 16.  The numbers are staggering and the crimes date back to the 1990s, yet presently there have been only 39 convictions related to child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

In years to come we will be asking why no-one from South Yorkshire Police or Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council was convicted.  Without their cover-up these gangs would not have been able to operate as freely as they did for three decades.

REMOAN HATEMONGER TARGETS FLINT

Caroline Flint recently indicated she was prepared to back a Brexit deal in Parliament.  Of course it wasn't long before the trolls piled in.

The offensive tweet (now deleted) is reported to have read;

"By this time next year, she will be swinging from a rope, like her Brexiteer mates"

In addition to the actual tweeter, Flint also attributed the vile message to key remoaners in her own party - namely Alastair Campbell and Lord Adonis - as well as the so-called 'People's Vote'.  She is quite right in bringing them to account.  Campbell recently urged Boris Johnson to "f*** off under a bus".  It's no wonder such bile is filtering down to the trolls when they hear language like this emanating from such high profile Remainers.

The coward responsible for the Flint tweet has now locked down his account (see below).

Nice cover photo Nick and quite fitting for a pussy such as yourself.

ANOTHER LOSER'S VOTE OWN GOAL

Hot on the heels of their disgraceful (now deleted) video, the so-called 'People's Vote' appear to have indulged in another rather inappropriate message.  The poster above appeared on one of their buses bound for their latest cryfest earlier this month.  Does Patrick Stewart approve this message?

MOST SHARED: WEEK 184

Shared 1,723 times via the Facebook page, it's no great surprise that last week's 'Twit of the Week' also features in 'Most Shared'.  Whiter than white Emily is from an American family that lives in a four-bed million-dollar house in leafy Virginia.  She reportedly earns £20k in her role as president of the students' union.

Champagne anyone?

TWIT OF THE WEEK

Poor downtrodden feminist student snowflake leftie hypocrite Emily Dawes.  She was triggered by a mural in Southampton University dedicated to students who had gone off to fight in the First World War, but who never returned to complete their degrees.  What troubled Emily wasn't the poignancy of the message or the tragedy of their loss, but the fact that - shock, horror - they were all white men!

It doesn't take a genius to work out that one hundred years ago Southampton was overwhelmingly populated by white people.  This is not a fact lost on Emily, quite the opposite.  Like many of her left-wing fraternity they are well aware of historical fact, but it doesn't fit their insidious agenda.  The left want to rewrite history, so that all wrongs were committed by white men.  Jeremy Corbyn espoused this agenda when he said our children should be taught the wrongs of British history (all done by white men obviously), but reminded of the 'immense contribution' by black people.  It's ironic that the left are quick to dish out the 'racist' tag, but they themselves have a clearly racist agenda of their own.

The left hate this time of year.  Remembrance Sunday is two weeks away and anything that unites the 'gammon' stinks of 'patriotism' to them.  The fact that 'gammon' is now an accepted term for older white men only goes to show how entrenched the hatred has got within left-wing circles.  The term is used regularly on our Facebook review section by Corbynistas and Owen Jones uses it unashamedly on Twitter.  He even used his Guardian column to deny it was a racial slur, despite the bleeding obvious.

What Owen Jones, Jeremy Corbyn, Emily Dawes and co hate the most is that without the contribution, suffering and sacrifice of millions of Englishmen, Scots, Welsh and Irish, they would probably not be here and certainly wouldn't be free to indulge in their casual racism.  It's a grand hypocrisy, but fortunately not lost on the decent folk that still remain.  Emily was lambasted on a national scale for her Twitter outburst.  A Change.org petition garnered thousands of names, Southampton University denounced the tweet and poor Emily was placed on gardening leave - 'until further notice'.

Still, she could rely on her leftie comrades to stick up for her - Labour councillor and Guardian columnist Maurice McLeod attempted to do so, but he was up against Julia Hartley-Brewer...

KINNOCK'S INSURANCE BLUNDER

Remainer MP Stephen Kinnock made a big tit of himself this week in the Commons.  During a Brexit-loaded question to the PM, Stevie showed a complete naivety about the concept of insurance policies.  A member of the millionaire Ki££ock dynasty, perhaps wee Stevie has never personally taken out an insurance policy.  Such menial tasks must surely be for the servants to carry out!

FRACAS COUNCILLOR URGED TO RESIGN

A Labour councillor in the Forest of Dean is facing calls to quit after an alleged assault outside a village pub.  Cllr Bruce Hogan (pictured) is reported to have punched a man and then fled the scene.  He has since been accused of trying to change the rules so that such matters are not investigated by the council.  His attempts to cover his back have not gone down well with some colleagues reports the local rag.

"There’s an old saying that if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging"

Cllr Sid Phelps (Green)

MOST SHARED: WEEK 183

Sadiq Khan led out the losers' march in London yesterday, also known as the 'People's March'.  It was an impressive turnout, but the key problem with this campaign is that the only numbers that really count are the 17.4 million that voted Leave in 2016.  Campaigners for the so-called 'People's Vote' are just sore losers.

Shared 2,463 times from our Facebook page, this BTLP original really struck a chord with Brexiteers over the weekend.

PEOPLE'S VOTE EXPLOITED LITTLE BOY

You can't help but have noticed that there were some demonstrators on the streets of London yesterday.  It was all over the BBC, every hour all day.  It's still there in their headlines now (unlike the Huddersfield grooming convictions - that was quickly relegated to the local news, naturally).  What is not being talked about is the video that the so-called 'People's Vote' campaign released prior to their big march.  In the video (below) a young boy is exploited to deliver their anti Brexit message.

It should come as no surprise, earlier this month the goons embarked on a march entitled 'Dogs Against Brexit' aka the 'Wooferendum March'.  Bonkers.  Alastair Campbell took part.  No matter how many people turn out on their protests they can't expect to be taken seriously.

Needless to say, their latest stunt didn't fair well and the video was quickly deleted.  Misfire!

FLINT VS CAMPBELL

The odious Alastair Campbell finally took some flak this week for his persistent remoaning.  When Campbell interrupted Caroline Flint as she was answering a Brexit question, the former Labour minister let rip.  Flint was a remainer herself, but unlike some of her colleagues she has adopted a grown up approach and therefore respects the result.

Make no mistake, Labour are as hopelessly divided on Brexit as the Tories.  Watch and enjoy...

TWIT OF THE WEEK

Fat arrogant American leftie Michael Moore made a right tit of himself on Good Morning this week.  After Piers and Susanna had massaged his ego about him rightly predicting Trump and Brexit, Moore turned to the camera.  "You can't leave Europe" he demanded of British viewers.  Yes, quite right Michael, we can't physically leave the continent on which we are situated.

After rambling on about two world wars, Piers Morgan cut in to remind the oaf that it's actually the European Union we are leaving.  Ironically Michael Moore has a history of being heavily opposed to globalisation and yet here he was dictating that we should remain enslaved to the epitome of a globalist entity!

LABOUR COUNCILLOR DEFECTS... TO THE TORIES!

Councillors come and go every week - they stand down, become independents and occasionally switch sides - but rarely do Labour councillors cross over to the Tories (or vice versa).  It happened this week in the Gloucestershire town of Patchway.  Cllr Roger Loveridge (pictured) will now sit as a Conservative councillor after ditching Labour with the following parting shot;

"I have been a Patchway resident for almost my entire life and my only reason for joining the town council was to serve our community. Sadly, I always found myself being shunned and at loggerheads with other Labour councillors when I tried to encourage positive change. I fought for more openness, as meetings were often unnecessarily behind closed doors, but the only people who would ever support me in this were the Conservative councillors, who I can see now care more about the greater good of Patchway than my previous colleagues".

The Bristol Post approached the council leader for comment, Labour's Eve Orpen, but she declined.  She also 'declined to comment' earlier this month when a damning audit of Patchway Town Council uncovered 'discrepancies in the accounts' among other things.  No wonder Cllr Loveridge binned the Labour Party!

FACEBOOK CENSORS STRIKE AGAIN

Once again we both found ourselves locked out of our Facebook accounts today.  The reason?  Click on the above image for the answer!  It appears that merely speaking about Muslim grooming gangs is classified as "hate speech" by Facebook.  Let that sink in.

On a day when Stella Creasy was in the news again spouting off her feminist credentials we thought it apt to point out the deafening silence of Labour politicians when it comes to such gangs.  In fact the only Labour MP to have spoken out about it got sacked from the front benches.  And while we're at it let's not forget gobby Jess Phillips who ridiculed the mass rape and sexual assaults in Cologne as just something "like you'd see on Broad Street in Birmingham on a Friday night".  They are nothing but despicable hypocrites and apologists for rapists.

The meme was shared over a thousand times before it disappeared, here it is one more time...

FLINT PREPARED TO BACK MAY

Former New Labour minister Caroline Flint says she is prepared to back a Brexit deal brokered by the Tory government.  Howls of 'traitor', 'Blairite scum' and 'Tory' could be heard across bedsits and other student accommodation as the keyboard warriors of the left hit Twitter in their trademark manner.  Appearing on Sophy Ridge's show, Flint also let rip at colleagues backing the so-called 'People's Vote', labeling them 'patronising'.  Won't go down well with Chuka, Dave Lammy and barmy Ben Bradshaw!

MOST SHARED: WEEK 182

When some trainee British Army recruits bumped into Tommy Robinson last week they asked for a photo with the campaigner.  Clearly delighted with the encounter they probably didn't imagine the national furore it would trigger.  One of the lads was discharged and the others were condemned by politicians, the top brass and an hysterical media.  The Guardian ran a disgusting headline labelling the entire British Army 'far right'.

We thought it only fair to point out that rather than pose with British soldiers, the leader of the Labour Party would rather pose with terrorists who advocated the murder of British soldiers.  A BTLP original, this was shared 1,617 times via our Facebook page.

PIGS AT THE TROUGH: YVETTE COOPER

Born:  Inverness, 1969
First elected to Parliament:  1997, for Pontefract & Castleford
Expenses fame:  Home flipping

Yvette Cooper is the epitome of a career politician, an elitist ivory tower denizen that dictates our lives, but does not practice what she preaches.  Yvette, and husband Ed, were subject to various claims during the expenses scandal, the most notorious of which was the fact they 'flipped' the designation of their second homes THREE times within two years.

At the time of the scandal MPs outside London were entitled to a generous second home allowance, so they could perform their Westminster duties in addition to their constituency work.  This 'allowance' was a staggering £24,000 per year.  What's more, regardless of the fact two MPs may be married and living together, both could individually claim the full allowance, something which Balls and Cooper made the most of.

After she was first elected to Parliament, Cooper designated her Castleford home as a second home.  After her husband was elected in 2005 she 'flipped' the designation to their South London property, despite this clearly being their main home (their children attended London schools).  They had both realised they could claim much more against a London house than they could on a Yorkshire house.  When they bought a larger property in North London in 2007 they kept London as their second home.  It was a no brainer, obviously.  They also claimed a whopping £2,000 for the removal vans!

Cooper and Balls were later exonerated of any wrongdoing, as they had acted within the rules.  A relatively 'small' overpayment of £1,363 was to be paid back.  This probably related to two monthly claims of £1,300 (each) for mortgage interest, at odds with their mortgage statement of only £733.

The pair were also found to have claimed for 375 journeys taken by their children between Castleford and London over a three year period, totalling more than £14,000.  This exceeded the allowance, which stood at a maximum of 30 journeys per year per child (or 90 journeys as they have three children).  They were not sanctioned for this either.

In 2007/08 Yvette Cooper claimed £152,659 in expenses and allowances alone.  However, to understand the full scale of pigtroughery, one must remember that all this took place while she and Ed were earning ministerial salaries of £141,866 - each.  They also have ministerial pension pots to look forward to later in their comfortable lives.  All in all, quids in!

LULA AND LABOUR

The name Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.  Apparently he is more popularly known as 'Lula', but you'd be forgiven for still not having the faintest idea who he is.  Well, old Lula the rascal hasn't escaped the notice of the youth wing of our very own UK Labour Party - Young Labour (imaginative).

So who is he?

Lula is the most prominent member of Brazil's Workers' Party, the party he founded and led.  He was also the President of Brazil for two terms between 2003 and 2011.

Where is he now?

In prison serving a 12 year sentence for multiple counts of corruption that included money laundering, taking bribes and obstruction of justice.  Lula was indicted as part of the huge anti-corruption investigation known as 'Operation Car Wash'.

So what has this got to do with Young Labour?

Well, on the 3rd of October they named Lula as their 'honorary president'.  Let that sink in!