The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, has rejected the complaint made by Michael Barnbrook of the BNP against Nadine Dorries MP about her use of Parliamentary allowances.
The complaint made was that the second home Nadine Dorries rented in her constituency, was in fact her main home. The Standards Commissioner concludes after an extensive 15 month inquiry that it was not and rejected the complaint.
The report also confirms that Nadine Dorries did not make claims against the John Lewis list, did not claim for a mortgage or furniture, did not flip and that her claims against allowances not inappropriate.
John Lyon concludes “My overall conclusion is that Ms Dorries was not in breach of the rules of the House in claiming against Parliamentary allowances for her constituency home”. Game, set and match, Nads…
UPDATE : Nadine explained to the Commissioner that her blog contained fiction and “poetic licence” as well as fact. Typical blogger…
Last week we learnt that Lisa Tremble had started working for lobbyists Lexington Communications after handling spin for David Miliband’s campaign. It seems as if the rats are well and truly fleeing HMS Victoria Street. Now we learn that the head and deputy head of press for the Labour Party have both made it known that they are on their way out after Ed Miliband, and not David, was elected leader.
Roger Baker, the long suffering spinner who oversaw a disastrous spell for his party in government, has announced that he is off to the private sector as soon as a replacement can be found. This week’s PR Week reports that his deputy, Tom Price, is also jumping from Victoria Street to go work as Dougie Alexander’s short monied Political Advisor. Coincidently Alexander was David Miliband’s campaign manager. Word reaches Guido that neither man was keen to spin for a leader they did not vote for, or believe in. After Gordon of course…
Simon Hoggart writes…
“Labour has, on the whole, decided that the deficit isn’t its fault. It has, you would imagine, been invented by the Tories purely in order to allow them the cuts which they are imposing with an odious relish.”
The Director of BBC News, Helen Boaden, has just sent out this chatty email to all her staff today:
Dear All,
We have had some occasions recently of BBC News staff using social networking sites to share with the world their somewhat controversial opinions on matters of public policy and the future of the BBC. Unsurprisingly, these have been picked up by the wider web and used to discredit the BBC and its impartiality. We have Editorial Guidelines which cover the personal use of the internet …which everyone should observe. We also have brains and judgement which I suggest people fully engage before rushing to communicate. Hx
What she appears to be saying to Beeboids is “keep your opinions to yourself” lest the truth gets out. Yesterday Guido drew attention to the Thatcher-hating, Green-loving, Tory-bashing, anti-Israeli BBC News Editor Rachel Kennedy’s rather candid Twitter-stream of left-wing consciousness. Guido is watching, and the BBC bosses are reading…
UPDATE : The info-graphic below is taken from the www.order-order.com server logs for yesterday. It shows the top ten sources of visitors, notice that the BBC is, after parliament, the second biggest source of visitors, making up the rest is the usual mix; politicos, media hacks, bankers, Oxbridge wannabee politicos and media hacks. Associated Newspapers probably scores higher than News International because the Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce keeps hitting the “refresh” button. There were some sixty odd thousand visitors yesterday…
Guido’s poll yesterday sampled more people than most polling companies manage for their political polls splashed across national newspapers. He likes to think his readers give a fair and balanced view too. The results are in and show an overwhelming desire for the BBC to be scrapped:
These one IP address, one vote polls might be a regular thing…
Word reaches Guido that Gordon Brown is taking some time out of the final editing stage of his book and is in town today for Osborne’s speech. There is no way that the Speaker wouldn’t call upon him if he was to rise. If he does turn up he will be a lightning rod for the government benches to point the finger of blame at for the cuts that are coming. What will he have to say for himself?
Guido doesn’t quite understand the logic of him being there, but then that was always the way with Gordon…
