Mps' Expenses Scandal -

[OnlyMe]

If 'confidence' is a key factor in people buying houses, this expenses mess - adding to political stability - can only make even more people hesitate to get into the housing market. Would-be buyers can look forward to insecurity in their jobs, their government, interest rates, the cost of living, savings rates and god knows what else.

Who would buy a house in this climate?

Quite so, the policy makers are injecting obscene amounts of risk and double-jeopardy into the system. Good for the traders, absolutely dire for those deciding on any long term commitments as you just have now way of knowing what environment those commitments will exist in the more distant future.

[SarahBell]

So now we know why they spin and twist and do anything to get elected. Because to not be elected means no money and major seriously problems with the mortgage.

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

Margaret Beckett, heckled and booed on BBC1's Question Time on Thursday, is not the only MP to have witnessed the change in mood at first hand. In Bromsgrove, a window in Tory MP Julie Kirkbride's constituency office was smashed with a brick. In Rutland, where fellow Tory Alan Duncan agreed to pay back nearly £5,000 of gardening expenses for tending the small plot around his constituency home, a 3ft pound sign was carved into his lawn and filled with campanula and violas.

And here's the video to prove it

Hilarious

[vlad the impaler]

Err, no, I think his conviction about the sinking of the Belgrano, although misplaced was neither nasty nor patronising.

It was just wrong. The reason it was sunk was because the sub commander had no choice. He was given permission to 'wound' the Belgrano to frighten the Argentine Navy back to base, and for this he was to use his M24 Tigerfish wire guided torpedoes. The were modern (for 1982) wire guided anti-submarine weapons with relatively small warheads; enough to hurt the armoured WWII Belgrano, but not to sink her.

As I understand it (I was told this first hand by a former member of the Tigerfish design team some years ago), the Captain fired two Mk 24s, both of which were completely dead and sank. With the Belgrano moving towards the Burdwood Bank, a large area of shallow water were it would not be safe for the sub to operate, the Commander had one choice left, which was his old 'dumb' Mk 8 torpedoes designed in WWII. They had very large warheads......

The government was not about to admit that the only 'smart' torpedo in the RN during the height of the cold war was totally crap, so they simply endured the misguided criticisms over semantics by the likes of Tam Dayell and others. For the record, the Tigerfish was developed for more than 30 years, and was never a satisfactory weapon. You ain't about to tell your enemies that though are you!

[LiveinHope]

That's collusion on the grand scale.

What's wrong with Ikea's bookcases.

Does Dyell need ivory shelves or something to do his job.

Tam Dyell didn't need bookcases at all

He was retiring and they were to store his PERSONAL collection of Hansard (Dyell's own admission in an interview on Today, R4 this am). I presume he was about to lose his Port Cullis House office or his second home.

As he was RETIRING he had NO further NEED for his collection of Hansard. To keep them was a purely personal and emotional decision funded by the taxpayer.

If he wanted to write memoirs he could use the library or Hansard on line

I hope the bookcases really did cost 18K and that he got 'stung' for 11K of them.

(edited to add source)

Edited May 16, 2009 by LiveinHope

[Injin]

It was just wrong. The reason it was sunk was because the sub commander had no choice.

Bobbins.

He chose to kill lots of people. Evil ******er.

[righttoleech]

They scammed our money to invest in the ballooning property marked....(tax free). Now that their obscene greed has killed that Golden Goose prepare to see the pensionable salaries rise which we will continue to pay till they are boxed up. My pension meanwhile has been wiped out by their policies. Ming Cambell expressed horror that without allowances an MP may have to live on £64K. I have never heard any media person suggest that £64K is a good salary, I suppose it is a pittance to all of them......but the pension alone would make it more like £100k equivelent. It all depresses me because it is rubbing my nose in it that I have worked all my life to end up in povery having supported these thieving scum

[Guest AuntJess]

And here's the video to prove it

Hilarious

Classic! Give that man a medal.

[Grime- skint wouldbe ftb]

Bobbins.

He chose to kill lots of people. Evil ******er.

Yeah, shoulda sent them a postcard asking them to please kindly stop the war and go home and play football instead or something

[Alba]

Why is Darling escaping attention and media interview in all this?

Is he hunkered down in the bunker?

[Bearback]

What about that woman MP, has she claimed any expenses? I'm trying to remember her name.

Edit to add: This is her:

Edited May 16, 2009 by Bearback

[Guest anorthosite]

What about that woman MP, has she claimed any expenses? I'm trying to remember her name.

Edit to add: This is her:

If she does, does that mean they'll show more pictures of her?

[ccc]

And here's the video to prove it

Hilarious

Genius. I liked the money tree bit.

[heresjohnny]

I have never heard any media person suggest that £64K is a good salary, I suppose it is a pittance to all of them......but the pension alone would make it more like £100k equivelent. It all depresses me because it is rubbing my nose in it that I have worked all my life to end up in povery having supported these thieving scum

I agree.

I saw some Labour peer on TV and he said MP's need a "decent" salary. Even after all the revelations it is clear that MP's don't think 64k is a good or "decent" salary. Public office should be vocational anyway and 64k is a big salary. Of course they should get expenses if they have to go to London but they should do what everyone lese does and stay in a Holiday Inn and claim it on expenses.

[Bearback]

Retired MP Tam Dyell's not a bookseller either, but The Telegraph reveals that he claimed £18K for three bookcases, and was given £7.8K.

He made this claim just 8 weeks before he stepped down as an MP.

He's entirely unrepentant, and says he's paying nothing back. He thought the paypayer had got good value!!

P.S. BBC R5 Live Stephen Nolan is on this subject now.

Fast forward to 56 mins - his justification sounds pathetic, he sounds drunk too.

[billybong]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...s-expenses.html

Come on, its easily done.

Sir Gerald Kaufman, the former Labour environment minister, charged £1,851 for a rug he imported from a New York antiques centre and tried to claim £8,865 for a television.

£8865 for a telly tried to be funded by the taxpayer.

That's about 9 months on minimum wage for someone who could be "taken out of poverty".

Instead he wanted a flash telly - and nearly 9 grands worth. It's more than some pensioners get in a year - and then have to pay their telly licence fee.

[indirectapproach]

“It was just wrong. The reason it was sunk was because the sub commander had no choice. He was given permission to 'wound' the Belgrano to frighten the Argentine Navy back to base,”

We can argue the point about whether sinking the Belgrano was right or not. Personally, although I feel sorry for all the people who got hurt and killed I think it was a good idea to sink it. I also think it was a good idea to sink it outside the exclusion zone. A good false flag coup. You announce an exclusion zone. Some thick Argentines who have been rude enough to invade out territory go wandering around outside that zone, thinking thickly they are safe get sunk. Good! They deserve it. Pity we didn’t get their aircraft carrier that was messing about north of the islands too.

My point was I felt Dayell was “one of the good ones”. I felt he argued the case against the sinking well. I felt he was an honest and honourable man.

That makes me a great big fat blinking sucker on this point because Dayell is a thief and he should be celling up on the small side of the door with Malik.

My only consolation for being dumb enough to believe in him is

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.”

I don’t want to get fooled twice by him. Lock him up.

[billybong]

Fast forward to 56 mins - his justification sounds pathetic, he sounds drunk too.

He bought the shelves 5 years ago and says he destroyed all the receipts. Not shredded "by mistake" in his case

Aren't ordinary folk supposed to keep all related receipts for 6 years just in case HMRC were to enquire.

They must have different tax rules for receipts for MPs.

Edited May 16, 2009 by billybong

[LiveinHope]

Edited

That makes me a great big fat blinking sucker on this point because Dayell is a thief and he should be celling up on the small side of the door with Malik.

Tam Dayell has openly said the bookcases were to accommodate his copies of Hansard and his Parliamentary library, that he had accumulated during his life, when he retired.

How could they therefore help him carry out his Parliamentary duties, and therefore be a legitimate expense ? They were for use in retirement when he was no longer an MP.

In other words, the bookcases were bought simply to maintain his personal and emotional attachment to his previous life.

Surely this could be investigated ?

Edited May 16, 2009 by LiveinHope

[ubuntu]

I agree.

I saw some Labour peer on TV and he said MP's need a "decent" salary. Even after all the revelations it is clear that MP's don't think 64k is a good or "decent" salary. Public office should be vocational anyway and 64k is a big salary. Of course they should get expenses if they have to go to London but they should do what everyone lese does and stay in a Holiday Inn and claim it on expenses.

They also seem to forget that they get about 150 days holiday per annum, therefore pro rata £64K is way too much as it is! Most of them do fck all constructive, they 'employ', rather the taxpayer on their behalf employs, staff to deal with their mundane constituency matters & correspondence, leaving them free to leech to build property empires.

[GodLovesPork]

Bang and Olufson TV...hmmm he's got taste

[juvenal]

Tam Dayell has openly said the bookcases were to accommodate his copies of Hansard and his Parliamentary library, that he had accumulated during his life, when he retired.

How could they therefore help him carry out his Parliamentary duties, and therefore be a legitimate expense ? They were for use in retirement when he was no longer an MP.

In other words, the bookcases were bought simply to maintain his personal and emotional attachment to his previous life.

Surely this could be investigated ?

The background to this is in my post in the Off Topic thread. Its beggars belief.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...howtopic=114650

Edited May 16, 2009 by juvenal

[Methinkshe]

They also seem to forget that they get about 150 days holiday per annum, therefore pro rata £64K is way too much as it is! Most of them do fck all constructive, they 'employ', rather the taxpayer on their behalf employs, staff to deal with their mundane constituency matters & correspondence, leaving them free to leech to build property empires.

Guido makes some salient points re MP's remuneration.

Payrise? MPs Are Already Overpaid

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

He bought the shelves 5 years ago and says he destroyed all the receipts. Not shredded "by mistake" in his case

Aren't ordinary folk supposed to keep all related receipts for 6 years just in case HMRC were to enquire.

They must have different tax rules for receipts for MPs.

3 bookcases, £7800 each

And he is saying it was a justifiable expense and he is totally unashamed of the purchase

I'm rendered speechless..............

[juvenal]

3 bookcases, £7800 each

And he is saying it was a justifiable expense and he is totally unashamed of the purchase

I'm rendered speechless..............

No. He claimed £18K for the three cases. The Fees office gave him £7.8K in total.