Minister Resigns Over Expenses
Phil Heatley, a politician in New Zealand immediately tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister when it appeared that a $70 receipt for two bottles of wine at a party conference had been accidently claimed on his expenses. Heatley told the press “I believe I’ve failed to live up my own standard and for that I’m embarrassed and immensely sorry.” He immediately repaid the money.
In other news it is thought that over £100,000 of the £1.2 million set to be repaid by British MPs is still outstanding, three MPs are awaiting trial and some of the worst troughers are still in government.
Was there a PMQ yesterday? Not a mention of it on the Today programme this morning…
No….was replaced by a Jeremy Kyle Show Special…………….My next door neighbour from Hell
Resigning over a genuine mistake for a relatively small amount of money isn’t honourable; it’s silly.
Suspect there may be more to this than appears…..?
Tend to agree with you there.
In civvy street a £71.60 discrepancy in expenses would be investigated and could lead to disciplanary action.
The man has principles that’s all and their expenses culture is obviously different.
Yeah. Maybe. I suppose it’s a case of being consistent. If you turn a blind eye to a $70 dollar ‘mistake’ before long you’ll be getting expense claims for tudor beams, P*rnography and a new roof for your boyfriends house.
And they’ll still be claiming it was a ‘mistake’ that shouldn’t affect their career.
I’d expect to get a note back saying “sod off with that one”
That is, if its not grossly unacceptable, or I’d lied about it.
Do you think you’d get disciplinary action for something that you’ve been honest about but it was not claimable?
Yeah.
Sod off if trying it on.
In trouble if ‘fiddling’ it somehow.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham needs to resign over Stafford NOW!
NZ$70 = ~£30
So definitely more to this than meets the eye..
But at least the guy has resigned – our bunch of troughers are still there and [probably] still grabbing what they can get away with.
When were you last in a restaurant where the wine wasn’t all about £15 per bottle? It sounds a perfectly reasonable amount, seeing as he was at a conference.
Yesterday I announced the publication of my new book – Nokia Tonight Darling
Actually I wrote that one too.
And I’ll be taking the credit (and the cash) – thanks!
I was just thinking, assuming Gordon isn’t ‘retired’ by a bullet from a sniper’s rifle, I wonder if his memoirs will make any mention of selling half the nation’s gold at the bottom of the market? Will he touch on that subject at all, attempt to justify it, apologise, or will it, like the Nokia hurling and secretary shoving, be something that “didn’t happen”?
Nah, bit of light banter. No questions worth the name though…
My MP claimed for a chainsaw,swimming pool cleaning,two vases and two sets of garlic presses.
Oh and he bought a house for £1.8M without needing to get a mortgage for it.
Way to go.
Off to the job centre to try and get a job – out of work for 5 months now.
Similar position. The job centre is worst place to go though to achieve that ambition.
I’ve had spells on the dole and miserable they were. What kept me going was the old saying ‘this, too, will pass’.
Good luck.
You are not a number, you are a free man.
As P. McGoogly used to say.
You are not a free man, you are a number!!
Sorry for the repetition – first one disappeared.
Been there myself – it’s miserable. What kept me going was the old saying ‘this. too, will pass’.
Good luck.
Sorry to say Mr Palything that it may not pass this time.
This time, it’s different.
“Some of the worst troughers are still in government.” They’re still in Downing Street!
The worst trougher of the lot has declared himself fit to First Minister of Northern Ireland again.
Quack! Quack!
wow!!! a real man of integrity. why does our system throw up browns and ballses ?
Now I know where to move to. I should feel at home there, it looks rather like the English Lake District on steroids!
Be careful Ned. They have fucking great man-eating parrots. (What has happened to Mr Slater’s, BTW?)
Jake Thakeray’s Bantam Cock fucked it to death.
New Zealand. Its like Britain years ago. No EU Bliss!
While it does not say which party he is from, DC could do worse than find him a seat to fight> He might shame some of the others into behaving.
I don’t think Dave will consider that for one second, unless John Heatley is either (a) a woman or (b) from an ethnic minority.
and Dorries and Viggers
They play a good game of Rugby too.
Actually they play a very dirty form of Rugby with a very high percentage of off the ball incidents. However still a sound country. PS whats all that stupid face pulling gurning fest they get up to! I suppose its cultural.
Are you talking about me?
Just got back to this Thread. Yes Minisister I am taling about you. No seriously dont you think its all wearing a bit thin I think next time England play them the entire England team should just give them the two fingered salute. Well its our Kulture innit!!
Come on Guido, do not be so hard on our wonderful MPs.
I notice that you seek to hide the REAL amount of money this Kiwi crook tried to defraud his constituents of. It is all very well trying to confuse the British public with the Johnny Foreginer money of NZD 70 – BUT in real money this is ……………………….£31.60 !
Expensive wine.
Cloudy Bay perhaps.
New Zealand’s best. A wonderful tipple.
is that 30€ ? sounds like vinegar to me.
That’s because you live in the UK…
I can get 10 bottles of rather good Merlot for that and still have some change in deepest rural France where I live.
I bet you couldn’t at a restaurant/conference.
French politicians won’t be drinking €3 wine (by my rekoning that would be about £8 in a uk supermarket, and probably >10€ in a french restaurant).
I bet you couldn’t at a restaurant/conference.
French politicians won’t be [verb that goes with wine]ing €3 wine (by my rekoning that would be about £8 in a uk supermarket, and probably >10€ in a french restaurant).
…and about £30 in a UK restaurant
I bought some pretty damn good Cotes du Rhone for 1.50 euros a bottle in France. Try doing that in Britain!
Oops, forgot to add that I bought a lot of Fitou for the same price. Bottoms up!
“In the middle of the coup, the former welfare minister Frank Field went to No 10 to plead with Blair not to give way to Brown.
“You can’t go yet. You can’t let Mrs Rochester out of the attic,” he said. Rawnsley writes: “Blair roared with laughter.”
Rawnsley writes: “The chancellor’s fury was titanically demented even by his standards. ‘You put fucking Milburn up to it,’ Brown raged down the phone. ‘This is factionalism! This is Trotskyism! It’s fucking Trotskyism!’ Blair was nonplussed. He had not even seen the article. After the call, he then read it and phoned Milburn to say it was excellent. They laughed about Brown’s hysterical reaction.” Drawing on witness accounts from within No 10 and the Treasury, Rawnsley also discloses that Balls, in effect, forced Brown into pressing on with the coup. At one meeting at the Treasury, Brown said he needed more time to think, but Balls interrupted: “It’s too late. It’s all in place. It is going to happen.”
Vote Brown, get Balls.
Didn’t vote Brown, got Brown
Either way, Balls thinks he’ll be labour leader soon.
Vote Brown, get Brown Balls!
He is the MP for Castleford?, or is that his “wife” – thats the place where someone said “If Labour put up a donkey as candidate the Labour voters there would still vote Labour”.
They already did.
Blair must be the source of this anecdote.Chilcot will be Brown’s Nuremburg.
It’ll be Brown’s Nurburgring too – long winded, lots of chicanes and even when you make good progress you still end up back where you started.
Dithering again
I think hereafter, Brown should be referred to as “Mrs Rochester”.
Good idea. Would that make the Beard Mr Rochester?
Fine by me…
What a breath of fresh air that New Zealand MP is – can I have him as my MP.
Any news of Ms Pratt? Has she been bullied into keeping quiet?
Only labour could invent wild conspiracy theories and lies solely with the intention to bully the head of an anti-bullying charity in order to attempt to disprove that they are bullies.
I think its some kind of alchemy or perpetual motion. They have succeeded where millions have failed. They really make Shit go further than any other product on the market. They are more inverted than a mirror. You couldn’t make them up! Oh I forgot its all been done before. What were those C***S names Adolf Hitler. Stalin. OK so they arent’t even original. Sad thing is due to tribalistic class politics a third of the voters will still vote for them. Why!!
Is gordon re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re launching today?
No. He’s re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re re retreating to the bunker today.
It must be Thursday – the day after PMQs !
Just removing some phones from the wall. I have a weekly pass.
squeak squeak
Mrs Rochester has PMTs (Prime Minister’s Tensions) not PMQs.
Thursday, they generally spend adjusting his doses , until the meds kick in again.
You couldn’t make up the “You’ve ruined my life,” stuff, or the Mrs Rochester comment , could you ?
the ‘you’ve ruined my life’ lunacy is dynamite. Whatthe fuck does he mean? At the time he was still fooling 75% of the population and 100% of the media with his self-proclaimed ‘miracle chancellor’ status. He was on top of the world.
What could he possibly have to bitch about? The only c*nt who has ruined his life is himself. I’m far more concerned with how he’s ruined 60 million people’s lives than his own wretched, fragile ego.
They’d better up the doses a bit, Mr Rownsley is undoubtedly saving the best until last.
Seriously, if he is in any way thinking straight he should call the election for March 25th – there is just so much bad news to come out between then and May 6th, things are not going to get better than they are now…
I believe that was yesterday or Monday – or was it last Friday – I’m confused !
It’s tomorrow, I believe.
Then again on Sunday, twice on Tuesday, with a quick reshuffle pencilled in around noon on Wednesday, and with a mental breakdown booked in for Thursday afternoon…
Exact..
We are doing a “nervous breakdown” together on Thursday afternoon…
Hoping Dolly can join in as well…
And so the 29th relaunch ends up like all the others….a pitiful shambles.
Fightback number five hundred and five.
S O S ?
Next one after morning coffee…
19th Nervous Breakdown
What a contrast! This country is going to hell in a handcart. We might be already there.
Thats Phil Heatley. John Key is the Prime Minister.
Oy, what are you doing here?
Heatley is a tory. We call them the National party in these here parts.
Is Barnsley a place in New Zealand? Shouldn’t you style yourself “Bungtown Bill”?
Bruin: ” No more boom and bust”
Blair: “To not only be whiter than white, but to be seen to be whiter than white”.
I think what Blair meant to say was ” To not be whiter than white – just to be seen to be whiter than white”. That would be a better fit to what has actually happened these last 13 years.
The BBC is hideously whiter than white.
Spin it cannot be true
Fucking mug.
Wouldn’t catch me doing something so stupid – the proles should be please to buy me bottles of wine…
O/T but why the blackout on that nutter Farage and his rant yesterday?
was on PM yesterday?
sooner that mentalist loses to Bercow the better.
The sooner Bercow loses to Farage, the better. You’ll never get Cameron growing enough balls to tell the unelected dictator of the EU those truths!
Farage’s outburst was a real breath of fresh air.
Mitch, you would rather have a serial socialist trougher like Bercow protecting the thieving MPs as he predecessor did? You must love being fucked up the ass by the EU.
I would rather have the man that brought Marta Andreasen into politics, She writes,
“No one signs off on the European Commission accounts, ever! I should know, because as the former chief accountant of the EC, there was uproar when I pointed out that this just wasn’t good enough. Now I’m back on the inside and the powers-that-be aren’t happy. That’s good news for democracy.”
The man that ensured that the few UKIP troughers were caught, thrown OUT of politics and charged and convicted. I haven’t seen CMD taking tough action against tory troughers.
A man who is not afraid to tell it like it is, and fight FOR the British in the EU, and not cravenly kow tow to the unelected euro-elitist dictators and assist them in but-fucking us all to damnation.
I do not see Cameron even attempting to stand up to the EU!
This rant?
Farrage speaks like a true Englishman. No more , no less. Its a measure of the extraordinary depths to which our political class have sunk that this is thought in any way odd. I am only middle aged yet I can remember a time in my youth when a very significant number of household figures involved in politics would have made a similar statement. Unfortunately due to the disloyalty of the political class over the past 30 years Farrage is almost alone in standing up for theses views in a public forum. I am really concerned that the infernal smear machine will be brought to bear down on him.
GADZOOKS !!! A man of honour and integrity who falls on his sword when he realises he has not followed the rules to the letter !!!
From Stalin to Mr Bean to Mrs Rochester to Oblivion.
Meanwhile in other news, the Mirror reassures its readers;
‘the National Bullying Helpline should be commending Gordon Brown for the lack of business he put their way’
Unfortunately he has put lack of business everybodies way.
lol – v. good moley…
The Mirror should be printed on a roll with “Now wash your hands please” on every sheet.
“….accidentley claimed …….”
Fawkes: I have had occasion to speak to you recently about your spelling. This will not do. We at St Blog’s set an example to the nation, and in your case a pretty poor example it can be.
Isn’t there a ‘spellcheck’ facility on that contraption of yours?
Write out 200 times: ‘I must never make spelling errors accidentally’.
Watch it, ratface, or I’ll accuse you of kiddy-fiddling.
UR goin do9w
You can just hear our accomplished Westminster troughers saying “Stupid boy, Heatley, you will get us all a bad name”.
Actually I think it is the NZ Labour party saying that, your situation caused full parliamentry expense diclosure here in NZ
You’d have to resign for that in france too.
receipts ! anglo saxon tosseur.
Guido, you’re showing signs of a labour sponsored education……’accidentley’ should be spelt accidentally.
No, he spelt it on purpose.
What happened to all the money from England’s gas fields in the North Sea. They blew it on the Barnett formula!! We demand a parliament for England!!
Go home Gordon, Tony, Alastair and the others. Go home and let Alex teach you a lesson in national pride. Give Scotland independence and England back to the English!
And wisteria pruning is better than a £6,000 bill for cleaning nothing how?
We are as bad as them if we vote for ANY of the thieves currently supping the champagne we paid for. Dump the lot of them, it’s the only way to teach new MP’s that we will not tolerate theft by anyone.
And the first job the new MP’s should do is disband the other band of thieves, the high & mighty Lords. If there has to be two Houses of Parliament why not have one more law making and the other for administration. Either way both Houses should be democratically voted for.
Then get rid of ALL the Quangos, why are we paying these people to do jobs that Government Ministers should do. They have just got too lazy, put them back to work and make them sweat a bit for a change.
We the people of Great Britain can do this. Do not join in with any of the party political games from any of the thieves that rule over us now. Vote them OUT and tell them to behave. Then make it clear that we never again want to see such a rotten government presided over by THIEVES.
At least there were some wisterias to prune – while the staggeringly arrogant sense of entitlement that prompts someone to claim for wisteria pruning is hard to comprehend, the claiming of £6000 for non-existent cleaning is just pure theft.
Arrogant patrician or thief?
Not much of a choice, but it seems that it is the choice we are faced with, and unfortunately I detest thieves more than I detest patricians.
The wistaria, as I understand it, had grown into the vent for the central heating boiler. Comrade Cameron’s error was to have allowed an aristocratic plant to grow on his wall rather than a more populist creeper. We would never allow that to happen as all climbers, crawlers and creepers have to be approved by the commisariat.
Chanda Chisala, Zambia Online
http://www.zambia.co.zm/articles/corruption.html
Most of the readers and contributors to this blog feel the sense of corruption that has invaded British life and, correctly, in my view, identify the socialist mindset as being at the root of it.
This article gives me hope and a sense that we must banish the malaise from our body politic to be able to address our problems and restore a healthy and honourable (and solvent) society.
For those who have not the time to link through, the following are the concluding paragraphs:
“The Mwanawasa government should know that they are primarily a socialist government from the fact that their popularity is mainly in rural areas. Capitalism will shift their popularity from rural to urban areas (urban population will appreciate lower taxes more). This can be politically costly for them in the short term.
Of course the ultimate result of such a dynamic increase in capitalism will certainly be prosperity for the whole nation, but I’m not sure that we have any politician who is willing to pay the possible political sacrifice required for bringing such prosperity to our beloved nation. Without such a hard decision, our intellectuals will continue talking about ideas that are useless and have never worked anywhere (like “make agriculture the centre of the economy,” “raise mineral royalties,” “renationalise the mines for a while,” “put economic rights in the constitution,” “build more schools,” and so on and so forth).
Only a few years ago, every African “intellectual” was endlessly singing that “only debt cancellation will bring prosperity” (because this was allegedly the main tool that the “imperialists” were using to deliberately keep Africa poor!). We wrote on this very web site that debt cancellation would not change African economies in any way – that only capitalism will – and ever since our debts were cancelled, no one is talking about them any more; they are now onto new even more useless ideas that have been tried countless times by many socialist nations to no avail.
Africa can only develop by trying real, radical capitalism (which forces every person – rich or poor – to take responsibility for their own lives, and takes government away from meddling in the productive economy so that people can indeed make their own money easily). I’m not talking about the IMF-type of “capitalism”, which is too weak; I’m talking about a brand of real, ideologically-driven (radical) capitalism that would even scare the IMF (and World Bank) socialists!”
A It’s now a treaty thanks to Brown
B He is not PM
It just goes to show what a shower of shit the MPs are in this country are.
“Minister Resigns over Expenses”
Oooohh, Guido, you’re such a tease. Regrettably it was just too inconceivable as a Westminster headline to be credible.
Something to look forward to…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7309861/Greek-rescue-in-danger-as-deputy-prime-minister-attacks-Nazi-Germany.html
SORRY, O/T…
plus ironic…
That’s even more pathetic than British Lefties continually blaming Thatcher for all the countries woes.
Mind you, a new European War would make our current problems seem like small beer, perhaps he’s on to something!
This European project is doomed to fail. You would think after two failed attempts – Hitler & Napolean – the political elites would get it by now.
Speaking of gold and WWII shenanigans, this makes for interesting reading: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/thunder-road-reports-irregularities-gold-market
If you don’t have time to read it, the skinny is the gold market is a) fractional reserve house of cards about to collapse or b) laundromat for vast quanities of WWII-era stolen gold
The British Gold wasn’t ‘sold’, it was permanently leased at a peppercorn to allow a massive carry trade on interest spreads to the advantage of the’too big to fail’ brigade.
Purpose: to enhance the funny money cash fountain and produce massive bonuses and which underpinned the fiat credit boom and attendant tax flow to finance the Nulab project.
The Banksters plan was to release the gold from its ‘unproductive’ role in the vault and to enable it to be projected into the fractional reserve balance sheets in the same way as debt found its way into the asset classes of reserves.
Financial rocket fuel.
And we point the finger at Greece?
The trouble with allowing politicians to ‘Move on’ from their transgressions are now becoming more plain.
Look at the quality of shitbag we have in parliament and government as a result.
Zero tolerance is required,like the old days.
Even a hint of scandal or corruption the politician should be finished..for good.
As it stands,an honest person in a debate with a known liar and the watching public,have to make a lot of assumptions.
They have to assume this known liar is not lying in the debate and is presenting facts that are true.
I say remove doubt.
Fuck up in public or private,you are finished forever.
Absolutely right these people need to go, and go quickly.
Their continued presence in Parliament is a reflection of just how corrupt they all are.
It is not the right thing to do
It’s a quiet day at the moment, so slightly O/T:
What was the outcome of TwitterGate?
Did someone forget to close it?
The Greeks are right about the Krauts. just don’t pick up the soap in a greek bathhouse.
The motto of the Greek Army: Never leave Your Buddies Behind.
Worked for Alexander the Great.
Not many Greek Bathouses in Sussex but I will heed your advice.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne waded in to the row by saying “people will find it very difficult to understand” how RBS could pay out bonuses in the current circumstances.
“We have just got to look at the whole banking sector and try to bring this pay down. It has got to ridiculous levels,” he told BBC Breakfast. Osborne, though, gave no clues how a Conservative government would have tackled the problem.
He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I do think the level of payment in the banking sector has got completely out of kilter with the rest of society. It is totally disproportionate to what doctors are paid, people working in industry are paid, teachers are paid and the like.
“We need to bring down pay across the sector – not just in one bank, across the sector – and things like a bank tax, internationally agreed, might help do that.”
And wasn’t it Darling who signed them off?
This is indeed the first time in history that any nationalised company has paid any bonuses at all…
It is a rip-off of the British People on a grand scale..
Especially when these banks were lending selling fraudulent “mortgage backed” stock on AAA ratings which were and are now toxic junk…
And lending totally irresponsibly to uncreditbworthy people en masse…(to get bonuses)…
And fucking their private shareholders to get their bonuses like they are fucking the British taxpayer now…
And whose bonuses are based on volume and not results…crazy…
There’s an easy solution: break up the banks into a million fucking pieces and laugh as the bankers attempt to justify multi-million and billion dollar bonuses in a genuine free market with a surfeit of competition.
The troughing politicians and the troughing bankers are in it together – corrupt party hacks granting state oligopolies to quasi-fascist corporations. So get back in the field and toil like a good slave while they extort more of your earnings through the threat of violence.
Start by unstitching the shot-gun wedding between Lloyds and that Scottish entity.
If a nationalised banker is entitled to a bonus for losing Billions, then by the same logic the revenue should give me a massive tax rebate for reguarly paying my taxes under PAYE and contributing to my employers profits to boot. This stinks to high heaven They can not be serious!
The Conservatives’ angle of attack on this should be to demolish Brown for spending our money in the first place rather than emit such feeble proto-communist bollocks.
Bank bonuses would not be a problem were they not nationalised. Barclays did without taxpayer support and George should be ramming home that point. If the banks were any good they wouldn’t have needed nationalising. If the Government were any good they wouldn’t now be in the position of agreeing to these bonuses.
These are really simple lines of attack that the Conservatives should be taking but they are wholly inside the bubble of ‘too big to fail’, deficit spending = good and trying to smother an entire industry, even the non-nationalised bits. They are trying to sound like the Government (not a Government but the current one). Haven’t they cottoned on that this Government is toxic?
When Westminster speaks with one voice they are colluding against the public.
Not only but also (Politics Home) a member of the Fees Office has been arrested for what appears to add up to collusion with M P’s concerning dubious expense claims…
They are all in it together…..
Don’t see how they can arrest a member of the fees office without arresting the MPs he was colluding with. Unless the four Labour MPs already under arrest have named him as their placeman.
One rule for MPs, another rule for lowly civil servants
So I will be calling the Mandy helpline…
I lived in New Zealand for three happy years and let’s say they are admirably more robust than us in dealing with their elected representatives. If he hadn’t paid up he would now be hanging in front of the Beehive by his Buster Browns.
Do your research Guido. It is Phil not John.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/minister-quits-over-two-bottles-wine-3382360
It seems that he has form:
Heatley’s latest incorrect claim came after he had already been caught out using his ministerial credit card to pay for a family trip and other personal transactions. …
Heatley this week paid back over $1,000 worth of illegitimate spending, the bulk of which involved a taxpayer-funded family trip to the South Island where he visited Kaikoura’s Whale Watch and attended a conference in Christchurch. …
Heatley has also been under fire in the past for his accommodation allowances.
However, the opposition in NZ are suspicious about the resignation:
“It just seems strange and a mystery as to why a minister would stand down when his Prime Minister said he didn’t need to,” says Annette King, Labour MP for Rongotai.
Your research isn’t that hot sport, the family trip was considered to be a genuine mistake, his personal credit and the ministerial one are identical except for the numbers. The wine was against the rules and poor judgement. His housing allowance was within the rules. You have found the only official comment the Labour Party has come up with. FFS a minister falls and that is the opposition responce. Labour are fucked of with Phil for potentially exposing them to the public gaze suspicious hell no shitting themselves
Some of the people posting on this blog seem very vulgar. They probably but their own furniture.
“but” = “buy”. Not enough Boller yet.
I assumed but=butt. Made sense to me.
Do you not have spell check guido- it’s ACCIDENTALLY!
the wine was for his girlfriend who looked very sheepish
Expenses, expenses, expenses… yeah, it’s bad and all, but trivial in the scheme of things. A few million?
What really matters is companies being awarded huge PFI contracts (i.e. commitments that the taxpayer will hurl money at them for the next x years) or consultancy wonga (PwC, thank you very much) and then our glorious elected leaders quickly snapping up juicy non-exec/consultancy roles shortly after (Steven Norris, Dave Blunkett, Patsy Hewitt, etc ad infinitum). Now that is REAL money.
And how about Thatch and Blair’s glorious speaking tours around the US of A? “Thanks for backing the Stars n Stripes and shitting all over democracy. Now here’s a cheque for a million Dollars.” Yeah, that’s the way to do it!
Regarding the amounts, yes, it’s trivial.
Having pfi contracts awarded (or, more accurately, having specific companies “approved” and fast-tracked to tender for pfi contracts and then being magically accepted), where the company happened to have given money to the labour party is obviously a much larger corruption problem than a few thousand for cleaning a moat or paying your brother to clean his flat.
A trillion pounds of debt is an even larger problem, although that points toward negligence (and sabotage to spite your political enemies) rather than corruption.
But, the expenses thing points to an underlying approach/attitude which is symptomatic of corruption generally.
The very fact that they still feel the need to have so many committees and new “rules” created to satisfy the media (rather than just using the same tax/expenses rules/laws as everyone else) proves that they’re still basically all corrupt. If they weren’t corrupt then they’d just use the same laws as we do.
The expenses problem (and their “solution” to it) is a perfect illustration/proof of their still all being corrupt.
If you elected people into parliament who would (without pressure from anyone else) simply say “no. this is wrong. bollocks to our “rules”, i’m following the law like my constituents have to; this “rules” rubbish is corrupt bullshit”, then you wouldn’t have a larger corruption problem.
The expenses problem proves that virtually all labour MPs are still corrupt for supporting the new “rules” rather than using normal law instead.
If someone’s honest and refuses to claim for a kit-kat on the grounds that it’s the wrong thing to do morally, then chances are that person also wouldn’t accept a million quid bribe for a pfi contract.
It’s about basic honesty rather than monetary amounts.
I agree, it’s about far more than the amount. However, I think that every time a Tory or NewLab politico gets a juicy job, it should come under massive scrutiny from bloggers and mainstream media. It doesn’t, but we obsess about every 50p KitKat. What happens when the expenses issue has been dealt with? Guido will find some other NewLabour trivia to gnaw on while the lefty bloggers will go on about Eton. The bigger curruption will continue and nothing important will have changed.
Thatch, unlike Bliar earned her speaking fees for being so good that she was the only PM who the Yanks have ever wanted for president!
…and, again unlike Bliar, she didn’t shit on democracy she made us more democratic by finishing off Trotskyist unions you Hoon.
El Salvador? Guatemala? Nicaragua? Nah, I know you don’t give a fuck about that stuff. Nothing to us, right?
To be fair to CMD and Georgie they would also resign in such circumstances. Oh, the shame of being seen to buy second rate plonk……
By the honourable standards of this John Heatley chap Jacki Smith should step outside with a revolver and do the decent thing. But instead she just wittered a feeble apology for getting caught and trousered the fucking lot.
Wlilst Elliot Morley should step outside and hang, draw and quarter himself (possibly using some form of mechanical apparatus, paid for by expenses)
i see two Cornish PMs are complaining that some people with second homes are avoiding paying tax on them. you couldnt make it up!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8535332.stm
There’s a much easier solution….let house prices return to their true value by removing speculation on cheap credit.
ie. let the bubble deflate and raise interest rates…the locals will be spoiled for choice.
The adjustment to true value will happen after the election when the Labour debt fuelled, tax payer funded boom runs out of steam and repayments begin to be financed by the serious cut backs across the board.
Example: when interest rates rise and negative equity stalks the following will swell to a flood
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1250821/The-buy-let-gurus-empire-crumbles.html
What appears to be an honest man
with morals and integrity
who’s career is over for $70 dollars !
how the fuck did a man like this find himself in politics ?
he resigned over $70 yet we have Shite in our HoC
that have over claimed the equivalent of $250,000
and still think they have done nothing wrong !
His career is not definatley over depends on the Auditor Generals report. The public are largely behind him PM Key has made it clear that the door is open about a return to cabinet if he is cleared by the AG
I live in New Zealand and your story is misleading.
Heatley did not “accidentally” claim $70 for the wine. When he opened his wallet to pay for it he had the choice of using cash, his own ATM card, his own credit card, or the Government credit card issued to him as a Minister. He chose the latter and then when he put the claim in (without a supporting invoice) he willfully wrote on the credit card receipt that it was “Dinner – Minister and spouse”.
During his time as a Minister he also charged up dozens of other questionable times, including a $9.50 hamburger at a takeaway, taking his family on holiday and buying a wallet. He also claimed some of the highest housing allowances available.
Ministers in NZ are paid almost $1/4 million annually in salary, plus benefits, but Heatley charges up a $9.50 burger meal to the taxpayer.
He is now being investigated by the Audit Office and the suggestion is he resigned ahead of more damaging revelations. This story is not just about $70 of wine, but rorting the New Zealand taxpayer.