Jo Lovelock Disappointment Index
			Andrew Cumpsty Smugness Quotient
			Gareth Epps Budge-O-Meter

Those tricky budget negotiations are underway, so to help our loyal reader keep on top of the situation, we are running our exclusive budget discussion monitoring service to keep him right up to date.

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The muckspReading Leader Bored

With the news that the Heavenly Planet festival is to be made free. Graham Hoskins, lead councillor for Culture and Sport explained why the Reading Borough Council cabinet chose to throw open the doors to all and sundry...

"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses. Let the free festival commence. Remember to vote Labour."

Bearwood Corporate Services based in Wokingham are under investigation by the Electoral Commission. The company is a front for Belize resident and tax exile Lord Ashcroft's cash being used to bankroll the Conservative Party.

Richard Willis said during a debate at a full council meeting that Reading Conservatives were not using Lord Ashcroft's money. The Electoral Commission list would suggest otherwise.

Reading East Conservatives

Bearwood Corporate Services Ltd 10/09/04 £ 6,953.90
Bearwood Corporate Services Ltd 15/10/04 £ 2,979.03

Mick Spreader did inform the local press at the time of the council meeting but rather unsurprisingly for Reading's media, they were not interested. Best not to rock the boat eh?

It's not normally our style to link to other websites, but Snopes is one of Mick's long time favourites.

Snopes: Huntley &' Palmers Biscuit Tin

Martin Salter's Resignation Email 

The Evening Post has unquestionly printed Martin Salter's crap for years, but it seems that the fawning has turned their brains to mush over the years:

Facts: 

• The current average wage for an airport baggage handler at Heathrow is £18,000.
• Adjusted to 1980 using the Earnings/RPI calculator takes it down to £3,750
  (A skilled job repairing computer terminals was £5,000, so this is a reasonable estimate).
• The weekly wage then would therefore have been about £75 for a full 48 hour week.
• He spent 3 years dossing about at Sussex University, so he would have been at least 21 when he left.
• He moved to Reading in 1980 aged 25/26 with £3,000 with which to buy a house.
• His maximum redundancy pay under the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 assuming 4 years continuous service would have been 4 weeks pay, or about £300.
• Even the most generous scheme would only have doubled that.

So where did the middle class grammar school mockney from Surrey really get the money from?

Reading Borough Council are planning a bumper Pride of Reading awards this year. Presented annually by John Madejski and Chris Tarrant, nominations have been invited for this year's extended categories.

There is expected to be major competition for the Bravely Soldiering Into Work After a Snowflake has Landed; Moaning By The Coffee Machine About The Lack of Gritting; Flimsiest Excuse for not Running Public Transport; The Leaving Work Early Because It's A Bit Nippy medal; OMG I've Forgotten How To Drive; Most getReading Posts Whilst Pretending to be Snowed In and the best Snow-Single Mother-Gay-Whale-Person competition.

Local sports will also be represented with The Climbing the North Face of Hill Street and the inaugral Caversham Bridge Chucking Award.

The was some surprise in Reading when members of the Jewish community were invited along a meeting organised by the Reading Commission for Racial Equality to remember and reflect on the Holocaust, in stark contrast to not being invited to the Gaza meeting co-organised by them at the Pakistani Communty Centre.

Martin Salter made a brief cameo appearance and was surprisingly invited by the chair to make a speech, despite it not being on the agenda, then sneaked off early before the guest speakers started. "I don't think I'd have missed anything," he said. "The guy from Zimbabwe would only have gone on and on about the humantarian catastrophe there, the British Government's terrible handling of the situation and their poor treatment of asylum seekers and incarceration in Yarlswood, and I certainly wasn't going to stick around to listen to that. No votes in it."