Friday, May 15, 2009

Troughing DUP Style

From today's Daily Telegraph's story on the Robinsons' parliamentary expenses:

"The second homes allowance claims included £30,525 on food between 2004 and 2008, with the couple claiming the maximum £400 per month each in most months".

This is despite the fact that the since 2005 Peter Robinson has been present for only 37.4% of parliamentary votes and Iris for only 28.4%. So - on top of the £571,939 tax-payer funded salaries of the Robinson family - Peter and Iris claimed the maximum food allowance while being present in Parliament for only 1/3rd of the time.

By the way, the average UK family food bill is calculated to be £100 per week for a family of four, equating to £5,200 per year. Peter and Iris' average yearly food bill for part-time parliamentary attendance - 2/3 days a week at most - is a whopping £6,105.

Sources

Peter Robinson's voting record
Iris Robinson's voting record
Robinson salaries
Average food bill

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should be thrown out of Parliament

JBW said...

I'm starting to feel physically sick now...

Anonymous said...

Apart from food should NEVER have been included. This is one of the clearest reasons why a vast change is needed.

resurgemus said...

And let's not forget coming up fast on the outside the Dodds family.

Nigel is MP for Belfast North and will soon be outearned by his wife Diane who is the DUP's first preference candidate in the Euroelections.

Ulster jobs for Ulster politicians

John Buckingham said...

Damn those immoral gays, eh? I'm sure someone can recommend a very nice counsellor to cure her of her greed.

Magic2010 said...

Good grief who are these people?

Max Biaggi said...

Told you yesterday this was coming.

Don't neglect to scrutinise those "office" expenses either. Constituency landlords tend to be family members on Planet DUP.

Oink! Oink!

Sir Dando Tweakshafte said...

This makes me so angry, I want to go and march down somebody else's street.

Do the NI assemblypersons get food allowances as well? You know the old saying, eat first, eat often...

Anonymous said...

Northern Ireland could be very interesting at the next election, Sinn Fein are troughing, DUP are troughing and the only UUP MP has indicated she is not standing under the new Tory/UUP arrangement.

This could well mean that an oranised party like the UUP/Tories could do very well in Northern ireland particularly given Cameron's lead in trying to clean it up!

Sinn Fein should be band from taking housing allowances for London/second homes allowance as they are seen as often as a Lepricorn!

Oldrightie said...

So when these people are not in Westminster they don't eat? Thieving beggars.

Kate. said...

Greedy bastards...!

Stepney said...

I think of all the expenses which have been showered upon and hoovered up the elite ruling classes, food is the one which upsets most people.

Not 3 doors away from me lives a pensioner who has real difficulty paying his council tax and seeing him hobble home with his meagre food provisions for the week is a sight which prompts real sadness. He'll be paying tax on his savings, on his purchases and what little fuel he uses.

He's paying those taxes to feed those who are already handsomely paid, millionaires some of them, yet, he can hardly afford to feed himself.

If any politician still fails to understand the outrage then they should spend a week in his shoes and have another little think.

One thing about this country makes me burst with pride and that's that although we are slow to rage, it is the iniquities and injustices heaped upon those that don't deserve it which make us rise up in anger. And this is a case in point.

We still have a proper sense of fair play and propriety and we will not let an arrogant elite dump all over the poor nor trample over the will of the people.

The Balls family - joint income north of £300,000 and claiming £400 a month for food. My poor neighbour is paying for your steaks and asparagus.

Still keeping the red flag flying are we?

Owen Polley said...

Iain - Robbo himself seems to reckon the £30,525 related to four years. I've used his maths on my own site and came out with a figure of over £500 a week EACH on their attendance figures.

PIENOMICS said...

That tastes good!

The Grim Reaper said...

Given the amount MPs are claiming for food in expenses, I'm amazed that Westminster isn't the obesity capital of the country yet!

Unknown said...

I can't stand our NI politicians....And Iris is one of the worst self opinionated trumped up fool of an over exaggerated excuse of an immoral MP!!!! Sorry I do beleive I've made my point now...lol

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Nice to see the Irish have not divided along sectarian lines for once.

Anonymous said...

But when do we get Galloway???

Anonymous said...

There's a recession. They should be having packed lunches!

Stephen Glenn said...

Iain this is before taking into account any expenses etc that they claim as MLAs and in Peter's case as a Minister and now First Minister.

Unknown said...

Another point I feel I should make...MP's who are MLA's etc should NOT get 2 wages....you cannot be in 2 places at once....one wage per person please!!! And the sooner we get both Sinn Fein and DUP OUT of politics the better!! Bigotry is sooooo last century!!! :o)

iain, ni said...

Robinson claims its only an average of £73 a week really. So thats all right then apparently. £73 a week if you turn up to Westminster and do your friggin job 52 weeks a year, you greedy bastard.

Sunil said...

Do the Robinsons read the Bible?
"The eye of a needle" is part of a phrase attributed to Jesus by the synoptic gospels:

"...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
The parallel versions appear in Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25 and Luke 18:24-25.

Lord Snooty said...

This is appalling, I agree. But it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, Iain, when you post something like this whilst at the same time defending your mates like Nadine and David Davis. You're a hypocrite.

ranger1640 said...

The Robinsons are bottom feeding arrogant scum. The Robinsons are a self-serving state sponsored political dynasty and are not true Unionists along with many of their leaching party.

We need the Conservatives to mobilise in a meaningful way in Northern Ireland to rid us of half baked self-serving so called Unionists.

Unlike the rest of the UK we vote to keep the other side out rather than voting for the politicians and party we want.

If they jail these two greedy parasites you will not hear mass protests in their favour.

As a Unionist I am sick to death of this type of self-serving Unionist politicos. We in Northern Ireland are like many other parts of the UK that have poor education and low paid jobs. If these two put as much energy into improving education and ensuring they brought well paid long term jobs to Northern Ireland as they did into their expenses we would not be in a recession, however they refer expenses over education or jobs.

Ulster Unionist & Conservative

Ulster Till I Die.

Cynic said...

And if you want to know where it all went, read this

https://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2008/apr/20/the-world-according-to-iris/

Paul said...

Nice to see that politicians from all parts of the UK are not immune to digging into the public trough with impunity.

Watching one of the BNP election videos I was reminded of the DUP in many ways - feeding the voters rabble-rousing bigotry to get themselves elected then robbing their electorate blind in office.

I hope that the DUP doesn't represent Northern Ireland as a whole.

David Vance said...

How dare you suggest that this is troughing?
Everyone knows that the pressures of building a political dynasty on the scale of the Swish Family Robinson builds up a large appetite.

Then again, Peter and Irish also ENJOY the benefits of the epicurian delights at the devolved Stormont assembly. So their hunger is pertetual - as is their greed.

Pigs. Trough.Pitchforks required.

David Hughes said...

What really pisses me off is that, regardless of where they are ( and it's not just the Robinson's) they have to eat. It's not an expense they have for attending the `House" to cover the cost of living away. It's an expense that should be covered - like all "normal" people have to do- by their wages.
You have to eat from your normal budget - why an allowance for a normal activity that everyone covers with their wages !
That and a bath plug of 88p is more likely to do for these twats rather than the ludicrous cost of having you moat cleaned.
It ain't the big things - it's the little things.

Frustated Belfast taxpayer said...

The sad thing is that with the honourable exception of one journalist, not one of the N.Irish media would have touched this and the abuses by the DUP of the wider democratic system. What we need is a fearless Norn Iron Guido, he wouldn't struggle for material.