It’s all go today, the clean as a whistle MPs are to elect a new Speaker, the snag is, can they find someone who is acceptable to both the House and the public, because being the Speaker does not remove the stigma of the expenses fiasco from the one elected.
The candidates are:-
Margaret Beckett (Lab) (made a £600 claim for hanging baskets and pot plants. She dismissed the claim as a "mistake" although analysis of her expenses shows she made three similar claims on previous occasions)
Parmjit Dhanda (Lab) (repeatedly claimed the wrong amount of mortgage on his expenses)
John Bercow (Con) (“flipped” his second home from his constituency to a £540,000 flat in London and claimed the maximum possible allowances for it. Bercow, a candidate for next Speaker, "repaid" £6,500 capital gains tax on the sale of two properties. His expenses files reveal he also twice charged the public purse for the cost of hiring a chartered accountant to complete his annual tax return)
Sir Patrick Cormack (Con) (claimed expenses for household bills at both his main and second homes)
Sir Alan Haselhurst (Con) (charged the taxpayer almost £12,000 for gardening bills at his farmhouse in Essex, his expenses claims show. He was involved in an angry exchange with Parliamentary staff over his habit of submitting expense claims supported by estimates of his costs rather than by bills showing the actual amount he had spent)
Sir Michael Lord (Con) (claimed more than £8,000 over five years for his garden. He also claimed £82 for seven copies of TV footage from the House of Commons recorded on a day he took part in a debate)
Richard Shepherd (Con) (has repaid £162 to the Fees Office after deciding he should not have claimed for cleaning and gardening at his constituency home)
Ann Widdecombe (Con) (claimed just £858 on her second home allowance in 2007/08. However, she did spend more than £9,000 of taxpayers' money on her own personal newspaper cuttings service over a four year period)
Sir George Young (Con) (claimed the maximum second home allowance on his London flat for the past two years. He also billed taxpayers for the cost of a video camera so that he could broadcast clips of himself at work on YouTube)
Sir Alan Beith (Lib Dem) (claimed £117,000 in second home allowances while his wife, Baroness Maddock, claimed £60,000 in House of Lords expenses for staying at the same address. He also used his office expenses to pay for his London secretary to spend a month in his constituency during the last general election campaign)
All whiter than white-NOT.
Which one would you like to be in charge of sorting out the expenses policy for MPs?
Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry
NHS Behind the headlines
Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE
The candidates are:-
Margaret Beckett (Lab) (made a £600 claim for hanging baskets and pot plants. She dismissed the claim as a "mistake" although analysis of her expenses shows she made three similar claims on previous occasions)
Parmjit Dhanda (Lab) (repeatedly claimed the wrong amount of mortgage on his expenses)
John Bercow (Con) (“flipped” his second home from his constituency to a £540,000 flat in London and claimed the maximum possible allowances for it. Bercow, a candidate for next Speaker, "repaid" £6,500 capital gains tax on the sale of two properties. His expenses files reveal he also twice charged the public purse for the cost of hiring a chartered accountant to complete his annual tax return)
Sir Patrick Cormack (Con) (claimed expenses for household bills at both his main and second homes)
Sir Alan Haselhurst (Con) (charged the taxpayer almost £12,000 for gardening bills at his farmhouse in Essex, his expenses claims show. He was involved in an angry exchange with Parliamentary staff over his habit of submitting expense claims supported by estimates of his costs rather than by bills showing the actual amount he had spent)
Sir Michael Lord (Con) (claimed more than £8,000 over five years for his garden. He also claimed £82 for seven copies of TV footage from the House of Commons recorded on a day he took part in a debate)
Richard Shepherd (Con) (has repaid £162 to the Fees Office after deciding he should not have claimed for cleaning and gardening at his constituency home)
Ann Widdecombe (Con) (claimed just £858 on her second home allowance in 2007/08. However, she did spend more than £9,000 of taxpayers' money on her own personal newspaper cuttings service over a four year period)
Sir George Young (Con) (claimed the maximum second home allowance on his London flat for the past two years. He also billed taxpayers for the cost of a video camera so that he could broadcast clips of himself at work on YouTube)
Sir Alan Beith (Lib Dem) (claimed £117,000 in second home allowances while his wife, Baroness Maddock, claimed £60,000 in House of Lords expenses for staying at the same address. He also used his office expenses to pay for his London secretary to spend a month in his constituency during the last general election campaign)
All whiter than white-NOT.
Which one would you like to be in charge of sorting out the expenses policy for MPs?
Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry
NHS Behind the headlines
Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE
2 comments:
Out of that lot, none of them! I didn't know Becket had claimed for hanging baskets. Basket case herself.
Quite agree, none of them are suitable, maybe the speaker should be someone who is not an MP.
Post a Comment