Constituents of Luton Labour MP Margaret Moran will no doubt have been delighted to receive Christmas cards from her, albeit they all had a 2006 calendar on the back of them, which had been struck through with a felt pen. I wonder who paid for these cards - Margaret Moran or you, the poor bloody taxpayer. Whoever it was should be demanding their money back.
UPDATE: A correspondent writes: From www.theyworkforyou.com in 2004-5 Margaret Moran had the 2nd highest expenses of any MP (£168,567)(despite having a constituency local to London and therefore low travel). Her postal expenses that year were £35,347, the 4th highest of all MPs".
Wonder why that could be then.
I can't believe this has been up for nearly an hour and no one's made a MORAN joke.
ReplyDeleteBecause to do so would be totally Moranic.
ReplyDeleteMPs should pay for their own Christmas Cards as should Ministers and Civil Servants.
ReplyDeleteCorporate Christmas cards are so stupid - I have yet to comprehend how a Company under the 1985 Companies Act can wish me anything - it is incapable of expressing sentiments - it is a legal fiction for liability purposes
Labour sells these cards to its representitives at the bargain price of £20 for 2000, including a message, photos and whatever inside.
ReplyDeletePerhaps she was using some left over from the previous year, rather than waste valuable resources and having more printed. If it turns out they were being paid for by the tax payer, then actually, it would seem, she is SAVING you money
Just out of sheer curiousity, if anybody has received a Christmas card from their local Labour association/ politician, what was on the front of it?
ReplyDeleteI always thought MPs had to pay the postage for any Xmas cards they sent out and that it couldn't come from their incidental expenses. Tell me they cant claim such a thing!
ReplyDeleteDodgy calendars have already contributed to the downfall of one Labour MP. When Geraint Davies (Croydon Central) sent out 2005 calendars to constituents, complaints were made to the Serjeant-at-Arms and the Parliamentary Commissioner. If I recall correctly, the taxpayer had unlawfully paid for the stamps and Mr Davies had to cough up and claim "administrative error". It later transpired that he had spent more on postage expenses than any other MP. Partly as a result of coverage in the local press, he lost in the 2005 GE by 75 votes to Andrew Pelling (Conservative). In his first year in office, Mr Pelling's expenses were £65,000 less than his predecessors.
ReplyDeleteThere is no one from Labour that has EVER saved this country any money.
ReplyDeleteThey are high tax and spend and will always fail in the long run.
A propos of nothing relevant to this, does anyone know where the great freeloader and his brood are spending their holiday in the sun this Christmas?
ReplyDeleteAnd did the Great Fog at the airport cause them any inconvenience?
Idle curiosity.
I think I can excuse a Labour MP being a year behind the times. However, I do not excuse the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer of Thoroton, for his out dated views going back to the time of King Edward III (1312-1337). In particular, for holding on to the notion of "civic death". Nor do I excuse him for going back to Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), and the social contract. It is bad enough when he goes back to the Forfeiture Act 1870, s.2 of the Act provided that any person convicted of treason or felony and sentenced to a term of imprisonment exceeding 12 months lost the right to vote at parliamentary or local elections until they had served their sentence. These provisions were re-enacted again in s.3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. Time moved on, in October 2000 the Human Rights Act 1998 (which incorporated the European Convention) came into force. It was obvious that s.3 of the RPA was incompatible with Article 3 of Protocol 1, in relation to an obligation to hold free elections for those members of the public not at large. The government was challenged on this outdated view, and the ECtHR stated that "In the twenty-first century, the presumption in a democratic State must be in favour of inclusion...Universal suffrage has become the basic principle". Given this, it is time that Lord Falconer moved on. His Prisoners voting rights consultation paper, shows that he has not. If the Lord Chancellor wishes to remain in a time warp, perhaps he should do so in retirement and not in the office of a Minister of State?
ReplyDeleteWith regards to an MP's expenses,
ReplyDeleteperhaps all of these expenses should be paid for by the local constituents, maybe in with the rates bill.
every day, Labour's costing you . . .
ReplyDeleteMoranMoranMoranMoran....
JHL
ReplyDeleteReserve your claptrap for own blog. You should never be allowed to vote. Your type are all about your bloody rights including the right to take someone's life. Until you acknowledge the evil of your act you should have no rights at all. Quit polluting this blog and get back under your rock you piece of self pitying deluded vermin.
Have delivered three different Labour cards this year. Two for wards in Manchester Withington. One (Chorlton) with Arlene McCarthy MEP where the MP would normally go. Is this a bit of a pre-emptive strike at the selection? This had a snowy local scene on the front. The second (Chorlton Park) with no MP or MEP mentioned. With two snowpeople on the front and a personally handwritten message in every single one. The third card for the City Centre had a jolly city centre scene and MP (Tony Lloyd) and candidate mugs inside, even softer sell than the other two ... with no contact details. The two with calendars have the correct year! This year I have not received cards from the two most local Labour MPs ... Tony Lloyd whose constituency I am still in, and Gerald Kaufman who just missed out. Perhaps they'll arrive later ... usually HP standard issue cards. We have received a snowy scene from our Lib Dem MP John Leech. This has a P&P on both the card and the sanctimonious scrawled letter inside. This uses the occasion of Christmas to again celebrate and justify Mr Leech's hospital hoax. In this he claimed that our regional cancer hospital the Christie was to close. Totally untrue, but leaflets saying so were callously distrubuted in patient's waiting lists to those there for chemeo- and radio- therapy. I am still working out whether the easily identified seven sins can be stretched to the 12 lies of christmas.
ReplyDeleteChris P waht a saddo you seem. Next you'll be regaling us about why the Battle of Naseby went the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteSo the Labour Party tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth do they?
We've heard from the crackers, so pull the other one!
griswold: I don't believe that it is claptrap, I couldn't be more sincere if I tried in my attempt to extend the franchise to the deserving prisoners. The whole point of the media is to push a message across. I think it is a stupid suggestion to reserve it for my own blog. My type? Surely you are stereotyping? That really is a narrow minded approach. Are you setting yourself up as my judge. I am sorry, but you have no legal standing on this issue. And, I have already claimed the moral high ground. That only leaves you somewhere beneath me. You claim to speak for Iain? From what I have seen of him, he speaks for himself. As for polluting this blog, I think I can safely leave that in your hands. What rock? I am an English man, and an English man's home is his castle. Is there such a thing as a self pitying deluded vermin? You will probably find out that you are wrong on that score aswell. "Even the dull and ignorant have their story to tell", I read your's. Can't say I thought much of it.
ReplyDeleteMy Mum used to tear up my Dad's Christmas card (after a decent interval) to prevent him from re-using it the following year.
ReplyDeleteManipulative, deeply boring and predictable JHL:
ReplyDeleteDon't you understand that all of your postings are insane? Your self-justifications are meandering and bonkers? Don't you get it?
You hacked an old lady to death because she irritated you. And you think you have a place in the real world?
Here is a quote from your post: "Are you setting yourself up as my judge. I am sorry, but you have no legal standing on this issue. And, I have already claimed the moral high ground."
The moral high ground. You took an old lady away from her family forever in a fearful display of axe savagery - no doubt nightmareish - from her family. You are bonkers.
I will say it again: You have little connection to reality.
You should not be living in Hull or wherever, free and at large, because you have failed to understand what you have done. You should have been lethally injected or banged up in a permanent sense. You and your bizarre "legal" arguments are the products of failed "legal professors" who failed to make the grade and get a real job. What they have to say about your being sadly banged up is a yawneroo.
You should not be roaming around free.
Someone will get your dog to the RSPCA. Don't worry. But you need to be gone. Permanently.
verity: I don't necessarily think that being manipulative is a bad thing, I certainly have pulled your strings. You really should get out more if you are feeling bored. I am glad that you noticed that I am predictable, because for years I was deemed to be dangerous on the grounds of unpredictability. I don't think that postings can be insane, however, they may be read by some people who are. You have totally missed the point, there is no self-justification because it cannot be justified. So why bother trying? Sometimes I meander, and sometimes I come straight to the point. I think it is your ravings which lead me to think that you are unhinged. Don't I get what?
ReplyDeleteYou have a vivid imagination. I was there. I know and you only think you know. I not only think, but I know I have a place in the real world.
I claimed the moral high ground 15 years after the event. "The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country" (Winston S. Churchill). Judging by that test, you show that you are very uncivilised.
I earned my freedom. Therefore I am entitled to it. And, I intend to enjoy it until such time as I kick the bucket. As it happens, my dog is a rescue dog. He appreciates being given a new lease of life. Try not to let things get you down so much, your life sounds like hell.
"Her postal expenses that year were £35,347,"
ReplyDeleteSo that's £700 per week, or about 2500 items every working day, week in, week-out including holidays.
Q. Why is this woman not imprisoned in the tower?
A. because although they're not ALL at it, enough of them are in each main party to not land their mates in Mark Oaten's hair gel by demanding an explanation/investigation into the gross corruption involved.