3675 days ago
In the private sector if you steal from your employer by fiddling your expenses you get sacked at once. Then, if the employer wishes to save other firms from taking on a thief you get reported to the Old Bill. Hopefully you get a criminal record. Crime should not pay.
But for MPs, who should be held to at least the same standard as we poor plebs, life is different.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller (who looks like a greedy pig and is a greedy pig) has made a million quid abusing the expenses system. She broke the rules. And she is having to pay back some of the expenses she should never have claimed. But not all. And none of her “winnings” from property speculation funded by taxpayers cash will be repaid.
This woman should be fired from the cabinet and step down as an MP. But that is not happening. Instead the rest of the political class are standing up to defend her. Her champion today is David Laws MP who stole taxpayer’s cash by fiddling his expenses. He quit the cabinet but only temporarily – he is once again a minister.
These folks have no shame. Why the fuck should I work my socks off to pay taxes to fund these creeps. Please can anyone explain why we would be any worse off if the entire political class was strung up with piano wire? Let’s just have a period when no new laws are made and we can just get on with our lives. Let Alan Sugar run the country for a while. Surely life could be no worse?
3795 days ago
After the next election MPs are set to trouser an 11% pay hike to £74,000 – this is taking the piss. There is no reason for it at all. Just think about your own situation.
3816 days ago
You would have thought that greedy MPs have by now decided to err on the side of caution when it comes to expenses. Oh no. Think again.
Before we start on that I hope you can see that I now sport a 17 day old Movember moustache and if you care to sponsor my Movember efforts you can do so here.
This MP scandal is over office rents. And it goes to the heart of the battle between the political classes and we mere plebs.
3843 days ago
They want a 15% pay rise
They claim for food and drink
They claim for travel expenses
They claim for second homes
They claim for decorating
They get the wives on the payroll
etc, etc
Enough said
3858 days ago
Last year Liam Fox MP had to pay back £3,000 of fiddled expenses. This year the sum under discussion is 3p but in many senses it is worse. The 3p expense claim is legitimate but none the less horrendous.
The claim was made for a car journey in his constituency of 100 metres. This begs one obvious question of Mr Fox, who does not look to be exactly anorexic: “why are you such a lazy bastard – might you not have walked?”
Apart from the fact that sleazy Fox is an idle lard-arse, he also shows a total disregard for taxpayer’s cash. Surely he is aware that the costs of processing his claim for 3p will be several pounds? Does he really think that the taxpayer should be faced with such a burden so that he can reclaim three measly pence?
Of course he does. Fox may talk the talk on cutting the Government deficit but that means cuts for other folk not for the greedy political elite. He - like all the rest of those in the Westminster bubble swilling their taxpayer suibsidized booze while lecturing us on the need for minimum alcohol pricing reckon that austerity is only for "ordinary" people.
Fox. You are a scumbag. Just like the rest of the political class. As we approach November 5th I once again think warmly of the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.
3948 days ago
I noted here six days ago that MPs (who earn between 4 and 7 times the national average wage) reckon that if they don’t get a £10,000 pay rise they will be forced to fiddle their expenses again. But of course I got my sums wrong. It is even worse that I first thought.
For we learned at the weekend that 150 of the Westminster swine are claiming £50 a week for transport costs for their kids. That is deemed a legitimate expense. £2,500 a year tax free – that is worth £4,500 as a higher rate taxpayer. How many other "little" fittles like that are there which are all 100% legit under rules created by the MPs themselves? One suspects quite a few. And it all adds up.
As a bonus we also discovered that speaker John Bercow managed to claim £84 travel expenses for a journey of exactly one mile. Ironically it was a journey to visit the body set up to oversee MP’s expenses.
The political classes are right now thrashing about in a row about how Labour is bankrolled by Unite and the seeming corruption within Unite designed to fix election meetings. I do not give a damn about this. Or about the various corporates and dodgy hedge fund managers who bankroll the Tories. The real issue is that the entire political class is venal, corrupt and out of touch.
The battle is not between Labour and Tory or between Call Me Dave and Miliband. It really makes no difference who is in charge. Both accept the ultimate supremacy of the Evil Empire, pander to the moral sensibilities of a metropolitan elite and are happy to see the deficit remain out of control as Britain goes bankrupt every more quickly.
The battle is between the political classes who are robbing the citizenry, making Airstrip One ever less free while feathering their own nests and the rest of us.
Every time a new expenses scandal emerges or there is another episode of beltway sleaze newspaper columnists (part of the political media beltway class and inveterate expense fiddlers themselves) write “they still don’t get it do they?” Er… they never got it and they never will and any pre-election suggestion otherwise is mere pretence.
3954 days ago
That is the conclusion of Jack Straw MP, a sort of unofficial shop steward for the Westminster political classes. Mr Straw, whose son is being groomed to be an MP too as the political class becomes self-perpetuating, writes in the Daily Telegraph that unless MPs pay matches that of CEOs, Head Teachers etc MPs will be drawn from a narrower and narrower social class, be of poorer quality and will “make ends meet” by fiddling their expenses.
On the same principle unless you give big brown envelopes to prisoners on their release they will go and rob banks and mug old ladies. Let’s start such a scheme at once. Let’s be consistent and treat all dishonest vermin who contribute nothing to Society and have a lust for lucre equally.
The basic pay of an MP is £66,000. One in three earns more by chairing a committee, having ministerial responsibility, etc. Since MPs work less than 150 days a year many of them (Straw included) earn even more by doing other work. So the average MP earns three times the National average wage while one third earns between 4 and 7 times the average wage. And then there are their non Westminster activities.
No wonder that for every “winnable seat” there is a mammoth rush of applicants to fight that seat for the parties that are in contention. Would there be any less of a scramble if MPs took a 10% pay cut? I doubt it. Let’s try an experiment and see how many MPs quit if their pay is cut by 2%?
Once again I point out that in the US 425 Congressmen represent 250 million people. Why do we need 650 MPs to represent 60 million of us? How about we halve the size of the House of Commons, freeze MPs pay and let the ferrets fight it out for the seats that remain?
In any other profession the admission that if pay is not increased staff will simply steal from their employers (that is you and I the grateful taxpayer in this case) would be met with outrage. But apparently greedy MP’s regard it as a bargaining chip.
And they wonder why they are so universally despised?
3984 days ago
It seems as if Panorama and The Telegraph have nailed three Lords as well as Sir Patrick Mercer MP for asking questions in Parliament in return for cash. In a just world all would lose their titles and would be charged with something and resign at once. But will the political classes allow four of their own to face real justice? There is not a cat in hell’s chance of this.
Apparently Mercer took 24 hours to decide the “honourable” course of action after the sleazy pig knew that he was to be exposed. And even then he got it wrong. The honourable thing would be to quit as an MP at once without compensation and pay the cash he trousered to a good charity. Instead he keeps the cash and will stay in Parliament for two more years (albeit as an Independent not an Official Tory) trousering a vast wage plus expenses and then get a big payoff.
Mercer – you are not in the slightest bit honourable, you are a sleazy scumbag. But in your defence you are not alone.
How many other MPs are taking cash for arranging passes, asking questions in Parliament and assisting various companies without declaring it? In the Westminster political/media bubble other names crop up again and again. It is just that it is either hard to stand these things up or no-one can really be bothered as when you are all part of the same club, exposes make life just a bit too complicated.
If you think this story ends with Mercer or Labour’s Lord Jack Cunningham (whose dad was also done for political corruption, it is a family trait) you are sadly naïve. All the established parties know that there are rotten apples waiting to be exposed with a blue, red or yellow rosette. This scandal is not one that shows the divisions between the “mainstream” parties but the divisions between a political class united in protecting a corrupt system and their own vested interests, and the rest of us.
3997 days ago
We are all in it together said Call Me Dave as he warned us about life in austerity Britain. But some, it appears, are more equal than others. In a rare display of solidarity, the political class is united in deciding that the basic pay of MP’s has to increase from £65,000 to £75,000. We all know there are numerous other perks.
We also know that for every seat that is remotely winnable that is an enormous line of potential applicants to fight that seat for the main parties. Would that line be any shorter if there was no pay rise? Of course not. So this is not about “attracting the right talent.” This is about a venal and corrupt political class, which does not give a damn about the views or problems of we plebs, has bugger all experience of life outside the Westminster bubble and which is happy to extract as much cash from the taxpayer as it can.
After UKIP’s spectacular success in the local elections the political class all said they would start to listen. And a few weeks later they show once again that they do not give a damn.
Incidentally would UKIP be any better? I doubt it. How about a manifest pledge from Farage: reduce the number of MPs by 50% at once by merging seats and reverse this pay rise for the ones that remain? That would show that UKIP is listening and really is different.
4037 days ago
Margaret Thatcher was adamant that she did not want a flypast by the RAF at her funeral. She said that was a waste of money. Money, she always said was the taxpayers cash and should not be wasted. She would thus be horrified to hear that Call Me Dave has said that greedy MP’s can claim up to £3,750 in expenses to attend a special Parliamentary debate in her honour. If they want to attend fine. They damn well should. But not at the expense of taxpayers.
Millions of those who pay the taxes that funds the swine who trough at Westminster will be paying our own way to the funeral, to mark our respects. We may be travelling to London or taking time off work or booking a hotel room or whatever and that is our call. It is our money. What will this debate achieve? Nothing. What will it waste? Cash. Taxpayer’s cash.
Cameron’s mind-set with regard to who extricating cash from the great unwashed and wasting it shows once again that he is the heir to Blair and not to the Iron Lady.
4108 days ago
Just a reminder that my Tomograph Newsletter goes out bi-weekly and the Wednesday shares edition containing that free share tip.
It will be out by 2 PM today and will also include an article on the latest reason to thoroughly despise MPs plus a free share tip and a piece on the folly of Call Me Dave’s latest act of military bravado.
Want that free share tip plus an Editor’s Choice of the best of the past week plus these two exlusive articles? There won’t be a link on the site!
The only way to get all of that is to
REGISTER HERE
Planned delivery time on Wednesday is 2 PM.
Tom
4126 days ago
I have just worked a 22 hour day, juggling the needs of sick staff, bills to pay, deadlines to meet etc. That is what life is like in the private sector. The bit of the economy that employs folks, pays over taxes to support the State, etc. And the chances of myself or my staff getting a 32% pay rise this year are zippo. Frankly almost no-one in the UK will get that sort of rise this year.
But one bunch of parasites, tarnished by allegations of corruption, working 3 days in 5 and universally despised reckon they merit a 32% hike taking them from the top 5% of earners into the top 1%. Even had I worked only 21 hours yesterday I would still be livid.
This week’s caption contest is in honour of the scumbags who forget that they work for us not the other way round. Please post your captions in the comments section below.
The best caption will win an “It’s Time to leave T-shirt which you can also buy exclusively here.
4126 days ago
Are you getting a pay rise this year? Not many folks are. Some like those on welfare are, in real terms, getting a cut. Pensioners are worse off thanks in part to low interest rates. The Government needs to slash its spending. To sack people. To make them unemployed. As Call Me Dave said “we are all in it together.” Er… not quite. Some folks are more equal than others. MPs are demanding a pay rise. A 32% pay rise. Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him? These pigs are beneath contempt.
An MP already gets paid £65,378 a year plus expenses. Those were meant to have been reformed but
4157 days ago
Maria Miller MP is a former advertising executive. Her husband is a partner in a City law firm. So they are minted. But some greedy pigs just cannot get enough (of other folks cash) and the Culture Secretary is just such a pig. She should quit as an MP now and hand back £90,000 she has claimed as expenses in a way which may be legal ( it may not) but is just downright sleazy. If Dave Cameron wants to clean up politics he should fire this woman at once. He does not. And he will not.
In short Miller claimed £90,000 in expenses for here “second home” in London which is where her patents live.
4161 days ago
Whenever the words “breach of human rights” comes up your blood boils. Whether it is the terrorist who you cannot deport because it would upset the life of his family (a cat), the Somali pirate or Rwandan mass murderer whose ‘uman rights would be compromised if he had to go back home to face justice or whether it is the thought of the wicked witch whose Chambers promoted this daft legislation and has grown rich on it, my blood always boils. Aaaagh Cherioe Blair what did we do as a nation to deserve you?
But now there is another oppressed and unloved minority whose human rights are, they claim, set to be breached. I refer to a group of men and women even less loved than that other great ‘human rights beneficiary Abu Qatada. I speak of course of expense grubbing greedy MPs.
The expenses watchdogs wants MPs who used taxpayers cash to buy a second home to rent out to hand back any profits made over the past two years. I cannot see what is the problem with that. It was our (i.e. the taxpayers capital) that funded these entrepreneurial ventures, we should get the profits. About 70 MPs are affected and are now threatening legal action to stop this happening.
4185 days ago
In today’s sleaze round up rwo former MPs are unmasked but because they were MPs evading all punishment. It is one rule for them and one for us. First up is Westminster nonce of the day. Okay he is dead so there is no hope of prosecuting him but it appears that the late Sir Cyril Smith, the morbidly obese former Liberal MP for Rochdale was a serial abuser of teenage boys. He was named as a paedophile in Parliament today and the evidence is now flooding out.
4193 days ago
I read today that dreadful MP Nadine Dorries is to appear on the ghastly TV show I’m a celebrity. Just out of interest: will she be drawing her MP’s salary and claiming any expenses when she troops off to the jungle with a bunch of C list celebs? I would hope not but I am afraid that Mad Nad has pretty good form on pushing the expenses system to its limits. Are her daughters still on the payroll? There will be those that say this spectacle degrades Westminster. I disagree.
Westminster is already degraded to such a point where politicians are held in almost universal contempt. Expenses have been systematically fiddled
4196 days ago
Dennis MacShane MP has now been found guilty of submitting fabricated expenses allowing him to steal thousands of pounds from the taxpayer. He was suspended from the House of Commons for a year but says that he has now taken the honourable step of resigning as an MP as well. Cobblers. I am reminded of chapter ten of Animal Farm by George Orwell when the pigs start to walk on two legs. No longer is it “four legs good, two legs bad.”
4205 days ago
So the FSA and the Mortgage lenders are going to make it bloody hard to get an interest only mortgage. This is to be done in the name of prudence since it is quite clear that large numbers of folks take out an interest only mortgage with no idea of how they will repay the capital in the end. As of now you are going to have to show how you can repay the capital and, if you are over 50, do so within 25 years. What does this all mean?
Clearly it will not assist the UK housing market.
4211 days ago
You thought that MPs had cleaned up their act after the expenses scandal of a couple of years ago? Er think again. They are still at it and of course everything they do is all totally within the rules. And they do their utmost to stop we plebs” from knowing about it. And so we come to Linda Riordan, the MP for Halifax (Labour) who looks like a pig and is one.
Trougher Riordan is the sort of MP who used to claim £400 a month for food (without receipts) when they were allowed to do that. Glancing at photos of the lardbucket I reckon she was gorging herself on a lot more than £400 of food a month. These days she has to play by new rules. And so…
At a London flat she bought for £300,000 in 2006 she pays the mortgage costs (currently £562 pcm). She then rents that flat ( which incidentally you the grateful taxpayer decorated as that was all claimed on expenses) out
4305 days ago
I am sure that some of you are gripped by the impending Olympics. Perhaps you are turning out to watch some fat school kid carry the torch past your house, or carrying your own fake torch in a local celebration. The Government media machine tells us that we are all being swept up by a wave of enthusiasm so helping bring us together as communities and as a nation. Count me out. The whole event offends me in almost every conceivable way. I know that I am not entirely alone in my way of thinking. One person whose thoughts are always interesting and almost always correct (a reverse Polly Toynbee) expressed their strong views on this matter to me yesterday. So that makes two of us. I am sure that whatever the spinmeisters of City Hall and Whitehall say, there must be more.
For what it is worth, when the Government spin machine keeps on repeating that the whole nation is gripped by Olympic fever, my instinct is to assume that it is not.
4307 days ago
At the top of my blog there is my photo gallery of heroes and among them is George Orwell. The simple view of his works is that they are a warning against the evils of totalitarianism. But life is not that simple. I do not pretend that Britain is a totalitarian state although the appetite of the State to invade matters of personal choice and to infringe on all of our civil liberties has increased remarkably in the past few years. A clear secondary theme in Orwell is the increasing detachment of the political elite from the rest of us. And that process can happen in a liberal democracy like Britain just as it did in Stalin’s Russia.
And so that brings me to the news that BT is taking 4 leading MPs on an all expenses jolly to the men’s 100 metres final at the Olympics. The MPs huff and puff and say they have slaved away for 5 years monitoring the games and so they need to trot along to see it in action so that they can serve the nation properly. Yeah right.
