UKIP Benefit From Anti-Politics Feeling | Guardian
Islamic Jihad Confirm IDF Hit | The Commentator
Sally Boobs Again | Telegraph
Tim Montgomerie Is Patronising Right-Wingers | Telegraph
Tory Election Guru Called Boris Aides “F***wits” | Standard
BBC Journalists Should Keep Views to Themselves | Dan Hodges
Dave Must Defend Sovereignty | Iain Martin
EU Propaganda Race Row | Crash Bang Wallace
Still Not Enough Being Done on International Aid | Backbencher
Guido’s Column | Daily Star Sunday
The Danger of Right-Wing Libertarian Bloggers | Tim Montgomerie
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2012
Helen’s Unfair Grant
Equalities Minister Helen Grant has opened up a new front on the rent swapping saga: claiming for a flat despite owning a property in another constituency close enough to London, that if they represented that area they would be unable to claim for a second home.We have had dozens of MPs owning property in London and renting another but the dishonest geography of this scam looks even more blatant. Last night’s Dispatches reported that Grant lives in a £1.8m house near her Maidstone seat and claims the maximum, to the penny, amount for taxpayer-funded flat in London.
Despite the commute from Maidstone being little over an hour, as a non-London MP, she is entitled to a second-home allowance. But Grant also owns a house in Reigate, less than twenty miles from Parliament. A taxi back there would be far cheaper than kitting her out with a luxury Thames-view pad. As for Ms Grant, her staff were more than happy to twist the knife on last night’s show. It seems she’s upset almost everyone. More later…
Dispatches: Rent-Swappers Revealed Tonight
This evening’s Dispatches will blow the lid on five more troughing rent-swapper MPs. Throughout October Guido revealed names of several of the MPs who were billing the taxpayer for the rent for their London accommodation despite owning properties in the capital that they themselves were renting out. Tonight’s programme alleges:- John Denham has the nerve to charge the taxpayer for rent even though he has receives income from a London property he rents out. When Guido asked greedy expenses-guzzler Denham why he had decided to become a rent-swapper at the height of the scandal he sobbed that: “I was forced to vacate the property (and rent a flat) directly and solely as a consequence of changes in IPSA rules. For the avoidance of doubt, I would strongly prefer to be living in this property and not a rented flat”.
- Tory DCMS select committee chairman and rent-swapper John Whittingdale has started claiming rent for a considerably more expensive property than the London flat the he owns, used to live in and now receives rental income for.
- Mark Pritchard is billing the taxpayer for the rent for a London property despite the fact that he also owns a flat in the capital.
- Labour’s Michael Meacher has pulled the same trick in Oldham.
- While Pat McFadden has done the same in Wolverhampton.
There are some very interesting names on that list. It would seem thatPeter Luff is renting off a Frank Lampard. According to the chants, there is only one Frank Lampard, so it must be the Chelsea footballer. Keith Simpson rents off Tory peer Howard Flight. Stephen Williams rents off disgraced LibDem peer Jenny Tonge while Julian Huppert rents from Channel Four’s much loved old political editor Elinor Goodman. Jessica Morden rents off Madeleine Moon. They’re both Labour MPs.
Every single one of these MPs is relaying the same old sob story word for word to try to excuse their rent-swap troughing.
They can blame the rules all they like, the fact is they are profiting thanks to the taxpayer…
UPDATE:
Michael Dugher MP, in charge of Labour's defence procurement review, rents off a Defence lobbyist.
Questions Pile Up for Thompson, But Not From Everyone
Questions about what former BBC Director General Mark Thompson knew about Savile, and when, are piling up on both sides of the pond. Even theNew York Times is gunning for their new boss. Thompson left his £834,000BBC gig on 16 September and started the $4M NYT job on 12 November. On 23 October – five weeks after quitting the BBC – Thompson wrote a letter to Tory MP Rob Wilson stating:
“During my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.”
Yet, it is now clear, thanks to freelance journalist Miles Goslett who has been investigating the Savile/BBC story for almost a year, and the Sunday Times, that on 6 September – 10 days before he quit the BBC – Thompson engaged lawyers Mills & Reeve to write a letter threatening to sue theSunday Times if it published certain allegations about Thompson’s knowledge of the Savile scandal dating back to December 2011. This letter was published on the Sunday Times website yesterday.Thompson now claims that he did not know exactly what Mills & Reeve’s letter contained and was not shown a copy of it before it was sent. This woeful explanation – the latest in a long line of laughable excuses – has been met with mockery in New York. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy wrote over the weekend:
“For his sake, I hope that Mark Thompson, the former BBC bigwig who recently took over as chief executive of the New York Times Company, rented an apartment rather than buying one. The way things are going, he could well be back in London pretty soon.”Thompson – and the New York Times’ owners – must be getting worried. How long can they maintain their position when their own reporters are covering this story prominently in the newsroom just a couple of floors below Thompson’s own office? Meanwhile, there is only silence on this story from the place that likes to consider itself the newspaper industry’s noticeboard: Media Guardian. Odd…
Tags: BBC, Media Guido
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