Another day and some more expenses. I've said before and I'll say again, there are some that have been cited that I think have been unfairly judged, whilst there are others who are verging on the white collar criminal level. I, much like Danny Finkelstein, think there is a world of difference between a trouser press and a phantom mortgage and that people should judge with some sense of proportion.The problem is when you read some of these, like with the family court post below, the mind just boggles once again at the sense of entitlement some MPs have with certain things. Today, the Telegraph has revealed that Labour's Frank Cook put a claim in for a £5 church collection.
The claim was rejected by the infamous Fees Office, and, like with the phantom mortgages and flipping the redacting process that was being carried out would not have revealed that the donation was for a church collection if we'd sat and waited.
Now, some might say that this was only a fiver and it wasn't allowed anyway, but you have to ask yourself, what sort of person goes to church and puts a fiver in the plate and then thinks they ought to put a claim in for it. One might, if one was purely partisan, expect such a thing from an evil Tory, but from an angelic member of the social democrat elite?
Speaking of evil Tories though, the Telegraph has also revealed that Tim Yeo put a claim in for a laptop. Big deal some might say, an MP needs a computer so this is surely OK? Well that laptop was, like the picture above, pink, and the £900 claim came just before Christmas.
The implication of those facts is pretty clear, and to think positively of them we have to assume that Tim Yeo has, likes, and uses a pink laptop. I expect the justification will be that it was for one of the females who works for him.
10 comments:
Afraid I have to disagree with you on one point.
Any claim for items other than mmortgage interest, rent, utility bills is 'unallowable' - outside that range is what MPs get a salary for , the same as you or I.
As you infer and I will say, a pink laptop? Obviously a present for a female - I mean what fella buys a pink laptop - unless of course Lord Whatsit from Wherever!
"Now, some might say that this was only a fiver and it wasn't allowed anyway, but you have to ask yourself, what sort of person goes to church and puts a fiver in the plate and then thinks they ought to put a claim in for it."
The same sort of person who claims for a trouser press, one with a disgusting sense of entitlement.
The monetary gap between a Corby and a monogrammed well cover may be vast, but the contempt for the taxpayer and the sense of entitlement that it reveals is just the same.
It was Jacqui Smith's bath plug more than any of the other items she was initially outed for which really raised the public's ire, remember.
The 88p is a truly insignificant amount of money, but that's exactly the point. The fact that she claimed at all demonstrates that the baggy faced harpy feels so entitled to live at our expense that she couldn't even be arsed to put her hand in her own pocket for less a quid.
Ditto trouser press, ditto well covers, ditto pink laptop, etc.
This is not, and never has been, just about the money.
Max Bygrave once had a song involving a pink toothbrush. It just shows how far we have advanced in the last half century.
Telegraph have tried to roll Dennis Skinner over. He's given them short shrift - and a story in the Observer.
The pink casing on the laptop is probably adequate protection against theft. This is Tim Yeo saving money for the taxpayer. ;)
I wear pink shirts occasionally. I have a pink toothbrush [ a one pound bargain !] - so I'm not sure he will hang for this.
The £ 5 is perplexing as well. If you are going to rip off the tax payer, this seems an odd thing to do it over, and I'm not convinced it was the MP himself who filled out this form. Okay, he may well have signed it, in which case he should have been more careful.
But this seems more 'cock-up' than conspiracy. If this is the level we are at, then either the Daily Telegraph are running out of steam, or this is lulling the MPs into a false sense of security with a calm before the final storm.
You refer to 'the infamous Fees Office'. Is it not time for these people to be identified and pilloried alongside the MPs? The Fees Office, after all, does seem to have been colluding with the MPs in this sorry affair.
Anonymous said...
"But this seems more 'cock-up' than conspiracy..."
I've got this bridge that you may be interested in...
It just shows how bad they are, if I was putting in a donation and thought I could claim it back I would have put at least a twenty pound note, He was obviously covering himself both ways. As for the laptop lets just see who is using it before we criticize. Put an end to all these spurious claims in Europe this Thursday by voting in the only party not invol;ved in any sleaze or scandal. for a clue as to who they are check this out.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwRYeBuwR0U
It will have been for his teenage 'lurvechild' daughter, born 1993.
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