Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/598/8277
From The Socialist newspaper, 21 October 2009
Fast news
Their morals
DAVID WILSHIRE, the Tory MP for Spelthorne, said (much to the relief of Tory leader David Cameron) that he wouldn't seek re-election, following allegations that he had siphoned £105,500 in parliamentary expenses into a private company - Moorlands Research Services - owned by himself and his partner.
The right-wing homophobic Tory MP claims he has done nothing wrong but there is no official record of the company's existence and it has never filed public accounts. Wilshire has, so far, been unable to provide a breakdown of how the money was spent.
His constituents are also hopping mad that, despite having a constituency only 20 miles from Westminster, Wilshire has consistently claimed the maximum second home allowance for a flat in central London. In total, he has claimed £141,039 since 2001. Many electors want to know why he is not being prosecuted for fraud.
Wilshire, as a 'moral crusader' for the Tories was notorious for introducing the discriminatory Section 28 legislation "to prevent local authorities from promoting homosexuality".
Nuclear rip-off
CONTRARY TO the government's propaganda that nuclear energy is a cheaper alternative to other energy sources, The Guardian has revealed that government officials plan to subsidise the production of a new generation of nuclear power stations. The cost of this subsidy would be added to every householder's annual electricity bill - around £44 on average.
It seems that because wholesale energy prices have fallen there is not enough profit in the building of nuclear plants for the big energy corporations like E.ON and EDF.
The Socialist pointed out long ago that the average price of electricity generated by nuclear power fails to account for the typical overspend costs involved in construction and, moreover, the huge costs in decommissioning these plants.
Dark era
OVER 150,000 people demonstrated in Mexico City against the recent closure of the state-run Central Light and Power electricity company.
In the early hours of 11 October the government of president Felipe Calderon sent in federal police to occupy the company's facilities and issued a decree to liquidate the company and fire its 44,000 workers, members of the Electrical Workers' Union (SME).
The government says the company is inefficient and wastes electricity, and that a larger state-run company, the Federal Electricity Commission, will take over its operations. It has also said that only 10,000 sacked workers could be re-hired.
The workers believe that it is a blatant attempt by the right-wing government to smash the trade union. Some SME members reportedly have called for a general strike to reinstate the workers.
Tens of thousands of residents of Mexico City and central Mexico have suffered sporadic power cuts since the shutdown.
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In The Socialist 21 October 2009:
Post - a battle that mass strike action can win
War and occupation
Afghanistan - end the bloody occupation
Anti-racism
Protests at the BBC: No to the far-right, racist BNP
WDL racists chased out of town
International socialist news and analysis
Sri Lanka protest: Shut down the prison camps!
Chinaworker.info journalist refused entry into China
Socialist Party news and analysis
Tommy Sheridan - a socialist fighter on a worker's wage
Laughing all the way to the bank
Socialist Party workplace news
FBU strike to defend fire service
Giant energy company hounds unemployed electrician
First bus drivers give bosses a 'fright'
400 jobs under threat at Leeds
Striking at London Metropolitan
Education
Primary education: Report slams government policy
Political representation
Union activists discuss pulling the plug on Labour
Conference on political representation
Socialist Party reviews
The Greatest Show on Earth: The evidence for Evolution
Hard Times by Charles Dickens, reviewed by Linda Taaffe
Marxist analysis: history
When Britain's spies backed Mussolini
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