"I entirely understand the public anger that has erupted over expenses. The current system is deeply flawed; we parliamentarians have got it wrong and I apologise for that failure which is both collective and personal. In view of David Cameron’s campaign for an early election - which I strongly support - I have decided that now is the time to tell the Sleaford and North Hykeham Association that I will not be standing in the coming election. This will give them time to select a new candidate to best represent local and national interests.”
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Douglas Hogg to Stand Down
Douglas Hogg has announced he will stand down from Parliament at the next election. From the soundings I have taken over the past few days I suspect he will be one of many, in all parties. I don't know him very well, but he is an assiduous attender of Conservative History Group meetings! Here's Douglas Hogg's statement...
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Andrew Mackay MUST do the same.
We are in danger of losing the moral highground to Labour on this.
The Old Guard need to stand down - well beyond time due on all sides.
Iain Dale....it is your time.
Interview for this safe seat.
I expect this to become a small flood. Once one has stood down, how do others who have made immoral claims defend continuing? It would dominate any re-election campaign.
Thise who have expense claims within the letter and spirit of the rules will survive: the others will be gone within a year at most.
...and Julie Kirkbride and the grasping Wintertons and all the rest, including that idiot Steen who had the gall to blame 'the system' for leaving voters confused! Confused! No chum - only confused that MMP troughers are still trying to hang on.
To coin a Brownism, I think it's The Right Thing To Do. A sad end to his career, though.
I wonder if he is standing down to start a new career in TV
One man and his moat perhaps.
Oh - and Iain - please *don't* stand for his seat, as TrueBlueBlood suggests. I think you do far more good (and carry a lot more clout) doing exactly what you're doing at the moment.
Completely understandable that Hogg has de-selected himself, and there will be others.
Sir Anthony Steen has been foolish in taking the money he did and and in the comments he's made, but he has been a dogged and determined campaigner, and would be a loss to the Commons if he gave up the job or was forced out.
The Wintertons on the other hand, would be no great loss to the nation.
Let's hope that the replacements to the current crop of crooks and failures don't have the same background of nepotism as Hogg or a real opportunity to revive the parliamentary system will have been lost.
BBC saying Hogg will *not* stand down...
So Gordon has announced that rule breakers (if any) wont stand at the next election, but they will still be able to trough on the resettlement grant.
I suspect this has been precipitated by Cameron's call for an early election. No doubt many think they can hang on for a year and it will all be water under the bridge. Not now though.
Good decision on his part, especially getting it out of the way first. Puts his party first, and Liebour on the back foot.
Still hasn't changed my voting intentions though.
Hogg was de-motted apparently
Anonymous said . . .
We are in danger of losing the moral highground to Labour on this.I'm assuming that was irony? The distance between Labour and moral high ground couldn't even be measured in space shuttles.
Liz
I agree that Iain does a great job as he is.
But surely we need the finest minds in Parliament?
Iain---don't listen to Liz. Parliament is calling your name...and it sounds mighty fine.
Good decision - I was hoping he'd do that. What he did was awfully silly and in my view he has re-gained some dignity with this.
This will be the first of what I imagine (and hope) will be an absolute flood.
The more interesting question is - what will greedy ministers like Jacqui Smith, Nick "nosher" Brown, and Alistair 'flipper' Darling do?
I think that the Labour party remains more in denial than the Tories, but I suspect that the NEC meeting may bring the leadership up to date with the feeling in the country and they may get over their paralysis and start moving to limit the damage.
Good riddance...this was one of the snobby old time brigade who regarded the voters as plebs...The Tory party will be better without his ilk
douglas hogg goes ...stewart bell and frank hobson should join him
All the other greedy pigs should follow him to the abbatoir.
I feel sorry for Hogg, to be honest. (Controversial, I know). Perhaps he is guilty of having expensive tastes, but from what I understand he simply agreed with the Fees Office that the running expenses of his house were much greater than the maximum allowance he was entitled to and arranged for it to be paid directly.
There was nothing illegal, no fraud, nothing even morally dubious. No false claims, no 'flipping', no capital gains tax avoidance. He just had the bad luck that the word 'moat' was mentioned in a letter (although I though he hadn't even claimed for it?) and he became a symbol of the old excesses.
Clear that he had to go - that is politics sometimes - but still, some sympathy not out of place.
Could this be the start of a Cameron sleaze clear out?
shame, I'd just begun to like him.
I suppose now we're in for a whole lot of colourless, puritanical pi little shits who are going to drone on about austerity and work and morality.
Andrew MacKay and his hairpiece need to bow out too.
As somebody has pointed out, perhaps Dorries should be added to the list claiming ACA for wht she described as her family home:
http://www.dorries.org.uk/Story.aspx?ID=14
"Nadine & Family To Settle In Woburn
Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Beds, and her family are to make their new home in Woburn.
“The decision was very much taken out of my hands by the kids” said Nadine. “They fell in love with the town and it didn’t matter where else we went they kept coming back to Woburn.
As any parent will know, a move is a huge thing especially 3 lively girls. It helps with the process when the children have a big say and feel they an input in to what is happening.
It also makes sense logistically. My constituency office is in Shefford and I am in the House of Commons four nights a week so it is manageable”.
Old school Tories will learn the hard way...
I'm really disappointed in the handsome and charming Ed Vaizey. What a let down...
I always suspected he was a 'career politician' anyway. Especially after those silly comments he made recently > when he was in Oxford Literary Festival with Iain.
>>>>"Someone asked about Barack Obama and how he had inspired a generation. With what, asked Ed. By constantly repeating the mantra of "Change we can believe in"? "OK, I can do that too," said Ed, "but I'd prefer to treat people as adults."<<<
Well those words have come back to haunt Ed Vaizey. Shame shame shame on handsome Ed!
Perhaps now he knows why people are inspired by the thought of real hope and change.
So mote it be!
Douglas Hogg, an unmistakable Tory and duly anti-war, is banished from Parliament.
But the Henry Jackson Society's Michael Gove, David Willetts, Stephen Crabb, Michael Ancram, Chris Bryant, Denis MacShane and Ed Vaizey are not.
Funny, that.
Noticed Iain has kept very quiet on whether he will apply for this safe seat.
Be transparent Iain...whats your feeling?
Excellent. Let's get the rest of the toff scum out. Gideon next, then Dave.
Hm, Sleaford is my home town. Very tempting, but a few years too early for me sadly.
Will be sorry to see him go as he is a good man.
Listening to news channels and bulletins today, I keep hearing repeated references to moats, lightbulbs, chandeliers, Gove etc.
OK, there have been some questions about the Chipmunk and dry rot, but it seems to me that McBride and his mates are out in force, embedding and reinforcing a perception that the Tories are the biggest troughers of the lot.
In doing so they have successfully been able to build a firewall around Smith, McNulty, Darling and co all of who have strangely gone to ground, no doubt having attended a course the Gordon Brown school of keeping your head down.
And of course that first tranche of Ministerial troughers will not have to pay the price demanded by our chaotic Prime Minister who, whilst in his fourth or fifth attempt at sounding tough, cannot seem to differentiate between ‘defying the rules’ (where you get the sack) and ‘behaving unacceptably’ (where presumably you don’t). He could probably redefine this as ‘expendable sacrifice’ (sack), chum (slapped wrist).
Never mind, the problem will soon be all over. In his press conference today, Brown announced his intention to ride to the rescue and save Parliament from itself (does this man have a Munchausen’s complex?), and tomorrow we will have the benefit of the Leader of the House moving things on further. Some distance from her first response, on behalf of Gordon, that, 'it all started in the fees office!'
They still don’t get it.
Excellent. Let's get the rest of the toff scum out. Gideon next, then Dave.Love it. No-one ever says 'let's get the pleb scum out' do they?
Seems it's fine to pre-judge people on the basis of their background and education and way they speak as long as they're 'toffs'. And yet people still wonder why they band together.
What are you talking about, anon @9.32am? He is hardly pre-judging Dave and George - there's more than enough in the public domain, including their expenses, to despise the vile Bullingdon boys. They are certainly both toff scum.
Rich old tories...or, to put it another way, "Greedy, grasping, self-serving shits" They are worse then the dole scroungers, as these bastards have plenty of money, but are hell-bent on spending someone elses.
In the words of Private Eye, "string 'em up, it's the only language they understand"
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