Complete and Utter Zebu

There’s so much Complete and Utter Zebu about, we risk giving ourselves a heart attack. So here’s where we look at the lighter side of Zebu. We’ve been taking some outrageous examples of Utter Zebu uttered by politicians and zebooing them.

We’d welcome some more examples, not just of politicos, but also of celebs, businessmen and the like. Just email Steve & Simon and, if we end up zebooing them, we’ll send you a free copy of the book by way of thanks.

We’ve also being trying to come up with new Zebu words, or Zebuisms, which you can see here.

Hillary Clinton with another of those fondly misremembered moments from her past, this time about an imaginary “bomb-damaged” Belfast hotel on her previous visit to the city with husband Bill.

Sir Stuart Bell, MP, trying to convince us that the MPs’ expenses scandal is now history.

A Christmas appeal by Gordon Brown on behalf of poor, unfortunate, beleaguered MPs.

Hillary Clinton’s extraordinary claim that she landed “under sniper fire” when visiting Bosnia. For this and other examples of whoppers told by this Zebu farmer, see Complete and Utter Zebu.

Nick Griffin on the BBC’s Question Time.

Lord Foulkes attacks presenter Carrie Gracie, demanding to know how much she is paid. Admitting to a salary of £92,000 a year, all the press attention afterwards was on the salaries of presenters. A successful deflection by Foulkes. If only she had asked him the same question. For “Two Jobs” Foulkes is more than amply rewarded by the taxpayer, picking up massive expenses from his part-time attendance at the House of Lords as well as a salary and expenses from the Scottish Parliament. According to Herald Scotland, it’s the equivalent of half a million pounds over the lifetime of one parliamentary term.

Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles gets himself into a right pickle trying to explain why he needs a second home. The MP for Brentwood and Ongar lives in Mountnessing and a quick look at google maps shows that he actually lives 27 miles from Westminster as the crow flies, not 37. In fact, Pickles is one of the MPs who has always been open about his relatively modest expenses, but you wouldn’t think so from this.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson sacked Professor David Nutt as the government’s chief drugs adviser for giving a lecture which was then published in a pamphlet in which he disagreed with the government’s interpretation of the scientific advice his committee had produced. He was kicked into touch by Johnson in October over the comments made back in July even though, according to The Times, the Professor conformed to the government’s own code of practice for scientific advisers.