A JAPANESE junior minister has resigned after a magazine reported that he had used a free train pass issued to lawmakers for a trip to meet his mistress, the government's top spokesman said.
I wonder what he'd have done if he had diddled the taxpayer out of £41,000...
£41,000 - that is a lot of train trips.....
ReplyDelete.... luckily 'both' claiming the money on expenses and paying it back were the "right thing to do".
How many MPs would be left if British members of parliament decided to follow this code of conduct. We would need a revolving door installed.
ReplyDeleteNope can't see it happening, very few MPs have that amount of honour left.
Which is the more morally reprehensible? Taking advantage of a perk or having a mistress?
ReplyDeleteA similar tale from this country when "honourable" meant just that:
ReplyDeleteThomas Isaac Mardy Jones was a miner who rose up the ranks of the Labour Party to become Member of Parliament for Pontypridd in 1922.In December 1930 Jones gave his wife and 12-year-old daughter a pair of Commons rail vouchers, which they were caught using. Jones was taken to court and fined, resigned from his seat, never entering politics again.
I wonder what this true socialist would have made of Vaz's silk cushions, Prescott's gable ends and Beckett's hanging baskets?
Iain, Obviously you have read too much on lawnmowers and the rest, surely your line should be 'lawmakers' not 'lawnmakers'!! good joke though!
ReplyDeleteIain, It is my new specs. many apologies! jokes on me!
ReplyDeletePay it back and resign. That's the norm if you did this in a company you worked for! They're polticians working for the people and the people want the exploiters of the system to GO.
ReplyDeleteGive me strength! I'm leaning more towards BNP every day.
This is how to resign. Wait till the end.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/reading/8047177.stm
The irony is that unlike Gordon Brown, Steve Coppell has a degree in economics.
How about some light relief in a political joke? This joke sums it all up...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.plenty2say.com
Wasn't it for similar reasons that Blunket resigned? His troughing looks quite moderate now against the revelations we're now seeing. Parliament should be dissolved and new elections held. It's the only way to retain any shred of respect for the political system.
ReplyDelete@ Mark Hendy
ReplyDeleteNo, Blunkett was 'resigned'. He, of course, negotiated pretty favourable terms before 'offering' his resignation.
No British MP will resign. After this mess dies down the fleecing can begin again, even with new checks (cheques, haha) in place.
ReplyDeleteWhy give up such a good thing by resigning?
Shop a benefit cheat clearly doesn't apply to the powers that be.
If he was truly honourable he'd have committed hari kari.
ReplyDeleteHow can we get the Speaker to resign?
ReplyDeleteTo add to the merriment, Lembit Opik has just made a total Hoon of himself on 5 Live.
ReplyDeleteThe Fourth is with us!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1026-the-force-is-with-usdarth-backs-ukip
Damn just missed the Lembit Opik interview on 5 live, any idea where to hear it again?
ReplyDeleteBlunkett didn't resign for the train pass.
ReplyDeleteAnd even after he resigned he kept his grace and favour apartment.
This is what the member for Corby has to say:
ReplyDelete'We feel very badly hurt by what has happened and although I kept to the rules laid down by Parliament I cannot allow this dreadful perception about what I claimed in allowances to continue.
"Whatever the right and wrongs of the allowance system this issue has fundamentally changed the view people have of me and that is something I cannot bear."
Doesn't you heart just bleed for his wounded feelings eh? Getting caught with his fingers in the till has changed the view people have of him and he jsut can't bear it.
Perhaps the Member from Corby trapped his fingers in a trouser press?
ReplyDeleteAre you calling for all MPs that are repaying money to resign Iain?
ReplyDeleteThe full horror that is the Lembit Opik interview is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/morning.shtml
ReplyDeleteHang on a minute - one of looking at this is that standards have dropped in Japan too. Years ago he'd have, literally, fallen on his sword.
ReplyDeleteWhen Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration, was found guilty of corruption in 2007, he was punished by being shot in the head. Is that a system worth trying over here?
ReplyDeleteI'm normally opposed to capital punishment but am prepared to make an exception in the case of MPs.
FOR GOODNESS SAKES.
ReplyDeleteIain I am appalled at today's Telegraph. Is this the best they can find on the Liberal Democrats? None of it is good - Campbell's flat looking partcularly out of order - but really what about RENNARD. Why is nobody picking up on this
http://rainbowherbicide.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/rennard-scam-exposed-by-news-of-the-world/
He is a Peer supposedly working and yet a full time job elsewhere earning oodles. So how much working does he do in the Lords or else why do the Liberal Democrats pay him? The man can't even be booted out by the electorate.
It's all been swept under the carpet and yet he appears to be the single biggest offender for the Liberal Democrats. Is there more to come and people are storing it all up? Or are his claims somehow OK?
I must be missing something here.
He'd have paid it back, of course - once he'd been nailed to the cross of losing the next election.
ReplyDelete