Gordon Brown has repeatedly stated he intends to ensure the Westminster Parliament will be open and transparent with regard to MPs' expenses. His promise seems to have fallen at the first hurdle.
A committee, chaired by the new Speaker John Bercow, has quietly shelved the official list of repayments.
Last month, the Members Estimate Committee, which oversees MPs' pay and allowances, published a list showing that in the wake of the expenses scandal, members had paid back nearly £500,000. The list on the Commons website was up for just 24 hours then it was suspended after 'a couple' of administrative errors. In fact, the list included some MPs who should not have been included because their repayments were not connected to the expenses scandal.
A notice went up on the parliamentary website saying the list was 'being updated', yet references to the list have now been removed.
So much for openness and transparency from Westminster. Are many of us surprised? I doubt it.
Source: The Herald
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18 comments:
So we now have a situation that the miscreants can say, after consultation with the due authorities and in the new spirit of public accountability, they have repaid a sum commensurate with an accidental overpayment.
They repay £5 and meanwhile have claimed £250,000.
We will not know are not allowed to do so.
Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss.
I didn't think Bercow would make the slightest bit of difference bugger lugs. As you say, same old, same old.
Oh, SR, it's all too depressing for words. No wonder they say 'ignorance is bliss'.
We demand that this list be available. At the next election every candidate must be forensically examined. The mass exodus, post picking up hundreds of thousands of pounds each beforehand, shows how many no longer wish to stay. It's because they've been found out.
I missed that it even went up for 24hrs... I am looking into my MPs receipts - but it is taking a very long time!
Aye GV it is depressing. Just a week or so after John Bercow said he would do everything to ensure Westminster was to be 'user friendly'.
We should OR. I think everyone ought to apply for the it through the FOI.
Dan, you'll be at it for weeks. Putting them in the PDF style they did was intentional of course. They thought nobody would be tenacious enough to read them.
Everything that Brown does falls at the first hurdle... well, maybe that's not true, quite a few things fall long before that.
They won't change because they don't really think that it's right that they have to. They completely forget that they work for us, and that they are not "rulers" from a few centuries ago. They don't understand that we don't believe anything that they say or do unless it can be proved. Removing this imformation says only one thing to us. They are cheating and stealing again.
The system reinforces it. They work in a royal palace, they have customs dating from the middle ages, they have a House made up of people who dress in crimson robes and are appointed or hereditary members of the aristocracy. The other House is elected on a FPTP system which gives the vast majority of MPs a safe seat for life. They refuse to operate like a 20th century, never mind 21st century parliament. If the Speaker thinks that not wearing his wig and costume is going to be enough to satisfy us, he really needs to think again.
This kind of stuff, however, only serves to make the Scottish Parliament look even more relevant by comparison.... so, I say, carry on.
They didn't get it, and they still don't get it, but hopefully the British people are starting to get it.
Just a thought Tris, which I have expressed earlier and severally.
When Scotland regains independence The House of Lords and all those crimson frocks will be redundant.
Thus in one fell swoop we could get rid of Michael Martin, Lard FFSake, The Pyro Peer and if Eck plays his cards right, Cameron could also be persuaded to take Lord Gordon Brown and Lord Ali Darling?
You probably misheard him,Subrosa.
He probably meant to say that ,"he would do everything to ensure that Westmidden was usury friendly."
I see that turd Ainsworth has got himself in the local rag. His local rag, by the way. Aparently it's just a scurrilous scribbling and an affront to his dignity. Or is there more to it?
But if true, then one wonders to what degree of importance are the armed services ranked by HM's government when Ainsworth is of such a low pecking order in the cabinet.
"Coventry MP drops down the pecking order". Article in today's Coventry Telegraph.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2009/07/05/
...and scroll down for the story.
.
Talking about being "open and transparent with regard to MPs' expenses"
Has Alex Salmond opened up his diaries for the public.
Niko, why should Alex Salmond publish his diary contents when no other MP does?
Seems a bit like bullying to me.
Aye I possibly did mishear wisnaeme. If only eh?
It's all mouth and headlines from this lot and as little real action as they can possibly get away with. Seems to be going according to their plan so far!
Has the MSM got onto this yet ? Haven't read them for a couple of days.
Only the Herald where I sourced it banned. Faux Cul led me to it.
Aye Barking and of course we can do little as they're not sitting now.
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