Sunday, May 31, 2009

A (hopefully) welcome return

After a few weeks off from the ol' blogosphere, the Rutland Correspondent returns

After meeting up with Twitterer @JayRutland and another drama-group buddy from those hazy old days in Oakham, he asked me (amongst a few things) for comment on the expenses scandal. Having purposefully kept quite on the issue, because of the ad nausem coverage by New Labour same old biased BBC and the good people at ITN, I shall now break silence. 

From now on, can we please call it the allowance scandal? They are, after all, allowed such finance as part of the job to supplement wages and other taxed income.

I would put forward the Simon Woodroffe argument(another name amongst Old Oakhamian rankings). By paying MPs more, we wouldn't have this issue. Alright, they've fiddled allowances, but tell me who else doesn't in middle management across the UK. In the words of Simon Woodroffe (roughly) 'if we pay these people peanuts, we're going to get monkeys. Give them more and we'll have a better quality of MP'. Woodroffe, founder of the YO! empire, has some most excellent words.

On a more Rutland-centric note: Alan Duncan, ha'way now. He's actually not too bad, though not too good either on the old finance front. Let's take a quick look at public information on his wallet here. Cutting through some of the Grauniad spin on things, he's a fairly straight up guy (excuse the pun)

To end with, lets just bask in the glory of song. The O'Jays, famed for their music from the US' Apprentice television series, provide the song 'For the Love of Money'. Poignancy, current, satirical, whatever.

Viva la Capitalism/Conservatives


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A new dawn for the RC

So, it is the first post post-assessment. How does it feel; alright!

In typical fashion, here's a funny video from YouTube, to introduce the new season, featuring a cat you can follow on Twitter. @sockington is incredibly funny, and I recommend you follow him


Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Sleeping in Light (A thank you)...



The assessment period for From Our Rutland Correspondent is nearly over and, whilst the time draws near, I thought I would take this opportunity to make a couple of thank you messages. If you were one of the lucky few who got the Babylon 5 reference in the title, you will be able to tell how monumental this post is.

The Rutland Correspondent will continue to be the one-stop for Rutland's news, right-wing blogging and even a little humour. I hope you, the reader, will be there with me.

During these few months blogging, there have clearly been some character's shape postings and the blog overall.

In the beginning, I blogged about my friend @MsVFAB on Twitter and our reactions to the Stimulus Bill going through congress. Since then, I have been in touch with @MsVFAB and we shall continue our exchanges across Twitter.

As time progressed, I connected with many class mates who we're also beginning to blog at the time. To my MAC299 Social Media class, thank you, and I hope we have excellent times together in our final year.

Within the class, there are some notable characters I must personally thank. Simply Jack, for guiding me on what I can and can't get away with on the blogosphere. Our many conversations are like Wikipedia 0.1: verbal collaboration. Though we have often very differing views (Telegraph vs. The Grauniad to name one), we still manage to get along. Long may your rise into the PR Stratosphere continue.

Another thank you must go to Lady Foreman, as she has shown me that blogging needn't be too serious, and you can have fun while you do it. I will confess I have thought we share a great rivalry between our blogs. You are always a clear favourite amongst the class. I hope one day there will be a novelisation of Lady Foreman. Please continue to blog.

To the many contributors and commentators on the Rutland Correspondent's musings. Robert Burns, Jay Green, Sarah Frankland are to name but a few. To those who post Anon too. I'm always very grateful for your feedback, and I do hope we can continue our online conversations.

Outside of the class, I have to thank The Conservative Cloakroom; you are always a number 1 source of political news, views and widgets. You are also one of the few political bloggers to give me credit on your Blog List. For that, I thank you.

To the good people at YouTube; A picture tells a thousand words, and if there is 27 frames a second in video, then you do a much better job than me! Also a big thank you to the good people at Google Images; sometimes I just need that photo I can't quite get anywhere else.

If I have forgotten anyone; I apologise, and I hope you won't hold it against me if I stand for public office.

As always,

Oliver CD Burns, Our Rutland Correspondent.

Monday, May 04, 2009

There's only one, MHT




Long live the Torch Of Freedom: 4/5/79 - 4/5/09

I'll even let Boris tell the tale....