Friday, July 04, 2008
Shame on the Terrible Twenty
It seems only 20 Tory MPs (and an astonishing 140 Labour MPs) voted for the status quo on second home payments and the so-called John Lewis list. What I found interesting is that among those 20 only one was an MP elected since 1997. The rest were of the 'older lag' variety. were not a single member of the 2005 intake of Tory MPs. Good on the 2001 and 2005 intake and shame on the 20 who just don't get it.
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44 comments:
Iain, you are surely in a perfect position to query at least one of the 20 - your buddy Ann Widdicombe !
I have no doubt she has a strong defense of her actions, based on some principle, but I would like to hear direct from her what that is.
I'm also wondering if I can use this action of the MPs when next killed by the HMRC for no receipts, that in law we are all equal under the law ?
Alan Douglas
I read that the vote was 172 to 144. Where were the rest of the MP's? Hiding behind those that did vote?
We have too many doing too little to no effect and being paid too much with no accountability.
What about Cameron's position on the post Lisbon ratification referendum?
It's all gone quiet over there!
At one point David Cameron was overheard saying 'Where is the government?'
Answer: At sixes and sevens.
Or is the government's preferred option keeping the John Lewis list? It appears so.
On a number of issues I seem to be constantly saying, 'Labour couldn't do that, its electorally toxic!' only to find that they have.
Diane Abbott on 'This Week' seemed to suggest their were ulterior motives at work in the way ministers voted.
Can you imagine the message this is sending out to the country?
Do we want it underlined, by a vote, that the majority of British MPs are more interested in making an easy buck than serving the country?
It is outrageous that these putrid turds believe they are worth it, that they believe they can get away with it, and that we will accept it.
Well, if enough of them have that "shove your vote up your arse" attitude, my guess is they may not be MPs for very much longer.
Let them be utter perverts for all I care. Let them enjoy being flogged by nubile maidens while wearing pvc Nazi outfits, but don't, DON'T steal from the public coffers.
Would anybody miss any of the 20 if they all stood down/got deselected before the next election? Can't see any I'd miss.
Iain
It is not shame it is in fact disgraceful.Almost to the level of the unelected P Minister and his close ministerial team being cited as AWOL.
JH
Let's not overlook the huge number of MPs who did not vote at all.
Most of these will have calculated that others would do their dirty work for them.
Let's have a full list party by part of every MP who failed to vote for change.
How many Lib Dems voted to keep their expenses? Would that be ZERO?
Well, no surprise there, remember why the Tories got kicked out comprehensively in the first place in 1997?
Dipping your hand into the public purse or taking backhanders should be a cause for a mandatory life-ling ban from politics.
This week, a young burglar was turned down for training as a doctor, with the eminently sensible reason that doctors need to be honest people.
This is the old-fashioned, sane mindset that we need to regain if we want a society that is fair and functional.
Let's see if Cameron shares Iain's contempt for the Terrible Twenty.
Widdicombe is an old dinosaur and can be wisely ignored.
Andrew Rosindell is another matter. He is a Shadow Minister. If Cameron doesn't sack him, it'll show that Cameron's not serious about this.
Chris Paul
Just what would you be saying at this stage if it was a Labour appointee?
http://tinyurl.com/5cfodt
Iain
Sorry, wrong thread! Can you ignore my last post?
Personally I think MPs should have a choice:
audited expenses or no pension.
I notice my own completely rubbish MP, (Rosie 'dullard' Cooper) has voted to keep the status quo...
How very predictable.
Mind you, she will lose her in the next election - it's an absolute gimme. She has to be the crappest MP ever. Our local paper's letters page is full every single week of complaints about her - I had to ask the parliamentary ombudsman to get her to answer a question I had sent her - after being ignored for 6 months.
I expect she is stocking up on plasma tellys while she can?
So when was Mrs PERMATAN elected for Bromsgrove?
"I read that the vote was 172 to 144. Where were the rest of the MP's? Hiding behind those that did vote?"
At the John Lewis sale (late opening) perhaps?
Dipping your hand into the public purse or taking backhanders should be a cause for a mandatory life-ling ban from politics.
There's a long-standing story (whether it's true or not, I have no idea) that for a very long time elected officials in New Hampshire, USA were not paid anything at all, the theory being that a salary would attract people to politics for 'the wrong reasons'. Given the rancid public, or at least commentariat mood at the moment, can such a solution be very far behind here?
Obviously, as an out-and-proud reactionary, I suppose I ought to welcome the return of a mode of politics in which only people blessed with considerable private wealth (earned or, for those in a hurry, inherited) are able to engage in public life, or to put it another way, defend their class interests.
What does rather baffle me, though, is why the sort of Conservative who wishes to protect the NHS, rather than shut it down, or to improve state-run education rather than abolishing it, still trusts our elected representatives to spend billions of pounds on all these misguided projects and others, while at the same time, evidently does not trust exactly the same people to spend a paltry few thousand pounds furnishing a flat.
Wasn't Brian Binley from the 2005 intake?
The Daily Mail lists 21 Conservative MPs who voted to keep the expenses status quo.
When was Mrs mackay elected for Bromsgrove
?
Well, following your "defence" of Derek Conway, I am glad that you are now "getting it" yourself Iain.
Perhaps it is the beneficial effect of being cut off from the media ("I am in Cardiff"). Is there no access to the English language media in Cardiff?!!
It's only the fact that the MPs who abuse the system seem to get away with it that makes the system unworkable. If they rooted out the abusers and made them repay their ill gotten gains I would have no objection.
Also, it doesn't help that so many of them are crap at their jobs.
Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper come to mind on both of the above counts.
The there's Laurence Roberson MP for Tewkesbury and Shadow Minister for N.I. who has put this in the register.
“I employ my wife, Susan Robertson (from whom I am separated) as Secretary. I employ my partner, Anne Marie Adams, as part-time Secretary.”
Wow, how many more concubines will he be employing?
Iain or anyone,
DO o you have a link to a list of those who voted?
In particular I'm looking for the Northern Ireland MPs SDLP, UUP and DUP.
Thanks
Binners was from the 2005 intake.
Lest we forget how the Lib Dems voted Iain
Were the Tories whipped? If not, why not?
Is it right that Brown stiffened the sinews, summoned up the blood and ... abstained?
We need to stop the scandal of MPs pay and expenses, find out what MPs needs are and meet them, no more and no less.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently looked at what various categories of people need in order to live at an acceptable standard and participate in UK society.
I propose that this sort of method should be applied to all MPs, including members of the Government - get a fair, independent body to examine what is needed for MPs to do their jobs well and also live decent, reasonably rounded lives and pay them and/or provide them with appropriate facilities as required.
the 1997 intake of Labour MPs including my opponent voted for it, though.
So mostly Labour MP`s eh....they probably did it cos they know they will be blown away at the next election and their just kicking the arse out of the job while they can........
Iain, On so many things you are right BUT (always a but) on this issue i just do not see the logic of the whingers. We demand and expect so much from our elected politicians and frankly for a country with the GDP of the UK (despite the PM's best efforts) we try to get out politicians on the cheap. Our lawmakers are under scritiney 24/7 and 90% work very hard. Yet we pay them at the level of middle management. Surely we need to pay our politicians well and not quibble over expenses then we will attract the brightest and best. For the hair shirt masses your view is propagated by i would suggest there are so many things to nit pick and moan about but lets not pretend that we should go back to the days of only the wealth aristocracy could enter parliament or when the state would pay off the debts of MPs
Cameron must get them deselected. Go on Dave, bloody sort them out.
Deselect them all!
The Wintertons are a disgrace.
Does the Lady Ann still ride to hounds?
Looks like even the, 'Evening Johnson' can't whitewash Boris on this one iain
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23508286-details/Boris+Johnson%27s+deputy+%27misled+public%27/article.do
Lewis gone!!
Nothing astonishing about it. The 140 are Labour MPs. That sort of behaviour in in the DNA.
Shame on all those who voted against transparency and the continuation of expenses.
When did the Law apply to some but not to others? Why did some MPs abstain?
This government has had its day and then some; will the Conservatives be any better?
Countryman 5.26 pm
Lady Ann and Sir Nick are doing very nicely, thank you.
There's also a link to the Daily Mail's list of all the MPs who voted for expenses to be kept "as is"
Thieves and robberss all.. should be paid nothing..
rope , lamp post, lets go...
and by the way, when will we be bombingn zimbabwe?
We have a four bedroomed house and one of those rooms is used as an office by my husband who works from home for a large international company.
I asked if we could claim anything at all to pay for the heating, lighting and sacrifice of one of our rooms so that he can do his job.
The answer is apparently yes, we can, but watch out for capital gains tax if we sell up as, to put it bluntly, we will "get caned."
What? No living allowances, no employing our student son to put stamps on envelopes from 200 miles away, no John Lewis list to furnish husband's Home Office? And why can't I claim for answering his business phone, and checking his diary? Doesn't that amount of activity entitle me to at least a salary of several thousand pounds per annum? Or maybe I could claim something for my cleaner/receptionist? (I don't have a nanny/PA, unfortunately).
Oh to be in politics so that we could write our own rules and sanction our own expenses, receipt-free.
Free season tickets on the Gravy Train for all!
Robert said...
"I read that the vote was 172 to 144. Where were the rest of the MP's? Hiding behind those that did vote?"
That is exactly how these parasites operate. One side moans about the other and some vote against, but they all make sure that there's always a victory for getting themselves richer.
Anonymous said...
"Would anybody miss any of the 20"
I'd miss Julie Kirkbride. I so would.
all lib dems voted for full disclosure, I see.
Macclesfield was actually a marginal constituency when Nick Winterton won it all those years ago.
The way he and his wife are behaving, it will be again.....
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