Lords Pass Controversial Internet Piracy Bill

Legislation to tackle internet piracy, including bans for illegal file-sharers, has been passed by the Lords.

The Digital Economy Bill is now expected to be rushed through the Commons before the general election.

Peers had earlier rejected a bid by ministers to include wide-ranging powers over future online piracy law.

But despite criticism, the government said it was still committed to giving courts the power to block websites which are infringing copyright.

The bill, put forward by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, has been welcomed by the music industry because it includes plans to suspend the internet accounts of people who persistently download material illegally.'

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Tory Peer Claimed Thousands of Pounds on Mystery House

Britain's inexhaustible expenses scandal has caught up with a Conservative peer, who had used someone else's home address to claim thousands of pounds in expenses.

The Sunday Times has revealed that Lord Taylor of Warwick, a 57-year-old former barrister, repeatedly “lied” to the House of Lords about his main residence.

Taylor, who has lived in his family home in west London for over a decade, had claimed his home was a terrace house in Oxford which he neither owns nor has ever lived in.'

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Lord Moneyjabs: How Drayson Fattened up His Drug Firm on the Taxpayer - Then Made £80m Selling it to Americans

A Labour donor made a vast personal fortune on the back of a £20million handout of taxpayers' money, an inquiry has found.
Lord Drayson had threatened to pull his PowderJect company out of Britain unless it was given public cash.
In 2003 the vaccine manufacturer was offered the £20million to build a factory by a government-run regional development board.

Just two months later he sold the subsidised company to its U.S. rival Chiron, landing a profit for himself and his family estimated at £80million.
He is now a science minister and, following last week's reshuffle, also a defence minister attending Cabinet meetings. The affair raises disturbing questions over Labour's burgeoning quango network and the way it handles large sums of public money in deep secrecy.

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Disgraced Speaker Michael Martin To Be Elevated to the House of Lords

Michael Martin faces elevation to the House of Lords just as the Upper Chamber prepares to overhaul its system of expenses to give peers a less generous deal than before.

The Speaker will move from the eye of one expenses storm to another as the House of Lords is today expected to launch an independent inquiry into the £18m a year claimed by peers for expenses.

This will give Mr Martin’s new Parliamentary home a familiar feel. Speakers are given a peerage on completion of their time in the chair regardless of the circumstances of their departure.

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Absolutely fucking criminal!!!

'Peer for Hire' Lord Truscott Grabs £70,000 Housing Perk

LORD TRUSCOTT, one of four peers named in the “lords for hire” scandal, has taken at least £70,000 in allowances for overnight accommodation in London while staying at his home in the capital.

Truscott, 49, now receives £28,000-a-year tax free by telling House of Lords’ authorities that his main residence is a modest flat in Bath, Somerset.

He uses the allowance to maintain a £700,000 flat he owns in Mayfair, central London, with his Russian wife, Svetlana. He bought the property in Bath months after becoming eligible to claim the allowance.

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Corrupt Peers Can Carry On Lobbying Despite Scandal

Peers who influence or amend laws to benefit companies that pay them will not face any new restrictions after the cash for amendments row.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, promised new laws yesterday, allowing members of the Lords to be expelled if they bring the Upper House into disrepute.

Peers who are “non-domiciled” for tax purposes, potentially including billionaire Labour and Tory donors, could also lose their seats if plans supported by the Justice Secretary become law. Mr Straw said that, in general, lobbyists were too influential in British political life — the first hint since a report by the Commons Public Administration Committee on lobbying that curbs may be coming.

But there are no plans by the Government or the House of Lords to restrict peers who lobby on behalf of companies that pay them, despite criticism that this presents a worrying conflict of interest.

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Guy Fawkes had the right idea!!

Revealed: Labour Lords Change Laws For Cash!

LABOUR peers are prepared to accept fees of up to £120,000 a year to amend laws in the House of Lords on behalf of business clients, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Four peers — including two former ministers — offered to help undercover reporters posing as lobbyists obtain an amendment in return for cash.

Two of the peers were secretly recorded telling the reporters they had previously secured changes to bills going through parliament to help their clients.

Taylor told the reporters: “I will work within the rules, but the rules are meant to be bent sometimes.”

The other peers who agreed to assist our reporters for a fee were Lord Moonie, a former defence minister, and Lord Snape, a former Labour whip.

The disclosure that peers are “for hire” to help change legislation confirms persistent rumours in Westminster that lobbyists are targeting the Lords rather than the Commons, where MPs are under greater scrutiny.

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The whole system is corrupt to the core . This is why it must be taken down!

You can bet your bottom dollar that the conservative and Liberal peers are just as corrupt!