Showing posts with label Parliamentary expenses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parliamentary expenses. Show all posts
Monday, May 11, 2009
Mea culpa, mea culpa - but only cos I got found out...
I have just watched Shaun Woodward, the millionaire Labour MP with seven homes, on Newsnight saying that the the expenses fiddles are terrible and the system must be changed. How many of the MPs now decrying the system would be saying that if the public had never found out about it? As for the disgraceful and terminally stupid Speaker Martin who tried to block publication of MPs expenses and exempt MPs from FOI, he should resign immediately.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
More snouts in the trough
So today and tomorrow the papers reveal more details of more snouts in the trough.
The thing stinks to Heaven and each time the, let's face it, frankly dishonest MP bleats "It's within the rules" - ask yourself who makes the rules and who enforces them?
The Home Secretary is a thief and a liar - Jacqui Smith's main home is NOT her sister's back bedroom and to claim it is means that she is stupid as well as being dishonest.
Look at the claims made so far - 95% of them have nothing to do with work in Westminster or their constituency. It is grand larceny on a huge scale.
The allowances are supposed to be in place to help the MP do his work. Why did John Prescott need the front of his house redecorated? Why is Paul Murphy's boiler any of Parliament's business? How does Sky Sports help Gordon Brown to be a better MP? How does hazel Blears constantly changing the designation of her "main home" help her constitutents?
The system needs changing and quickly. Let MPs stay in a hotel if they need a place in London - maxmium outlay £100 a night, breakfast included. Allow them £20 a day for food and drink. NO patio heaters, NO Sky Sports, NO dry rot work, NO boilers and receipts for everything!
The thing stinks to Heaven and each time the, let's face it, frankly dishonest MP bleats "It's within the rules" - ask yourself who makes the rules and who enforces them?
The Home Secretary is a thief and a liar - Jacqui Smith's main home is NOT her sister's back bedroom and to claim it is means that she is stupid as well as being dishonest.
Look at the claims made so far - 95% of them have nothing to do with work in Westminster or their constituency. It is grand larceny on a huge scale.
The allowances are supposed to be in place to help the MP do his work. Why did John Prescott need the front of his house redecorated? Why is Paul Murphy's boiler any of Parliament's business? How does Sky Sports help Gordon Brown to be a better MP? How does hazel Blears constantly changing the designation of her "main home" help her constitutents?
The system needs changing and quickly. Let MPs stay in a hotel if they need a place in London - maxmium outlay £100 a night, breakfast included. Allow them £20 a day for food and drink. NO patio heaters, NO Sky Sports, NO dry rot work, NO boilers and receipts for everything!
Friday, May 08, 2009
The gravy train that keeps on a-puffin'
So the expenses of the Cabinet have been released and we now know how Gordon Brown and co spent our money.
Lord Mandelson tried to downplay the revelations, insisting the claims would not have been approved had they been against the rules.
But the rules are helpfully published - one clearly states: "Claims must only be made for incurred expenditure that is necessary for an MP to carry out his or her parliamentary duties."
Can anyone explain to me how a patio heater is necessary for Jacqui Smith to carry out her "parliamentary duties"? Or why Gordon Brown needs a subscription to Sky Sports or Sky Movies to carry out his. Brown is also said to have claimed for variety of household items, including wallpaper, a fridge, lightbulbs costing £15 and a John Lewis vacuum cleaner worth £265. Why does he have to spend almost three hundred quid on a vacuum cleaner?
And still they don't understand why the public hold them in such contempt.
Lord Mandelson tried to downplay the revelations, insisting the claims would not have been approved had they been against the rules.
But the rules are helpfully published - one clearly states: "Claims must only be made for incurred expenditure that is necessary for an MP to carry out his or her parliamentary duties."
Can anyone explain to me how a patio heater is necessary for Jacqui Smith to carry out her "parliamentary duties"? Or why Gordon Brown needs a subscription to Sky Sports or Sky Movies to carry out his. Brown is also said to have claimed for variety of household items, including wallpaper, a fridge, lightbulbs costing £15 and a John Lewis vacuum cleaner worth £265. Why does he have to spend almost three hundred quid on a vacuum cleaner?
And still they don't understand why the public hold them in such contempt.
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