JohnBM:Liberal » expenses

Why is our MP paying the Labour council leader £5000 a year?

JohnBM — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:52:04 +0000

After having a little rumage through my local Calder Valley Labour MP, Chris McCafferty’s redacted expenses forms and I came across something quite interesting.

She seems to be paying the leader of the Calderdale Council Labour group, Tim Swift, £1250 per quarter for consultancy fees from her expenses.

As I do not have the money for paying expensive lawyers, I shall not be making any unsubstantiated accusations or assumptions about these payments but I thought it was worth drawing attention to.

By censoring the expenses the Parliamentary Fee Offices has created more questions than answers.

I do hope Chris and Tim are able to “fill in the blanks” so to speak.

Source: BBC News Page 74

MPs Expenses – Tarring us all with the same brush

JohnBM — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:58:21 +0000

The biggest and most annoying fallout of the MPs expenses saga is the continuous assault by the media on all politicians at all levels.

In the last ten days, not a day has gone by when I haven’t heard somebody, either in passing or in the media, saying: “politicians are just in it for themselves” or similar comments.

Being a town councillor on Hebden Royd Town Council, this attitude annoys me.

HR Town Councillors do not get any allowances or expenses and all travel/childcare etc. has to come out of our own pockets. The only exception is the mayor who has an allowance to cover the cost of being in ten places at the same time.

I spend many hours a week doing voluntary work either as a charity trustee, school governor, general volunteer or as a town councillor.

It is only for being a councillor that I have my motives questioned.

Every MP who has fiddled the expenses system needs to think long and hard about the damage that they have done to UK politics as a whole.

The only cure to the current parliamentary malaise is to call a general election and let the electorate purge those MPs who they think have been fiddling the books.

No moats, tennis courts or porticos here

JohnBM — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:11:20 +0000

After a week of dredging the Telegraph has dug up a corby trouser press, scatter cushions, a leather rocking chair and the tenuous claim against Andrew George who let his student daughter use his second home as an occasional ‘bolt hole’.

Does not look good for us but thankfully does not look too bad in comparison.

By the way, what is a flipping portico???

Bye bye Blears

JohnBM — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:01:58 +0000

In the light of Ms. Blears’ ‘flipping’ of properties to make the most of the second home expenses and avoiding capital gains tax on the sale of one of these properties, I think we have found our first Labour scapegoat.

Unless overshadowed by more serious accusations of fiddling and dodging, Hazel’s tax alleged tax dodging moves go well beyond the “it’s within the rules” defence.

A sacking or two might help Brown regain some of the great expanse of ground lost over the expenses issue.

The politics of “Something must be done”

JohnBM — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:16:27 +0000

Something happens

The tabloids cry: “Something must be done!”

The Ministers shout: “We must do something!”

A Special Advisor holds aloft a piece of paper: “This is something!”

The Prime Minister sighs: “We have done something!”

This month the something has been MP’s expenses.

Started by a plethora of ministers claiming second home expenses for sleeping at their mum’s house or for the house where their whole family live, rising to a crescendo of pay-per-view porn on expenses. Everybody shouting: “Something must be done!”.

Gordon Brown announces today that he wants a vote in Parliament next week replacing second homes allowance with a “turning up to work bonus” – little discussion, three line whip, something done.

Gordon needs to learn not to equate “doing something” with “doing the right thing”.