MPs of all parties are furious with Gordon Brown and it's reported that some labour MPs are hoping that they can organise a coup to remove him from office before the next election. To compound the Prime Minister's problems he has been asked to repay over £12,000 in 'overclaimed' expenses.
Why the fury? All 646 MPs received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg who was asked by Brown to investigate MPs expenses for the past 5 years. Many will be asked to repay monies they thought they had a right to claim. Others, like David Cameron, will be asked to give further information about particular claims.
I heard Nick Clegg on television last night, frantically avoiding the interviewer's question about his claim for a gardener. He floundered around, weakly stating he paid his gardener the 'going rate'.
Why are we allowing MPs to claim for cleaning and gardening? Who benefits from the results of these tasks? How many constituents have even visited the constituency home of their MP? Very few. Of course they must refund such monies. The days of mocking the public and using their hard earned money to fund cleaners and gardeners is over and about time too.
Will we have more MPs announcing they are standing down at the next election? I do hope so. As I've said before my MP has not claimed anything other than the basics required to do his job efficiently. We need more of his ilk in the Westminster parliament.
Will labour attempt another coup? For entertainment reasons I would like to think so, but it won't happen. Too many are only interested in finding a cushy wee number for when they are voted out of office next year.
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17 comments:
Subrosa
Not pertinent to this post, I saw your post on Yousufs blog about not being impressed by any of the four candidates for the by election.
I wrote on Blether with Brian that I was disappointed by Kerr on Sundays show. From the replys I was left thinking I was out of step and he had been ok.
I thought that he was poorly briefed and that he missed a few Labour own goals. He did have a great reply about whether he would like to see Labour or Tory mps at Westminster though.
The reason I was disappointed was that he is much better than this. Greenockboy pointed out that he may have been worried about being Glencambelled, and he does have a point, but Kerr is usually faster on his feet than this.
Though Bain was usual Labour, vote for me because Im Labour, no policies and no ideas. The other two were dreadful.
I hope Kerr can overcome the odds and win here, but I would rather see him stand again in Falkirk against the Major. He would win there at the next general election.
P.S. Still waiting on reasons to vote for Bain from Yousuf.
P.P.S. Hope your eyesight is ok.
"Call me Dave", on the news last night, appeared to be quite chuffed with the fact that the Tories had already repaid £250,000 as if it indicated their moral superiority!
They still don't get it. It's not a competition about who has paid or will pay back the most. Blaming the system as being lax is no excuse for premeditated, or even ignorant, material abuse.
As long as the standing down, "spending more time with the family" or losing Scotish ex-Labour MPs don't inveigle their way onto the list system for the elections here in 2011. I read that this is a possibility for Des Browne, remember him? There will also be the need to replace Iain Gray - Jim Murphy?
There are complaints that the standards by which the good Mr Legg has judged who should repay what, have been applied retrospectively.
The Green Book makes it plain that the expenses claimed must be specifically to enable the MP to do his or her job. And we would expect those whom we chose to make our laws to have a bit of a moral compass when putting in for expenses.
So cleaners and gardeners don't, or shouldn't, come into it at all. We know that some MPs have busy lives and that may mean that they don't have time to clean the house or plant out the Petunias. Well, that is sad. It's fair to say that there are many people in that situation. Why, sometimes I myself wonder how I'm going to fit it all in.
Anyway, there seems to me to be several options available to them.
They could:
Make sure that the property they have is small enough to be easily cleaned, and behave in a tidy fashion. Likewise have properties without much or any garden ... a flat maybe?;
Give up the directorships and advisory boards that they sit on for extrra dosh and that are nothing to do with the job we pay them to do, thus freeing up time to get out the Mr Sheen or the Growfast;
Get their partner or children to do the cleaning and the gardening;
Pay for cleaning and gardening out of their not insubstantial salaries;
Stuff the taxpayer, because no one queries it.
We all know what most of them have chosen.....
Payback time you greedy b........,
och well, you know the rest.
I my former place of work we had an electronic expenses system and had to account for everything spent whilst on company business.There was a clear set of rules about what was acceptable (or not) and what, if anything, required pre authority before spend. The expenses then had to be approved by the line manager and was subequently subject to audit.
I think there needs to a change in the way MP's re-payments are made. We need to move away from an independent cash office under the speaker and into the party office (for first line approval) thereafter the claim moves into the cash office for final approval and audit. That way the party gets to see who's claiming what in their name. If inappropriate the claim doesn't get party approval. If anything bubbles up in future the party then can't hide by claiming it's down to individuals. An electronic system (web based) should be introduced and all claims published on line (in public view) as they are finally approved.
As our wonderful representatives say when introducing another layer of anti terror laws and infringements on my liberties, "if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear" Good. The words sauce, goose and gander spring to mind.
Some of these MPs claim to be innocent but if I worked in a big shop somewhere and saw half the staff helping themselves to the stock, I think I'd be guilty of something if I just turned a Brown eye to it all.
There are eleven Travelodges within easy distance of the Commons and the House of Hogs. These are Marleborne, Farringdon, Kings Cross 2, Euston, City Road, Southwark, Covent Garden, Tower Bridge 2, Liverpool St.
Bookings could easily me made by MPs and their Lardships on the nights that they wish to stay in London. There are plenty of Hotel booking agencies that can do that job for them. All it would take would be a contract between Travelodge and the government of the day. This should be renewed annually on a tender basis. MPs not wishing to use the official service and make private arrangements would have to fund these out of their own deep pockets.
When ordinary mortals travel away from home on company business they are required to stay in accommodation provided by said company or book there own with a cap on the rates. The Inland Revenue are very strict with individuals on what is described as “benefits in kind.” They appear to ignore MPs for whatever reason.
They are detestable nasty greedy grabbing charlatans who live in a cocoon protected from the market forces that we all live or die by. It is time they were held up to the flames of reality.
The new Speaker is just a carbon copy of the old windbag, who donned his red cloak of privilege and corruption today, what a disgusting sight. Almost as bad as the odious Jacqui Smith, sneering her way through her apology in the Commons yesterday. She was simply spared having to pay back her ill-gotten gains because the committee who made the decision was populated entirely by Labour MPs. They still do not get it. They have no concept of how vile and repulsive they are.
Hi Dubbie, yes I was disappointed. One of the stupid things which annoyed me David Kerr had allowed the BBC to pin a poppy on him. That really annoyed me because I object to poppy wearing except the week before Remembrance Day.
That didn't put me in a good mood when Bain and the libdem woman didn't wear one.
He came over confident but he was ignored by Campbell after the first 'round'.
Eye hellish, 3 hours at Ninewells and have enough creams to start a dispensary. It's only corneal abrasion but painful and blurred. :) Thanks for asking Dubbie.
I heard that Clarinda and I also heard an MP on FiveLive News tonight bleating on about having his claim for a razor rejected!!
He's one I believe who is standing down.
Oh how I'd love to see Gray and Murphy out, that would make my year.
Oh Tris, that's exactly what most of us think, at aleast I do. :)
Now that is a good idea Dram and I do hope you've sent it to that man they all call the Speaker. He's in charge of these decisions isn't he?
I don't think those who have been 'honest' are listened to in the boys club Lorenzo. There are a few right enough.
KBW, I shall email your idea to my MP when I get my own machine back. Great idea.
Don't get me started about Jacqui Smith...
Funny how MPs go for years not daring to defy their leaders. They'll vote for ridiculous bans, illegal wars, infringements of civil liberties - anything they're told to do, they do it.
But the minute their bank balances are threatened, they grow a bloody backbone.
Sod them. Ann Widdecombe is whining that any other employee having the rules changed on them in this way would be right to complain. She misses the point that MPs have twisted and warped the system so much that they can in no way consider themselves "normal" employees. How many employees get to vote on their own wages, their holidays, their pensions, the laws that will or won't apply to them.....
Any MP who even whimpers about paying money back should be de-selected by their party masters.
Alan I completely agree with you. At times Widdecombe speaks sense but what rubbish she's come out with in the past 24 hours.
Redditch may be denied its personal peer as Ms J Smith's talent for living in a single room, netting her some £116,000, has initiated the self-preservation Labour response. Unlike the deposed Speaker sporting his newly fluffed ermine today, it seems there is a local and a government move to prevent her automatic 'elevation' when she carries out her predicted standing-down before the GE.
Anyway, thank goodness Westminster's back as during the last 86 days the country has ground to a complete halt without its daily sage leadership and parental quidance.
Yes it would be fun to see Brown ousted as a result of his venal backbenches worrying about their fiddles-gone-bad rather than something important like driving the country into penury.
btw, what bits of information about the private lives of her colleagues might Jaqui have come across during her stint as Home Seketry ? Is that why she has been let off prosecution or even returning our money ?
I found the new Lord and his fur trimmed housecoat quite nauseating Clarinda.
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