Like many of you I have just been watching Julie Kirkbride's extended interview on Sky News, where she answered quite aggressive questions from a pooled reporter over a period of about 20 minutes.
She remained calm at all times and was very eloquent in her answers. She didn't duck questions and explained fully her family arrangements. She finished by saying that if David Cameron asked her to stand down, she would.
Feel free to give your views on her interview, but please only comment if you actually saw it. Did she convince you? Did she change your mind about her?
87 comments:
Iain, I watched the BBC interview.
I have to say i watched her and i am still not convinced.
She says she wants to help restore confidence, it at a point now where she cannot do that, just in the same way Speaker Martin couldnt.
Julie wanting to run again also shows how out of touch she is, 5000 people in her constituency have signed a petition to get her out. To quote John Major "When the Curtain falls its time to get off the stage"
Convincing - sort of - problem is that there are too many questions piled up about her arrangements.
Her defence about being judged seperately from Andrew whilst reasonable technically - it still doesn't wash with me as they both knew about it and worked the system.
Her tactic seems to be to bore her way off the hook.
Glenn Oglaza said while summing up immediately afterwards tnat she hadn't addressed her second home arrangements, admitting that she was well aware what Mackay was up to.
I'm afraid not, Iain. She will need, I fear, to step down - and in the interests of showing the New Conservative parties' morals and ethics, she should do so before David Cameron is forced to push her.
Didnt she just admit she knew and her husband and herself were milking the system by claiming second home allowances on two homes?
Didnt she just admit in breach of the rules her brother was living with her rent free?
Didnt she just admit that in breach of the rules she was claiming money for an assistant, her sister, that did not work in ind her constituency?
If you ask me the object of putting herself in front of the camera was to avoid putting herself in front of a public meeting.
It sounds like Cameron did a deal with Mackay to me. You go quietly and I will try to save your wifes carreer.
Didn't see it. She is however guilty of the mutual main home/second home scheme and should go in shame for that alone.
I didn't see it, I value my TV more than that, but it doesn't matter what she says now, she's toast...
I saw it, was not convinced in any way, did not change my mind but would suggest that if only she had a few onions in her handbag and impersonated Cherie Blair's tearful Oscar-winning act, she might, just, have got away with it.
PS. Love the "drymp" word verification.
I support Cam, but this greedy, mendacious woman enrages me. Her silly husband seems an obvious old-school buffoon, but he faced the mob, this liar will not. Why not, if she has such a wondrous explanation. My God, she makes my blood boil.
Not prepared to face the people on Sunday though.
Ian i watched it but remain unconvinced.
Appearing as the BBC are akin to giving MPs so much air time , may i suggest that the BBC show crime watch seven nights a week, that should just about cover it !
"It was within the rules.". Do us a favour and stop trotting out that tired and discredited excuse.
I would award her:
99/100 for brass neck
1/100 for credibility
I saw it and she may just have done enough to give herself a chance. Why oh why didn't she come out like this earlier though? She clearly still has much to offer party and country.
She could stand as an independent. Let's see how popular she'd be then.
Apparently she is going walkabout in Bromsgrove tomorrow.
That'll be fun
Iain, if she was such an effective MP then she would have a very good knowledge of recent canvassing that her Association should have been doing.
So where is it?
The problem has been shifted from Julie Kirkbride onto David Cameron - as she stated she would go if DC asked her to go.
The first question reporters will now put to David Cameron is 'are you going to ask Julie Kirkbride to go'?
If he says no - he looks weak. He has to remain looking tough on the whole issue of expenses - therefore he has to tell her to go!
I saw it! She kept repeating herself. She had evidently rehearsed her answers and they were
so unconvincing.
She MUST go!
"She remained calm at all times and was very eloquent in her answers."
In other words, she was a politician. If she couldn't put on that kind of performance she wouldn't an MP in the first place. Come on, that's about as much of a defence as saying the Enron executives were at least wearing nice suits.
KirkBride should have just said "Let em eat cake" because whether you like it or not anybody defending these type of accusations just come across like that.
I watched it. No, she has to go. Sorry she knew all along what hubby was up to and was confronted about it, and did nothing, at least two years ago. She has broken the rules on relatives.
She wants to stand again but can't even face her own electorate at a constituency meeting? What ?
Toast, either she resigns, Dave sacks her or she loses Bromsgrove whatevr way it's chosen she won't be back in the House.
It does seem that the BBC in particular has done a hatchet job on Julie Kirkbride, but the poor woman has done herself no good by her me, me, attitude.
Not going to her own constituency meeting on Sunday because, ‘that’s the day I spend with my little boy’ is disastrous for her. She has to go now.
What the majority think isn't the point - for the record I thought she put up a fairly robust and reasoned argument butI don't think that will save her.It's too little far too late( a week too late in point of fact)
Her constituents are angry and seem to want her to stand down and she surely hasn't helped her case by not attending the meeting at the weekend in Bromsgrove and to also have given the interview from Plymouth(where she's probably on holiday) - to her constituents looks as if on top of her refusal to attend the meeting -she is hiding from facing them and at the end of the day it's them and not David Cameron she needs to impress and win over.
She is completely unconvincing, now it's looking as if Iain Dale is out of touch and seems not to grasp that we, the voters, will just not tolerate any more of this dissembling about financial practices that are truly disgraceful. This is our money, MPs are entrusted to spemd it wisely on the needs of the nation - not on themselves and their family in grubby, greedy ways. Enough!
She has to go, she lost the pr battle days ago and no point standing in a seat she'll lose whereas the Tories wont if she goes.
Cameron must ask her to stand down now for the good of the party.
I did not watch the interview and I still think she should step down.
Cameron looks very weak,when is this so called panel be doing something about her?????
sorry but i will vote ukip next week
She was pretty good in what must have been a tough interview that she had put off.
It was the best version of the "it was all within the rules" mantra of MPs so far.
Doesn't mean she shouldn't go.
Mark France who is one of the coordinators of the 'Julie must go' campaign is secretary of Bromsgrove Respect and friend of George Galloway
http://birminghamrespect.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/respect-takes-to-streets-on-st-georges-day/
This is getting out of hand at the behest of a bunch of fringe Marxists.
We should be concentrating on the big crooks in the Labour cabinet.
Not convinced but she had the balls to front up so credit due. Now lets see the 'pooled reporters' interview Jack Straw on his Community Charges and the tax-dodging Chancellor of the Exchequer. And then lets have a few words with Tony McNulty's Mum who must be thrilled to have the taxpayer buying her house.
And then, as someone who pays for his own Sky subscription and cleans my own house, we could invite the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP to give us an in depth interview on his housing arrangements to include flipping and the split payment for his kitchen.
Thieves all of them and they are all hiding behind that armour plated 'Its in the rules' sofa.
GeoffH here.
She is now behaving like the worst of them.
Deaf to all entreaties.
Dumb on the key question of secondary/primary home allowances shared with her husband. This was not a stand-alone arrangement; they were in it together.
Blind to the damage she's doing the Conservative cause.
Out of touch with decency.
She must go, and quickly.
Either she's in politics for the Conservative cause or she's in it for herself and what she can get out it.
By behaving stubbornly in this fashion, we must conclude it's for the selfish reason she's an MP.
They're both shameful. They've had nearly £2 million from the taxpayer in the last 7 years, that's without their wages and work on the side.
They've broken the "Codes of Conduct" as far as I am concerned.
"Selflessness
Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends".
Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office".
No EXCUSES NECESSARY! All MP's who have broken the Code of Conduct should be sacked immediately for gross misconduct and those who have broken the law should be arrested.
If it was one of us, that's exactly what would happen.
She has to go.Now that SHE is the story, it is damaging the Conservative Party.If she had stood up at the time this broke, she might have survived but not now, after refusing to answer all questions for days.And now she says she will not attend the constituency meeting about her own selection!
I'll have to watch the interview. But I don't like the look of the Socialist Unity lynch mob that's being drummed up by "Just a ordinary housewife" to get her.
It is absolutely incredible, but still I fear true, they just do not get it.
I need to vote Tory as it's the best chance in my area of getting people elected who oppose id cards, and that's more important than anything.
Unfortunately it looks like thieves and fraudsters like your favourite tory ladies are not going to do the honourable thing and I'm not sure I can bring myself to vote for a party with them in it.
All you parliamentary leeches please just go, you've had more than your fair share and you'll be bleeding us dry with your unjustified pensions for years to come.
Convinced? Nope
She may have been a "good" MP and her employing family MIGHT be OK.
But she quite knowingly claimed for own home while husband claimed for the other - she even asked Fees office about the "arrangement". Even if fees office approved the claim, that doesn't make it right. Nor does it get past "wholly, necessarily, exclusivley" (or whatever sequence those words come in.
Between them they had taxpayes pay towards two homes and each lived at times in both.
She should go - with help if necessary.
Now I've seen it I am amazed that anybody on the planet believes what she says. She's dead meat and needs to go before she starts to stink.
DC better wake up to this very soon. Crooks are unsupportable.
I thought she did very well. I post this before reading any of the other responses.
Odd how an nice woman like here can be married to a wooden guy like Mackay. Perhaps he's better in person.
I saw her on Sky. I wanted her out before. I want her out now perhaps even more. She used Cameron as political cover, basically said that she needs the taxpayer to fund her childcare, didn't come across as apologetic at all. This business about "people not understanding". She's outrageous.
It will seriously dent my generally high opinion of David Cameron if he doesn't sack her soon.
Oh, you mean like the Balls and the Keens, Chris Paul?
Calm and eloquent, but if she denied that she knew anything about her husband's claims then I am afraid I missed that bit.
On the one hand she will have some loyal supporters who would continue to back their Conservative MP under almost all circumstances, and there are others who will call for their MP to go whenever they see their name in the papers, but in between there is a probable majority who will try to judge these matters on the basis of their own experience. In most organisations, whilst Mackay's behaviour is an obvious sacking offence, Kirkbride is in a slightly different position, but that defence is less persuasive when talking about people in senior positions or positions of responsibility.
The fact that Kirkbride did not sign Mackay's expense form is not a defence if she knew about and profited from the "second home" arrangements, so she should probably go.
That may seem harsh, but deselection is not the same as a sacking. A party is quite justified in changing their candidate at the next election if they thought that the incumbent would be detrimental to their purposes.
FloTom
There are no rules that state where an assistant has to live and there is no reason on God's earth why an assistant has to live in the constituency. All a caseworker needs is plenty of nous, a thorough knowledge of the all the different systems i.e, benefits; a thorough knowledge of current events and loads of compassion and patience.
While I disagree with allowing MPs to hire family it is important that you know just what the rules are.
59 year old men who start companies that mysteriously "don't have a penny passed through them" (so what's the ruddy point?) do not make the best childminders - even when the child's at school in London 130 miles away.
The fact remains that this was a benefit in kind. A constituency house is a loan from the British Public, and until I'm allowed to crash in Admiralty House, she shouldn't be able to let her brother stay there rent free. That rent would go to offset the mortgage which she is, instead, claiming off the taxpayer.
Paul Halsall,
No, he is not, believe me!
She must step down.
It's not about parties, it's about our parliament.
The Balls need to be bounced out too. £300k a year between them in salary and they still claim £600 per month for their groceries.
The tories could lead the way by removing the whip from all who are guilty and if possible force them to stand down. If we can get enough by-elections going maybe McDoom will be forced into the GE and I think the electorate will thank Cameron if they think he's brought it on with firm disciplinary actions.
Does anyone seriously doubt that Kirkbride must go now?
I have not seen it so I will not comment apart from to say that a great many of those who have commented here do not seem to have been won over by her.
I think that the penny has finally dropped with her that she is on the way out and she is merely putting up a "I did nothing wrong" defence as a means of saving face and damage limitation for her life after her political career is over. It will not be easy dealing with the whispers behind her back over the next few months after this very public humiliation.
I would not be suprised if Cameron asks her to go now so he can play tough and she can play a "I stepped down in the interests of the party" card. Far easier than facing the Bromsgrove public methinks.
I don't think moral relativism cuts it. Neither 'My husband who I cooked this arrangement up with was obviously worse than me' (which she didn't say explicitly but implied), nor those who point out that the festering stench of corruption from the cabinet is worse, have much of a point. If she was a Neu Arbeit MP then she might gain some traction internally (though not from the electorate) by pointing out that the great and the 'good' of the cabinet in her own party had done as much or worse and were as yet untouched by the scandal, but she isn't.
Also, all but daring 'Call me Dave' to sack her, presumably on the basis that she believes that he had done a deal with hubby not to do so if he went quietly, puts her leader in an uncomfortable position; no doubt 'Dave' will be very grateful for the hospital pass... not!
I think 'Dave' was a prat to make a deal with the devil, which it wopuld appear that he has, and is already regretting it. It's not as if either McKay or Kirkbride were ever going to survive, and the PR benefit of McKay falling on his sword relatively quietly is already being undone by his wife clinging on to her position as long as possible, while cocking a snook at her constituency party and invoking the name of 'Dave' in vain. In some ways it might have been better if Cameron had told them both to go, and then encouraged their local associations to very publicly drag them both kicking and screaming from their positions...
Lady Finchley
I think you should read my post again. It says nothing about an assistant living anywhere.
What it does say is money was claimed for an assistant to work in her constituency.
Was this MPs sister working IN the constituency?
Julie you might be innocent. You might have a reasonable case. But the vultures are circling. They smell blood. There's no way back. You don't stand a chance. Don't let them do any more damage to you and your family. Talk to Central Office and discuss when you should stand down. Preferably before the Lynch mob meets on Sunday.
Excuse me, but why has Julie Kirkbride become the story all of a sudden? Why is she the centre of the expenses story - she is not in government or a member of the party in government.
Why are Morley and Moran being let off the hook? - there is no co-ordinated campaign to get them to stand down; Morley's complaint is comparable if not worse.
Why are the government ministers who paid accountants to do their tax returns getting little heat? (It hardly inspires confidence when people who run government departments cannot fill out their own tax returns).
This is sensationalism, pure and simple. The media and public got McKay; because it's a married couple, now let's get Kirkbride.
Look, Kirkbride is going to get her just desserts one way or another, whether she steps down or is forced out at the election. But if you're going to apply this intense scrutiny to her, then apply it to MPs of all parties - no other MP has been the subjected to such intense scrutiny as the McKays these last few days.
There is a difference between protest and a witchunt - and most of you are crossing that line in baying for Kirkbride's blood specifically, while letting the rest of the hook. All or nothing.
If you want honesty and a willingness to clean things up, then Cameron is making a start. But evidently that does not appear to be the right strategy as people now appear to be baying for Tory scalps.
Brown's macavity act is doing him a favour this time - the media are pretty much glossing over his party's offences. And you're helping by focusing solely on Kirkbride!
Cameron needs to sort this woman out fast or he risks losing all the brownie points ha has won so far in the expenses row.
Remember Tatton
She didn't convince me but if I was one of her constituents I'd have a bit of a problem. If Kirkbride was forced to step down that shrill harpie who's organising a petition would think she'd scored a victory and I wouldn't want that at all.
She did not explain away her sister very well. A good question would have been, "would not someone living in the constituency be better placed to sort out local problems than your sister 140 miles away". Such an obvious question, but not asked?
A highly skilled but desperate attempt to save her job using extremely weak excuses. We'll probably find out next week that she has claimed heavily for media training.
What on earth is Dave up to. Seems he can't be firm with a woman.
Not convinced.
She clearly pays her Sister far too much for working only during recesses and sick/holiday cover.
She would need to back up her claims of her brother doing IT/Website work for her for free in exchange for living in her second home rent free. As someone in public office using public money she should NOT have entered into paperless agreements with her brother in ways which raise MANY serious questions about her actions.
Whilst she may be a good constituency MP and some of her claims can be justified as reasonable, the lack of clarity and zero audit trail is just not sufficient to clear her name.
Add in the double dipping 2nd home issue and it's impossible
She needs to go now.
Basically she has not understood the rules of this expenses witch hunt. If you are caught once and are not explicitly illegal, you get away with it, e.g. Hoon, Straw, etc. If you have an additional fopar like Blears, then you have some problems. If you have three then there will be a witch hunt to get you. At the moment, because Cameron did not scuttle her position then she is trying to brazen it out. Cameron may wake up soon as too the damage she is doing him.
Julie Kirkbride
"I won't be going to that meeting on Sunday because Sunday is the time that I spend with my little boy and I think in all of these things I do still have to think of him and his interests first and foremost.”
She said from her family holiday in Plymouth!!
She is dragging the Tories down.
I'm unimpressed by the Kirkbride 'interview'. She really ought to know that it would be more dignified - and better for her party - if she were to stand down without anyone 'asking' her to. No, she's fairly plausible, but more rigorous scrutiny would have seen her in real trouble. You say 'quite aggressive', I'd say 'poorly researched and posed'.
Frankly she should announce her intention of standing down.
Saw an edited version - and she came out the 'within the rules' mantra. That. Is. The. Problem. What a silly silly woman. You made the 'rules' darling. The 'rules' were there as a scam. QED you've been scammming. Go. Now.
To be frank. I want blood. This whole Parliamnent has failed me. New Labour are just seminally corrupt and deceitful. But that is to be expected from the followers of the essentially deceitful and bankrupt philosophy of socialism. But what really really annoys me is the way the opposition has been so bloody useless. 'Heir to Blair' for God's sake. That is the last thing anyone should want to be. "So tell me Tone, just why is it said that you shredded all your receipts?" Dave, old son, that was not a good thing to say. It wasn't big and it wasn't clever.
Nope, McKay/Kirkbride represent the useless establishment Tory. Smug in their certainty of a well paid political career. Convinced of their own entitlement to direct the lives of others. Sure that they have the birthright to be there.
Sorry old loves, the world is moving on. The common man has turned up and the interwenb has given him and his mates the power to sort you out. So you've been found out so just bugger off now.
Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, I have my suspicions about the Telegraph's agenda given what the owners did to Nadine Dorries' blog.
She looked like a junkie, she kept sticking her tongue into the side of her mouth like she needed a hit.
Watching the interview with her I was thinking that maybe she stole all that money from me as she needed it for her drug habit. If this is the case I believe the courts look very favourably on this when it comes to sentencing. Obviously her political career is over. If David Cameron is sincere can he please send me a cheque and give me back some of the money this woman and her husband and her family has stolen from me when he becomes Prime Minister. The last yearly payment I made to the inland revenue was for £14,000, now my business has gone bust, mainly due to mass immigration. Looking back I should have played it like the MP's and told the taxman all my profits were really expenses.
The need for her sister to work in the constituency or in London is tosh. The arrangement with her brother may be defensible too.
What is not defensible by any stretch of the imagination is the twin 2nd homes and any idea that SHE DIDN'T KNOW about it.
She MUST GO and GO ASAP.
I agree with Iain that this has now become a 'cause' for a very undesirable group, and no-one in the MSM is questioning their motive. When will we see interviews of cabinet minister? Where are they?
Julie Kirkbride seemed very contrite to me, and I think she conducted herself with dignity in the face of some very aggressive questioning.
I wonder how many of the 'outraged' public have examined themselves to see if they should be 'throwing stones'?
The Mail is reporting "Tory MP Julie Kirkbride was mired in fresh controversy tonight after it emerged that she got taxpayers to part-fund a £50,000 extension to her second home."
Stick a fork in her arse, turn her over she's done, end of story.
Iain, I did not see the interview, but I did hear Kevin Maguire talking to Peter Allen about it on Drive. He was truly appalling. It was painful for me to leave my radio on. I cannot believe that the BBC give this biased man airtime.
I watched. She was quite pleasant and totally unconvincing. The story about the brother acting as a child minder was really silly. A very nice and well-spoken young lady once tried to sell me bogus time share.
Pity, I used to quite like her when she appeared on TV. We do not need this shadow to hang over the general elections in that area - that might even save Jacqui Smith.
We get it, Iain. We get it. It was all within the rules and us proles should all bugger off and get back to work - after all, Julie Kirkbride's sister's salary isn't going to pay itself.
One question: what do you think your future constituents will say when they read your blog and find that the only problem you can see with the current round of troughing is with oiks at the Telegraph daring to question the theft?
Speaking as a labour supporter she should go.
i can recall her comments during the cash for honours scandal and the glee she took in doing so.
i have little sympathy for her.
But putting my non partisan cap on i watched the sky news interview and must admit she came across rather well.
I'm probably in the minority reading some of the comments on here but she explained her circumstances and how they affected her expense claims and i think she did enough.
I think DC will think long and hard before deciding what to do but if it becomes too uncomfortable then she will have to go.
She's decided not to attend the meeting on sunday the excuse she gave about spending quality time with her son was feeble but may buy her more time.
They were milking the system for everything they could get. Both of them and her brother, daughter, grandma and whoever else all collaborated together. All I heard was blah blah blah!
I wonder if the furore would have been quite so intense if MacKay and Kirkbride had declared their London home as their joint main residence and each claimed for a second home in their own constituency? Such an arrangement would seem to be much the same as that of many other MPs who don't happen to be married to another MP.
"She didn't duck questions" Quack, quack!
That's the problem with this whole scandal-Our language will be transformed forever
I watched it, and I am beginning to feel that the Telegraph is now just whipping up a storm.
A lot of these claims are grey areas, though the Margaret Moran type claims should be actionable under the law.
But it WAS the system that allowed a lot of this to happen, so witch hunting for a few pennies is bullying. How many journalists are truly honest...?
Why aren't we in uproar about Eurpoe and the BILLIONS they waste ?
It's getting too much now, we get the point.
Saw Julie on the BBC 10 news.
Not convinced by her defence.
She has to go.
I found her quite offensive Iain, and I say this as someone who has warmed to her before.
I'm a working mum - I do irregular hours and some weekends like many other parents - and I can think of no situation where I could expect an employer to pay for a costly wing to a grade II mansion to full-time house an occasional babysitter. This is particularly so when those footing the bill (us) have not even been informed and are unable to get any child care support - I can't even claim the tax back on what I pay my childminder. How, under any circumstances can she possibly justify this?
Playing the 'working mum' card is a real insult to the working mums who buy a bog-standard house in keeping with their means, pay for their own babysitter, and do so on a far more humble income than hers.
I do agree that others are equally, if not more culpable. But really, Kirkbride is shameless and should go.
Sorry Iain,
Can't agree on this one. Her defence of double-dipping is even weaker than Tessa Jowell's 'I didn't know who paid my mortgage.' Jowell should have been fired for that and I'm afraid Ms. Kirkbride should also be looking for a new job.
To suggest that she had no knowledge of the expenses claims and housing arrangements of her husband, Andrew Mackay, is laughable.
She should do the party a favour and step down. Otherwise it's -1 seat at the next election.
I respect your loyalty...but on this one, I think you are on the wrong side.
Forgive me for quoting Oliver Cromwell...
"It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell
your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone!
So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!"
The one thing she has going for her is the fact that a party with only 17 female MPs can't afford to lose one.
The Balls, the Wintertons and now these two.
It does rather seem that having married couples as MPs doesn't really work in the public interest.
In short - she and her husband were "Having it off" with taxpayers money - she knew perfectly well that they were 'Double Dipping' and this would have continued without the new transparency situation.
She should go now.
Alan. Essex
After meeting her constituents today - I will be surprised if Julie Kirkbride still wishes to stand tomorrow.
Her only defence is that she abided by the fees office rules - after explaining how her husband was misled by the same fees office and has fallen on his sword.
Does she not realise that she is damaging David Cameron - who presumably for reasons of friendship with her husband ("you resign and I will defend your wife") - continues to show her support.
For the good of the party and for the sake of your own self respect stand down now Julie, the party's over.
I didn't see it, but then again neither did 99 per cent of her constituents. Enough of them will no doubt continue to think what I think, and that is that what she did wrong was entirely bound up with what her husband did - the twin claims on both homes. He's gone. She should go.
Quite honestly no she did not change my mind. Her actions are inexcusable and the only honorable thing she can do is step down willingly. I think Cameron needs to take firmer action on the issue and bring substance to his commitment to bring the moral ethics of social responsibility to politics.
C'mon Iain, be reasonable. This woman needs a secretary so she chooses her sister in Dorset. She needs a childminder and guess what? her brother is perfect for the job. £50,000 for an extra bedroom? What a lucky girl!
Leave the woman alone - I thought her interview was well conducted on her part,if she falls where does that leaves the likes of Alistair Darling etal?
The fact that she can lie her face off doesn't change the truth that she's a lying thief.
Spin is not truth.
You don't get it do you.
And so trougher Kirkbride
leaves the commons
shamed rightly so
her leaving
Illustrating
the difference between
diary blogging and journalism
Who's next?
Any more of your friends?
Good luck getting into parliament
I vote
No
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