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My two penny’s worth on “Pull the bath plug and let out the dirty water”.

Readers are urged to read the whole article at the bottom of the page. This is my two penny’s worth!.

“For what has been lost sight of over the past 24 hours is that what we are looking at are people’s weekly housekeeping bills. Yesterday, as it happens, I bought a bumper pack of toilet rolls from Lidl, six iced buns, a small hacksaw (£1.45), a new tap, four brass plumbing olives and some discounted sausage rolls. The sausage rolls were quite unnecessary. But you neither need nor have any right to know that, though I suppose they’ll be indirectly included in the cost of your Times and your BBC licence fee. Many of those who now splutter about a Cabinet minister claiming for a bath plug are the same people who spluttered about the laxity of the previous arrangements when MPs did not have to submit receipts for small purchases. Big housekeeping bills are made up from the accretion of small purchases. Listing them is inherently undignified. MPs are damned if they itemise and damned if they don’t.”

I disagree with Mr Parrish. I remember my old Civil Service days, guide lines were given what can be claimed on expenses. It was specific and only covers overnight stays and food. PM says that the system needed overhauling but it is shamefully misleading to the public because the guidelines has always been clear

It should be the office dealing with the claims that needed overhauling. Ever since 9/11 the government has taken upon themselves to be our lord and master. Our freedom have been eroded so far to the extreme that I feel, we are living in a prison built on lies based on the 9/11 tragedy. Our identity as a nation has been slowly diminished by this. I, a staunch labour supporter am disappointed with Mr Blair, and Mr Brown has not fare any better than his predecessor.

I argue further by saying that ” What about us the rest of the British population, some of whom are living on the breadline or under it?” And some of whom have been decanted onto the streets, homes repossessed or without a job, and Mr Parrish dare to talk about these poor little mites group of MPs living on handouts. Oh what handouts they are; claims on dog foods, furnitures to furnish second homes and subsequently sold, for which the surplus should have gone directly into the treasury pot but instead went straight into the very pockets of these politicians. This government has shown and continues to do so, an increasing and alarming lack of judgement and common sense. What next?

Citizens locked and under curfew at night.

And indeed these bunch of toe rags of politicians dare to call the police for this so called leaks. I ask you should these same politicians not be named and shamed like the rest of us should we commit a crime? Let us call a spade a spade as over claiming expenses on a grand scale is that. Who does these politicians think they are? Demi gods? Ever omnipotent and infallible? Have they forgotten why they were elected to the office in the first place? Was there somewhere in the written oath sworn when they took up office allowing these politicians to line their pockets with so called “handouts”? They must have forgotten that they were elected to serve the master, and dont forget, we are that.

If this current government continues in its current destructive path mirroring what happened during the past 8 years in American politics, then all is lost. Dont get more wrong American people are great but the despicable George Dubya Bush has done more harm to his country than any other president before him. Both, he and Cheney have double handedly undermined the reputation of United States as a World Leader. Their boorish behaviour and bullying tactics destabilised the world peace at large. They also have squandered the world’s sympathy from the 9/11 event. And for what? It is, so that he and his cronies can benefit from war and pain inflicted on ordinary citizen of the world. It is all about Greed!

Dont get me wrong Mr Osama bin Laden is no better. This person who aspires to be the leader of the Muslim world is just as bad as Bush and Cheney.

I watch the last American election with trepidation, wondering and at times almost in despair that Mr Obama could ever win. I am glad now though, the American people have proven me and other detractors wrong. I am fairly contented with Mr Obama so far, he has not put a foot wrong. Yet!

Anyway, enough ranting today. I leave you with a quote from the Great Sir Winston Churchill

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

With that I bid you Good Night and Selamat Malam. Till tomorrow.

Matthew Parish Times Online May 9th 2009.

Today I surfed the net looking for the Mandailings.

I was born in Slim River, Perak.  My late father, he was Perakian and mum a Kedah lady.  My need to know where one belongs was triggered by my school mates.  They were exchanging some words supposedly to be Perakian slang.  Sitting in front of my laptop in Berkshire was totally bemused. As it was, I was practicing tongue gymnastics silently pronouncing each words in the solitude of my home. I hope my friends will not think less of me because of this. 

My Mandailing paternal grand parents came from Sumatra, Indonesia.  My paternal opah (nan) a harahap and my paternal atuk(grandfather) a nasution.  So I am nasution humm,  I never felt truly Malaysian rather than a mish mash of Malaysian, Indonesian and dare I say it English. We moved around alot when I was younger.  Dad was in the army before retiring at 45, the age that I am now.

Yes it sounds confusing to people but that is what I think of myself. I have never voted, worked or even own a bank account in Malaysia.  Everyone always asking me when I am going home. Home? I am already home, here in Britain.

So you the reader, let us take the journey through time past, present and the future and explore my history malaysian or otherwise mandailing ancestry and see also where the connection lies with my adopted land, the Good Ole Blighty.