More Misuse of Taxpayers' Money

The poster above should read 'on my side'. Nigel Griffiths, the MP for Edinburgh south, you will recall, was the MP who confessed to having sex, with an unknown woman, in his Westminster office on Remembrance Day. He also claimed for a £3.600 plasma television in his expenses.

He has now decided to stand down at the general election because he has another job as a director of the London International College, an independent not-for-profit organisation, founded in 1974 and offering undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses to foreign students on programmes accredited by Sunderland University.

Under Commons rules, MPs losing their seat at elections are entitled to a winding up allowance and a resettlement grant. Mr Griffiths is eligible for both and his resettlement allowance will amount to £60,000 - the first £30,000 being tax-free.

When he decides to close his constituency office - he owns the building - he will receive the winding up allowance to allow him to pay his staff statutory redundancy payments as well as bonus payments of up to 15% of their salary.

There was no comment from other MPs but Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers' Alliance said his organisation was lobbying for the Commons resettlement grant to be scrapped: "It is unacceptable to give MPs who choose to leave the Commons, or are thrown out by the people, these massive sums of money.

"MPs are well rewarded while they are in office and get a generous pension. These payments make it a triple whammy."

Griffiths will be laughing all the way to the bank and there's nothing the electorate can do about it. How can a man with Griffiths' record be rewarded in this way? Will the tories tackle issues such as this? Sadly I doubt it.

Can you believe this?

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Nigel Griffiths and his Claim for Listening to Scottish Radio and TV

Seeing Mr Griffiths once in a photograph is enough for me, but twice?  Mr Griffith isn't have a good time of it recently between his sordid 'incident' in Westminster and the first exposure of his expenses.

Today further information has been published.  Mr Griffiths claimed £3,604.95 for a television, DVD and digital radio and, when the claim was queried, he wrote "As a Scottish MP, I can only keep in touch with events during the day, which might affect my constituents, by tuning into the Scottish radio stations which the digital set provides.  Like wise, I record the Scottish TV news and Scottish current affairs programmes, which feature issues in Scotland and in south Edinburgh.  In a cramped London flat, flat-screen TV is the sensible option."

The Fees Office were not taken in my this and wrote back to him saying they had not changed their mind.

In November 2004 the MP successfully claimed £9,250 to redecorate the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom in his 'cramped' London flat, £220 for a carpet and £230 for pots and kitchen utensils.  Six months later he claimed again for redecoration and was reimbursed for £4,911.  Mr Griffiths redecorated a third time in 2006 and charged the taxpayer £3,310 which was approved.

So all in all Mr Griffiths' costs, in just over 2 years, for decorating his 'cramped' flat were £17,471.

He must have thought the taxpayers were mugs - he'll soon find out they're not.

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