Ministers Expenses

[Muppet]

.......... but I think there are bigger issues to worry about.

 

I think having some trust in the people who govern the Country is a pretty big issue.

[paulb]

what than corrupt politicians. If they can't be trusted on this then its obvious that they are not trust worthy on the big issues. like war, banks And all the little freedoms that they have take from us.

 

How odd that they wanted to be exempt from the freedom of information bill. Almost as if they knew that they were doing wrong.

 

When the speaker calls for a police investigation into the leak and does nothing to prevent this blatant corruption; then maybe we need a new guy Fawkes.

[Frankie]

.......... but I think there are bigger issues to worry about.

 

I think having some trust in the people who govern the Country is a pretty big issue.

 

You surely didn't ever trust them did you ?

[KOYAANISQATSI]

I think having some trust in the people who govern the Country is a pretty big issue.

 

Aye; pity ever getting the chance to is pretty bloody unlikely.

£16k on a mortgage that had already been paid off and describing it as an "oversight".

Stop them before they really start, put them in prison and completely strip them of their assets.

[Para Handy]

How many of the MP's that have had their snouts in the trough were heard crying 'Shame' at bankers greed and excesses or commented that their behaviour had brought discredit to the banking industry?

That’s now propped up with Tax payers money. Speak about the pot calling the kettel black

[Mcdilly-Willy]

Please sign these if you are as angry as me:

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Stop-MP-Expenses/
 
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/expenses-fraud/

 

 

[***mod edit - thread merged with existing topic ***]

[Para Handy]

Done Mcdilly-Willy

[Styumpie]

Our whole political system is rotten to the very core, this is just a few of the symptoms of it, but its not easy to figure out how to design a system that works, as the nasty side of the human condition always fights its way to the top, wherever there is a random selection of humans, there will be, and always are corruption.

 

I think that there must be some sort of rigid scientific character/personality screening for those who wish to enter government, local government, police, top jobs in the public sector etc etc. People who exhibit these nasty personal characteristics should not be allowed enter the system.

[Guest Anonymous]

In the face of all this publicity of expenses claims from the UK's elected representatives it's very hard to find anything good to say about any of them.

 

But perhaps Shetland can find an example from the history of it's councillors.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that the late Cecil Eunson never, or hardly ever, claimed any expenses. To my mind he was an honest politician, and should be held up as an example of a person who was serving the public, instead of screwing the public.

[Para Handy]

^^^ Here Here Auld Rasmie

[Trow87]

Spot on AR!

[Guest Anonymous]

when i were a lad e just had the numpties in westminster to pay for , now we are paying for holyrood , westminster , brussels , the welsh and northern ireland assemblies .......? jobs for the boys eh ??

our own mps mostly rubber stamp directives from eu .

i am told they only have real control on over less than 20% of this countries affairs , ..... its a diabolicol sham , nests of parasites living of the backs of ordinary mr joe public.

personally i would be happy to see elliot morley have a gurnard inserted into his anus , payback time for the horrible sweaty sleazeball.

 

I will be voting ukip if there is a candidate ??? or failing that the king of forvick .

[derick]

Amusingly enough, it looks laek da Telegraph half-inched da expenses story fae a journalist at's been wirkin on it (at some personal finanical risk) fur years an years - Heather Brooke.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/15/mps-expenses-heather-brooke-foi

 

Correct number o Scottish Westminster MPs, wid be nane.

and hence

correct amount o Scottish Westminster MP's expenses also = NIL

 

Wan oda reasons I joined SNP wis cis I realised Westminster/Whitehall is unreformable. An imperial parliament wi no empire ta govern. Pointless.

 

An Independent Scotland could hardly do worse.

[paulb]

SNP. tell us about your leaders london pad. how much has he claimed representing his voters in the 9% of votes as a mp. Does that mean he only takes a 10th of his wage plus his second home allowance and all the other little tax free perks. Why does he retain his westminster seat if its so bad.

I wonder what mistake he has made on his expenses. He really must be very busy doing three full time jobs at once. Do we know if he has a moat.

Alex Salmond claimed £400 per month for food when the Commons was not even sitting

 

Commons records show the First Minister claimed the maximum food allowance for eight months in the 2005/06 financial year, a total of £3,200.

 

However, included in his claim was £800 for the months of August and September 2005, when the Commons was on its summer recess.

 

SNP's victory in the May 2007 Holyrood election curtailed his appearances at Westminster, but the food claims did not stop.

 

In the 2007/08 financial year, he voted on only six days in the Commons but claimed £1,751.50 for food, or more than a third of the maximum allowed for the entire 12 months.

 

Asuming that he only claimed for when he was in london on mp duty thay comes out at about £300 a day for food. I bet he is not hitting netto's

[Para Handy]

Just some of the quotes from letters to the telegraph

 

MPs' expenses

 

SIR – During many years sitting as a Crown Court judge, I always felt that contrition expressed after the miscreant had been found out had a hollow ring about it, even if accompanied by an offer to pay for the return of the benefit obtained. While it afforded mitigation, it could not expiate the wrongdoing.

 

Having regard to the requirement that expenses must be necessarily and properly incurred for the discharge of the Member's parliamentary duties, can anyone of full age and sound mind seriously believe that claiming expenses to finance homes neither in nor near Westminster or the Member's constituency, or for paying for swimming pools or the like can be made in good faith? I very much doubt if a British jury would.

 

His Honour Anthony Thompson

London SW14

 

“I wonder,†wrote a reader from Lancashire, “how many MPs have claimed for the spades they are digging themselves holes with.â€

 

“If MPs are investigated by the police,†wrote Peter Waterman, “may we assume their DNA will be held for 12 years, even if they are not guilty?â€

 

SIR – Gordon Brown's decision to establish a committee to examine the historic claims of MPs is unnecessary – a squad is needed and it already exists. It is called the Fraud Squad.

 

SIR – Can someone put me in touch with the MPs' financial adviser? My troops here in Afghanistan are eager to claim for second-home allowances, furnishings and a reduction in council tax charges for the palatial accommodations we find ourselves in, courtesy of MPs.

 

We have also found it difficult to commute to our normal, fully-taxed homes in Britain.

 

Sergeant Major Max Jackson

Afghanistan

 

SIR – Shouldn't the offending Tory party grandees also wear dayglo "community payback" jackets?

 

SIR – A suitable collective noun for MPs should be a gadarene

 

SIR – As a magistrate of 25 years, I am appalled.

 

We treat benefit cheats very seriously in court, as they are cheating law-abiding taxpayers. They always have to pay back the money. If the amount is more than £5,000, a custodial sentence is considered.

 

SIR – Earlier this year I wrote to my MP complaining that, although my National Insurance contributions for the previous year had exceeded £10,000, my Jobseeker's Allowance entitlement, on being made redundant, was merely

£60.50 a week.

 

In response my MP explained that "National Insurance is used by Her Majesty's Treasury to cover a range of public services".

 

Thanks to your recent excellent coverage, I now know exactly what she meant by this.

 

SIR – "Have you ever been in the House of Commons and taken a good square look at the inmates? As weird a gaggle of freaks and sub-humans as was ever collected in one spot. I wouldn't mix with them for any money you could offer me," says Lord Ickenham in P. G. Wodehouse's Cocktail Time. And that was in 1958. What would he say nowadays?

 

 

SIR – After I returned from three months in the South Atlantic in 1982, I received a letter from a government department. It informed me that I had considerably underspent my allowance for official entertainment. Accordingly, they reduced my daily rate and backdated it for the full year I had been in post. I now owed them £600, which they would deduct from my pay for that July.

 

I thought this fair. Although "by the rules" I might have expected the original allowance to continue, who was I to grumble if this was how they wished to play it?

 

I wonder whether this backdating might be any kind of useful precedent for MPs' expenses. The rules were clearly too loosely, if not negligently, applied. They are now being reviewed. If the new rates are backdated in accordance with the rules applied to me, the balance should be recovered directly by deduction from the pay of those MPs concerned.

 

Admiral Sir John Woodward

Bosham, West Sussex

 

 

SIR – Burglars breaking into houses operate within rules set by themselves

 

 

 

SIR – When I commanded an RAF base some 18 years ago, I sent someone to prison for 60 days for fiddling his expenses.

 

Air Cdre Andrew Griffin (retd)

Uppingham, Leicestershire