Hopefully Jim will have got his story straight by the time they ask him to explain the fake invoice from a fake company with a fake VAT number.  He has given the Scottish press various explanations involving pubs and cash.  That should work Jim…  Not.

Standards Commissioner today confirms he is investigating if Malik’s parliamentary expenses were used to defray his personal expenses.  He has written to Malik asking him to explain himself…

UPDATE : Letter is now up on Sunlight COP’s site.

A TaxPayers’ Alliance/ComRes poll (report) asked 101 MEPs and 1020 members of the British public their opinions.  One of the statements respondents were asked to agree or disagree with was a bit of a trap for those on the Brussels gravy-train

MEPs should pay a lower rate of income tax than the people they represent;

The public were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea that MEPs should enjoy lower taxes than their constituents, by 82% to 15%.  10% of MEPs were openly in favour of the proposition of lower taxes for themselves, whilst 75% were publicly opposed.  Not so bad you think, they on the whole accept that all should be equal before the law.

Except MEPs have already voted for themselves a special tax rate. They say one thing to the public but vote in the opposite direction in the EU Parliament itself.

UPDATE : The BBC also polled the British public, finding that most people think most MPs are corrupt and when asked whether they trusted MPs to tell the truth, 20% said they did and 76% said they did not.  Which shows the truth that of the saying “you can fool some 20% of the people all the time”….

62% said they believed MPs put their own self-interest ahead of the country and their constituents. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time…

Post links to sleaze stories in the comments and Guido will summarise them here.  It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it…

Andy Burnham was assisted by the Common’s authorities who bent the rules after he got a bung from a property developer and managed to over-claim in the same year by £10,000.  More support for Guido’s thesis that the Palace of Westminster is less about public service and more like gangster racketeering.

Eric Joyce has claimed over a million, paying zero capital gains tax on his property flipping over the years.  He told the Mail on Sunday that this ‘This conversation may have cost me £160,000′, it will hopefully cost him his seat as well.  Though he will have sworn year after year on his tax return that he was making a full and true statement.  A criminal offence.

LibDem MP Malcolm Bruce managed to claim for two different properties simultaneously.  Cleverly he put his wife on the payroll at his constituency home and used the incidental expenses provision to feather bed that home and the ACA to featherbed his London home.  Guido thought he new every trick in the book by now, this is a new one.  Bruce won’t tell us how much he paid his wife.  Our money into his household income and he wants it to be kept secret?

Angela Browning, a former Tory minister, claimed £10,000 for her website, which looks like it took three hours to throw together.  She claimed for the usual long list of interior design features including the kitchen sink (£2,714). Worse than Jacqui Smith…

Derek Conway tried to claim for a £160 pig-skin wallet.  How appropriate.

The news isn’t all bad, according to the Sunday Times half the occupants of the parliament of whores could be swept away on the tide of righteous anger sweeping the nation. Guido is betting on 50 resigning or standing down in disgrace and perhaps a 100 more incumbents suffering the wrath of the fleeced voting taxpayers – over and above party swings. The Sunday Times reckons 325 troughers will be forced onto their index-linked gold-plated pensions. Guido’s heart bleeds…

According to PoliticsHome, who interviewed 1225 voters immediately after Michael Martin resigned, the public overwhelmingly wants more politician’s blood.  This is far from over with the dispatch of the Speaker.

Simon Hoggart makes a very good point this morning, the MPs expense scandal is un-named.  “Expense-gate” somehow isn’t right.  Guido likes “The Troughalypse”, though that isn’t self-descriptive.  Maybe “Snoutgate”.  Suggestions in the comments welcome…

ConservativeHome polled 1,414 grassroots Tory members today and it don’t look good for troughers:

He has sent out a statement to Conservative Party members in his constituency:

Message from Andrew.
11 a.m.
15th May 2009

I wanted you to know immediately that this morning I resigned as David Cameron’s Senior Parliamentary and Political Adviser.

As you can imagine I have been working very closely with David over the expenses issue, and particularly his excellent tough stance, which has gained such approval this week.

Along with senior Shadow Cabinet members, I was among the first to submit my claims and receipts to internal Party examination. This morning, I was told that whilst I had acted on the advice of the Head of the Fees Office and been transparent in submitting annually my designated home and second home addresses, my arrangements would not necessarily pass David’s reasonableness test.

Consequently in a very early morning conversation with David, I submitted my resignation, which I thought was the right way forward.

I am sorry that we have all become embroiled in this expenses row, particularly as I was following advice. I am now traveling up to the Constituency to see as many of you as possible, and will of course be fulfilling engagements tomorrow and on Saturday, as well as campaigning for the European elections.

I have decided to call a public meeting in the Constituency on Friday, 22nd May, so that any constituents who have concerns can put them to me. I will let you have details as soon as this is arranged.

Andrew

UPDATE : According to numbers collected by Bloomberg, MacKay and his wife Julie Kirkbride have claimed £282,731 since 2001. So that is £141,000 worth of over-claiming. No wonder why Cameron sacked him at sunrise this morning. This is straight forward looting.

Guido has just got back from a hastily* called Tory press conference, where we were told by Dave that he has ordered:

… Michael Gove will pay back the £7,000 claimed for furniture.  Oliver Letwin will pay back the £2,000 for the pipe under his tennis court.  Andrew Lansley will pay back the £2,600 for home improvements. Alan Duncan will pay back nearly £5,000 for gardening expenses. Francis Maude will no longer claim any money for his second home in London. And neither will Chris Grayling. Theresa Villiers – the only London MP in the shadow cabinet – will follow suit later this year. I’ve also dealt with some of the smaller, but nevertheless significant, claims that have caused concern, whether that is Ken Clarke’s council tax bill in Nottinghamshire or David Willetts’s electrical bill. George Osborne will pay back the cost of a particularly expensive car journey. And I will pay back the only maintenance bill I have claimed in eight years as a Member of Parliament.

Is this enough? Burglars don’t get off by giving back the telly.  Guido wants to see the small print, are they really going to be allowed to keep ill gotten gains because they were in the past?

*So hasty that Guido came late, straight from the pub dressed in traditional national dress – an Ireland rugby shirt. Guido naturally sat down right in front of Sir Michael White.

It is looting of the taxpayer.  There is no other word for it.  They are looters.