In a sign that politicians are starting to “break ranks” it has been reported that a former Labour minister has confirmed that politicians are claiming expenses and allowances out of greed – rather than need!
We quote:
MPs see the £23,000 of taxpayers’ money they can claim to pay for a second home as a “target to aim for”, a highly-respected former Labour minister has admitted.
Chris Mullin, a member of Parliament’s standards watchdog, said it was “human nature” that MPs would claim as much as they could get away with.
It is the first time an MP has confessed that the Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) is seen as an automatic entitlement and not a way of reimbursing legitimate expenditure.
Mr Mullin’s comments are certain to infuriate Commons Speaker Michael Martin, who last week launched a controversial battle to keep details of their expenses secret.
He spoke out as it emerged that MPs will not be forced to explain exactly what work is done by any relatives they employ using their public-funded staff allowance. Unquote.
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Comments
10 Responses to “Allowancesgate: Politicians breaking ranks?”
So that’s all right then. There’s me thinking MP’s were elected to not just to represent their constituents, but to act honorably and set an example to us all, not to abuse our trust by fiddling their expenses in such spectacular fashion.
What I’d like to know is who drew up the lax rules on MP’s expenses and allowances and set the generous limits of claim? Did anyone take advice from accountants or make a cursory check on the kind of stringent rules which apply to those of us in the real word, which in hindsight should have been similarly applied to MP’s?
Obviously this person is completely to blame for putting temptation before our hapless MP’s. How this person could have done this, without taking account of ‘human nature’ and anticipating the inevitable result, is quite beyond me. It’s clear that it’s not the MP’s fault at all that they seized this opportunity to milk the system for all it was worth. After all, its only public money, and they’re quite entitled to it.
Furthermore, you musn’t blame any of them for failing to raise any sort of query or objection to this blatant gravy train. It’s human nature, you see.
The Welshman on
March 30th, 2008 11:35 pm
Mister J…..Sooooo sorry…. I must pick you up on that observation…. ‘Two Lovely Black Eyes’…not a Traditional British Song…. An Italian song made famous by Enrico Caruso… Vieni sul mar…. However, I must agree with you on the rest of your posting.. the ‘Black Eyes’ are verily acceptable. As a Welsh pro singer, back in the 1970’s, I loved working in Scotland and was always bowled over by the welcome and warmth of the Scottish People. However, Michael Martin is about as far removed from these people that I knew as Mercury is from Pluto. Have a nice day ‘J’ and I’m sure we’ll make massive inroads at the next elections.
Noel on
March 30th, 2008 11:38 pm
This “former Labour minster” has merely set himself up for a fall.
He seems to have overlooked the fact that when you swim among sharks, you’d better continue to look and behave like a shark and not try to turn yourself into a cod!
Askari on
March 31st, 2008 6:41 am
Contemporary politicians are all rats. It should therefor be no surprise to us that one of them chooses to “rat” on the others.
Of course, our own Leadership are not rats; they are Grand Politicians harking back to the days long ago when politics was a calling which still attracted some of the brightest and best minds in the Kingdom, and was a means for some very decent, gifted people to serve the public.
Despairing Dan on
March 31st, 2008 8:05 am
If any of them were half decent they would do us all a favour and resign. However they seem to forget who it is that puts them in their positions of trust. Well, they have shown themselves to be untrustworthy, and will now have to face the consequences of their greed. They can cover their tracks as much as they like, all it does is show they have plenty to hide. As I’ve said before, most of them are totally out of their depth as politicians anyway, thats why we are in the mess we are. If they were employed in industry they would have been sacked long ago. It is their mind blowing arrogance that amazes me, totally out of touch with reality, and the people (Not me I hasten to add) who put them there!
baz on
March 31st, 2008 9:53 am
Perhaps this government should make fiddling your expenses an olympic sport. Plenty of gold medals up for Britain then.
RW on
March 31st, 2008 10:54 am
The problem is that any established party will attract careerists, not people with fire in their bellies wanting to right wrongs. When the Labour Party was new, in about 1900, it had co-operative types, friendly and housing societies, Keir Hardie and his miners, intellectuals like Wells excited by new education and technology possibilities. But slowly it morphed into smug trade union leader types with their fiefdoms, and public school types in control such as Gaitskell for example; and has now decayed so far that no working class interests are represented at all, and the only passion is for screwing money from taxpayers. It’s analogous to a new religion - the founders have some passion, but, once established, cautious-minded subterfuging types worm themselves in. Maybe in 2100 the BNP will be like that. But for now it’s the leader; probably Labour will decline, as the Liberal Party did after 1900, when it was seen as representing rich and powerful interests under the pretext of free trade and free market economics.
Nostradamus on
March 31st, 2008 6:50 pm
The politicians from all mainstream parties have given this country away and the final straw was the signing of the EU constitution. If we are to have Europe forced on us and ruled from Brussels then we in this country have no need for the houses of parliament and all the imbeciles inside. All we need are a few representatives that are already in position, e.g. the Eastern region, Northern region etc. We then sell off the Houses of parliament and all of the main houses and assets. We then take all the politicians’ pensions away from them and boot them out i.e. made redundant without perks. After all why do we need these politicians when over eighty per cent of our laws are made by Europe and more of our control is to be lost, so why do we need them? These so-called politicians want reforms, so let us give it to them–maybe the houses of parliament can be turned into a migration centre or a giant gambling casino. I know someone who will shortly attempt to place a petition onto the prime minister’s website and hope that everyone visiting this site will support and promote it. If successful it will really give the greedy pigs something to think about.
RedWhiteAnBlue on
April 2nd, 2008 12:45 am
Or is he just trying to buy insurance for the future ?- please take the noose from my neck,i helped to spill the beans,didnt you read my quote ? Traitors-every last one ! vote BNP
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Oh, what a surprise.
What the swine needs are two lovely black eyes!
(Traditional British song)
http://www.know-britain.com/songs/two_lovely_black_eyes.html
So that’s all right then. There’s me thinking MP’s were elected to not just to represent their constituents, but to act honorably and set an example to us all, not to abuse our trust by fiddling their expenses in such spectacular fashion.
What I’d like to know is who drew up the lax rules on MP’s expenses and allowances and set the generous limits of claim? Did anyone take advice from accountants or make a cursory check on the kind of stringent rules which apply to those of us in the real word, which in hindsight should have been similarly applied to MP’s?
Obviously this person is completely to blame for putting temptation before our hapless MP’s. How this person could have done this, without taking account of ‘human nature’ and anticipating the inevitable result, is quite beyond me. It’s clear that it’s not the MP’s fault at all that they seized this opportunity to milk the system for all it was worth. After all, its only public money, and they’re quite entitled to it.
Furthermore, you musn’t blame any of them for failing to raise any sort of query or objection to this blatant gravy train. It’s human nature, you see.
Mister J…..Sooooo sorry…. I must pick you up on that observation…. ‘Two Lovely Black Eyes’…not a Traditional British Song…. An Italian song made famous by Enrico Caruso… Vieni sul mar…. However, I must agree with you on the rest of your posting.. the ‘Black Eyes’ are verily acceptable. As a Welsh pro singer, back in the 1970’s, I loved working in Scotland and was always bowled over by the welcome and warmth of the Scottish People. However, Michael Martin is about as far removed from these people that I knew as Mercury is from Pluto. Have a nice day ‘J’ and I’m sure we’ll make massive inroads at the next elections.
This “former Labour minster” has merely set himself up for a fall.
He seems to have overlooked the fact that when you swim among sharks, you’d better continue to look and behave like a shark and not try to turn yourself into a cod!
Contemporary politicians are all rats. It should therefor be no surprise to us that one of them chooses to “rat” on the others.
Of course, our own Leadership are not rats; they are Grand Politicians harking back to the days long ago when politics was a calling which still attracted some of the brightest and best minds in the Kingdom, and was a means for some very decent, gifted people to serve the public.
If any of them were half decent they would do us all a favour and resign. However they seem to forget who it is that puts them in their positions of trust. Well, they have shown themselves to be untrustworthy, and will now have to face the consequences of their greed. They can cover their tracks as much as they like, all it does is show they have plenty to hide. As I’ve said before, most of them are totally out of their depth as politicians anyway, thats why we are in the mess we are. If they were employed in industry they would have been sacked long ago. It is their mind blowing arrogance that amazes me, totally out of touch with reality, and the people (Not me I hasten to add) who put them there!
Perhaps this government should make fiddling your expenses an olympic sport. Plenty of gold medals up for Britain then.
The problem is that any established party will attract careerists, not people with fire in their bellies wanting to right wrongs. When the Labour Party was new, in about 1900, it had co-operative types, friendly and housing societies, Keir Hardie and his miners, intellectuals like Wells excited by new education and technology possibilities. But slowly it morphed into smug trade union leader types with their fiefdoms, and public school types in control such as Gaitskell for example; and has now decayed so far that no working class interests are represented at all, and the only passion is for screwing money from taxpayers. It’s analogous to a new religion - the founders have some passion, but, once established, cautious-minded subterfuging types worm themselves in. Maybe in 2100 the BNP will be like that. But for now it’s the leader; probably Labour will decline, as the Liberal Party did after 1900, when it was seen as representing rich and powerful interests under the pretext of free trade and free market economics.
The politicians from all mainstream parties have given this country away and the final straw was the signing of the EU constitution. If we are to have Europe forced on us and ruled from Brussels then we in this country have no need for the houses of parliament and all the imbeciles inside. All we need are a few representatives that are already in position, e.g. the Eastern region, Northern region etc. We then sell off the Houses of parliament and all of the main houses and assets. We then take all the politicians’ pensions away from them and boot them out i.e. made redundant without perks. After all why do we need these politicians when over eighty per cent of our laws are made by Europe and more of our control is to be lost, so why do we need them? These so-called politicians want reforms, so let us give it to them–maybe the houses of parliament can be turned into a migration centre or a giant gambling casino. I know someone who will shortly attempt to place a petition onto the prime minister’s website and hope that everyone visiting this site will support and promote it. If successful it will really give the greedy pigs something to think about.
Or is he just trying to buy insurance for the future ?- please take the noose from my neck,i helped to spill the beans,didnt you read my quote ? Traitors-every last one ! vote BNP