The BBC Defend Danny Baker

Danny Baker the BBC Radio 5 live  presenter made the following tweet only a few hours after the Boston Bombing:

Disgusting news from USA. Tragically, in 70s & 80s you couldnt drink in many Boston bars without putting money into a bucket for "the cause"

Really Danny many Boston bars? The IRA never raised more than 800,000 dollars a year in the USA. No more than 5 million dollars over 30 years of armed conflict. Considering it cost 15 to 20 million pounds a year to run the IRA that really wasn't very much money. Maybe Danny boy should leave politics to somebody who knows something about the subject stick to football Danny.

SDLP Turn Down Pay Rise

The SDLP MLA's at Stormont have turned down a £5,000 pay increase. They are the only party to do so. All the other parties excepted it bringing their MLA's salaries up to £48,000 a year.

The SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan has told the Nolan Show: "Actions speak louder than words and we have all refused to take it.

"In this undoubted time of austerity where you have people in work facing pay freezes, pay cuts and pay-offs and then people out of work, and with disabilities, facing cuts to their benefits, it's completely unjustifiable, in my opinion, for elected representatives to take a pay rise."

Mr Durkan said the independent panel that recommended the pay increase was "not only unaware of the public mood but also completely oblivious to the public need".

Southern Comfort

Barnet
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Essex
Hampshire
Hertfordshire
Kent
Oxfordshire
Richmond upon Thames
Surrey

Above are the top ten local council areas for student admissions to Oxford or Cambridge University in England.So if you live in the South East of England your children are far more likely to go Oxford or Cambridge University. More students from Surrey gained admission to Oxford or Cambridge than in the whole of Wales and the North East of England combined. The British Elite should be called the Southern Elite of England. As todays Oxbridge students are tomorrow's Cabinet Ministers and High Court Judges and Business CEO's.

Another Unionist Party

Another Unionist Party was launched last night. Basil McCrea's new party NI21 has a lot of support already judging by how many people showed up. It starts off with two MLA's but no MP's or councillors. I would criticize the new parties new policies but according to their website they don't have any yet. Many people will say Unionism needs a new party that respectable unionists can vote for. The Alliance Party have the most to lose from this new development. The new party says it will form a opposition at Stormont to the Power Sharing Executive. Reg Empey of the UUP accused Basil of Salami slicing the Unionist vote. But Reg has a short memory. Reg alongside his pal David Trimble and Bill Craig starting slicing up the Unionist vote in the 1970's with the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party. Of course the real problem Unionism is to many parties to little voters. Basil says he will fight the next European election. In which Unionist voters will be spoilt for choice. Between the UUP the DUP and the TUV not to mention UKIP and maybe the BNP as well as APNI and the PUP. Eight Unionist candidates for three seats. Nine Unionists of the DUP decide to run two candidates. Which can only be good news for SF and the SDLP.

A Weekend In Watford

Those attending the Bilderberg Conference this weekend in Watford England:

Chairman: Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO, AXA Group

Paul M. Achleitner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG

Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Board, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd

Marcus Agius, Former Chairman, Barclays plc

Helen Alexander, Chairman, UBM plc

Roger C. Altman, Executive Chairman, Evercore Partners

Matti Apunen, Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA

Susan Athey, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Columnist, Milliyet Newspaper

Ali Babacan, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs

Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA

Nicolas Barré, Managing Editor, Les Echos

José Manuel Barroso, President, European Commission

Nicolas Baverez, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Olivier de Bavinchove, Commander, Eurocorps

John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Franco Bernabè, Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia S.p.A.

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com

Carl Bildt, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs

Anders Borg, Swedish Minister for Finance

Jean François van Boxmeer, CEO, Heineken

Svein Richard Brandtzæg, President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA

Oscar Bronner, Publisher, Der Standard Medienwelt

Peter Carrington, Former Honorary Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings

Juan Luis Cebrián, Executive Chairman, Grupo PRISA

Edmund Clark, President and CEO, TD Bank Group

Kenneth Clarke, Cabinet Minister

Bjarne Corydon, Danish Minister of Finance

Sherard Cowper-Coles, Business Development Director, International, BAE Systems plc

Enrico Cucchiani, CEO, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA

Etienne Davignon, Belgian Minister of State; Former Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings

Ian Davis, Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Company

Robbert H. Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study

Haluk Dinçer, President, Retail and Insurance Group, Sabancı Holding A.S.

Robert Dudley, Group Chief Executive, BP plc

Nicholas N. Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute

Espen Barth Eide, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Investor AB

Thomas Enders, CEO, EADS

J. Michael Evans, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co.

Ulrik Federspiel, Executive Vice President, Haldor Topsøe A/S

Martin S.Feldstein, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; President Emeritus, NBER

François Fillon, Former French Prime Minister

Mark C. Fishman, President, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Douglas J. Flint, Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc

Paul Gallagher, Senior Counsel

Timothy F Geithner, Former Secretary of the Treasury

Michael Gfoeller, US Political Consultant

Donald E. Graham, Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company

Ulrich Grillo, CEO, Grillo-Werke AG

Lilli Gruber, Journalist - Anchorwoman, La 7 TV

Luis de Guindos, Spanish Minister of Economy and Competitiveness

Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, HSBC Holdings plc

Felix Gutzwiller, Member of the Swiss Council of States

Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings

Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Simon Henry, CFO, Royal Dutch Shell plc

Paul Hermelin, Chairman and CEO, Capgemini Group

Pablo Isla, Chairman and CEO, Inditex Group

Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Lazard

James A. Johnson, Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners

Thomas J. Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board, Swiss National Bank

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co. LLC

Robert D. Kaplan, Chief Geopolitical Analyst, Stratfor

Alex Karp, Founder and CEO, Palantir Technologies

John Kerr, Independent Member, House of Lords

Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.

Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa

Klaas H.W. Knot, President, De Nederlandsche Bank

Mustafa V Koç,. Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.

Roland Koch, CEO, Bilfinger SE

Henry R. Kravis, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Marie-Josée Kravis, Senior Fellow and Vice Chair, Hudson Institute

André Kudelski, Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group

Ulysses Kyriacopoulos, Chairman, S&B Industrial Minerals S.A.

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

J. Kurt Lauk, Chairman of the Economic Council to the CDU, Berlin

Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

Thomas Leysen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group

Christian Lindner, Party Leader, Free Democratic Party (FDP NRW)

Stefan Löfven, Party Leader, Social Democratic Party (SAP)

Peter Löscher, President and CEO, Siemens AG

Peter Mandelson, Chairman, Global Counsel; Chairman, Lazard International

Jessica T. Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Frank McKenna, Chair, Brookfield Asset Management

John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist

Thierry de Montbrial, President, French Institute for International Relations

Mario Monti, Former Italian Prime Minister

Craig J. Mundie, Senior Advisor to the CEO, Microsoft Corporation

Alberto Nagel, CEO, Mediobanca

H.R.H. Princess Beatrix of The Netherlands

Andrew Y.Ng, Co-Founder, Coursera

Jorma Ollila, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc

David Omand, Visiting Professor, King's College London

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Soli Özel, Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University; Columnist, Habertürk Newspaper

Alexis Papahelas, Executive Editor, Kathimerini Newspaper

Şafak Pavey, Turkish MP

Valérie Pécresse, French MP

Richard N. Perle, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

David H. Petraeus, General, U.S. Army (Retired)

Paulo Portas, Portugal Minister of State and Foreign Affairs

J. Robert S Prichard, Chair, Torys LLP

Viviane Reding, Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, European Commission

Heather M. Reisman, CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.

Hélène Rey, Professor of Economics, London Business School

Simon Robertson, Partner, Robertson Robey Associates LLP; Deputy Chairman, HSBC Holdings

Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman,Techint Group

Jacek Rostowski, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister

Robert E. Rubin, Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury

Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister

Andreas Schieder, Austrian State Secretary of Finance

Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google Inc.

Rudolf Scholten, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG

António José Seguro, Secretary General, Portuguese Socialist Party

Jean-Dominique Senard, CEO, Michelin Group

Kristin Skogen Lund, Director General, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

Peter D. Sutherland, Chairman, Goldman Sachs International

Martin Taylor, Former Chairman, Syngenta AG

Tidjane Thiam, Group CEO, Prudential plc

Peter A. Thiel, President, Thiel Capital

Craig B. Thompson, President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Jakob Haldor Topsøe, Partner, AMBROX Capital A/S

Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish Minister of Finance

Daniel L. Vasella, Honorary Chairman, Novartis AG

Peter R. Voser, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc

Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan Province, Canada

Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman, Investor AB

Kevin Warsh, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Galen G.Weston, Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Limited

Baroness Williams of Crosby, Member, House of Lords

Martin H. Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times

James D. Wolfensohn, Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company

David Wright, Vice Chairman, Barclays plc

Robert B. Zoellick, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Opinion Poll Update

Mick Fealty 12 votes
Duncan Morrow 9 votes
Quentin Oliver 7 votes
Ian Parsley 7 votes
Dawn Purvis 3 votes
None of the Above 2 votes
Robin Wilson 1 vote
Andy Pollok 1 vote
Allan Leonard 1 vote
Gladys Ganiel O'Neill 1 vote
Rev Norman Hamilton 0 votes
Rick Wilford 0 votes

Lord Laird Resigns Ulster Unionist Whip

In a statement, today the Ulster Unionist party leader Mike Nesbitt said: "Having reviewed the video footage on the Daily Telegraph website, and other media reporting of Lord Laird's engagement with alleged lobbyists, I telephoned his home this morning and as a result he has relinquished the Party Whip, pending the outcome of the review of his behaviour that he has already requested of the relevant authorities at Westminster.