MPs and their ruddy expenses...Are we surprised?

[MrsMerryHenry]

Whoever heard of a squeaky-clean politico?

Mind you, Goldsworthy definitely owns some eyeliner:

camborneredruthlibdems.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/photoshoot-portreath-feb-09-13.jpg

hard to say if it's embezzled off the taxpayer or not.

The 'Labour female backbench MP in the home counties' buying the BBQ is either Fiona Mactaggart, MP for Sluff, or Phyllis Starkey for Milton Keynes South West.

And how much did said BBQ cost? I'm in the mood for another rant.

I would have thought on a salary of well over £100K a year they would be able to afford most of this without claiming. Hazel Blears on North West Tonight bleating about having 'only a small, one-bedroom flat' - why did it cost so much (£5000 in 3 months) to kit out them ?

Rules broken? No.
Piss being royally taken? DEFINITELY!

The comment in the Telegraph that had me burning was, when one of the MP's claimed twice (for something or other they shouldn't have claimed once for IMHO), when the mistake was discovered and the money paid back, the expenses office apologised. WHAT? If I'd ever made the same claim twice when I worked, I can guarantee it would have been me prostrating myself in front of the accounts dept for fear of losing my job - not vice versa!!!

I note they've also called in the police to investigate the leak - note that Baroness Uddin (whose claim on the face of it raises suspicion of fraud even under the old rules) is not under investigation by the police.

Just read a brill comment on the Guido Fawkes blog re MPs trying to block/limit the amount of expenses info in the public domain - "if they have nothing to hide, they have nothng to fear"

As an opponent of ID cards, the government say that to me....

That is a very good point.
The government are telling us that if we have nothing to hide then we shouldn't mind GCHQ reading our emails, listening to our phone calls & making us carry ID cards.
So if they actually believe that crap then they should have absolutely no problem with full disclosure of all their expenses claims!

Why do all politicians look like pigs?

Rules broken - probably not. Immoral - in many cases yes. I know lots of people who work away from home and stay in b&bs or rented rooms, sometimes without any financial help from their employer. The rules have been far too lax.

I would also like to see a government owned hostel for MPs - but fear it would soon have gold plated taps and the like.

Gordon Brown. What a tosser.

Just seen this on the news.

What a shower of shites.

No wonder there has been stealth taxes here, there and everywhere - they have absolutely lost any understanding of what money is.

If we are paying for their houses, furniture, shampoo, tampons, kit kats etc then the £60000+ a year they earn must go straight into the bank.

Fuckers.

Phil Hope spent £120 on his BBQ, part of £37k spent furnishing a small FLAT.

Phil Woolas claimed for women's clothes and for nappies. What a shithead. Thieving bastard.

Barbara Follett claimed £24k for private security to guard her second home paid for by the taxpayer.

All thieves.

Lock them up.

Been watching this on Newsnight and am just shocked at the greed - imagine if we could all claim such expenses as part of our job!!

I can see an argument that MPs need to be covered so they're not open to bribes etc. But the obstruction of transparency gets me...if you're going to make the most of such generous rules then don't be annoyed if normal people (aka voters) get angry when they hear of the ridiculous claims...

Am loving the idea of a government owned hostel by the way...keep thinking of In the Thick of It and how funny it would be

It's just so extraordinary. A normal civil servant is bound by extremely tight rules on expenses and has to produce an invoice for every claim. Why can't MPs be subject to those sort of rules? I mean they are quick enough to claim a civil servant's pension rights ....

Did you hear Peter Bottomley this am claiming that submitting invoices for every claim was "unworkable".

Why is it unworkable? I have to submit invoices for every single item of expenses.

GRRRRRRRRRR

I fucking hate the lot of them.

Thieving Bastards.

Hazel Blears has a face that begs to be slapped.

Im so angry about this.

Tossers. All of them.

I don't think it is the cost of all this, it is just the principle.It isn't expected. It is sloppy and disappoitning.

Their salary is ok.

I heard an Mp today making some comment about a headteacher's salary being more, as if they didn't have anywhere near the same level of responsibility.

Hard to argue with tiredemma, tbh.

Am disappointed to discover, courtesty of theyworkforyou, that my MP is the joint first for the size of his claim for the second home allowance. I thought he was OK, really, certainly good on consituency business despite being one of Thatch's worst sidekicks in his day.

Yet here he is, in the London commuter belt, squeezing every penny out of the additional costs allowance while claiming to represent people who actually live here and travel into town for work. Makes no sense at all.

(nice to know my instincts about Alan Johnston were right though and he's fairly clean. And that Hilary Benn hasn't let his Dad down.)

Apparently Woolas submitted a receipt for Food, which also happened to have women's clothes and nappies on (the receipt) that he did not claim for. He was apprently livid when the BBC called him to review the telegraph infor on his expenses. He was threatening to call in the lawyers.

Thank you, edam, for letting me find my MPs expenses on theyworkforyou. He is pretty average now - has been high in the past. As he doesn't always reply to his constituents letters and doesn't travel around the constituency he ought to have below average expenses!

He was a waste of money even on just his salary - at these prices he's a disgrace.

Parasites.

anyone read what the Standards and Privileges Committee said about Derek Conway paying his son? It included ?This arrangement was, at the least, an improper use of Parliamentary allowances: at worst it was a serious diversion of public funds.?

Yeah well, turns out Conway was far from alone in treating the public purse as a piggy bank. Grrr.

I saw that today too womblingalong and my first thought was 'but I have to pay for my own food at the supermarket' .

It's the way that they all keep whinging about not having broken the rules...as though that makes it OK. What about your own moral compass or was I the only one who got that particular Christmas cracker?