Redacted Expenses Save Blushes
Guido has had a quick look through some expense claims – the redactions hide a lot of sins and seem to have been applied inconsistently. Despite the censorship it is still possible to discover some interesting stuff.
Have a look for yourself here.
Hmmmm, can I be arsed? Probably…although it’s a bit close to working.
The Penguin
Someone can pick out the bones for a chew over later. I have to at least look like I’m contributing to the economy
hmm.. I thought this said shave bushes – that’d be worth seeing
COVER UP !
just looked at my MP’s blanked out expences from 1/3/05 to31/1/05 utility bills £730 fucking unreal ! and thats on top of his £1300 intrest £100 food etc find your self another job scumbag your history !
everybody that is self employed this year fill in your tax returns and then blank it all out send it off and wait for a response ! just shows you that they are above the law !
A load of blanks.
I used to be able to hit the ceiling in my youth but i’m firing blanks now
Have just looked at my own MP and am angry at the amount that has been redacted…
Despite this, I still see for her expenses “necessary to perform her duties” she’s claimed for flowers. Feckin’ flowers?? Since when it that an essential??
My MP’s expenses have been redacted so hard that the only visible things in many cases is the amount of money claimed. He came close to being top of charts for four years when it comes to office and staff expenses, but these documents reveal diddley squat about who he paid and for what.
The shame is he’s such a nonentity, the DT will probably never get around to revealing the full details….
Oh, and his handwriting is so appalling that it constitutes another form of redaction all by itself. I think he claimed for an intruder alarm, but that’s a guess as to what the scrawl means.
Another challenge for the DT staff which I haven’t seen noted when people are complaining about the ‘drip drip’ of revelations – lousy penmanship.
He better be f’ ing claiming for an intruder alarm mate – he’s gonna need it!
He’d better be claiming for skidproof underpants the theiving hoon
Names, names. We need names!
Apologies, so ticked off I redacted his identity. Nick Palmer, Broxtowe.
And he’s been pulling the £250 petty cash every month gig. But I can find nothing about second home or travel expenses. Only printer ink and hire of halls. And a banner. A banner?
Has anyone else noticed the option of claiming for rent of an allotment? Has any MP claimed this?
well bliar said they were going to be “WHITER THAN WHITE” at least his fucking expense sheets are . FUCK ALL ON THEM !
His teeth are certainly whiter than white, at our expense? His soul? I think not.
Sorry, here’s a recount – make that THREE banners, one for £128, one for £35 and one for £20 – getting smaller by the month.
A payment of £250 exactly to Labour Party Properties Ltd – for what, who knows?
Mystery – why is my MP apparently not living anywhere in 2007-8? Loads of second home claims in previous years but only claiming for office proportion of a home (indeterminate if first or second). Is he homeless or shacked up with someone in London when Parliament sits? I’m worried ;)
Mine’s Anne Snelgrove
Peter Mandybum thinks that flowers are a necessary cost in the BERR buildings, 10’s thousand a year wasted on flowers.
No, he needs the feminine touch, poor creature.
Just looked at my MP’s expenses. Don’t know what he spends his salary on cause it’s all on expenses.
Perhaps the leading question should be to ask what exactly they DO pay for out of their own pockets.
Okay that’s fucking IT!
Had a look on the expenses website;
My MP – James Arbuthnot – wealthy than the wealthiest,bought a house for £900K without a mortgage being needed,charged you and me;
£183.39 for a “chainsaw for logs”
Holy fucking cow – there we have it – and we are told to shut the fuck up and be quiet while they screw us for every penny.
Sounds like we will have the Hampshire Chainsaw Massacre this weekend……
That’s hardly a cheap chainsaw and is certainly not one that is limited to just cutting up firewood and the like. He is taking the piss. Does no one actually vet these expenses?
About the going price for a half decent Stihl petrol chainsaw.
He doesn’t need a stihl to cut logs. A £45 2000w electric Flora Best with 18″ blade from Lidel is more than adequate for that job. If he wants to be a lumberjack and put on womens’ clothing then he should fund it out of his own pocket.
So are you saying that those allowances should have been means tested?
Or that if we’d paid for his mortgage instead it would have been OK?
“CHAINSAW FOR LOGS”
I can usually turn out two a day… that could be quite a money-winner. Not in the same league as MPs, but hey you can’t have everything!
They have just read out my email I sent to Sky News this am – did not name Arbuthnot though.
£25 for vases – is there ANYTHING that we did not pay for cos I am going round to his mansion this afternoon to get at least a vase from him.
The MPs each had a few weeks to check they were happy with what was being published… I can’t imagine much exciting will come of it. I’m waiting for the complete and unabridged version to get leaked… We know it’s out there.
Time enough to get the shredder out and re-write a few things.
This years winner of britains got tallent
Why are things like VAT numbers redacted? surely these are public domain.
joolz
And my hoon, Jack Straw,
Every month Petty cash 250.00
just taking the piss as much as possible!!!! Me thinks they redacted waaaaay tooooo much
Oh i can only hope the real data appears on “Pirate Bay” soon!!!
joolzg
the telegraph have it so lets see it run again next to all the blacked out fraud !
“Every month Petty cash 250.00″. How in God’s name can that be? It’s never £235.43 or £156.77 is it? Always a nice round figure suggesting complacency, contemptuousness (of the tax-payer), idleness or, more likely, just fucking cheating.
And you can bet your bottom dollar these ‘guesstimates’ are invariably rounded up. Where any expenses feature an ‘exact’ amount you can smell a rat. Just look at food prices, clothes, fuel, council tax, mortgages/interest – anything you like; see how often they appear as multiples of £10 or £50. Not so often. In fact, only in expenses world.
VAT numbers identify the supplier because they are individual to a business
My MP [Hendry] has removed every identifying detail on his allowances – even the addresses of suppliers as well as their” VAT numbers.
These aren’t private details – why would anyone try to hide who they spent our money on?
but when you have “linotype (blackburn)” on the invoice, whats the fucking point of redacting the address and vat number?
joolz
Redacted Expenses sounds nasty, a bit like Extraordinary Rendition. Both are highly top secret and are to be hidden from the voting public.
Ask jack the straw…….. he knows. Now ministry of justice have managed to boot out juries. Extraodinarily awful, but what do you expect from this totally corrupt
government?
WTF – I looked at Tony Blair’s expenses – the description of service/ goods is blanked out – WHY?
There is just a sum with no description, this does not fit into ‘ freedom of information’ as they have left out the information!
That’ll be services rendered by Carol Caplin then.
Well blow me!
Why didn’t the DT put the detail on a disc rather than a 68 page pull-out? Poor trees, still thanks to DT lots. Thanks to Guido and everyone else restoring truth to our governance
Hardly restored.
Oh I have now seen that every month he is claiming for a gardener who has cleaned his swimming pool,changed the pool filters,mown the grass etc and averaging circa £700 PER MONTH.
And he is claiming for £400 food.
I am incandescent with rage that these people squeeze the life out of us and then charge us for things that you and I would have to pay ourselves – it is simply farcical.
READY TO MARCH – lets show the Iranian people how to do it.
Lets go.
My Hooning MO is claiming mortgage payments – he represents Woling – For Fucks sake whjy is he getting a second home allowance? The whole of Woking manages to travel into London every day for work. Some of us all the way to Canary Wharf, not just Westminster. Its a half hour journey to Westminster – theiving c’unt.
The whole fucking lot of them need redacting!
Not only has he got a second home that is completely unnecessary, he’s completely rennovated it, new kitchen, new bathroom, rewiring, new windows, new gasworks, and kitted it out with new TVs, DVDs, kitchen utensils, even bog brushes and the like. All of it at our expense.
Fucking Thief.
MP for Woking with a second home – Seriously, what the fuck??
EVERYONE who lives in Woking works in London – it’s the first main stop on the train line out of Waterloo, about 25 mins on the train which leaves every 10 minutes (and they run all night).
Waterloo is 5 minutes’ WALK from the House of Commons. I can’t imagine the locals there voting for the troughing Hoon come the next election.
Ditto Alan & Ann Keen of Brentford (30 mins from Waterloo.)
The original ‘Mr & Mrs Expenses’!
Here’s what I wrote to my MP- when I had reduced from boil to simmer!
Wait til the Telegraph suppliment on Saturday, then the “Within the rules” tossers should be in for a kicking. That will show how “straight” they are- fucking corkscrews
” Dear Mr Julian Brazier,
I mail about the redacted details I have just examined.
Whilst I accept “Security” reasons for blanking certain details- address/telephone number/signature, it is TOTALLY unacceptable to withhold the amount of details blanked out.
All MPs are PUBLIC servants.
All are claiming PUBLIC money NOT agreed by the public to fund your lifestyle and therefore there should be no reasons to redact 99% of the information.
Yes it is parliaments rules/directions to publish in this manner but why can you not “grow a set”, “man up” and show a lead by deciding to publish-with minor censorship- your own records on your website?.
You want me to pay for something then have the good manners to ask or explain why.
It is often heard “If you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about” so why are the members so worried??
And please understand, that although I have voted for you at every election, that changes NOW!
You want my vote? Then earn my respect!!
Yours,”
I wrote to my MP, David Ruffley, over a fortnight ago. I ‘m still waiting for a reply.
Every month Julia Goldsworthy (single) troughs the maximum £400 on food. Or rather that is what she claims for, as it is very very doubtful that racing snake Julia actually spends that much.
Caviar? Truffles? Margaux?
I’ll bet those are on the menu in the HoC restaurant – subsidised by the good ol’ taxpayer, of course.
The DT is publishing the unexpurgated version as a supplement on Saturday – methinks it will be a sell out edition.
hope so.
Never before have so many black rectangles been published in the name of ‘transparency’.
This is an outrage. Rubbing salt in the wound doesn’t come close.
Truth is lies, war is peace, black is white, etc…
well said !
My former MP, Roger Berry Labour, Kingswood, Bristol, claimed £499 (price reduced) on 12/5/07 for a Baya 392 Dina Meri nail manicure table !!! What the hell does an MP need this for, maybe he’s got a second job or I suppose he’s going to need it, to try and help ‘cling on’ by his fingertips at the next election.
Not something needed by G. Brown, Esq.
Oh we can use that – to pull his fucking nails out one by one – Cameron can use his new accent whilst we do it!
Jacqui Lait, my MP, has a second home allowance even though her Beckenham constituency is about 40 minutes from Westminster. She’s naturally claimed for food, £90 for ‘replacement crockery and mugs’ (that’s a lot of mugs), Council Tax and £1.80 for ‘2 pillow cases’.
Plus I’ve only ever seen her once (during the General Election) in the constituency over the past decade.
So what on earth is Hon. (sic and sick) Members’ salaries for?
It clearly states on each form:
“…expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred to enable you to stay overnight away from your main home…”
and each form is signed by the MP.
We should create a list of questionable items that MPs believe are “necessary”
these twats are laughing at us ! it’s like a game who can claim for the most ridiculous items and get away with it .god they must have had some laughs in the subsidised bars around the HoC about it all this is fucking sick ! and we face tax rises when our incomes are dropping fuck you scum .i wish a long slow painfull death to you and all your familys !
A friend of mine opened his wife’s underwear drawer and picked up a package wrapped in silk paper:
“This”, he said, “isn’t any ordinary package.”
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.
“She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on, and was saving it for a special occasion.
Well, I guess this is it.”
He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house; his wife had just died.
He turned to me and said:
“Never save something for a special occasion.
Every day in your life is a special occasion”.
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through.
I no longer keep anything.
I use crystal glasses every day….
I’ll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.
I don’t save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to.
The words ‘Someday…’ and ‘ One Day…’ are fading away from my dictionary.
If it’s worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it…… now
I don’t know what my friend’s wife would have done if she knew she wouldn’t be there the next morning – this nobody can tell.
I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels.
I’d like to think she would go out for a Chinese, her favourite food.
It’s these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.
Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one.
If you got this, it’s because someone cares for you and because, probably, there’s someone you care about.
If you’re too busy to send this out to other people and you say to yourself that you will send it ‘One of these days ? , remember that ‘One day’ is far away… or might never come..
No matter if you’re superstitious or not, spend some time reading it.
It holds useful messages for the soul.
Don’t keep this message.
This Tantra must leave your hands within 96 hours
Send copies and watch what goes on in the next four days
You’ll have a pleasant surprise.
You want a pleasant surprise, you hooning spammer. Why don’t you peddle your stupid homespun fucking philosophy somewhere else?
Guido – spammer alert
Edit!
SPAMMER!!!!!
I understood that expenditure for children’s items was specifically ruled out, so I don’t understand why Gordon Brown needed items with “Noah’s animals” on them in order to carry out his parliamentary duties, or why they were paid by the fees office?
Perhaps he is expecting a great flood?
Great – the first Prime Minister anywhere in the world to be sacked cos he bought Noah blinds – all the while we are being ruined by that criminal.
If the people in the Fees Office get the same perks, they’re not going to rock the boat for everyone else, are they.
because animals wont tell him he is shite and he could rule a world where no one answers back !
Terrible handwriting seems to be a prerequisite to become an MP.
BUT the amounts for all MPs seem to be written by the same person??
Yes – I thought that was a bit odd, too.
Thank you, that answers a question saves me looking for my specs!
This is a black out of information.
If they had weeks to review their expense claims, then Tony Blair was clearly not happy with making his public, as his are all blacked out.
…wonmder why that was? Methinks Bliar was/is probably one of the worst troughers.
Firing blanks?
Anybody in the SE with a tory MP seeing invoices from Windrush Group against comms allowance claims?
Not accusing anybody of anything here, it’s just odd to see somebody representing an area stuffed with design and print outfits putting more than £2k’s worth of work to such an outfit in……..Witney.
Well, Gilliam Merron put up a good show, £140 for a quilt, £650 for a washing machine, £ 750 for a TV, £ 34 for a sheet, £ 150 a month for a cleaner, ££££ and £££ for fucking food, etc…
All within the rules, Im sure, but it tells us what we need to know. Doesn’t give any clues where to post the dog shit to (bloody redaction).
Thought I’d have a look at Bercow – not my MP – but in the frame for Speaker.
Talk about gmekeepers and poachers. Every month the same except when he calls the plumbers in. And he doesn’t seem to be able to deal in any lower monetary units than multiples of £50.
And the form says at the top – “actually spent” – not “to the nearest £50″
No wonder a lot of the toughers want him as speaker.
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/john-bercow/John_Bercow_0708_ACA.pdf
Yes- Seriously slack accounting by Bercow. All round numbers, and some funny chnages to the mortgage interest/rent box. Assuming Mr Bercow is paying a mortgage, the monthly interest amounts do look suspiciously “round” in nature. If he gets the Speaker’s role we will not be seeing him help the taxpayers- he will be the looking after the back-bench MP candidate.
The whole thing just shows – these people do not get it. I looked at Frank Field’s own website last week and it was the same. Massive amounts of black ink obscuring the relevant information.
The lack of tranz-parent-see (as G Brown calls it), ought to single these people out for the chop.
What a farce.
The most interesting surely are the documents that the MP’s have removed
i.e. the expense claims that were rejected, and the reasons for their rejection
3x Cessna Hubcaps is taking the micky
Which MP has a three wheeled Cessna?
PMSL, that beats the duck house!! Why the fuck would we be paying for an MP’s AEROPLANE?
How on earth does my MP need 6 different printers!
Watched the Ussher woman on news today. She had the bloody nerve to complain indignantly about her expenses being revealed because somebody had stolen the data ‘for personal gain’. I kid you not, ‘for personal gain’, she said as if her grubby little £17,000 escapade was like giving to Mother Teresa!
I sometimes think that I’ve heard it all but this cow takes the biscuit for out and out hypocrisy.
Pleeeeze… we need an election NOW!
Checked out Claire Ward’s (Watford) expenses…
So we have handsome amounts of mortgage interest (us plebs only *ever* got tax relief – our “greater good” troughers get it in full)
Plus furniture, a washing machine… nice work if you can get it.
Bye, bye Claire.
My MP Andy Reed can’t seem to add up properly, overcharging regularly. Does he work in the treasury as well?
Alan Beith has done very well by not working hard for his constituents, but by working hard for his own property and financial portfolio.
So is this “redaction” of info all a part of the new politics “cleanup” that Gordon Ahmedinijad was alluding to?
The only “cleaning up” is the sounds of pigs with faces still firmly stuffed in the swill.
Famous quotes:
” We got 7 canisters of CN20, we could roll those in there and nerve gas the whole fucking nest”.
” I say we take off and Nuke the entire site from orbit, its the only way to be sure.”
“Fuckin hey!”
Are they allowed to claim for Home Insurance premiums on their Additional Cost Allowance?
Barbara Follett claimed £3029.30 for her Home Contents insurance renewal covering 12 months from Oct 2004. You’d have thought her hubby might have chipped in as he surely benefitted too.
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/barbara-follett/Barbara_Follett_0405_ACA.pdf
Don’t you think that just the images of these redacted expenses says it all – MPs don’t like us do they??
It is interesting that some claims are rejected by the fees office and some —even more outlandish—- are accepted .
I may have a nasty ,suspicious mind but that circumstance makes me think that there has been some corruption within the fees office whereby if the MP was prepared to pay a bribe his claim would go through on the nod but if no arrangement was in place the suspect claim would be referred to higher authority.
The police must investigate staff in the fees office including examination of bank accounts.
Seems my MP , Eleanor Laing, should claim to have her calculator repaired.
According to the Service Charges statements covering the year 24/6/07 to 23/6/08 on her flat she should have paid a total of £6,536.05. She reclaimed twice this (£6461.78 on 2/8/07 & £6,610.32 on 5/1/08). What do those guys in the validation office do for a living?
#100
“What do those guys in the validation office do for a living ?”
You see my point in #97 ?
Just a point… they have produced Acrobat PDF files for all these expenses, and done the redaction using an Acrobat plug-in which just draws a black box around the area in question. Now any normal security operation would then lock the document to make sure that no-one could remove or alter the redaction to look at the data underneath, which is just a scanned image (a bit like sticking an elastoplast over a newspaper article – you just peel it off to see what’s underneath). However, these idiots have not password protected the documents, there is no security on them whatsoever. Hmm. Wonder who will be the first to do that?