Sunday, May 17, 2009

Sleazy Sunday Newspaper Roundup

I'm going to be reviewing the Sunday newspapers with Adam Boulton and Nancy Dell'Olio (yes, indeed) at 10.10am, but in advance, here are some of the main stories.

Sunday Times: Michael Martin on the skids over his own expenses.
Sunday Times: Dominic Lawson on how MPs avoid saying sorry.
Sunday Times: Martin Ivens: Gordon Brown must stop being a nervous nellie.
Dr Julian Lewis MP rebuts the Sunday Telegraph story on his expenses.
Sunday Telegraph: Fraser Kemp's clean sheets.
Sunday Telegraph: The FOI MPs' expenses.
Sunday Telegraph: Iain Martin on what's wrong with politics.
Sunday Telegraph: What we can learn from the US
Independent: 10 Ways to Clean Up the Commons.
Mail on Sunday: William Rees Mogg on how to derail the gravy train.
Mail on Sunday: Queen tells Brown of her concern over expenses.
Express: Queen to tell Brown of her concern over expenses.
Mail on Sunday: David Davis: Why the Speaker must go.
Mail on Sunday: Douglas Carswell: Why the Speaker must go.
Mail on Sunday: Speaker will get £100k payoff and son will inherit seat.
Observer: Labour donors quit party over expenses.
Observer: Andrew Rawnsley: There should be a purge of the guilty.
Observer: Henry Porter: The 3 Rs MPs need to learn.
News of the World: MPs you should sack at the election.
News of the World: Gordon Brown: I'll do all I can to fix it.

34 comments:

The Grim Reaper said...

The Prime Minister has spoken! Yes, McBroon has said that he will do "all I can" to deal with the issue of MPs expenses.

Here comes another video on YouTube where he will not only end up looking a complete tit, but whose ideas won't get off the ground in any case. Oh well, I could do with a laugh...

Anonymous said...

the queen has to cheek to complain about other people's expenses?!?!

HarveyR said...

Julian Lewis' reply to the Telegraph posted on his page is in stark contrast to Nadine Dorris' rant from yesterday. Though both were being asked similar questions, Julian provided detailed answers and didn't become hysterical or shouty.

If I needed my MP to sort out a problem for me, I know which I'd rather have write to the relevant government department on my behalf.

Gordon Brown said...

I will offer you a £1000 to take your place with Nancy tomorrow morning.

She oozes sex appeal and I reckon she could convert you.....;-)

M. Hristov said...

I was thinking about all this today. I do not have to even say what because we have all been fixated upon the same question. In our offices and homes. In the courts and on the street. We even have to watch Eurovision to try to escape. Graham Norton was excellent and the corruption was hidden, for once. The opposite of Westminster.

Iain, like you, I started making excuses for people I know who are caught up in this mess but I have found that more and more difficult as time goes on.

Nadine Dorries has driven me to distraction. How can a former nurse come to believe that she is entitled to play the system for thousands of pounds of taxpayers money? How can someone who believes in conservative values and hates socialism believe that she can simply take huge sums of money from the taxpayer? How can she claim to be the victim of a McCarthyite witchunt?

Then I realised that I’d seen this all before. The sense of absolute entitlement to privilege and the rigid defence of gross hypocrisy. This was the attitude of the nomenklatura in the former Warsaw pact. It is the attitude of their children to this day. In those days it was the foreign currency shops. The trips abroad for the favoured. The better flats. The cars and drivers but the attitude was just the same. Absolutely the same. This corrosive attitude ended up with the children of these people helping themselves to state assets in the ‘privatisations’ of the 1990s.

The Daily Telegraph has blocked the growth of our own home grown nomenklatura. Well done! But this opens up a Pandora’s Box of extremism. It may lead to the collapse of the United Kingdom, as Scotland and Wales fall en masse to the Nationalists. It may lead to gross extremism in England. We are in uncharted territory. I hope we still think all this was worth it after 10 years.

Just remember £60,000.00 is a big salary for a lot of people. I once found myself about to give a crucial speech in which I had to get over my poverty. I decided to say I only earned £32,000.00. A multi- millionaire friend of mine told me that he thought this most dangerous “Remember, most of these people are on the minimum wage”. I changed my speech. I learnt the folly of my initial view when I found myself earning about 10 p above the minimum wage per hour, a few years later. MPs reading this would do well to remember this when they discuss their “very small” salaries.

Chris Paul would do well not to dwell on Andrew Mackay or Julie Kirkbride, as he has done elsewhere on this blog. Claiming for non-existent mortgages is much more serious than anything they have done.

If I was in trouble I would like a friend like you, Iain. You refuse to stoop to attack your friends when your position, on the candidates list, gives you an incentive to do so. We need more people like you in politics.

Anonymous said...

"Speaker will get £100k payoff and son will inherit seat"

What? Surely they cant be that outrageously shameless can they?

Oldrightie said...

Jimmy's breathtaking arrogance in TNOTW is amazing. Firstly the cliches. "these difficult times", "I want to assure every citizen of my commitment to a complete clean-up of the system. Wherever and whenever immediate disciplinary action is required I will take it."
"The bottom line is that any MP who is found to have defied the rules will not be serving in my government."
No one has "defied the rules". It was those very rules that they and he made that are wrong.
How much did this chap of "I was brought up to believe you did the right thing - and that trust, integrity and honesty are the most precious assets of all." do to protect Ms Filkin? Post this woman of integrity being destroyed by Jimmy Brown's Government a shed load of changes were brought about to make more room round the trough.
How does the guy square this statement with his brother's job with EDF? Not exactly transparent either.
Labour are mainly behind this expenses mess. They have held the power for 12 years and more. Lies. spin, wars, dead soldiers starved of funds and equipment, political appointees everywhere. A tin pot dictatorship. What a mealy mouthed pathetic article.

javelin said...

iain I don't think you really have understood the situation. I don't think the penny has dropped with either you or your MP friends. Though you havnt made the connection yet you probably think this crisis is like the credit crunch - a crisis that with enough skill can be damaging but limited.

I think you (and your mp friends) would have the fees office play the role of the banks and Michael Martin plays the role of Lehman Brothers. Michael has been going around pissing people off and will be chopped.

Giedon brown will play the role of Fred the Shred with New Labour as RBS. With Brown leaving is disgrace and New Labour lurching to the left as the New Labour spivs are taken over by nationalization.

I think you are hoping that David Cameron will play the role of Bob Diamond and the Conservatives play tge role of Barclays. You hope that everybody will think the Conservatives will be thought to be close to bankruptcy too - but buy a piece of the old rivals (lehman) and come out smelling of roses.

Yes I really think MPs see them selves as banks and that it's all going to be OK. Like all analogies they are not perfect. They have their limits.

You think it is just about reputation and forgiveness. You
think that MPs, like banks, are not replaceable and need to be saved at any cost. Well it's true we need MPs, but not individuals. It's true the system is dodgy. But no one has been saying that banks committed fraud. Banks did not commit fraud but MPs have. I can believe this analogy but many MPs have comitted criminal acts and must be put on trial. I even think Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have comitted fraud. The police have been politicized not I see it as natural and necessary that private prosecutions are used. I would hope you support the public removing the rotten apples - as apples can't remove themselves from barrels.


Furthermore, like the banks, the system needs reforming, it needs to be made more transparent.
necessary and cant be replaced, so must be sacr

Guido Fawkes said...

I may start doing a Daley Dozen?

ranger1640 said...

Iain with the help of bloggers we should start a movement to get politicos to clean up their act not just on expenses but on politics for the populous. Below is a letter I sent to the Daily Telegraph. Could we get a pressure blog to bring about change?

Dear Sirs and Madams,

At the Telegraph I would like to thank you for opening the Pandora’s Box of sleaze and expenses fraud in parliament.

We are surely witnessing a sea change in the country however I fear that MP’s still don’t get it. Yes some are=2 0mouthing regret but it’s the regret of being found out not the regret of a contrite person. To date not one so called honourable member has resigned. This is the proof that MP’s caught with their hands in the till remain unrepentant.

MP’s cannot set themselves up as honourable men and women, as legislators, custodians of public safety and finances and then treat the public as irrelevant.

Until we get resignations or expulsions, and a proper police investigation and an investigation by the Inland Revenue that yields prosecutions. Nothing will have changed it will all be empty rhetoric form the party leaders and MP’s.

The police and the judiciary must be strong as must the Inland Revenue in their investigations and judgments. Failure to fully investigate and bring prosecutions will lead to a constitutional crisis. The legislature must not be above the law.

If there are prosecutions that lead to guilty verdicts we require the full vigour of the law to be imposed on these honourable members, who have put themselves up for selection by the people to lead the people so their transgressions by virtue of their elected office makes them culpable for the full vigour of the law.

The mood in the country has changed; we don’t want politicos from whatever party robbing the Taxpayer to fund their perceived privileged lifestyles.

We demand they listen when we protest as a government can’t govern without the backing of the people.
We demand they listen when we protest about not going to war, a war that was spun on lies.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to invade every aspect of our lives.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to go back on promises of referendums.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to treat every citizen and motorist as a criminal.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to keep our DNA when we are innocent and our identities on an ID card.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to bank roll irresponsible bankers and leave the public to suffer the full force of the economic crisis.
We demand they listen when we tell them we don’t want the government to spin and treat the public with disrespect.

Until we get all of the above and more nothing will have changed, however the government need to take notice the public with the internet can now mobilise as never before and pressure the government for the change they require.



0A
Thomas Jefferson
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty”.

Abraham Lincoln
“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent”.

Yours truly,

Swiss Bob said...

I know it's not in all your polls but I see Labour have dropped below 20%. Something I thought would happen eventually.

Bye bye Labour.

On a lighter note I have a post 'celebrating' Man U's win, I say celebrating because I think fans of any club but Man U will enjoy it.

Also this morning a 'WolframAlpha' post that might be of interest to bloggers for research purposes. It's the new Computational Knowledge 'Search' Engine. 21st Century Google.

kasou said...

A lesson in realism came from John Oakley, who works with the charity Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association. His letter brought offers of help from dozens of readers, because he told the story of a very old man, once a prisoner of the Japanese, who needed £500 to double-glaze his bathroom, so that he could take a bath in warmth. The money was not there to give him. quote from letter to DT sums up Brown/Blair NewLabour

Anonymous said...

Lord Rennard still in place!

LD = Say one thing and do another!

Anonymous said...

Clegg on BBC1 making a dogs breakfast of Mps expenses!

Clegg has now taken to belittling the "Mother of all Parliaments".

What an idiot Clegg is he is doing down Parliament for Patisan purposes and he will get no lift from that.

Anonymous said...

Nick Clegg is so pious - he even took dodgy expenses for phone calls. How dare the man have the gall go on TV and try pointing to other parties problems when he has a Dozen MP's who have dodgy expenses and the their is Lord Rennard!

Anonymous said...

Liberal Democrats = Sleaze!

Have the LD paid back the £2 Million plus dodgy Michael Brown donation - Of course not they took it in good faith!

Those poor folks who invested their money with a Crook, who then gave it to the Liberal Democrats and they have the front not to pay it back. If it had happened to any other party the pious Liberal Democrats would be the first to moan.

Dick the Prick said...

Not much going on then? Phewee.

Anonymous said...

Given the frequency with which MPs are blaming the Fees Office, I wonder just how much the staff are actually paid. I don't mean the managers, but the ones who actually have to cope with what at best can be described as petulant MPs. I suspect their salary ranges are considerably below the MPs and I bet they don't get extra for living in London.

The vast majority of public sector staff will always try to help but here they seem to have been treated in an appalling way by some.

I think it was something Margaret Beckett said QT which indicated to me how some MPs have treated them. Did she say that the hanging baskets arose at a time whenshe was very busy and she'd just passed a bundle of receipts? Nadine's apparent thinking that the Fees Office should chase up the repayment of her deposit is in the same vein.

The picture I am getting is one where MPs treated the ACA as an absolute entitlement and the receipts werejust a fig-leaf. What the "offenders" seemed to have done is just to bundle up their receipts and leave it to the Fees Office to sort them out, and almost in effect pay the least worst but always of course having to ensure the MPs got the full sum "due". From some of the correspondence revealed so far, it seems claims were refused at their peril

I work in the public sector - hence not giving my name - but for us the disciplinary offence is not having been paid on a dodgy claim but submitting it in the first place, even if it isn't paid.

I still get the impression that MPs see nothing untoward in "trying it on" to see what they can or could get away with.

Chris Paul said...

Nice one Guido! But Iain has missed the Princess of the Blogs and famous accompanist/chaperone of the Tory blogosphere from the rap sheet. Don't suppose you have too? Probably not.

English First said...

I think you mean "Sunday Newspaper Roundup of Sleazy MP`s"!! NOT Sleazy Sunday Newspapers?

Dick the Prick said...

Was Nancy holding your err...hmm.. leg? Quick work - not sure who's on fire!

English First said...

Ms Dorries is attempting to defend the indefensible.
Typical hysterical response from the fairer sex I am afraid!

Aaaaargh said...

I know it's Sunday but I'm too busy trying to make a bit of money before my imminent redundancy so don't have time to read through all these.

In all the talk of protest votes has any of them pointed out that a vote for the BNP could help Labour?

www.aaaaargh.wordpress.com

Speaker Martin said...

Dinnae ye go puttin' the boot in as well, ye Sassenach shandy-drinker!

Ye winnae be gettin' in the Hoose any mair, ye Tory ye! Ah'll tak that pass an' strangle ye with it, ye an' yir blog!!!!

Martin said...

i watched that tosser Stephen Pound on Sky News. What an utter Hoon he is. If ever proof were needed that Labour voters would elect dried dog poo if it had a Labour rosette stuck to it, Pound is the example.

Instead of holding HIS head in shame he just attached David Cameron and the Tories.

Liz said...

Interesting bit in the Indie today (not my usual Sunday reading choice - I'm in a hotel) suggesting that the Telegraph's coverage of Balls and Cooper was very, very mild, given that they'd claimed for three times the mortgage interest they were entitled to - and suggesting that a karaoke-based friendship between Balls and Will Lewis is behind the hiding of the story on p8 of the paper.

Anonymous said...

Why have we NOT got a head of state, who would dissolve Parliament and call a general election?

Paul Halsall said...

It interesting Guido should feel so challenged. It's clear he gets the most hits, but that's because he's the British blogosphere's Rush Limbaugh. It you want to *read* something on the right wing you have to read your blog, ConservativeHome, or the Spectator.

Francis Miller said...

Perhaps we need to start looking at some of the other perks and privileges that MPs have.

For example, the subsidised bars and restaurants at the House of Commons.

Why is it that MP's should receive any subsidy on this at all?

Basically it means that we taxpayers are paying so they can have cheap food and drink.

Surely that's not on any more.

JMB said...

The Chief Constable of North Wales has now jumped on the bandwagon and is saying that he is going to investigate MPs in his area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8054214.stm

"Brunstrom 'may probe' MP expenses

North Wales Police's chief constable has warned he may take action against MPs on his patch if they had wrongly claimed expenses.

Richard Brunstrom said recent revelations in the Daily Telegraph "warrant criminal investigation".

North Wales has so far escaped the spotlight, but the police chief said the scandal "shocked him to the core".

His comments came as he addressed a Rotary Club function in Rhyl, Denbighshire. "


He is never one to miss a chance to get his name in the papers.

Anonymous said...

Wot ! No Nadine ?

Wrinkled Weasel said...

"If ever proof were needed that Labour voters would elect dried dog poo if it had a Labour rosette stuck to it, Pound is the example.2 (martin)

Quote of the week.

Anonymous said...

This is my local MP:

- David Ruffley, the shadow Home Office minister, “flipped” his second home from a London flat to his Bury St Edmunds constituency before spending thousands of pounds on furniture and fittings. He successfully claimed for a £1,674 sofa – but was refused the full amount when he claimed for a £2,175 46-inch Sony widescreen HD television from Harrods. An attempt to claim £6,765 for the purchase of several bedroom items was reduced by £4,748.

He managed to be absent or abstain on ALL OF THE VOTES in Parliament concerning Transparency for MP's expenses.

He is also the one that complained about police moonlighting with more than one job while having three others himself.

If you see him first Ian, do me a favour, give him a kick in the nuts for me he is nowhere to be seen locally and never a more deserving reciprocate.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Dale,
Much has been made of the mortgage payments and furnishings for those lucky enough to be elected to represent the general public, however only a cursory mention has been made of what I believe to be a scam and possibly fraud pertaining to the claiming of hotel bills.
There have been mentions of a number of MP claiming for expensive hotel stays however I have just read Nadine Dorries blog in which she states that the bill she submitted, (via her PA) that was not paid, due to Parliament being in recess, was in the name of Mr N Dorries. She also claims she did not stay at the hotel on that occasion. If this is the case who did stay there and why was a claim made for reimbursement for expenses not expended by Ms Dorries?