Monday 5 March 2012

It Ain’t What You Say, It’s How You Say It…

It’s not that Jacob Rees-Mogg isn’t quite right in what he says here, it’s that he….

Well, in his own words:
Mr Rees-Mogg said plans to hand councils the power to impound cars which are being sold on the street were pernicious and went against the citizen’s “ancient liberties” enshrined in the Magna Carta.
Well, hurrah! Sadly, it was all downhill from there…
The MP told the Commons: “Then around comes this authorised officer and practically drives off in your brand new Bentley. It would be very tiresome for the person who had bought a brand new Bentley, if anyone could afford such things in these times of austerity.”

He added: “I think being a car salesman is a really honourable profession. Trading cars is the way to starting in business.

“Eventually you’re buying Aston Martin DB5s and putting them outside your front door for £150,000 – cheap at twice the price some might say – and that’s before you’ve even got on to thinking about Bentleys.

“Great cars that they are too, though perhaps not quite as good as Aston Martins some might say, with the style and sleek lines that they have. To get people starting in business, how are we going to get this economy revived if we don’t encourage the small businessman?”
By now, I suspect you are slack-jawed with amazement, and so will miss the rather important point he’s actually making:
He continued: “It can often be a mistake to give power to relatively junior people who have excessive power in one particular area. If you take the authorised officer who is likely to do this, he is likely to be a relatively lowly official who suddenly has the power to go around and confiscate a car.

“It might be quite a nice car, it might be that Aston Martin DB5 I was talking about earlier that somebody was trying to sell for a good price and some teenage council officer who comes round and says ‘I rather like that, so bang, I’ve seen that on the internet and I am now going to seize it with a seizure notice’.

“That doesn’t build in the proper protections we ought to have as British subjects.”
Jacob, forget it. You have lost any audience you might have had. You’re merely a caricature of a Tory MP, especially with stunts like this:
The Bill has been debated on several occasions by MPs, with Mr Rees-Mogg earlier failing in a bid to mandate all council officials to wear bowler hats.
Oh, FFS..!
Mr Rees-Mogg’s 67-minute speech covered a wide variety of subjects, including a thinly-disguised attack on Labour mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone, the coats of arms of the London boroughs and PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories.

The Tory said he was standing up for the rights of the individual against petty, overbearing bureaucracy.
Well, could you please do it without all the poorly-thought-out, grandstanding, look-at-me-everyone bollocks?

Because it’s not working!
Mr Rees-Mogg’s amendment to the Bill, which would have scrapped a clause handing powers to councils to seize cars being sold on the street, was defeated by 96 votes to 11, Government majority 85.
Christ, if this is a ‘new Tory’, it’s no wonder no-one wants to vote for them.

6 comments:

Macheath said...

*boggle*

I'm tangentially reminded of the year some Ladies who Lunch annexed the jumble sale at our local church.

The assorted second-hand clothing was put on sale at prices starting from £40 - in most cases, about twice the original new price.

When challenged, they declared that the prices were more than fair - "After all, you can't get a new skirt for under £120, can you?"

Maybe he's some relation; he sounds like the sort of chap who could make a loss on a jumble sale...

Captain Haddock said...

I'm not really sure just what point Rees-Mogg is trying to make here, but when he says "I think being a car salesman is a really honourable profession. Trading cars is the way to starting in business" ...

He's obviously never had to live next door to someone who turned the shared drive & both sides of the residential street into a replica of "Arthur Daly's" car lot ..

Until the middle of last year, I had the misfortune to live next door to such a selfish individual, who regularly had up to a dozen "motors" for sale, despite there being clear rules in place to prevent this practice ..

I often used to come home, to find a group of potential buyers blocking my half of the shared drive, whilst they haggled over the price of a car .. very often giving me dirty looks & only moving with great resentment, when I wanted to park on my own land (I'm an owner/occupier, the adjacent house is rented) ..

When there were no buyers, this bloke would either be valeting & repairing cars both on the drive and out in the street ..

The street in question is quite narrow and several residents have no drive of their own & so are obliged to park on the street .. his selfish actions, in using those limited spaces for "his" cars led to a good deal of bad feeling locally ..

Residential streets & domestic properties are not the places to buy & sell cars ..

I had a go at him several times about the matter, but was totally ignored ..

You can imagine the sigh of relief which I & others heaved when their landlord declined to renew the lease & they finally left the area ..

nisakiman said...

"By now, I suspect you are slack-jawed with amazement..."

And chortling too! Ha! Words that could have fallen from the lips of Alan B'stard in his heyday!

It rather sounds as if Rees-Mogg had spent a few agreeable hours in the Stranger's Bar before taking the floor.

Budvar said...

Haddock, run this by me again, because some tit next door is selling cars and you don't like it, you have no problem with some jobsworth from the council coming round to *STEAL* (let's call it what it is) peoples property with impunity? Is that about the size of it?

Let's just leave aside the mission creep for a second, you know the kind of thing like anti-terrorist legislation being used by councils to spy on people bins ete etc on it goes.

Regulation brought in on the back of "Wont some just think of the property values" is rarely a good idea, as next time it might be you on the receiving end because the moaning old cunt over the road (and everyone has one) is complaining over you.

Anonymous said...

I was at University with his wife. She is kind, intelligent, pretty and loaded. WTF did she see in him?

JuliaM said...

"Maybe he's some relation; he sounds like the sort of chap who could make a loss on a jumble sale..."

He does indeed...

"He's obviously never had to live next door to someone who turned the shared drive & both sides of the residential street into a replica of "Arthur Daly's" car lot .."

Which should be against council byelaws, surely? It is in my borough, anyway. The council often has a 'sweep'.

"Words that could have fallen from the lips of Alan B'stard in his heyday!"

Labour are really missing a trick if they don't capitalise on this!

"Regulation brought in on the back of "Wont some just think of the property values" is rarely a good idea, as next time it might be you on the receiving end..."

A problem with most regulation!