Legg : A Question of “Fundamental Principles of Propriety”
Sir Thomas Legg has outlined his approach to expenses in a note to MPs which is now in the public domain. Legg confirms that payment of the second homes allowance under the Green Book rules was subject to “fundamental principles of propriety”:
The fundamental principles required MPs personally to ensure that their use of the ACA was: (a) necessary for the performance of their parliamentary duties; (b) not extravagant or luxurious; (c) in accordance with the Nolan principles of selflessness, accountability, honesty and leadership; (d) strictly in accordance with the rules governing the allowance; (e) above reproach; (f) took account of the need to obtain value for money; and (g) avoided any appearance of benefit, or a subsidy from public funds, or diversion of public money for the benefit of a political organisation. These principles together amount to a general requirement of propriety.
Quite a high bar for our porcine political class. Guido has heard a rumour – so far not denied – that Legg has asked for re-payment of the £108,000 wrongly claimed by those gold-plated troughers, the Wintertons. Back in June 2008 Guido highlighted their massive six-figure fiddle. The Standards and Privileges Committee ruled that they had wrongly claimed £108,000 in rent which they paid to a family trust on a property they had previously owned. They were the trustees of the trust and the beneficiaries were their children. Despite being found guilty of brazenly manipulating the system this was, as in the case of Jacqui Smith, another crime without punishment from their fellow MPs. The Standards and Privileges Committee did not require the Wintertons to repay a single penny.
The level of impropriety which anyone with commonsense can see has taken place is verging on grand larceny. When MPs say Legg is “acting retrospectively” what they really mean is that they didn’t expect to be held to basic, fundamental principles of propriety. They thought they would get away with it…
The Wintertons haven’t got a Legg to stand on.
Legg is lame
Financial misconduct = Conservatives.
Toot Roo
Guido has heard a rumour – so far not denied – that Legg has asked for re-payment of the £108,000
If they don’t repay will Legg call in the Plod?
It’s a lorra lorra money
Don’t underestimate how viscious a cornered M.P. can be.
Who will blink first? Does Legg have the guts to sweat it out?
More likely Labour will call in politico-plod and lock up Legg.
Look what they did to Filkin.
if Legg hangs tough his statue can go up on the 4th plinth with GF and Heather
Look what they did to Dr Kelly.
The supporting Note states that Legg isn’t retrospectively applying new rule – merely applying the current rules that weren’t enforced at the time.
It says that all Mortgage interest claims must now be RETROSPECTIVELY supported by relevant documentation i.e. a mortgage statement, or be re-paid. Payments detailed in a bank statement alone won’t be enough.
Suspect this last one is going to catch out a lot of piggies!
Does Mitch above mean thick and sticky?
This story has Leggs:
http://the-tap.blogspot.com/2009/10/legg-protects-powerful.html
You gotta pick a pocket or twoooohh oo
you gotta pick a pocket or two
Or 60 million odd pockets in this case. Anyone care to donate to my tumbril fund. The blade is ready and I would like them to get there in style.
Brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘cuts’ doesn’t it?
Whilst I’m certain that most of the most disgusting abuses will be from the power and money grabbing socialists in labour, the biggest will be conservatives – less are dodgy, but when they are, they do it properly!
If you’re committing a crime do it once and make sure it’s a spectacular.
every time, mate
Lets face it expences for cleaning your moat, if you have a moat you need a pleb to clean it for you….
I’m trying hard to make a pun on the classic “Botham couldn’t quite get his leg over” joke that made Aggers etc corpse for five minutes. It eludes me.
Mwahahaha
Bit of a twat arentcha?
Iwill not forgive YOU
Lord Jesus Christ – did Gordon elevate you to the upper house too? Was this before or after Mandy
Okay, there are some things that should never be applied even if places like these. That name ought to be banned. You clearly need to consider all the every fundamental aspects of your illness and get them fixed!
Any IP info you want to share with us on this piece of shit Guido? I’m sure there’s someone here who can use it name and shame the kind of scum that thinks it’s okay to make jokes about a dead child.
sick fuck,
I hope and trust that you die a hideous death.
you’ll get yours c’unt.
karma, innit.
You absolutely repulsive low-life moron, that is by far the worst thing posted in comments, I hope it gets deleted. Bastard
how much does 5pedo get paid to write this bollocks is what i want to know.
Just ignore him, dont show outrage, Calling for IP distribution is a bit far, it’s a very untasteful joke by someone who requires attention, I’m sure it will get deleted.
I think it did indeed go the way of the Delete key, thanks Guido!
Stop feeling so bitter…
Yeah their programme’s called the BBC.
Is it me or when they talk about everyone of any background joining as an MP some of us here might not be allowed in the chamber after a five minute less than perfect language rant at the utter BS used in that place? I know sometimes standards are important but what bloody school of … question and answer avoidance did these people go too? Nothing is ever direct, no one ever admits anything and I watch every single PMQs in the hope that one day someone might actually sound like us?
He obviously didn’t hear the question…
If any of the pigs will not pay up ,then stop there pay now until it balances.
Just stop their pay altogether and lock the doors to Parliament till the next election.
THEIR
?
Two correct spellings of ‘their’?
nicely brought to everyone’s attention by shouting.
Question ‘Oh..FFS’, are you all there?
Surely there must be a news team somewhere out there who can get a team member to walk out of a supermarket with an (unpaid for) loaf of bread, and film the consequences when the ‘thief’ claims the ‘Jacqui Smith exemption’ option of just apologising?
They would have a great public interest story which could run and run as the case progressed.
Much cheaper than buying the expenses disk.
And if that fails, then Scotland’s “Its only a technical breach”, should suffice.
Jacqui Smith was told to say “Sorry, to The House” !
She should say sorry to US – it’s our bloody money !
If you got away with £116,000 I know where YOU would be spending Christmas!
Her “sorry” cost us £928 per second. Not many people know that…
There is something very serious and sinister going on here. The mob of MPs are stoning the poor sod whom the mob apointed to police them.
Of course the mob thought one of their own would never have he courage to tell the mob the truth.
He better not go for a walk in the country anytime soon…
Good job Legg is bald or he would lose it fighting these troughers. Good on him.
Hear Hear,
Let them swing.
Hanging is too good for these wee Piggies they should be roasted alive on a spit every last one of them then and only then might they UNDERSTAND they FEW that have been honourable men and women…………….IT a bit like the unemployment figures a BIG FIDDLE why dont we see the number of people paying tax ie employed and the number not working and claiming ANY sort of benefit from the state TOO BRUTAL TOO REAL or What!!!!
I was speaking with a friend in The Netherlands IF you are an immigrant and you dont speak Dutch you dont get benefits you leave school without some sort of qualification NO Benefits You get pregnant – you dont get a house and welfare benefits and sit at home doing nothing you have to go back to school and your baby goes into a nursery
Impale them on Hampstead Heath
Hello sailor!
Which adds up, they have better educated kids and their far less prone to pregnancy.
With this in mind though, how on earth are their taxes so high?
They should make him the next speaker – let him stand against that prat Bercow, and lock Bercow up for expenses fraud and for being generally odious.
I know how the Troughing Pigs can make this right. They should immediately form an internal investigation committee comprising of eminent and respected TPs. They would quickly find that there were only some minor misunderstandings and that no wrong was done. Just to show that they were serious, both sides of the House could rise and say sorry to each other.
Sorted.
Traffic Police?
Bit of a problem here I think
“1n addition, on a de minimis basis, the Review will not require further supporting
evidence for single payments of less than E1,000 not forming part of a larger
pattern, and where there is no other reason to doubt the validity of the payment.
This implies no judgment about the validity of the payments concerned, but
merely a recognition that it would not now be a proportionate use of public
resources to pursue the evidence for such payments further.”
So there could be hundreds of thousands here not being required to be returned.
Don’t we want ALL money returned that they are not entitled to?
This is only for payments that are considered within the rules.
If the claim is thought to be excessive, or against the rules, the limit for needing no documentation falls to £100.
Which of course won’t include the £100’s of cash in hand subsidies they claim each month (no receipts have EVER been required). Our local MP pretty much claims the full whack every month. Of course, there’s also the £100’s in food allowance they don’t have to account for.
Just close the freaking doors of parliament for goodness sake, no more entry for the criminals until after the next election.
So as we all knew, Stuart Bell was talking crap. Legg isn’t imposing new, retrospective rules – he’s just applying the rules that were always there.
The 2006 Green Book said that expenses must be “wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred to enable you to stay overnight away from your only or main UK residence”, and “Members should bear in mind the need to obtain value for money” and “should avoid purchases which could be seen as extravagant or luxurious.”
Legg’s guidelines (max. £2,000 per year for cleaning, £1,000 for gardening) are just a reasonable interpretation of the existing requirements of “necessarily”, “value for money” and avoiding extravagance.
Yes but the “rules” went back to 1995
“3. The rules and standards in force during the review period (‘the rules’) consisted
of three elements: (a) the ‘Green Book rules’, based on Resolutions of the
House; (b) the practice of the Fees Office (Department of Resources) in
interpreting and applying the rules; and (c) certain fundamental principles, also
in the Green Book or otherwise approved by the House or the Speaker on its
behalf, or contained in the Code of Conduct adopted by the House in 1995.”
“3. The rules and standards in force during the review period (’the rules’) consisted of three elements:”
Let’s not overlook the 4th which in fact takes a legal precedent over the three that are quoted – that of the laws of the land concerning Criminal FRAUD, DECEPTION and THEFT, at least.
Add the tax liability to these payments that were / are shown to be FRAUDULENT, there should be plenty of loose freckles amongst our Honourable Representatives (sic).
Simply apply the same laws to them as they have been dreaming up and applying to everyone else – seize the criminal assets and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. – That is what happens to the rest of the population isn’t it ?
Rules and green books are for the Golf Club, they do NOT userp the law of the land.
Heads on pikes please.
I want to see these scumbags sharing a cozy cell with a nice chap called Bubba, after all that is what they would do to anyone else outside of their circles.
Oh, and can Legg look at “flipping” next?
The 2006 Green Book said that “the location of your main home will normally be a matter of fact”
Just because you designated your sister’s spare bedroom as your main home doesn’t mean that it actually was
Hopefully he is
“The fundamental principles required MPs personally to ensure that their use of
the ACA was: (a) necessary for the performance of their Parliamentary duties; (b)
not extravagant or luxurious; (c) in accordance with the Nolan principles of
selflessness, accountability, honesty and leadership; (d) strictly in accordance
with the rules governing the allowance; (e) above reproach; (0 took account of
the need to obtain value for money; and (g) avoided any appearance of benefit, or
a subsidy from public funds, or diversion of public money for the benefit of a
political organisation. These principles together amount to a general requirement
of propriety.”
GENERAL REQUIREMENT OF PROPRIETY
Also para 18
“However, here too and on the same basis, certain de minirnis exceptions will also
be allowed. These are:-
a) single payments of less than £100, erroneous under the Green Book rules, but
not cumulative with others forming part of a larger connected pattern; and
b) standing charges for utilities, Council Tax, etc. (but not more significant items
like mortgage interest statements) mistakenly claimed during the Dissolution
that took place during the review period, in 2005.”
That’s most of them then getting away with it. OK my rates are de minirnis too don’t think I should pay them……………. troughers.
“19. Where a decision or practice of the Fees Office was significantly contrary to the
overriding principles, it must be judged to have been in breach of the rules.
20.0ne frequent example was the practice of allowing MPs to make disproportionate
claims. For the central purpose of the ACA, namely putting a roof over IAPs’
heads to enable them to perform their Parliamentary duties, the upper limit of the
allowance may normally be taken as the relevant and sufficient control. The
Review will therefore not question the size and scale of second homes financed
by the ACA, or the necessity of providing them at all. However, for secondary
purposes, though legitimate in themselves, some limits must be regarded as
having been in place to prevent disproportionate and unnecessary expenditure
from the public purse.”
Fees office broke the rules.
Some accommodation was disproportionate and unnecessary.
Lots of money returning then
OR
is the cleaning and gardening limit only a smoke screen?
The Fees office was badgered and browbeaten by M.P.’s into ‘allowing’ excessive and illegitimate claims. Don’t be too harsh on them.
It is the M.P.’s who deliberately created and exploited this situation.
I understand. However was it Walker in charge there?? he could have blown the whistle and shown some ‘leadership’. None of them are coming out smelling sweet are they?
None of them are anywhere to be seen or heard – why? Has Legg interviewed them? Why has Walker not been sacked or otherwise made to explain/justify his actions?
Financial misconduct = Conservatives
If you reply to the first post you will be near the top of the tree, and people will read your reply. If you create a separate post, it will quickly be buried far down the page where no-one will read it. You have a lot to learn.
Boo!
The funny thing is that this ignorant little weasel has it completely wrong:
Financial misconduct = Labour
Sexual misconduct = Conservatives.
Not rocket science is it?
Wintertons, sexual misconduct?
Maybe not.
Cheers – £4.20 for lunch now on the floor – thankyou very much.
I do wish this Hoon would find a more interesting tactic.
The thing that surprises me (I am not affiliated to any party) is that you are as free as anyone else on this blog to submit opinion, by all means should you have information that we don’t that supports the hypothesis that labour have been anything but an unmitigated disaster that we will be long paying for – just post it, people may disagree, they may in certain cases even agree, but you stand at least some chance of swinging the odd person in favour of voting for brown.
Do you think that saying financial misconduct = conservatives, is going to somehow after enough repetition have some sort of subliminal effect whereby we go to the polls next year and conclude that despite the nation being broke, with the highest level of public and private debt we have ever had, it is somehow the conservatives that we fear, and should instead vote for the people who have a plan to sort out the mess… that er… they didn’t forsee or mitigate in the 11 FUCKING YEARS THEY’VE BEEN IN FUCKING POWER.
NOW FUCK OFF
Financial misconduct = Conservatives..
And not labour? You feel we have been well served financially?
The Inquisition = Hoon
Socialism=Cult=Scientology
If the Wintertons must pay, why not Ms Smith?
I cannt believe that jacqui is not going to come under the same “principles of propriety ” that are being so uncomfortably applied to the rest of this grand larcenous mob.
What’s the feeling on a State funded mortgage to buy a 14 bedroom home in Oxfordshire for the leader of the Conservitudes?
Is that ok then?
Flip in nell
Dave is taking the piss. Of course it is NOT OK but I have not heard any criticism in the press. IT IS BLOODY WELL NOT OK.
There should be an upper limit on mortgage claims.
But what you say is untrue.
There is at £22k I think
MB I think Dave has a problem from reading the note.
Should be able to get an aerial view of his Oxfordshire council house on one of the web map things.
Anyone figured out the address of his ill gotten abode?
That should be wisterical.
Does it have a tennis court too or maybe a swimming pool or maybe an helipad or maybe a moat?
You’ve got to pad out a mortgage or two boys, you’ve got to pad out a mortgage or two boys, you’ve got to pad out a mortgage or two!
click the Link Below
Aerial view of dave’s Mansion. Mortgage paid by british taxpayer
Urgh!
Right on the road, has he no self respect? Plus all that concrete and the wheelie bin!
Really, he’s letting his side down.
It must make him cringe when he visits all his cleptomaniac banker and hedge fund friends’ and backers’ homes in the country.
What was it originally, a toll booth?
Only the interest is paid by the taxpayer. Within the rules.
Master Baiter – only the interest is funded by the taxpayer, not the mortgage principal itself. Look, I am no more happy about the level of the ACA than you are, but funding mortgage interest is one of the more legitimate uses to which it can be put. You are just trying to divert attention to Cameron for party political purposes. This isn’t party political – McNulty, Smith and the Wintertons are all as bad as each other! Oh and don’t forget Kaufmann and his claim for a Bang and Olufsen Plasma tv!
Poppy cock
rose-knob
pink bishop
No idea – but how does it compare to:
CGT evader Chancellor Darling flipping houses 4 times.
Brown claiming for second houses while living grace and favour since 1997.
Geoff uber Hoon’s multi-million property portfolio courtesy of the tax payer
Ditto Straw
Ditto the ginger minger
Jackboots 116k for her susters broom cupboard
Gorbals Mick (’nuff said, blood boiling)
etc
etc
etc
By all means feel free to highlight Tory troughing, but remember to include Labour troughers. Until you do your comments will be regarded as the meaningless partisan drivel of a deluded Labour voter who genuinely believes that the country wants another 5 years of Labour.
Well said! Nobody comes out of this expenses farrago well, but the worst offenders are those who seemed to regard the ACA as a full entitlement and porked their way up to the limit using any receipts they felt like putting in. Hence the outcry about home cinema systems, plasma t.v.s, washing machines, antique fireplaces and the rest. We can all relate to needing or wanting those things, but mere mortals like us have to pay for them out of taxed income!
Seems that using the ACA to pay off mortgage interest is deemed OK. Using it for gardeners, antique fireplaces, moats, bathplugs, white goods and porn is not OK. I guess the difference is this – paying mortgage interest does not directly benefit income in the short term (although it helps to build up a long term asset). Doing what Porky Smith and others have done however, is a direct replacement for income – getting washing machines, tumble dryers and porn for free, when everyone else has to pay for these things out of their taxed income, just makes the blood boil!
Hubble bubble toil and trouble:
If one had a mortgage on one’s hag’s hovel, one would have to pay it from one’s taxed income, wouldn’t one?
Boiled blood of pour key’s miff.
To Witch Number 3 – point is that an MP from outside London does require two residences – one in his or her constituency and one in London. Now it is quite relevant to argue about the level of the ACA and whether it was set far too high, but funding mortgage interest was one of its legitimate objectives. Funding plasma t.v.s, home cinema systems, antique fireplaces, white goods, moat cleaning and all the rest of it was not.
So, at this stage I don’t see how a retrospective against those who simply used it to pay mortgage interest would work. For the future, make the allowance equivalent to renting a one bedroom flat in an unfashionable part of London and leave it at that!
No point is things are paid for from taxed income, mortgages are paid for from taxed income.
Bubble bubble blood boil has burst.
Well Witch No. 3 – I am a businessman and if I have to spend a night in London for my business, I claim the hotel bill and restaurant bill on expenses as I am allowed to do. That is not out of taxed income. Same should apply for MPs – unfortunately though, they got an “Allowance” instead of actual, real expenses paid for doing their job. This “Allowance” then was considered an “Entitlement” – that is how the rot started.
To move this forward, expenses for MPs should be paid under the same HMRC rules as expenses for anybody who has to work away from home for his or her job.
Thanks for the offer. I think that kind of inducement would buy my vote. Please tell Gordon to get printing the money. It’s a winner
Someone posted this link to the Redditch Standard on an earlier blog – worth a look – pity the lady did not go to Jacqui’s surgery for advice on how to avoid punishment
http://www.redditchstandard.co.uk/news84281.html
being once the supposed head of the police and home office, our Jaq has probably retained some really good pictures, taken home after she was asked to clear her desk.
There just HAS to be a reason that she is getting off so lightly.
Once one MP is made to pay then the die is cast.
alea iact est
Is est nunquam a venatus!
You leave the welsh out of it.
The Lords must be bricking it too reading this.
I’m keeping under the radar, you can’t catch me.
I thought Jacqui had that title reserved for when she gets to the Upper Trough?
She will receive the order of the bath(plug)
emailed from your massive marbled mansion in the People’s Republic of Bangla? Don’t come back.
What building a third home?
To quote Sgt Jones….”They don’t like it up ‘em!”
WQhen was corporal Jones promoted?
After prolonged service putting it up ‘em.
When was LANCE-Corporal Jones promoted
Gordon does, so does Peter, so does Mark, in fact quite a lot of them like it up em.
W.W.
Don’t forget Blinky… he LOVES it up him.
(Just ask his husband, Yvette).
oh my does she strap it on or has she a real one???
Strap-On i should think, but if I’m honest I wouldn’t feel comfortable entering her in to the female 800m, if you know what i mean ; )
Now that Oama is ramping up the numbers of GI’s in Afghanistan by another 40,000 and gordon very unwisely follows him. How long before we see the return of Hippies, Peace, Free Love Woodstock and the Protest songs?
Indeed fighting in one country to stop the so called spread of evil to another country.
Though ‘our streets are safer thanks to our troups fighting and dying in Vietghanistan.
Despite the fact most major Western terroist attacks by islamic nutters, the nutters came from either pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
Seems to me we should be fighting their to prevent evil spreading to Afghanistan.
It’s a crazy fucking world.
Though not as crazy as the man ‘running’ our Country.
Pass the LSD. (do the kids of today still do LSD?)
W.W.
All those who were hippies are now the mongers of war
Not true!
Even Bob Dylan has dumped the protest songs.
Damn right – thanks to global warming the world’s resouces of receational chemicals are running low.
We need a few more keys of black tar not only to make us think that socialism works, but to get the little people to vote for us!
I am happy with that – I simply love watching young, naked women frollicking in the mud!
Nice of the Guardian to let you have the 7 page note Guido.
They politicians obviously though Legg was one of theirs and that he’d do the right thing. By the right thing, I mean exonerate them all.
That Jacqui Smith certainly is the poster girl for troughing, not a very nice poster though.
Brown obviously thought that Legg would find more on the Tories than Labour, and that was the sole driving force behind this quite unnecessary inquiry. The main Kelly inquiry should have been sufficiently wide to encompass all wrongdoing, he should have waited for it to report rather than pre-empt it with this.
The Wintertons are guilty of fraud. You cannot rent yourself a property from your own trust fund and pretend it is a legitimate ‘expense’. This should be outside the remit of either Kelly or Legg, much more the remit of the DPP.
A poster so heavy it’d likely pull the plaster off your wall…
Big mistake to appoint a retired civil servant who already has had his “K”.No leverage on him at all.
I’m sure they’re digging hard to find some.
Dunno which Jacqui poster you have. I have the one by Scarfe hanging in my toilet. It works a treat every time. Then I flush with success.
Listen to the pin drop when a Conservitude or in this case a brace of Conservitudes are in the toaster oven.
Come on everyone, isn’t it time to vent spleen.
Where do the tow honourables represent?
Ah yes the famous North West
Can’t look good for the next election in those constituencies.
Ann Winterton
Conservative MP for Congleton, nearby constituencies
Tatton (9 miles)
Stoke-on-Trent North (9 miles)
Crewe & Nantwich (9 miles)
Newcastle-under-Lyme (9 miles)
Macclesfield (10 miles)
Nicholas Winterton
Conservative MP for Macclesfield
Cheadle (7 miles)
Hazel Grove (9 miles)
Stockport (10 miles)
Congleton (10 miles)
Tatton (10 miles)
Tee Hee
The old MB didn’t give us tractor statistics and was at least amusing.
It’s the North West, stupid.
and his insults were wittier
My mum thought I’d discovered religion recently. Hearing loud cries of ‘oh god, oh god, Jesus, Jesus’, she burst into the room to find me jacking my stumpy tool off a copy of Gordon’s top fifty incorrect statistics.
Masturbatory misconduct = Master Baiter
‘Ere stop messin’ abahht!
I must apologise for my ‘George Osborne’ alter ego, can’t help myself. Now, a wank I think.
Must apologise for resurgemus has no imagination this type of thing is the best he can manage.
George Osborne winning the economic debate !
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
What’s Gordon going to plagiarise next ?
You misunderstand us.If the Wintertons have been at it(and there is little doubt they have),I’m more than happy to see them pay back every last penny and their names dragged through the mud.
I also must see Jackboot repay £116,000.00.
Frankly MB, as a Tory voter I would still happily string up the greedy ones and boot them out! It is not acceptable in any colour. So, here comes the vent… These sickening little moronic greedy overbearing overblown grandees need a swift kick in the family jewels, be they female or male and directed straight to some community service as well as paying back all monies they are not entitled too and some interest to boot!
Yep, and Labour are blameless aren’t they.
That’s the one thing that never fails to amuse me about MB – I like to think most people here are capable of talking about the fault of politicians from all sides, yet this imbecilic little wanker only seems interested in what the Tories get up to, in spite of his precious labour being just as mired in filth and sleaze. Maybe he made a pass at Cammo at some point and got turned down.
It’s not even spin, it’s just downright stupidity.
Perhaps we’ve finally found where Two-Jags has been hiding… not enough to blog himself, he’s concealing himself here insinuating the virtues of Labour whilst smearing the Tories. Wonderful, got to love his guises ;)
that would also explain why MB is no longer entertaining
Mind you it has to be admitted that resurgemus has always been dull old stick, what?
And don’t forget that Jack (Justice Secretary) Straw said about his expenses claim. “I’m sorry, but accountancy is not my strongpoint.” !!
Alistair seems to be sitting tight after his 4 flips ?
Is Sir Alan safe with his £12K gardening bill ?
And so it goes on………….
“in accordance with the Nolan principles of selflessness, accountability, honesty and leadership”
Get the fuck out of here!!
Hahahahhahhhahahhahahhahahahahhahahahh!!!!! C’mon now ……. THIS is the House of Commons(and Lords)you’re talking about
I think there is a new politics emerging, its -THEM AND US, and they are going to lose!!
http://newslion.blogspot.com/
Let us hope so but I am sceptical. Just look at Julie Kirkbride and everything she`s got away with!
I understand your piont and And partially agree with you, but I think this will play out over a longer period of time. And as those who want to rule us continually let us down e.g the coming legal fight over the repayment of expense, I think we will wise up and let these people off with less and less and in return we will demand better service from them. The key is to open up our political system to constant democratic scrutiny i.e through the ballot box we shall judge their deeds.
http://newslion.blogspot.com/
Ahoy. NO. The Police work for us and the Parliament work for us. Let’s say they do their job, for us. What right have they or the Police got to talk amongst themselves whilst shutting us out of the debate apart from on Guido Fawkes’s blog, which is the best and often works in its aims, aside?
Fuck the lot of the greedy turd sucking fuckpigs.
So they employ magicians to get around us. You’da have to be spell’d out to vote for Dave.
It is scandalous the the Winterton`s do not have to repay. It is even more scandalous that Julie Kirkbride and husband Andrew MacKay, protected as they are by Dave, are not being askd to repay – sums greatly in excess of the Wintertons by several multiples in total, and obtained in excessively more dubious circumstances than the Wintertons. Kirkbride`s seat of Bromsgrove is not even being advertised on the candidate`s list under an anticipated return of this dreadful woman. The scandal is certain to erupt in the middle of the general election campaign with fresh details and allegations. We can only speculate about what this says of Cameron`s judgement. Or is there more to this than meets the eye?
This is true Third Roundel. Just add up all the sums involved. Why has nobody done this?
Legg is only dealing with trivia anyway. Why worry – they`ve ALL got away with it! There will be NO police prosecutions.
Down the Court Road early
With the Hustlers big and burly
There’s a million of ‘em selling
And the buyers can be found
They’re just hanging around
They’re just hanging around
Just buy me a dozen oranges and send me a receipt for £27,318. Thank you.
JULIE KIRKBRIDE MUST BE PROSECUTED IN ORDER TO PURGE THE PARTY OF THIS ONGOING SORE. David Cameron would reap enormous benefit from this.
Julie is a lovely girl.
It’s all lies, I tell you.
Is your name Rita Dent or one of the other `spinners` in Kirkbride`s pay?
Everyone should be cautios about the `spinning group` operating under Kirkbride`s direction – especially David Cameron.
Big girl in the red dress
She’s just trying to impress us
And she’s got the barley fever
But she doesn’t make a sound
She’s just hanging around
She’s just hanging around
Well done Stephen, now back to playschool and join in the painting with the other boys and girls
Is that what you do with Julie Kirkbride George?
The discovery of his corpse in what was presumed to be a state of autoerotic asphyxiation, combined with self-bondage and cross-dressing, led to a greater public awareness of auto-erotic asphyxiation and self-bondage and their risks.
One of ‘em comes closer
Got a monkey on his shoulder
And the monkey’s getting grinner
But his eyes are on the ground
He’s just hanging around
He’s just hanging around
Yup Kirkbride should be removed as a candidate and made pay money back.
Given her constituency is next door to Jacqui Smith voters in the area will be up for giving troughers a kicking. Can’t see there being much enthusiam for voting Tory in Redditch if the next door MP is just as bad.
The whole Tory campaign will erupt into chaos if Kirkbride is allowed to stand.
I couldn’t agree with you more! It’s time Dave showed us what he’s got and sent in the clean up crew – she and her husband are despicable!
Absolutely right Jac. But will he do it?
I think we’ve a fair idea of what Dave has and hasn’t got, as time goes by. What happened about Anne Main MP Con St Albans btw? I remember being highlighted in The Telegraph: something about a flat she doesn’t live in or something.
I am not sure about this, but trust me I’m sending emails to my local officers and moaning like hell about these thieving buggers!
True Vlad – but the point is that Julie Kirkbride has transgressed far in excess of Main. Both should of course go, but the big fish in the polluted pond is Julie Kirkbride.
Well done Jac, but remember there are a lot of weak people in the party.
Oh yes. I stuck a No. 10 petition up about how much the councillors can claim. I am disgusted that some of them are earning lots from their claims and positions. Ridiculous monies to give away. Our local councils need to be freed of political parties and have a governor board run by local people with some other kind of oversight to ensure that excessive waste and allowances are not being paid… that money is not being squandered and that people do their jobs.
The reason is simple. Kirkbride has used legitimate funds illegitimately, and this can only be exposed by a fraud trial in court. In Kirkbride`s case the sums involved are astronomic and have so far been only partially exposed. The financial implications on some of the following need to be fully investigated for a start:
- the circumstances and cost of Ian Kirkbride living with no housing costs whatsoever for twelve years.
- the circumstances and cost of Kirkbride`s sister Karen being employed as secretary even though other secretaries were employed by Kirkbride at public expense.
- the circumstances and cost of all payments made to the Dent family in Bromsgrove, as secretaries, nannies, and general advisers for the past twelve years.
- the cost of administrative and stationery items over the past twelve years whether they were paid from parliamentary allowances or from local party funds and whethr these were or were not double claimed for by Kirkbride.
- Kirkbride`s car mileage and whether the total figures reasonably reflect her travel to and from the constituency – a detailed analysis is required.
And there is much else!
She has a little boy to bring up and pay for you know.
and a soon to be unemployed ex-M.P. husband.
much call for gobshite tossers in Bromsgrove?
None Mitch. That is why Kirkbride is unsuitable in every single respect and has to go. And I am a Tory. She is trying her usual scheming `spin` throgh the Dent family but it will not wash with the voters. There are very strong grounds for a prosecution.
I agree whole-heartedly. I am not only a Tory voter I am now a party member… yes, I did… Frankly the party needs to stop shoving its head in the sand and boot them out. None of these money grabbing people should have been permitted to continue as an MP, getting the severance pay that comes with that final term! It is a disgrace, pure and simple. Nothing mitigates or explains why it has not been dealt with more firmly.
Ah, Jac. Can I ask what are your views with regards to europe, please?
I’m only interested as to support your Party or not.
political and moral cowardice comes to mind
Political and moral cowardice is certainly being displayed by the Party in regard to the Julie Kirkbride case.
My views on Europe. I am not a great fan of the Europe model, but confess a complete lack of understanding about how it is run. The negatives appear to be the amount of power and money we give away, but it appears we get some money back… would it not be better to trade without all that swapping nonsense? Some of the rules are great that come from Europe, they are sound and intelligent, others not so – but nothing is perfect. So I guess despite my reservations I do not know enough to actually have sway either way in my own mind! That answer the question?
Why is no-one taking this outrage seriosly? It is far worse than Jacqui Smith.
I suspect thst very few M.P.’s would pass a genuine audit without at least severe censure, if not criminal charges.
The flim-flam about moats and duck-houses is purely diversionary to preserve the whole stinking, rotten lot of them.
That would appear to be the case Mitch. The Duck House is total trivia and a total diversion, just as Legg is now only dealing with trivial amounts. A full investigation of Julie Kirkbride and Andrew MacKay would help cleanse the political system.
and the wintertons – expose and embarress them ruthlessly.
There IS more to the Julie Kirkbride scandal than meets the eye.
It is amazing that nobody seems to want the Kirkbride affair investigated in full. Are there no investigative journalists any more to look at some of these aspects in detail?
A civil service knight who actually deserves the title. Well done, Sir Thomas.
These troughers are so used to dialling up a whitewash; that the thought of anything else happening never crossed their minds.
What’s the odds he won’t get his “peerage” after this ?
In the court of public opinion he is already a god never mind a peer. Perhaps we could get him to investigate Tony fucking Blair and cash for honours?
He’d better make sure he doesn’t go for any walks in the countryside alone though.
seconded
Would buy Legg a drink if i ever saw him. Finally somebody stands up for the normal people. It will be an outrage if Jacqui Smith gets a peerage and Legg doesn’t.
i never heard any MPs complaining when the many investigations over the years have produced a whitewash – just once the MPs are stood up to and they soon start squealing.
That all seems reasonable then!
“acting retrospectively” – what???
If a single, unemployed mum gets overpaid in her benefits she’s expected to pay the overpayment back!
If someone did a bit of shoplifting 18 months ago and gets caught today or in the future can they claim that the police and courts are “acting retrospectively”?
Total bollocks!!!!
As HM Revenue & Customs can claim back 6 years underpaid taxes etc AND charge interest AND levy punitive fines AND there is the option in serious cases of fraud to prosecute the offenders with the possibility of civil recovery/bankruptcy and a prison sentence -they should not hesitate to make an example of the very worst of the “troughers”.It will stand as a salutary warning to any future politician who thinks they can raid the public purse at will without suffering any penalty
hmmm … those aren’t really restrospective changes to the rules. If I picked blackberries (the fruit sort), 2 years ago, and then they made it illegal, could I be fined for something I did that was at the time legal?
But the thing that is stupid is that the MPs have been misinterpreting what (a) and (b) means in the rules meant. I bet some of them do believe that £50 to get someone to adjust their stereo is not luxurious, but I can’t see how it helps them be MPs.
I get your point, but Legg isn’t making retrospective changes to the rules – he’s requesting that MPs reimburse the Tax Payer for the money that has been claimed that does NOT adhere to the rules re the claiming of expenses that relate to the proper discharge of MPs’ duties. i.e theft!
If they do not see it as that, they do not deserve to be elected Honourable Members.
good point, look at the OAPs they’ve put in jail for council tax – they never ever show any mercy to decent honest normal people, but expect it back themselves.
got to keep fighting though – looks like fivebellies in an attempt to avoid a wipeout at the general election – if gordon “boom and bust” brown allows one – might try to slime into the lords, though i can also imagine the attraction the EU must hold for her – no elections needed, 1st class expenses all the way – don’t even have to apologise – look at kinnochio, all as a means to keep her ill gotten 100 grand. so must push for private lawsuits and all that to reclaim the public money. keep spreading the link to sunlight centre. Must be other legal ways of getting the loot back from jacqboots.
I wouldn’t even get out of bed for 100 grand. Now 10 million is a different matter.
I heard you get in for 10 bob though
If Legg’s 25 doesn’t get Smith then nothing will.
“25. Where an MP used the ACA to enter into a conflicted transaction, for example by buying or renting a second home from a close relative, a company in which he or she had shares, or a close associate such as an employee, the transaction will be regarded as tainted, and the whole payment accordingly invalid. This will be so even if the MP can show that it was effected at arms-length or that the public purse has not suffered.”
woah that must nail her surely?
Well, it certainly puts a big dent in her claims that, even if her first/second homes had been nominated the other way around, she would have still been able to claim £116k.
Pay it back Jacq!
And when you’ve done that we’d like a public apology to Damien Green and his family.
As I never cease to say, this Parliament esrablished the principle of retrospective taxation. MPs of this Parliament have absolutely no grounds whatsoever for objecting to the retrospective application of these rules on them.
But THAT was only to apply to the “little people” not we legislators who are of course grossly underpaid for the excellent,difficult and exacting work that we undertake for the nation and who therefore should be allowed some leeway in claiming our just rights and expenses. I mean if the laws were meant to apply to us WE wouldn’t have trooped out of the tearooms/bars and through the “Yes” lobbies – I mean it’s bad enough having to be within the sound of the “Division Bell” whilst Parliament’s sitting without having to sit through those boring debates so at the very least we ought to be able to claim some pecuniary advantages without the “hoi polloi” demanding we now pay it back! We are VERY important people you know !!
I thought the rules were in the green book?
When the Speaker announced the Legg review to Parliament, he was pretty clear:
“The team will look at claims in relation to the rules which existed at that time, and will take account of any issues which arise from that examination which cause them to question the original judgement”
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-05123.pdf#3
Legg was expected to “question the original judgement” applied to the expense claims. The judgement, presumably, of the MP making the clain and the Fees Office in processing the claim through to payment.
Funny how nobody complained about the intent of the review before it’s tentative findings started to emerge in the letters to MPs.
They are all thieving little shit holes. Burn the lot alive I say. Love live Guy Fawkes.
Skintertons?
very unlikely – unfortunately.
Stand down
Pay off
Big Pension
£700k flat in London
bullet in back of head
Now is the Winterton of our discontent.
Top Hole Guido.
Mr Legg has done what any decent person would have done given the remit.
Maybe there was a conspiracy maybe there wasn’t but the MPs’ and the Fees Officers did not keep to the sprit of the expenses scheme and are culpable where lacking for a total return of public money.
Where are these Wintertons – smoke ‘em out Guido.
Anyone know if the Keens still have squatters ?
Are the Skintertons chummy with Widdecombe, might explain her piggy squeals.
I thought that Widde was one of us – not one of THEM !
Shows you how wrong you can be !
It would seem that our crafty MP’s have authorised a purge on gardeniing and househols expenses in the hope that their troughing on housing allowances would go unoticed.
Will it pass and will our porciine MP’s get away with it? We will see, but I would not bet a pigs turd to a golden guinea on it
And the hits just keep coming! Makes you proud, but poor to be honest doesn’t it? Greedy, over paid and under worked bastards!
I wonder why Labour & Tory London MPs claim second home allowances but NO Lib Dem London MPs do?
Perhaps it’s because they are greedy arrogant fuckers?
I remember reading somewhere they saw this coming and were told not to. Remember this only goes back to the beginning of the last parliament. Look at pre 2004 and I bet you would have a bigger picture.
No doubt about it there were clearer instructions in the green book pre then and therefore more blatant abuses. Why did Brown keep harping on about “the last five years” because he knew that pre that they were all toast. Why the f are there no decent investigative journalists willing to do any work on this?
Records for an accounting basis are required for 7 years (or is it 8??) Anyway there should be records to examine.
No, they’re just a bit slow on the uptake !
The more I hear of this man Legg, the more I like him. I wonder if he’s free next June?
Shows the state of this government.
So many have cut, run and gone into hiding, that he cannot even find a civil servant cowed/bent enough to do his bidding, not even one who thinks Brown will be around long enough to honour any promised rewards made on the QT.
or even rewards as per QE
Well I think the rich and privaliged, which includes very many in parliament will regard themselves as more equal then others to us mere peasants!
It’s all futile isn’t it, there is a reasonable chance that maybe someone who is involved in all the political shenanigens is reading the blog, but nobody seriously looks at the comments, I very much doubt if you even read them yourself. So why bother ? theres no satisfaction in getting it off your chest, you might as well open the window and scream at the night. Give me a shout when they want someone to bear arms, but until then it’s back to the darkened room, and the pillow over the head.
Or wait and see the televised debate and see if the apathy that has gripped British politics for the past 20 years is likely to become more dynamic under Cameron or his twin (with out the hat) Clegg. Wilberforce need to be replaced with a Churchillian type leader who is able to take us out of this malaise!
Bear Arms. Call for action.
Join Old Holborn 5 November at PoWestminster.
I’m not going to join Old Holborn if armed troublemakers are going. I don’t have any problem dressing as a pig or Guy Fawkes but I’m not prepared to be tasered, gasses and beaten to a pulp by the ATS and detained for going armed with premeditated intent to overthrow the Government.
er, watch the video from last year – not much chance of armed revolt tbh
quiet stroll along Whitehall with the crumblies and tea after more like
Play Grand Theft Auto – imagine that you are walking around Westminster slotting MPs and their Political Police.
Not as good as the real thing, but the relief of stress might postpone that busted blood-vessel for a wee while longer.
who the fuck is this idiot?
scalps norman, it is all about the scalps, don’t you understand?
DOH!
it is all about the scalps, don’t you understand?
It sure is.
Norman come out from under the bed and show a bit of backbone.
The Met have been told not to kill protesting folk following the unfortunate demise of the alcoholic newspaper seller at the G8 bash(sic) last year.
If you fear injury/disablement take out some BUPA cover.
I hope this Legg chappie doesn’t take long Kelly-style walks in woods…
He is OK because TB had his expences shreded.
Although it is rumoured that Princess Tony’s last expense chit was £350 quid (for shredding services no less) and that none of his claims now exist, there must be copies and ledger entries within the system.
Or was this outside of Sir Legg of Stopped-Troughingham’s brief
– did I read somewhere that this review looked at the last parliamentary year only ? Thus Blair is excluded ?
The amount the MPs have troughed is nothing to the British taxpayer money thrown at dictators and failed states around the world – not even a drop in the ocean in comparison.
DFID is a timebomb waiting to explode in the publics consciousness.
The little Britain types simply will not understand why we are giving away billions after billions when their mum cannot get into hospital and the schools are asking kids to take in their own loo rolls.
Mark my words – cameron will rue the day he cosied up to Saint Bono.
BTW – if Brown and Blair were the Lennon and McCartney of politics – who then in Saint Bono’s tax avoiding eyes are Cameron and Osbourne?
Batman and Robin (The Boy Wonder)
yep; indeed; I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave a moment ago:
http://order-order.com/2009/10/14/some-media-advice-to-sir-thomas-legg-dont-get-filkinned/#comment-299299
They’ve been caught bang to rights, and they’re fucking lucky they’re not being asked to repay all of it and/or going to prison.
Actually, if Legg was auditing things properly, he would have reported every member of the house to HMRC/CPS/Police for tax fraud.
They’ve been let off horrifically lightly.
True but Harperson has ruled this out. It will be dealt with by MPs
She might have ruled it out, but members of parliament are not above generic tax law (even when they try to exempt themselves from it).
If hmrc/cps wanted to, they could easily launch a criminal investigation into all the MPs because the MPs’ own rules actually tell MPs to break tax law by classing things as expenses instead of perks, and they’ve got proof in the public domain of them all mis-classing their perks.
There’s publicly available proof of their mass criminal acts, the cps and hmrc could easily prosecute them all if they wanted to; every court in the land would find them guilty of tax fraud (apart from the lords that is, as they’ve been on the same gravy train themselves; maybe that’s why it doesn’t get any further; hmrc/cps know that it’d go to appeal and end up in the lords and get thrown out from there on the grounds of “If we find these MPs guilty then we’d all be done too”)
which is why we need an election to burst the boil and get rid of the corrupt.
HMRC are themselves institutionally corrupt. Dave Hartnett has marginally fewer meals with big business than the Head of the National Audit Office did at the time he was meant to be overseeing their relationship with government. The tax man deals with tax-payers over lunch at the Ivy – htf can he take anyone of these hoons to task?
Do you really think that grabbing expenses is the end of these hoons fraud? I bet they are guilty of lots of other tax avoidance and tax evasion. Why do you think we have amnesty for off-shore account fraud? Because the F***ers who make the tax rules are at it themselves. HMRC maintain that they reserve the right to prosecute – well where are the prosecutions? Their stated policy is to prosecute those in a position of authority or who should know better – has there not been one MP or senior Civil Servant with undeclared income? Should not they of all people be prosecuted with all the vigour the law can muster??- There will be nothing done because they are all in it together. HMRC take the government to task? – No F’IN chance.
If they want to ? Why is such discretion even available ?
The law is the law, it should applied to everyone in the country or not at all.
The usual garbage of “not in the public interest to prosecute” does not even vaguely apply here – as the majority of Public opinion wants them to suffer the same heartless injustice system that they have imposed on everyone else – it might encourage future MPs to actually READ WHAT THEY ARE SIGNING – especially LAWS that STEAL MY MONEY, or FREEDOMS. and the bills that they vote for, without reading or understanding, thus ensuring that they retain a place at the trough.
Make roof in the jails for them all by freeing up space currently occupied by those whose only crime was being too poor to pay a demand or those caught smoking the evil weed.
The next parliament should be, needs to be, an entirely new sea of faces (not the faeces that we have now)and not a single thief should be among them.
yes, but it opens a real can of worms if they start prosecution, so they won’t.
Some people have mentioned that the SFO should also be investigating; that’s also not going to happen (I know because I once reported a multi-million pound pension fraud to the SFO, and they said they’d investigate given the general situation that I described to them, but once they saw who was involved they said they wouldn’t touch it with a fucking barge pole and refused to even look at the proof that I had)
This kind of corruption spreads far/wide/deep; the same also applies to cyber crime of a billion-dollar nature; the police don’t want to know because they know who it all leads to in the end.
If you don’t believe me, and think I’m a conspiracy theory nutjob, just try to report something to the SFO that has any kind of government/quango link and see how far you get before they send you a “we’re not fucking touching that one, mate” letter.
Broon said last June:
‘Trust has been destroyed by some of the people who are relied upon as the stewards of responsibility and fairness in society.
“We cannot move on until we have addressed people’s anger.”
mmm the message ain’t got through has it Gordo. Same old same old.
As the audit started last June, the fuckwitted one may should have had the brains to manage the release of information. Obviously did not think it was a big deal………
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands,
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
Doncha just love foresight Mr & Mrs W?
AH (C)
Arthur, you’ve triumphed again.
The Blairs and Mandelson got away with megabucks. Why not the little people too getting a share of the political cake? After all they played their part in treacherously depriving voters of a say on the EU Constitution? Where’s their pay-off coming from?
Alternatively if MPs want to get into the driving seat, they should have a backbench Bill proposed, to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and then while the readings and debates are going on, enquire if possibly an amnesty could be arranged on money taken in good faith.
The powers that be would offer them each an amnesty and in addition £1 million a head to vote the Bill down.
Then they could do it again the following week until they were all multi-millionaires.
Got to be the way to go. Treachery for sale.
YES !!! They are going for the ‘Zero Tolerance’ approach they are so fond of.
If they cannot take it themselves, they shouldn’t dish it out to the rest of us.
Now that MPs realise that it is not a pleasant feeling to be denied something they thought they had been promised, perhaps they might like to reflect on why investors in business assets got upset when after almost 10 years of being promised a maximum 10% capital gains tax rate Darling ditched taper relief and increased CGT….
There are probably a number of other examples where MPs should perhaps have applied some individual thought to situations rather than just voting as the whips instructed.
…not to mention being denied a promised referendum.
Would you bunch of jealous plebs be so good as to piss orf and keep your disgusting lower class noses out of ones business. When it comes to taking the taxpayers shilling, “If God didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep”. Toodle pip.
Hattie
It’s ok Harriet, we know where to find you…
A rumour has it, if they pay up for the trivial stuff no further action will be taken against an MP no matter what is found later, Brown and Straw implicated in this deal.
Another thing, 2009 Bonus pot for Wall street 140 Billion , Bloomburg reports.
Any more of this shit and I will leap off the couch, providing there’s northing good on TV and do something really really mischievous
Winterton in today’s Macclesfield Express:
‘ Yesterday, the soon-to-resign Macclesfield MP said: “I can confirm I received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg late last night, and I am satisfied with this letter.
“But I am not going to divulge what it said at the moment, I am sure it will become clear in due course when it is published.” ‘
http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/news/s/1171310_mps_under_scrutinyagain
Blimey – they actually get the internet as far north as there?
AND they can read?!!
Do they drive cars too?
No wonder they don’t want to bring back hanging!
Leggs penultimate point:
“25. Where an MP used the ACA to enter into a conflicted transaction, for example by buying or renting a second home from a close relative, a company in which he or she had shares, or a close associate such as an employee, the transaction will be regarded as tainted, and the whole payment accordingly invalid. This will be so even if the MP can show that it was effected at arms-length or that the public purse has not suffered.”
Mmm – interesting to see if any of their constituents take the law in to their own hands with these two……
Any news yet Guido on whether Brown’s £12,000 cleaning bill is related to a Mafia money laundering scam?
<a href="http://www.greenteethmm.com/dailystirrer.shtml#monster_from_duck_island
What about Cameron and Osborne’s annual scam of claiming £20.000 each off the poor tax payer. What A CONsevative cheek for two millionaires.
I thought the Tory scandals were all about sex ?
If as I understand the wording on the letters means they have to provide written evidence of all their mortgage interest claims to prove them up
Does this translate that Blair having shredded his claims will now be liable to repay everything? He obviously cannot support his claims with paperwork and if we forensically recreate all his claims to check, surely this leaves him open to all the fidling he did.
ANyone spotted this perhaps it was Mc mentals way of getting Blair for shagging his lover Mandy of hoy saveloy
Amusing Guido draws the line at an extended investigation by Legg into the porktastic abusers of the mortgage system. Costing many tens of thousands of pounds.
Poor call me Dave seems to have been out toughed on the porkers by Nick Clegg yet Dave will not countenance such an investigation.
And we all know why.
Legg should be going after those who have abused the 2nd home allowances to act like property speculators at our expense – instead he seems to be going for the petty cleaning claims. Disappointing.
This is a bit tricky though; a moral morass, even.
Legg is saying from a moral perspective that “Even if it can be claimed for, it not necessarily should be” and “If it has been claimed for, it not necessarily should have been”.
I was once married to a woman from the socialist paradise of eastern Europe. She felt that “As you have more possessions than I do, that is morally wrong and you should give me my share, whether I deserve it or not”.
I find this view perfectly echoed by our own home grown Socialists (and, tragically, some others). They share a completely different and misguided moral standpoint. As this alternate point of view is clearly at odds with the commonly held, I recommend a much more vigorous form of coercion and reformation to repay unjustly claimed expenses, including instruments of physical torture, as repayment seems unlikely from many. I have a special preference for she of the bath plug….
no willie. there will be no torture deployed during the second glorious revolution.
we, the people, will not lower ourselves to their standards.
tony blair and gordon brown and jack straw and david miliband and the other members of the new labour war criminals’ party may be happy to facilitate torture but we, the people, are not prepared to commit such civil war crimes.
everybody knows the punishment for treachery is hanging.
a good clean snap of the neck and it is all over.
with a good hangman in charge ’tis the most humane form of execution possible.
the only remaining questions are, ofcourse; where and when.
Would a sort of auto da fe do then? At least there might be some pain, adminstered by members of our former PM’s new found Church giving him and members of his party (not uniquely, alas) the opportunity for repentance before death. It used to be quite acceptable, you know…
Who’s going to round them all up ?
Angela Smith MP for Basildon.
A pig with her snout well and truly in the trough.
She has already had to pay back £1000 in over claimed council tax and claims more per week on food than her unemployed constituents have to live on per week.
We now find she claims 100% for a joint mortgage.
Why are my taxes paying 100% of the mortgage on a property that is in the joint names with her husband Nigel Smith?
How is this justified?
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/angela-e-smith/
Additional costs allowances 2007-08. Page 22. The mortgage is in the name of Mrs and Mr Smith.
All other mortgage documents had the name of her husband blacked out – they missed this one!
Fucking pig
and a fucking Hoon
Andrew Mackinlay MP for Thurrock
Thurrock Labour Party rent a property for their HQ for £3,900 from Thurrock Council.
They then charge Andrew Mackinlay £5,500 to use of a room.
Andrew Mackinlay claims the £5,500 on expenses.
http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/foi/content.php?page=foi&ID=421
Freedom of Information Act Request asking for details of 10 Commonwealth House, Tilbury. Property rented by Thurrock Council to Trustees of Thurrock Constituency Labour Party.
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances%2Dby%2Dmp/andrew%2Dmackinlay/
Page 24 and page 32 of Incidental Expenses Provision/Staff Allowance 2007/08.
Invoice for £5,500 to Andrew Mackinlay MP for use of office space including all bills.
Fucking greedy Hoon
Dodgy Thurrock Labour Party hoons the fucking Hoons
[...] a test of reasonableness after all, they just couldn’t be bothered to read their own rules: As Guido highlights, a good number of the expenses that MPs claimed were not actually “within the rules”. [...]
All repayments should also include interest (compound) at 8% per annum, the rate one can claim in any county court small claim and other proceedings.
No sympathy for the MPs’, just a lot of anger at the betrayal of trust.
So what if the external auditor has a sawn off shotgun approach to the MP’s expenses scandal, the MPs have had a chance at keeping their house in order, and chose to hide their dirty secrets from public scrutiny.
These MPs’ chose to write & apply rules which in retrospect seem corrupt, & I think the present auditor would have the full support of the public to go further and investigate all of their financial transactions.
These benefit claimants have it seems used a system designed to cover rents and necessary expenses, for the purposes of whole mortgages including stamp duty, plasma TVs’ and a lot of gardening.
The very least I expect is further investigations into their potential tax evasion, committee expenses and fraud, anywhere their little hands have touched public money for private use.
This cartel of expense claimants has no sympathy from the British public, the MPs’ have had the cheek to imply they were living on rations, when our soldiers’ were sharing bullet proof vests on campaign, let them take their complaints to court, if they are so confident of their innocence.
I think they need to set an example for once; I suggest that if any of these benefit scroungers has funded the costs of a new house entirely public expense, then that house should be returned to the tax payer when they are ultimately voted out of office.
It would so disappoint me to see them make a profit from collusion with the fees office, while urging the rest of us to tighten our belts.
After all if they have never paid a penny towards their lifestyle upgrade, they will not be loosing out will they?
Are there any MPs’ which qualify for this? Please let me know?
anagtime= Messrs Carter Ruck, by way of Rat Cumers KSC(s)
I see that even the veteran left winger Labour MP Alan Simpson has got in on the troughing!!! Oh dear Alan what about the class war!! Not very good to cause this!
See it here:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6327089/MPs-expenses-Alan-Simpson-leads-mutiny-against-Sir-Thomas-Leggs-demands-with-call-for-court-case.html