Labour, the do nothing until after the holidays party

Verity

Who is that lady and why is she dressed like a French clown? Is it deliberate?

Polly and Alice's mum

Have these people no shame?
No decency?
Businesses are going to the wall, whilst our government takes longer and longer holidays.
They just dont have a clue as to life in the real world.

Slim Jim

Yes James, that comes from spending too much time in the bunker.

TGF UKIP

Thank you, James, feel free to continue to feed me ammunition to demonstrate just what a useless bunch of part time wankers Dilettante Dave's Tories are.

Lucky, lucky, lucky Gordon to have such an "opposition."

Daniel

Why in God's name is there an "all-Parliamentary ski team"? Am I missing something here, or is there ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why our elected representatives should be taking time out to organise skiing teams in Davos? Do they think the House of Commons is like boarding school or an Oxbridge college, where work commitments have to be balanced by membership of various clubs and societies to ensure that one is a "rounded" individual?

To make matters worse, Davos is, after St Moritz, the most expensive Swiss ski resort. If MPs must go skiing at taxpayers' expense, they could at least choose somewhere cheaper.

I don't agree that Alistair Darling's remarks are more worthy of comment, and I doubt whether many other Spectator readers would either. What he said was commonsense - it is difficult to get anything done over Xmas. Moreover, he is quite obviously not a coiffured jet setting playboy, unlike Osborne and Duncan.

Chuck Unsworth

What Darling has said quite clearly is that the business of Government is a part-time exercise. Does he believe that the world stops whilst MPs take yet another break from their arduous duties? I think he probably does.

Athesius the Facilitator

Verity, it is David Walliams of little Britain fame. I do not know if this is his normal evening attire or if he is just wearing it for Alistair's bebefit.

mark c

hot air .. we all know the scheme (scam ?) will exist purely to give labour MPs something to announce and hold headlines with. When it comes down to practical useful help there wont be any, and the VAT man and TAX man will still be first in the queue to nail struggling SMEs through the insolvency processes.

oh .. theres always trian to gain to turn to of course

Verity

Ah. I thought it was a man, but didn't want to say anything untoward. Most men in drag go in for more glamour.

Polly and Alice's mum

Oh come on..... why exactly is the taxpayer paying for a bunch of MPs to go on a skiing holiday?
We cannot afford to go skiing this year, and that is the only holiday we have.
Still, we are retired, living in rural France, so perhaps our whole life is a holiday.
But the sheer waste of money that is our parliament still rankles.

Tiberius

The David Walliams character is Emily Howard as in "I am a lady" in a falsetto voice. Seems (s)he's fooled Big Al judging by his smile.

Hysteria

no objection to the MuPpets going skiing

HUGE objection if this at taxpayers expense - can someone confirm this is fact???

Archie

Never mind all that. Just what is AD about to do with his hand??

Dave

Further proof, if any were needed, that the so-called opposition is precisely that. What a ghastly shower. Pathetic!