A wind blows...

FORMER Labour leader Lord Kinnock was exposed yesterday in the Mail on Sunday for invoking Hitler to smear the Tories in a secretly taped speech — which lasted an hour. As the saying goes, once a windbag . . . SHORTLY before Parliament rose for the election, MPs debated the EU Commission plan for the year ahead. It contained 23 major proposals, including the imposition of two new taxes on British voters, a federal energy policy, a £230 billion investment programme and work on migration and borders. Ukip MP Douglas Carswell failed to show up, while his colleague Mark Reckless appeared only at the end of the debate and never spoke. As the Tory Eurosceptic John Redwood says: ‘It was strange that both Ukip MPs missed a crucial debate on the activity of the EU for next year and had nothing to say on migration, benefits and borders.’ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Danny Alexander, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was asked what he would say in a note to his successor if he was ousted from office, after the last Labour incumbent, Liam Byrne, left a note saying there was no money left as it had all been spent. Alexander replied: ‘Jobs up, growth up, economy up . . . don’t screw up.’ SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon complains of a ‘democratic deficit’, arguing that Scotland is led by a Tory Government which has only one MP there. In the last General Election, the SNP polled 491,386 votes in Scotland, compared with the Tories’ 413,000. Yet the SNP has six MPs to the Tories’ one. Seems like a democratic deficit to me.