Do MP expenses get any more sickening than this?
From the BBC: A Labour backbencher has apologised for submitting an expenses claim for a £5 donation he made at a church service commemorating the Battle of Britain. Frank Cook made the offering in his Stockton North constituency in 2006 and submitted the claim with a handwritten note, the Sunday Telegraph reports. Mr Cook said he did not recall the claim – rejected by the Commons Fees Office – and that it was “a mistake”.
From the Telegraph: The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, charged taxpayers for three boxes of mints and two teddy bears bought from the gift shop at the House of Commons. Mr Kennedy submitted the £35.75 bill for the items, which paperwork suggested were to be used as “prizes”, under the Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) which is meant to cover MPs’ office costs. The Commons Fees Office paid up for the three boxes of “dark chocolate mints” at £5.95 each and the two “toffee bears” at £8.95. Mr Kennedy said on Saturday night that the claim had been an “error” – and that the money had been repaid earlier this month. He said he received regular requests for such charitable donations. “These I meet from my own pocket and am happy to do so,” he added. Mr Kennedy, the MP for the seat of Ross, Skye and Lochaber, also attempted to use his taxpayer-funded office costs allowance for Remembrance Sunday poppy wreaths. He successfully claimed £18 for a poppy wreath in November 2006 – but an attempt to claim £49 for wreaths a year later was disallowed. He said on Saturday night that the 2006 claim had – once again – already been spotted as a mistake and the money repaid this month.
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“Mr Kennedy, the MP for the seat of Ross, Skye and Lochaber, also attempted to use his taxpayer-funded office costs allowance for Remembrance Sunday poppy wreaths.”
I can really see our soldiers leaving a receipt in some dusty village or scarlet-spattered hill fort in Afghanistan, inscribed:
“IOU matchless , self-sacrificing service; poorly-paid and rarely thanked.
Apply at the NAAFI or War Graves Commission for your complimentary wine glasses and the privilege of parliamentary democracy.”
Or how about the classics:
” Go tell the politicians passer-by that here we lie, obedient to their wishes.’
Utter, utter swine.
I wonder how many members of the Armed Forces live in Charlie’s constituency. They won’t be best pleased about this (to put it mildly).
I have actually commented on this before – and I am not saying that the circumstances are identical merely similar.
In my previous life in Australia I was a District Committee member of the RSL, in which capacity I was required to lay a number of wreaths at a variety of cenotaphs and war memorials around the state of Queensland.
Every time I laid the wreath on behalf of the RSL even if I had bought it, I was reimbursed. When I laid a wreath personally as an ex-servicewoman I paid for it myself.
Perhaps (and I don’t the know circumstances) this wreath was laid on behalf of the government, in which case I can’t really see the difference.
I think the politicians’ duties as legislators and leaders is to choose the wars, finance the troops, let the generals give the orders and finance hospitalisation, benefits or burial.
As parliamentarians they should pay a small sum of personal money in gratitude for the servicemen making their jobs possible in the first place.
With respect Pagan Pride, – that follows British constitutional theory and our national morality. It may be different in Australia, and jolly good luck to them, but that’s the way I see it here in Blighty.
PP, interesting angle but these guys are irrelevant in the big scheme of things so they wouldn’t be laying on behalf of the government, as far as I can see.
I have to disagree: this fiver is a trivial distraction. So the bloke’s a miserable, tight, twat. Big deal. It doesn’t need the whole nation to appear at his front door, torches blazing, pitchforks glistening, when there are far bigger fish to fry.
As I blogged earlier: I think The Telegraph needs to shut up now
.
All this trivia is distracting from the real fraudsters and major troughers.
If caught out, its seems all an MP needs to do is sit tight and keep quiet for a couple days, and there’ll be a nice “duck house” story along, and we’ll all forget about them.
What happened to Baroness Uddin? To Jacqui Smith? To Hazel Blears? To Shahid Malik? **** all, that’s what. We’ve all moved on, distracted by much smaller stories.
With all these admissions of mistakes, it makes one wonder how many times they have mistakenly wandered into the wrong voting lobby.
Should we have a rerun of all parliamentary votes in the last 11 years just to make sure.
I picked up on one of the greedy sods myself and also commented on another that you did not mention. I suppose saying “it was an error” or “I’m sorry” makes them feel that the puiblic will forgive and forget.
For me the issue is about claiming for a tribute to the dead.
It makes the whole point of wreath laying a box-ticking photo-op exercise of remembrance.
Are these people so skint that they can’t cough up for one as their own mark of respect FFS? It’s not as if they will be laying half a dozen of them on 11/11 is it? And even if they did – what is £100 to someone paid £64k plus all the extras?
I find it immensely insulting to those who gave their lives.
CF, yes, there are larger amounts of money at stake, but the sense of entitlement also needs to be shattered among MPs like this.
Anoneumouse, good point. Labour have certainly got some crap legislation through, and this might help explain why.
DD, I think you’re right – being caught followed by apologising seems to make many of them think that it’s ‘case closed’ when it most certainly is not.
Plato, right there with you.