*MPs of all parties have been suffering quite a lot of abuse over the last few days, not least from their constituents and party workers. I am told that the straw which broke Phil Hope's back was when one of his local party officers rang him and told him he was a c***. Cue a cheque for a stonking £41,000. Wish I could suddenly lay my hands on that much.
*A Tory MP of my acquaintance suffered terrible abuse in his local grocers from constituents who accused him of being on the take. The poor man is one of the few who claims absolutely nothing from the ACA second home allowance. But his constituents weren't interested in that inconvenient fact. They wanted blood.
*This morning I got an email from a local Labour Party branch in Middlesbrough today demanding that constituency parties should be allowed to start reselection procedures if they wish. Will this be replicated in other parties, I wonder.
*Tomorrow the Telegraph unravels the expenses of MPs who are married couples. Mr and Mrs Balls may not be sleeping very easily tonight - in whichever of their homes they find themselves.
44 comments:
Not surprising is it - we are about to see our taxes go up, are worried about our jobs and then find our taxes are subsidising their lifestyles. Dave is right - they may have been within the rules (and I am not sure I believe that actually) but they are morally wrong. They may pay back some of what they have taken, but that doesn't suddenly make them leaders of the nation worth voting for does it? Reselection is needed.
So many tides are turning. This could decrease the support for the mainstream parties; it could increase support for the extremes. Indeed it could drastically reduce turnout for more than just the next year or two.
MPs *knew* the rules. Breaking them becuase they could is just sheer front. The short-term consequence may be a few headlines and emails; the long-term consequences could be drastic for democracy as a whole.
There are rumours of injunctions out ....
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3614211/what-do-we-want-instant-disclosure-when-do-we-want-it-now.thtml
Don't forget the Keens and the Wintertons; but I am most looking forward to seeing Ed Balls squirm...
Live by the PARTY system, die by the PARTY system
Why are they asking you for permission to start reselection procedures? Clearly your profile has risen somewhat - that radio show of yours must have had quite some effect!
It is proof of a bad cause when it is applauded by the mob.
seneca
I actually feel quite sorry for some of them now, really. I think that the media has probably blown some of the smaller claims out of all proportion and quite a lot of relatively innocent MPs are being unjustly vilified. That said, the majority of the larger claims border on outright fraud.
Phil Hope claims that he's giving back the £41k because he wants to maintain his integrity - but actually he lost that as soon as he took the money in the first place. Still, credit to the man for returning about two thirds of his salary.
It's going to take a few days before people calm down enough for MPs to talk to there constituents safely, hopefully the Tory MP and others in his situation from other parties will be able to -in some form- communicate the fact that he has claimed for nothing.
Unfortunately MPs on the whole are suffering due to some of them totally misunderstanding the public anger on this, and also to them as a whole turning a blind eye to the expenses debacle over the years.
Yes there is a recession but to be honest I think that there would have been the same vitriolic feeling from the public towards MPs if the economy was in full health.
Maybe this expenses row will, once things have calmed down, show the public who feel that voting is a waste of time that it is possible to shake the 'ivory tower' in Westminster and that actually getting off your butt and voting can change things.
Maybe the last is a bit of a pipe dream but voter apathy in this country seriously pisses me off especially when you see pictures in other countries of where people are dying to get the right to vote.
On the news earlier, Hope said he and his wife are discussing how they will pay it back... there is no 'writing a cheque' so it is disingenuous to add more accusations.
People like arch-trougher Fabian Hamilton are going to have to start resigning or I guarantee there is going to be trouble.
We do not like being taken for mugs. And that's what these people have been doing.
It's pathetic, really: petty dishonesty day after day, year after year, from people who are meant to set some sort of example. It's squalid and it's brought Parliament and the office of MP into horrible disrepute. It's unprecedented and unforgivable.
I do sympathise with those who have been scrupulous with public finances, like your Tory friend, Iain, but I would urge them to send a message to their colleagues: that they're extremely disappointed in them, that this parliament is now dead and that they strongly believe it is time to go to the country - and face the music. It's over.
I hope that consciences (if indeed they have them) of Mr and Mrs Balls ensure that never sleep easily again. They have done more than enough damage to this nation for any happily married couple...
If someone rang me up and called me a c**t I'd be hard pressed to find £400, let alone £42,000. I'd have to sell me grandma and she's 24 carat.
Can they not see we're not like them?
To my mind 'fessing up and saying you've got £42,000 spare in your piggy bank makes it even fucking WORSE.
By the people , for the people? Fuck off - the liberal political cogniscenti have shafted us left, right, centre and upwards.
Keir Hardie - sleep well sunshine. Believe me, you really don't want to know.
Perhaps people up and down the land should phone there MP's and call them c**ts and see the money roll in.
Hostage to fortune time but I would be astonished if there was much on Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper in tomorrow's Torygraph. Their expenses have been gone into previously including by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and they would have been the first people which the pro-Tory leaker looked at.
There is a recession and people are angry. This rage, although being directed at expenses, stems from a number of things. i.e. Gordon Brown not calling an election? Or immigration and benefit-seeking scum? And the government pursuing the working classes to pay taxes - by terrorising them. The BBC employing a muslim to head up the religious category.
People are angry and the expenses saga is just the final straw. More now because of this moral compass talk and this ethical shite from politians.
They've lost their credibility and trust. It's over for them.
The only way this will blow over is when the recession does. Most people will forget or not care when they have money to spend and a life to enjoy.
Recession over, calmer society. There will always be campaigners, but not in such an extreme as we are witnessing now.
The amount of expenses claimed (presumably) legitimately by MPs dwarfs the specious claims, but it is the principle of the thing.
MPs made the rules. MPs then bent them, broken them and ignored them. Enough of them then colluded to try and cover it up. MPs should not be able to build property empires with tax free expenses.
John Mann was on Channel 4 news earlier and came across as a decent enough bloke. Stop the charade. End the contentious expenses. He even publishes his expenses on his website. Why can't they all do at least that? I expect there are a few who do. We should be encouraging that behaviour.
Labour MP Fabian Hamilton caught out overclaiming expensesI cannot help but think of those in prison for stealing a lot less than this MP has had with his snout in the trough!
A colloquial expression for the Houses of Parliament for some time now has been the Westminster Village. New Labour has been in charge of this Village since 1997, to this day they command a sizable majority when it comes to voting for change.
This wasn't enough for these class warriors every committee had to be loaded in their favour and just to load the deck even more in their favour they went against years of tradition and voted one of their own into the Speaker's position. Not in a long, long time has any Government enjoyed such dominance in Parliament.
It may well be that members of every party abused the expense system but, that it got to a level of being so flagrantly and wantonly abused was a product of Labour's bad management.
In the final analysis it is no surprise that a Government that couldn't manage a "Village" ended up ruining a Country.
With regard to MP's expenses - it is not so much one village Idiot but a whole village of Idiots!
I think that the main parties are going to have to allow the local constituencies the choice of reselection and some MP's are going to have to consider there position come the election as to weather they stand or not.
People are angry and they will consider shifting their vote to the smaller parties.
And if all these MP's claimed thousands in expenses then they now pay it back then why the f**k did they claim in the first place.
Paying back the money doesn't change a think in fact it makes it worse.
As for the speaker yes he is as useful as a chocolate fire guard but he should not have all the blame shifted onto him.
Iain I hope your're right the DT is going to wrap up this sorry affair soon. I'm getting past sleaze fatigue and into sleaze boredom. It's getting time to draw a line and start changing things. In the meantime unemployment jumps, manufacturing is dying on its feet and the national debt just keeps getting bigger. The revelations have served their purpose as a catylst of change but nothing will move til we can all draw breath again. It's getting time to stop damaging the ship and to start repairing it.
God it's getting worse!!!!
I just think the time has come for there to be a total clear out of MPs. We need an election NOW. Brown has lost all authority and Cameron needs to start kicking out some of the Tory scum.
A £16k claim for a mortgage paid off 18 months earlier. That is theft.
Furthermore, they all are willy nilly signing cheques for amounts many of us spent a life time trying to get and they stole from our pensions. Hateful.
Mr and Mrs Balls may not be sleeping very easily tonight - in whichever of their homes they find themselves.
Too right: oh Those Sweaty balls.. Not long now..
I really - and I do mean really being a Yorkshire chap - look forward to the "Load of Balls" in tomorrow's press !
But, let's - and I never, ever thought I would say this - hear it for the Members of all parties who are straight up & down on their claims.
Perhaps if they see the simplicity of it all, they should be in Government instead of these tossers on the make.
Let them all re-read 1:3 of the Green Book, let us vote for the straights ..... and get on with the governance of this country!
Balls, Cooper and Speaker Martin have successfully taken out injunctions to prevent publication by the DT ....
allegedly.
Gareth said...
John Mann was on Channel 4 news earlier and came across as a decent enough bloke. He even publishes his expenses on his website.
****************************
I would have scored him higher had he mentioned the fact on his blessed website that Mrs Mann is on his payroll.
And higher still if he didn't have Mrs Mann on the payroll at all.
Of course I understand I may be asking for too much here.
So, "Jailhouselawyer", as a taxpayer, how angry do you feel about what our MPs have been up to?
Oops...sorry....I forgot that you've never paid taxes...
Still - you're entitled to an opinion.
I suppose.
Can I post this ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QapZI2cLQQ
It's funny - my apologies if it's against the spirit of the blog - it IS funny though...
I do feel sympathy for the honest MPs who never milked the system. This is one reason why the dithering of Brown is so indefensible, imo.
Nice 'n' sleazy does it! The Wednesday Evening Expensesgate update
Anonymous - I do hope you weren't correct in the Load of Balls winning an injunction. I was so looking forward to that - so much so, that I may have even bought the Maily Telegraph !
p.s. john Mann is my local M.P., Gareth - and we've exchanged e-mails on the expenses point. Fair play to the Mann ( sorry, it was too good to miss), but he's still a plonker who used parliamentary postage to send a neutral greetings card out to us all at Christmas - but I don't recall receiving one for Hanukah or Eid ! Vote catcher or what ?
Labour MP, Elliot Morley has committed what the DT's lawyers see as tantamount to fraud.
I don't think this expenses row will blow over until the public have scalps - Labour's.
They ignored us over immigration, the Lisbon Treaty, excessive taxation, threats to our civil liberties, etc., all the while delivering lousy public services.
The public has had no stick with which to beat them, until now. Now, they are wounded and the public scents blood. They are going in for the kill.
I don't think there's a thing Labour can do to stop it. People practically foam at the mouth when talking about Labour, they are so hated.
The power to recall sitting MPs and the choosing of MPs by the voters (not by parties) would go a long way to fixing British democracy and easing the relationship between voter and 'representative'.
I’m getting more and more annoyed with the sneering of the BBC over expenses, in particular Paxman.
When beeboids write books they use the fact they are part of the BBC to promote that fact. So just who gets the profits from these book sales and who picks up the tab for any travelling, hotel costs etc the likes of Paxo and others incur.
By their actions, shall they be judged. If (as it has been alleged) certain MPs have had injunctions placed on the release of expense information, then shall that behaviour be judged.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5320852/Elliot-Morley-claimed-16000-for-mortgage-that-did-not-exist-MPs-expenses.html
What's the other side of farce? Despair? We are well into the territory of "the dog ate my homework" now. The very best, most charitable thing that can be said about Mr Morley is that he is an honest idiot. Let's assume he really "forgot" for a moment (or 18 months actually). Surely for any job which carries even a modicum of responsibility there is a minimum requirement to be even vaguely aware of what is going on around you??
Iain 10:48 PM,
He does mention that he employs his wife.
David 11:09 PM,
I'd never heard of him until today. Compared to Andrew George who was in the studio with him Mann's position was one of simple transparency.
"A £16k claim for a mortgage paid off 18 months earlier. That is theft."
How bourgeois of you to worry about thieving. Fry habitually stole from his friends and relatives and he is (so the BBC tells me) a national treasure.
We might be run by idiots, but at least they are the finest idiots.
Something to be proud of.
"Wish I could suddenly lay my hands on that much."
Haw, haw, haw.....
It's been a very effective campaign by the Torygraph, which of course has a long history of collusion with MI5. Can it be that the chaps at Thames House have wider plans? Now how would they benefit from a general and severe drop in trust in Parliament?
Not that I side in any way with the bent b*st*rd*. I have to say, you really have been "speaking for England" on this one Iain. Goodness knows where it all goes now. I feel very, very dissatisfied with all the parties.
@ Despairing Liberal
"which of course has a long history of collusion with MI5."
Crass. Name one 'newspaper' which has not. You seriously believe that MI5 regards one newspaper as its sole outlet? How much history do you really know, for that matter how much of anything do you really know?
Not on the take?
Get abuse from constituents?
Wonder why?
Well, you've stood by while the others have been looting.
Damned both ways.
Nick
The rumour is that the sweaty Balls may have obtained an injunction. We shall see, or not as the case may be.
Post a Comment