FlightMan

BBC NEWS | Politics | Minister cleared in expenses row

The MP, named communities minister on Tuesday, said he was "delighted".
He said reporting of the case had been "lazy" and had damaged his reputation.

£700+ on a massage chair, and he's calling reporters lazy!!

They still don't get it do they?

Martin2005

Not sure about this, he was cleared of any wrong doing, should that be enough for us? Do we want justice or a witch hunt?

Personally I think he was a very poor minister, and fairly unconvincing when challenged about expenses..but and it's a big but if the guy is found to be innocent then shouldn't we accept that?

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

Last year that particular MP claimed a total of £157,255 in expenses.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't trust that slimy weasel as far as I could boot him in the head.

SunnySideUp

He has only been found not guilty of his rental agreement ... fair enough, he stood up and was counted.

It's the charging for Massage chairs and big TV's, moats and duck houses which stick in the publics throat ...... and they cannot see that it is unreasonable that we pay for it all ....

I really don't trust this bloke, too slimey for me ... reminds me of a Car Salesman and Estate Agent rolled into one slippery individual.

Wouldn't it be good to have a list of all MP's, what they claimed for, whether they have other jobs and then to have a General vote on them? They get voted out then there is a by-election ..... they get voted in, they stay.

I don't care whether Labour, Tory, Lib-Dems .... a lot of them, in all colours, have their noses in the trough.

unclebuck

Another whitewash

What a surprise.

dpb

ALL These spongers are going to not be found guilty - it would be far too damaging otherwise ,



Total farce

FlightMan

Do you think anyone who thinks it's right to submit a claim for £2100 for a TV and £730 for a massage chair, has any right representing a constituency? Would you vote for him, if he was your MP, knowing that?

SJ_Skyline

Well said Pete

Holding an election now is the wrong thing though IMHO. Vote in haste, repent at leisure - as we have seen with the BNP gaining seats. Reforms need time to bed in and we, the public need to let things move on a little and calm down before we can make the right decision on who should be elected.

Martin2005

I wouldn't vote for him regardless of his expenses.

Leslie

I believe that the only way to enegender any kind of trust in our politicians, both from the people of this country and from other countries is to find out all of those MP's who were milking the system that they invented, to make a personal profit by any common sense point of view, forgetting the corrupt system that they put in place, and sack them all for dishonesty right away regardless of party colours or however important that they may be regarded to be.

All these excuses of "making an error" or being "within the rules" is absolute rubbish and cuts no ice with the rest of us. How can you forget you have paid up your mortgage just for a start.

We should then have a full election with new MP's all round who have not shown signs of dishonesty.

Les

Martin2005

Well Les I think you just described the government policy

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

Really? The rest of us didn't notice. When did the above become government policy?

Leslie

Martin, did you actually read my post? I have not seen anything anywhere near that sort of action from any of the parties!

Les

Martin2005

Well you should try and keep up then

Every MP is to have their expenses vetted by an independent body/auditor. Those that have transgressed to be dealt with, so to
quote GB, let's let them 'get on with it'

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

So, it's a muahahahahahahahahahaha whitewash, then?

An independent body? Under nu Labia? Muahahahahahahahahahaha!

Martin2005

Well it's either independent or it isn't. I'm just telling what the plans are, you can misconstrue those to your hearts content

The Zohan

"Lets get on with it" - pah!

Funny is it not that Camoron and Flash and some of their MP's fought against such an independent body until this was forced onto them then jump on the bandwagon.

Shame Browns Presbyterian values did not pain him until after this was out in the open, forcibly exposed by a newspaper.

Brown has no credit to take or moral high ground to run up onto, nor Camoron really!

Martin2005

Yes I agree with you on all points, but that doesn't change the fact that this needs to be dealt with, otherwise how do we move forward?

This is our democracy let's not allow ourselves to tear it down over this issue.

Martin2005

I have no idea, I assume you do though given the nature of your question

I guess my view is that this process will not be credible unless it has the confidence of the public, therefore I'd expect it to be completely transparent and rigorous. Otherwise the politician wont be able to move on, which is what they more than anyone else want to do.

BOB.T

MPs are all a bunch of c***s, end of!

JPF

iTrader: (1)

LOL Thats about as accurate as all scooby drivers being speeding chavs...oh, end of!...people need to chill out and look for facts, not just go by the junk in the papers...maybe try talking to some MPs or to people that work with them?, there all just people, some good, some bad.
...wonder what news paper editors and owners get up to eh? we never get to hear about those fat cats do we.

dpb

These individuals are publis servants JPF,or maybe you believe once elected theyre elevated to diety status , on the same plateau as the pope perhaps ( another mad society )

Why should we in all honesty be paying for their luxurys and cgt

OllyK

Who gets to determine who is on this independant commitee? If it's MP's then it isn't indepenant. Oh, it's MP's there's a surprise.

JPF

iTrader: (1)

How many MPs out of the 600 hundred odd have claimed for luxurys? most the articals in the news are from a minority of MPs repeated over and over again.

I'm just trying to bring some balance to things. I happen to Know someone who is planning to run in the next general election(shes in local government at the mo)
She is a very nice and trustworthy person that wants to get into paliment to help abused men and women amongst many other things. She has told me quite a few interesting things about some MPs she knows.
Many are decent people and work hard to help, but there are some that are hated due to the abuses they get up to. taring all with the same brush just creats a smoke screen for the wrong doers and dissuades decent people from bothering to run as an MP.

Im no nieve to politics if thats what you are trying to infer, I'm just not nieve of the ways of our media ether.

OllyK

Don't know, but if they'd get on and publish the expenses like they were supposed to have done following the FOI outcome, we may actually get to know.

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

What, independent like Hutton? Or did I misconstrue that too?

Martin are yoiu REALLY as naive as you write?

Martin2005

What has Hutton got to do with this? And what do you know about his independence or not as the case may be?

I'm sure you can conflate every controversial political issue from the last 12 years, it wont actually get us anywhere will it?

Do you actually want this issue sorted, or are you just wallowing in false anger. Personally I don't know how things can move forward until this mess gets sorted. BTW MP expenses are going to be public record (or so I understand it to be) therefore there shouldn't be room for cover-up.

As for being naive, because I don't agree with you, I'm naive, thats an interesting way of debating with someone. I could easily claim the same about you, but I'm not going down the personal attack route that you on the right on SN like to employ