The U.S. Government has stated that it won't recognise the results of Friday's presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe. BBC. The Conservatives have reached another twenty year high in the polls. The Guardian. A Government-commissioned report has concluded that Britain is ill-prepared for a new flooding crisis. The Telegraph. Council workers… read more…

Is there anything fluffier than a squirrel? If there is we don't wanna know about it. In a shocking piece of news from the folks at ePolitix, Westmonster was disheartened to learn that a Conservative MP by the name of David MacLean has called for the mass cull of the… read more…

A UN official has claimed that the Taleban made $100m (£50m) from the sale of opium in 2007. BBC. Energy bosses are preparing to justify their upcoming price increases to MPs. BBC. The ambulance service has admitted to losing a computer disk containing the personal information of a million 999… read more…

The English are pretty good at tolerating unnecessary nuisances. Take the bad weather, for example; snow in the middle of June is about as big of a pain in the ass as even the most robustly callipygian of us could handle. Or what about the rising gas and electricity prices… read more…

People living in the North are more likely to get cancer than those down South. The Times. The U.S. military has been criticised by senators over its strict interrogation policy. BBC. Shell tanker drivers have called off their second strike after reaching payment negotiations. The Guardian. MPs will this week… read more…

George Osborne, the Conservative shadow chancellor, has announced plans to shrink Gordon Brown's imperial treasury. The Telegraph. UN officials have been given rare access to North Korea's countryside so that they can assess the severity of the country's food shortage. BBC. Refugee Week kicked off yesterday, though most people seem… read more…

Gordon Brown has announced tough new laws on knife crime (probably in the hope that he won't be stabbed in the back as often). The Guardian. MPs and their generous expense accounts are still annoying the proletariat. The Times. A new law will allow cyclists to go the wrong way… read more…

Despite their differing political beliefs, it seems that there are still at least three things that MPs throughout the nation have in common regardless of status or creed: First of all, their egos are inflated to monumental proportions which in some way allows them to believe that they are as… read more…

A German newspaper has printed a guide on how to avoid British tourists when travelling abroad. BBC. Private firms could be called in to help a failing NHS if new plans unveiled today prove fruitful. BBC. MPs have warned that something called 'crash-for-cash' insurance fraud is on the rise. ePolitix.… read more…

According to recent figures, MPs only get paid £61,820 a year. So stop complaining. The Guardian. China and Taiwan are to start talking again for the first time in a decade. BBC. The company responsible for computerising the NHS, Fujitsu, has lost it's contract to do so. BBC. It seems… read more…

Speaking from inexperience, the best thing about being an MP must be the sense of power that it gives you. Not only do you make the laws of the land, decide how public funds should be spent, go to fancy restaurants, and hang around with interesting people, but, as long… read more…

MPs are facing a dilemma: The general public has managed to find out about the opulent kitchens and showers and garden ornamentation that it paid for and isn't very happy. Unfortunately, being entitled to expensive kitchens and showers and garden ornamentation is one of the reasons that most MPs got… read more…

According Harriet Harman, the 14 dirty MPs that tried to keep their expense details secret will get their comeuppance sometime tomorrow. Unfortunately, it appears that some of the juicier details of how the public funds were spent will remain undisclosed. Although Harman has stated that the addresses of the MPs… read more…

Well, well, well. The House of Commons has lost its court case to keep the expense details of its MPs as a dirty little secret. It comes as good news for democracy but bad nose for money-grubbing politicians everywhere who will, from now on, no doubt, be a little more… read more…

MPs have labelled the government's handling of last year's junior medic recruitment drive as 'inept'. BBC. The Guardian. It has been claimed that Alastair Campbell sexed-up Tony Blair's 45 minute WMD claim whilst the case for invading Iraq was being made. New Statesman. A report has shown that UK households… read more…

Nepotism is a part of life. Westmonster has come to accept this. Sure, there may be cases in which it is utterly disgusting and inexcusable (Max Gogarty, anyone?), but the fact remains: we've all accepted the odd favour from a friend or relative. It's just the way life works.… read more…

Reviews of "what MPs are worth" are always going to be dangerous. Public sector pay is being clamped down upon, with a less-than-2% pay rise falling a tad short of some MPs' hoped-for 68%. It seems that 1 MP is equal to 1 GP or even 1 council chief. Fascinating… read more…