Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Lembit Opik Commits Political Suicide

I'm a bit late to this, but I have just listened to Lembit Opik commit political suicide on the Victoria Derbyshire show this morning. If I were his Tory opponent Glyn Davies I'd get CDs made of this and deliver them to every home in Montgomeryshire.

Click HERE and scroll in 44 minutes. It lasts 15 minutes. If you have a low embarrassment threshold you'll be squirming...

PS I was told by a senior LibDem the other day that Lembit Opik had asked Nick Clegg at one of their front bench meetings if he would guarantee not to sack anyone who figured in any expenses scandal. Clegg say no. Lembit should hope that his leader is not a 5 Live listener.

74 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never listen to VD, the initials say it all.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Lembit Opik is going to spend more time with Uranus after the next election!

No doubt he will write a book called filling the void!!!!

Edinburgh_Steve said...

Will his goofiness save him this time? I've lost count of the number of times old Lemmy has committed political suicide, only to come creeping back. I'm amazed he's still around after his letter a while back.

We'll see....

But yes, he is a tool.

Doktorb said...

I have never been a fan of Lembit Opik. Not one bit. This episode really does ensure that the man is now totally isolated.

As a LibDem member I can honestly say there is nothing attracting me to the man.

Anonymous said...

Oh, no. That was terrible. And I still thought the Lib Dems were, though generally incapable of competent government, at least coming from the right place. Opik is hopefully alone in being such a drastic exception, but one wonders...

Andrew Pierce did brilliantly, by the way. He would be a fantastic MP. Opik should pay back his money, and then hand in his parliamentary badge.

gustavus said...

Thanks for highlighting this. Missed it on the radio - astonishing stuff. As has been said more than once in the last week,

they don't like it up 'em!

Stop Common Purpose said...

Cringe.

These people just don't get it, do they?

Lembit O'Prick said...

Iain,

With respect, this guy is, and always has been, an attention-seeking idiot with distinct Walter Mitty tendencies

Anonymous said...

My take on chris Huhnes expenses!

http://chrishuhneisdoomed-doomedtodefeat.blogspot.com/

David Hughes said...

Ooh - I had to terminate the podcast !
I hope that he can earn a living at Scrabble using his name as an anagram for "Total Dickhead" as it would seem that Mr. Opik has demonstrated why Ms Loyd got off lightly !
I'll bet she thinks he is a cringeworthy arse too !
And why was the presenter so afraid to use the word "Fraud" ? Sue me and be damned, Lembit, old boy !

Anonymous said...

I really can't bring myself to listen to any more drivel from that particular fool. Could someone be generous enough to give me a potted summary of what he said?

Anonymous said...

Good grief - what on earth was he thinking? I genuinely cannot believe I've just heard that.

Johan van Rooyen said...

Dear oh dear!

Dick the Prick said...

Good. The forecast is looking gloomy. Taxi

Been playing with WV again bud?

Anonymous said...

I heard Double-word-score try to dig his way out live. I had to switch over. The Cheeky-Cheeky media darling attention seeking (when in Hello/OK) twerp just dug his hole too deep.

Besides the fact why does it have to be SO necessary to claim 2.5K for a TV 'to help his parliamentary business'? Why SHOULD taxpayers pay his court fees because he was too busy being a 'celebrity' to take care of his council tax?

Also, why is a person once best known for being SO convinced we're going to get obliterated by meteorites etc that we need an independent asteroid tracking system, spending that much on a tv? Obviously thinks the threat was overblown...

jailhouselawyer said...

Who's a cheeky boy then?

Anonymous said...

What a gigantic tool...

Classic La-la-la I'm not listening Brown-style shit...

He just kept waling into haymakers from Andrew Pierce with his chin sticking out..

Tone deaf to a numpty degree...

Rog said...

Ouch.

Optik's faux indignation and flustering defence is exquisitely painful. They really live on a different planet, don't they? Then it gets worse.

By the way, is everybody aware that our wonderful troughing MPs have actually had the brass neck to just vote themselves a 17.5% expenses increase?

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/100092/EXCLUSIVE-MPs-vote-for-16million-more-expenses

Bloody unbelievable!

Rebel Saint said...

C o n t e M P t
Lembit Opik

The Happy Warrior said...

I liked his frantic back-peddling as he realised what he was in the process of doing. That horse has bolted I'm afraid, Mr. Opik.

Martin said...

Opik came across as a total tosser. The bit about the £2500 TV (just what sort of TV was it?????) which he admits he still purchased even though it was refused by the Commons claims lot but then had it for his own home (so why try to claim for it in the first place?) then make do with a mere £700 TV set for his London pad was just amazing.

Most of us couldn't afford a £700 TV.

I do smile as well when I hear politicians going on about this leaked CD. What about when Governmetns lose OUR data? What about my personal security of my data?

I take it that in the future no politicians will comment or accept ANY leaked documents that might be embarassing to their political opponents?

The man is a tool.

Anonymous said...

Okay, he sounded like a creeping idiot, but its nowhere near as explosive as as the seaside home excuse or the moat cleaning.

Bath plugs for the many, not the few said...

If there is an official scale for 'not getting it', Lembit Opik has gone off the far end.

How self-deluded is it possible to be? Who else expects a corrupt claim for a fine to be overlooked on the basis of a 'good faith' defence?

Jabba the Cat said...

Lembit Opik and the word "wanker" were made for each other.

Anonymous said...

I notice Opik mentioned he put the expenses in Good Faith!

Is that what LD's say when they get into grief like the Michael Brown donation "They took it in Good Faith" - They kept it as well!

Pity the victims of Michael Brown who invested in 'good faith' and ended up seeing a group of third raters squander money on something they chose not to donate themseleves.

Simon said...

He sounds pissed to me.

English First said...

Not committing fraud!! Just one of 646 liars!!

Wrinkled Weasel said...

I couldn't listen till the very end. My cringe fibber was busted and my flabber ghasted.

People do so reveal themselves under pressure.

Lembit Opik revealed himself to be a wnaker.

Gordon Brown has revealed himslef to be a bully, the flipside, being a coward.

DC has done rather well. All those freezing dorms at Eton and involuntary buggeries in the bushes have given him the ability to accept adversity and anal discomfort with dignity. This issue has revealed him to be a leader.

I just wish he would shut Theresa May up. She has looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights for the last 48 hours of telly exposure.

Unknown said...

God he is a tool and has just shot himself in the foot.

Completely avoidable too. All he had to do was apologize for the court summons claim, admit it was an error of judgement, and tell the radio dudette about the tennant helping him claim less.

The TV issue was dumb of him too, he has a john lewis list with a 750 limit, he should have just asked the fees office to grant him the 750 against his 2500 tv and paid the difference himself. Nothing wrong in having expensive taste as long as you dont claim for more than is right on expenses.

Some MP's really are dumb when it comes to expenses.

JMB said...

Best example of a MP completely out of touch with reality that I have heard or read so far in this affair.

It shows how the system has been "working", buy something expensive like a £2500 television set then see if they will pass the claim. Even £750 seems to be quite a lot for a TV set especially when you seem to often hear MPs saying they don't have time to watch television.

It also makes me wonder after the Home Secretary's porn film scandal, why do MPs need to have a TV subscription paid by the taxpayer? All the main news channels are available on Freeview or Freesat.

Gordon Brown said...

Apparently the reason the television was so expensive was that it had a special function where it automatically switched over whenever the Cheeky Girls appeared on a channel.....

"And it was pronounced on that Day, that from that point, He would be known as Lembit "Two TV's" Opik........."

manwiddicombe said...

I heard this earlier, and listening to it again is even more cringeworthy. The whole 'TV' questioning segment .. .. ..

I'd bought it, then I tried to claim for it, then I had to have it in my main home because those nasty people at the fees office refused to cough up for it.

What a stroppy undignified interview that was.

Paul said...

Many of our MPs are completely on another planet to the rest of us, aren't they? Just watch Labour with that brush they're waving about.

As for Öpik: some libertarian he!

Major Plonquer said...

G'day and greetings from my tropical tax haven,

Please keep in mind that the BBC iPlayer is not available for us expats living outside the UK and is only available to people stupid enough to still live there. Maybe someone can repost on YouTube?

ALSO: Do you think its only a coincidence that "Lembit Opik" is an anagram of "I opt bilk 'em"?

Funk le Monk said...

Jesus, what an embarrasment. He lost his credibility a long time ago with the Cheeky Girl thing, but...wow

S. Weasel said...

Behind closed doors, among themselves, I'm sure MP's do think the scandal is, "who leaked the story to the Telegraph, and was he paid for it?" Perfectly understandable.

But to expect the public to see it the same way? Tone deaf bordering on psychotic.

I got through about five minutes of this one; I hope the good stuff wasn't at the end. I have a low embarrassment threshold.

Chris Paul said...

But why would LO fear "sacking" (from a Lib Dem mimicster post) over a £40 fine? Is there more?

Scrolls down ... ah a rebutted mega TV attempt ... Not sure I can be bothered to listen again for that.

And finally I think it is perfectly compatible to want to clamp down on the sleaze AND the leaks.

Anonymous said...

What an unpleasant man the sanctimonious twat from the Telegraph is.

Spartan said...

l'm sorry but all l could hear was Nick Clegg screaming at the radio:-

'LEMBIT ... STFU!'

Ricardo's Ghost said...

I still think my favourite bit of Lib Dem embarressment was Norman Baker saying anyone caught maximising their ACA claim ought to be sacked from the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet, and it emerging hours later from the Telegraph that Nick Clegg had been ensuring he claimed the absolute maximum ACA every year.

Unknown said...

What an utter fool.

I'm quite interested in the tellies. Did I understand right that he claimed for two tellies, on at over £2,000, and one at £750, and that one is at each of his homes?

I'm not clear after that interview, though, whether he was paid £750 in expenses just once, on the £2k telly (which it seems wasn't for his second home at all) or twice. I wish Victoria had pressed him further on this.

Anonymous said...

he was on radio ulster and made a cock of himself there too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kdntn/Talk_Back_13_05_2009/

Fragrant Harbour said...

In response to Major Plonquer - no need for YouTube in this case - it's only TV shows that iPlayer insists we must be in the UK to watch. As long as you have Real Player installed you can listed and cringe like the rest of us.

Rush-is-Right said...

@ Major Plonquer;

It's working for me. (in North Cyprus).

Canary Wharf Rat said...

Just listened to this. I had no opinion of Mr Opik up to now.
Are you accusing me of fraud, he asked. Victoria Derbyshire said no. Well Mr Opik if the majority of the public that have heard this discussion you would be deafened by the word YES.
Subsequent to listening to this article, I now have formed an opinion of Mr Opik. He is a slimy crook who thought he could take the public for a ride.

Bernard said...

Opik is an idiot. As a Tory, I want him to win. Not because he is any good (he certainly isn't), but because Glyn Davies is not a proper Tory. He's basically a Welsh nationalist, wants more powers for the Welsh Assembly and to see a loosened union. Why the Conservatives in Monts selected him, I can't think.

Savonarola said...

I don't think that Glyn Davies needs Opik to implode for him to win this seat in Montgomeryshire. Mr Davies is well known in this area as a solid citizen involved in all aspects of local affairs. He puts a lot into the community.

A big majority to overturn. He will win because he is a good person and not because Opik is a living walking talking one man farce.

DespairingLiberal said...

Note that Opik is continuing to trot out the lie that the information was going to be published anyway - as everyone knows, the Speaker's office were planning (with ludicrous obstructionism) to blank out all MP's names from the data.

Sparrow said...

A question that bugs me at the moment as the excuse-o-meter changes from "within the rules" to "an oversight".

Didn't all these muppets get their receipts so that they could "redact" private details ?

I think if I suddenly got all my receipts in one go shortly before they were published I would check them carefully.

Johnny Norfolk said...

I am just lost for words.

Rexel No 56 said...

What one would expect from Opik - f**kwittery of the highest order.

More interesting was the Maples interview on Newsnight - if one of the reasons behind the Scrutiny Panel introduced by Cameron is to defuse interviews by the likes of Paxman - "WIL you pay the money bak, WILL YOU?" - then it worked brilliantly.

Catosays said...

More to the point perhaps, why hadn't he paid his council tax? I'll bet he was claiming it.

Anonymous said...

It makes you wonder exactly how much intelligence is needed to become an MP, with all the furore and anger directed at MPs you would think that they had enough sense to keep there head down and mutter a few platitudes.
Unfortunately he seems to be one of those people who see a nest of hornets and decides to see what will happen when he pokes it with a stick.

Valley Boy said...

I live in Montgomery and have voted for LO before he got the celebrity bug implanted in his arse.

His antics over the last few years, dropping local girl Sian Lloyd (thank your lucky stars Sian), his cringeworthy Cheeky Girl episode and now the TV and Fine payments will see him defeated.

Never ever thought I would say it but Glyn Davies will get my vote. Whilst he is a Tory, he is a decent family man with principle with the interests of local people at heart.

Bonetired said...

Glyn won't do that. He even banned attacks on Lembit on his superb blog last week.

Having said that it probably isn't necessary for Glyn to knife Lembit seeing what Lembit is doing for himself.

Richard Abbot said...

We are the cheeky girls, we are the cheeky girls.
You are the cheeky boys, you are the cheeky boys.
Touch my bum, this is life

Savonarola said...

Having now listened to the broadcast Opik's self immolation was partly because Andrew Pierce handed him a lighted match.

Pierce was brilliant. He kept coming back to the £2250 TV while Opik tried to steer the discussion to DT paying money for stolen goods. Andrew Pierce skewered him. Mr Pierce should be a BBC political reporter and Robinson should go.

Except BBC would neuter him like they did Robinson.

Tory Teacake said...

I just love to listen to MPs repeatedly stab themselves with everyday household objects (because everyone has a £2000 TV, right?) in the morning.
When's he on again!?

Anonymous said...

If I were his Tory opponent Glyn Davies I'd get CDs made of this and deliver them to every home in Montgomeryshire.

Ashcroft will pay presumably?

UB41 said...

So, just for my own understanding:

a) He bought a TV for £2.5K and tried to claim it.

b) He was told no he couldn't as it was too expensive.

c) That TV is in his constituency home (designated "main" home) now.

d) He then went and bought a second TV for his London home at £750 and made a successful claim.

Questions:
1) Has the £2.5k TV always been at his main home? If so, then not only was he out of order trying to claim £2.5K, but he shouldn't be claiming stuff for his main home

2) If the £2.5k TV was in his London home initially, it's exceptionally petty to move it solely so he can claim for another one. How many TV's does this guy want?
It sounds like "I'm going to have a TV on the taxpayer come hell or high water".

And to try and justify this stuff?

His houses must be like Arfur Daley lock ups!

They STILL don't get it, and that I'm afraid is very depressing.

If they have poor moral judgement over expenses, then how can the exercise judgement over our laws etc?

All very well saying "We're not as bad as Nigeria" or whatever, but we shoudl be world leaders in this stuff.

Reminds me, did you get anywhere with that £18 Million Iain?

scotthall said...

Has Lamentable Opik been groomed at the George Galloway interview academy - it certainly sounds like it.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm alone here but 750 quid for a TV....erm....Hello....erm that's a shit pile of money.
2500 quid for a telly, fuck off!

Unknown said...

Personally I thought his comments with regards to Nick Robinson were interesting. If the likes of Opik are going get strung up then they are going to bring the whole establishment crashing down. Just you watch, the BBC/every other public body will be in the firing line next.

Anonymous said...

That was worth 15 minutes of my life to hear an MP try to convince us that he nearly got away with stealing a £2,500 TV from the British public and getting us to pay his court summons for non payment of another bill.

As they say,you could not make any of this up,it's like a tidal wave of obscenity crashing against the shores of this island.

Budgets dear boy, budgets said...

I note on workingforyou.com that for 07/08 Opik was joint 1st for ACA. He also claims to have saved taxpayers' money by having a lodger. He really ought to seek lessons from other more worthy MPs - and yes, there are some - as his budgeting skills are lacking.

As for his suggestion that a level playing field involves an increase in salary for all and no expenses apart from travel: what a joke. He may be able to subsidise his lifestyle and accommodation with media appearances, but others can't and don't. I suspect his media days are soon to dry up like desiccated coconut.

What goes around comes around.

frankie said...

Unfortunately, I live in Montgomeryshire and have read and listened to Lembit Opik commit political suicide on so many occasions, but this interview and his interviews on BBC Breakfast and ITV yesterday, just confirms that the guy has lost it.

To blame the death of his brother for putting in the £40 summons claim, was frankly dispicable, especially as his brother died 6 months before he put the claim in. If he thought he would get public sympathy for using his brother's death as an excuse for his "mistake" he needs to get a grip on reality - as it has had the reverse effect.

As for Glyn Davies, he is a local farmer and does have integrity and most of all dignity, which I like to see in a politician, and he doesn't write a weekly column in a disgusting soft porn newspaper called The Daily Sport either!

If Nick Clegg has any sense, and wants the LibDems to hold on to the Montgomeryshire seat - he MUST sack this idiot now before he does the LibDems any more damage.

Dr Evil said...

He sounded almost hysterical. Two and a half grand for a TV? What a cheeky boy!

DespairingLiberal said...

You have a point Alexander - how long can it be before hard-pressed license payers start questioning the astonishing salaries paid to talking heads on the BBC? A journalist-ette admitted last night on Newsnight that she is paid £92K a year.

All part of the Oxbridge system - the little darlings going to Oxbridge know there will always be a well-paid and very easy job at dead old Auntie waiting for them if they get bored and fancy getting in a load of money. Imagine if they had to work for a living! I am sure you find this as unthinkable as I do.

Being MP would always be the first choice though, as the money is so much better and the workload so very low. Why, some Tory MPs try never to attend the House at all!

Gordon Brown said...

I was just wondering, has anyone else noticed that if you rearrange the letters in his name, it makes a most amusing anagram.


LEMBIT OPIK =

TOTALLY CLUELESS WEIRD-LOOKING MORON

Anonymous said...

What a cheeky boy!!!

Anonymous said...

two and a half grand for a TV disallowed, so I bought one for 750pounds. Rather the tax payer did

PS
I'm not out of touch

Anonymous said...

Must have been an MP who was expecting to have to pay back his expenses that sold the info to the Telegraph

Anonymous said...

I've always felt the name was an anagram. It is!

I love to b MP...

Anonymous said...

Lembit O'Prick commited political suicide the day he took up with the Cheeky Trollop