Parliament Rated Lowest as an Institution - PoliticsHome
Why We Called the Police - Taxpayers’ Alliance
Fiddling MPs Disgust Me - Peter Stringfellow
MacKay : “Nothing Unreasonable” - Bracknell Forest Standard
Belfast Blogger Wins Peace Award - BBC
Dolly Draper Dooms Kate’s Career - Daily Mail
Parliament Needs More Douglas Carswells - ConservativeHome
Is Your MP’s Nose in the Trough - Sun
Petition for Transparency on MPs’ Expenses
Expense Scandal is Maggie’s Fault - Kevin Maguire
Alarming Trends Surrounding Quantitative Easing - Fraser Nelson
Cameron Should Embrace Tebbit - Comment Central
Brown and Watson “Cleared” from Smeargate - LabourHome
Motion of No Confidence in the Speaker - Douglas Carswell
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009
I Will Pay Property Capital Gains Taxes ++++++ Greg Barker : I Will Pay Property Capital Gains Taxes +++
The Shadow Climate Change Minister Greg Barker is doing a Blears - he says he doesn’t have to but he will anyway. He is close (socially*) to the Cameron inner circle. It seems that the closer you are to Cameron the whiter-than-white you have to be.
Julie Kirkbride seems to have got off lighter than her husband, yet she is equally guilty of over-claiming…
*Someone once told Guido (unkindly) that Barker’s closeness to the Cameroon inner circle was largely a result of his willingness to pick up the restaurant tab.
2/3rds of Tories Say MacKay Should Resign
ConservativeHome polled 1,414 grassroots Tory members today and it don’t look good for troughers:
mackay-must-go
+++ MacKay : Local Conservative Association Livid +++
rsz_pay-it-back" width="150" height="95" style="float: right; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 10px; ">Guido has been contacted by constituency members from Andrew MacKay’s local Bracknell Conservative Association. To say they are livid is an understatement. They think he is in denial about his wrong doing and do not accept it was a mere error of judgement - they think it was a blatant troughing.
ConservativeHome is polling grassroots feeling on the issue. If a majority of party loyalists give him the thumbs down it signal real trouble. He may have no option but to consider “retirement”.
Andrew MacKay’s voting record on transparency issues is appalling - hardly surprising in the circumstances:
20 Apr 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — Keep disclosure for MPs’ expenses — absent
20 Apr 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — Exempt only correspondence — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
3 Jul 2008 MPs’ allowances — External audits and no more furniture — disagree
30 Apr 2009 MPs’ financial interests — absent
His constituents meet on Friday 22, May to decide his fate.
“I’ll Pay It All Back”
Calling Emergency Meeting in Constituency Next Week" MacKay : “I’ll Pay It All Back”
Calling Emergency Meeting in Constituency Next Week
He has sent out a statement to Conservative Party members in his constituency:
Message from Andrew.
11 a.m.
15th May 2009I wanted you to know immediately that this morning I resigned as David Cameron’s Senior Parliamentary and Political Adviser.
As you can imagine I have been working very closely with David over the expenses issue, and particularly his excellent tough stance, which has gained such approval this week.
Along with senior Shadow Cabinet members, I was among the first to submit my claims and receipts to internal Party examination. This morning, I was told that whilst I had acted on the advice of the Head of the Fees Office and been transparent in submitting annually my designated home and second home addresses, my arrangements would not necessarily pass David’s reasonableness test.
Consequently in a very early morning conversation with David, I submitted my resignation, which I thought was the right way forward.
I am sorry that we have all become embroiled in this expenses row, particularly as I was following advice. I am now traveling up to the Constituency to see as many of you as possible, and will of course be fulfilling engagements tomorrow and on Saturday, as well as campaigning for the European elections.
I have decided to call a public meeting in the Constituency on Friday, 22nd May, so that any constituents who have concerns can put them to me. I will let you have details as soon as this is arranged.
Andrew
UPDATE : According to numbers collected byBloomberg, MacKay and his wife Julie Kirkbride have claimed £282,731 since 2001. So that is £141,000 worth of over-claiming. No wonder why Cameron sacked him at sunrise this morning. This is straight forward looting.
+++ Police / Parliamentary Officials Discussing Elliot Morley +++
UPDATE 13.00 : He has referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. Unfortunately for him the Taxpayers’ Alliance has already referred his case to the police.
That Balls Injunction Rumour
This blog’s comment threads have been rife with rumours that Ed and Yvette have got an injunction preventing reporting of their financial affairs. Guido hasn’t had an injunction, nor has anyone he knows received one. So if the Telegraph is injuncted no one is letting on. If you know different get in touch.
+++ Andrew MacKay Resigns Over Expenses +++
Sky reporting that Andrew MacKay has resigned as Cameron’s senior adviser over “unacceptable” expense claims. Andrew MacKay was last seen having a run-in with the police over Damian Green.
UPDATE : MacKay is of course married to Julie Kirkbride MP. So this could be double interesting…
UPDATE II : MacKay has just described the situation with his expense as an“anomaly” to Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics. They are shameless.
MPs Crying Into Their Subsidised Beers
Guido was on the Commons terrace last night drinking subsidised Guinness. In the bar were some of the shadiest racketeers in Britain, hanging around for a Finance Bill vote on Bingo (Guido kids you not). In the bar were wannabeeRed Rag bloggers Charlie Whelan and Kevin “Make it up” Maguire - they made a swift exit before Guido could say “hello”. Gordon’s thuggish enforcer and chief whip Nick Brown was holding court like the mafia boss he resembles. A glum Lembit was literally propping up the bar all night. Outside on the terrace another disgraced LibDem, Andrew George, was glued to his mobile phone - no doubt still spinning that his daughter“sometimes” stays at his taxpayer financed flat - in reality it is him who sometimes stays there from Monday to Wednesday night and his daughter is there all week. (If he wants to challenge Guido on this he’ll be sorry).
Geoff Hoon was glumly sipping his beer, he downed his last pint and did that “I know who you are” stare thing that Labour figures have taken to doing with Guido, before presumably leaving for the bed we have bought for him. Rosie Winterton, Phil Woolas and a large gang of Labour cronies all looked pretty miserable. The low morale of Labour MPs was palpable, the perfect storm of smear and sleaze revelations has broken them. Guido will drink to that for some time…
Met Police Gearing Up for Investigations
On Tuesday Guido saw confirmation that the Metropolitan Police were preparing to make enquiries into MP’s expenses. Separately the Serious Fraud Office was referring enquiries to the Committee on Public Standards - who as far as Guido knows do not have powers of arrest.
This situation is so bad that it seems clear to Guido that only prison sentences will satisfy the public. Politicians have been operating a racket costing the taxpayers millions, stealing from the public purse on a scale that beggars belief. Labour MP Elliot Morley now claims he made a mistake. Morley deliberately lied to the fees office to steal from the taxpayers - he expects us to believe that he forgot he (we) had paid off his mortgage and carried on claiming long afterwards. That is unbelievable. He is not the only one who should be prosecuted for theft and fraud.
UPDATE : The Prime Minister is “very concerned” about allegations Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 for a non-existent mortgage.
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