Two approaches, same result

David

To be fair to Cameron, the Beeb seems to prefer talling about Tories than, say, Labour ministers being dodgy with their taxes.

I'm pretty sure I heard Today claim that Cameron was coming off worse since no one from the Cabinet had gone. Nice spin.

Mike, Brighton

She had to go. You cannot be married to another MP and claim a second home allowance on a different home than that claimed by your partner without it looking downright fraudulent and the maximisation of expenses by the couple.

Now what about Hoon, McNulty, Blears and Darling all of whom have been up to worse and not a peep from them....

Joe Mooney

I am ever so pleased that she has gone.

She must now pay back all the money.

Mark

Labour's star chamber is utterly typical of the secretive and twisted nature of the Labour Party under Brown. Pointless macho nonsense (see McBride and the like etc etc)that ends up signifying very little. Spot on Peter.

Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur.

When all is said and done, she was still a bloody good constituency MP. Bromsgrove has just lost an effective (albeit not always very wise or candid) public servant.

George Laird

Dear Peter

Although Julie Kirkbride MP is not seeking re-election remember her name for she will probably be popping up on the guango circuit.

She will be back in an NGO post somewhere, possibly on £100k.

I think her use of what I would describe as the "muumy card" shows even at the end; she still didn't get it or deliberately chose not to.

Her mistake was repeatedly exercising poor judgement.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

chris

Re the BBC: Is it too much to hope that they might be next on the list, for close scrutiny, of our public institutions who employ people who have their own agenda?
Yes, I think we should know a lot more about how they spend our money.
I image that some of their presenters and back-rom workers would have a lot to say, should they be allowed, and not in fear of losing their jobs.

CS

*** Bromsgrove has just lost an effective (albeit not always very wise or candid) public servant....***

...who was on the fiddle.

Albeit not very wise or candid??? Doesn't that translate as "not very bright and tells lies"? If her constituents can't trust either her judgement or her honesty, it's hard to see how she could be a bloody good MP.

She can be as effective a public servant as she likes, I still don't expect to have to fork out to give her sister a job and her brother a home.

Tiberius

So the media pack have successfully savaged one of the weakest in the prey herd. No doubt she deserved what she's got.

But nature is so cruel. The pack don't seem interested in ripping apart fiddling Ministers or the jerk in the Fees Office who rubber stamped the claim for her extension.

There is definitely some Pakistani umpiring going on here. I sometimes wonder how Cameron manages to keep his counsel when he's fighting on twice as many fronts as Brown.

DownTrodden

Moran has never really faced the music and now uses the time dis-honoured excuse of ill-health for standing down.

The same excuse she gave for not appearing in front of Brown's useless star chamber.

Funny how she is well enough to stay an MP until the next election and keep taking the money. ~It must be terrible having to pay for three homes. Cue violins ...

Just why aren't the press crucifying all Labour miscreants?

Super Blue

"Now what about Hoon, McNulty, Blears and Darling all of whom have been up to worse and not a peep from them...."

Absolutely, Brighton Mike. Being married to Andrew MacKay oughtn't to be a capital offence. Labour MPs - ministers, indeed - have committed real criminal offences here yet Brown's Biased Chums remain silent.

Nick

It did seem strange that the Today programme led with a story about a previously unknown backbencher when we are so far into the expenses scandal and there are plenty of other news stories.

And what's happened about all the revelations about Hoon and Darling et al. The last two days news has been entirely about Tory misdeeds.

judith

I'm sorry she could not battle on against the twisted stories in some of the media.Some reporting has whipped up hysterical reactions from the public which disgusts me.The people in Bromsgrove have not listened and have lost a good MP.

David

We shouldn't really call the Labour thing a 'Star Chamber', since it is a complete wet fish - quite the opposite of its historical namesake. Its sole function is to check whether something is within the rules, and since the rules are so vague - everything is within them. Hence why Ian 'Discount housing' Gibson is in the clear.

David Lindsay

Much of The World At One was given over to what should have been a Woman's Hour piece, if anything, about how special consideration should be given to the fact that Julie Kirkbride is "a busy working mother". Is Martha Kearney on some mission to stop women with children from becoming or remaining MPs? She might as well be.

And what is wrong with having relatives live rent-free in one's "taxpayer-funded house"? Would it be better to charge them rent? If so, why? And does this also apply to council houses with subsidised rent? They, too, are taxpayer-funded.

Denis Cooper

She hasn't gone.

None of them have gone.

And none of them intend to go, as there's a year's salary and pension entitlement and expenses, plus a "resettlement grant", to be had by not going.

Chuck Unsworth

So, David Lindsay, you're suggesting that Kirkbride's brother should live in a council house? I'd stand for that. Presumably you're aware of 'benefits in kind'? Was any tax paid on this benefit?

Old Safety Enginerr

On R5L their man in Bromsgrove was not allowed to talk to the people (still) collecting sigs for the 'julie must go' campaign (except the woman who started it - and he didn't talk to her) - because they are candidates in the local elections! and none of them for the tories.

Bastards!

David Ossitt

Joe Mooney

I am ever so pleased that she has gone.

She must now pay back all the money.

Joe she has not gone; she will step down at the next election.

As Denis Cooper writes, she is still milking the system.

judith

'I'm sorry she could not battle on against the twisted stories in some of the media'

judith what planet are you on she like her husband is 'bent'.

Vulture

Meanwhile, over at the Guardian there's a piece by - no, wait for it - John Prescott whingeing abt why the Media doesn't 'put its own house in order' before coming after all those nice MPs. You've got to hand to old two Jags, two toilet seats, three Tudor beams Prezza: he takes the Gold award for sheer, unadulterated hypocrisy. Not sure whether to laugh or weep.

Victor NW Kent

As I have commented elsewhere it is the conservatives who are appearing worse. Out they trot, full of explanations, cheerfully defiant, get shot down in flames, announce they are stepping down [in perhaps a year's time]. Lots of bad press and bad public relations.

On the other side of the road, Clegg ignores it all and Brown has a wet starfish at work issuing certificates of purity or announcements of impending bad health.

That cloaks the fact that half the cabinet is crook.

Somewhere at the back of my aging mind is the recollection that the DT editor is a Brownish fan. Surely not even the Prince of Darkness could have dealt this up?

Chris lancashire

What is going on here?
I have listened to BBC 5 today and Sky News at lunchtime; the ONLY story is Kirkbride with passing reference to that awful Luton MP. What has happened to Hoon, Straw, the Ballses, Blears et al? Are they now totally exonerated?

I hold no brief for Kirkbride but what has happened to balanced coverage? Has Alastair Campbell returned?

mac

@George Laird

"guango circuit" - what an apt fusion that is of quango and guano!

Bocephus

As predicted this has turned into a Tory witch-hunt.

So MacKay/Kirkbride are out - fair enough. By why have the media shown no interest in the Keens. They are claiming two ACA on the one property about 10 miles from their main home - both of which are in London I believe. In terms of money claimed they are no better than MacKay & Kirkbride, a married couple living together double claiming. As the media have shown no interest in their case Labour have brushed it under the carpet. No "Star Chamber" for them.

Then of course there is Gordon Brown himself. He claimed all the running costs of a flat in Westminster, at the same time as he had two grace and favour homes at his disposal. He charged the taxpayer for a new kitchen in this property, carefully splitting the cost over 2 years to ensure he didn't have to dip into his own pocket. No sooner has he done that, he then transfers the property into his wife's name. There is only one possible reason I can think of to put a second home you have owned for 15 years - and taxpayers have funded - into your wife's name, CGT tax avoidance. He then flips his second home to Scotland and starts claiming for gardeners, cleaners, plumbers, blinds and Sky Sports.

Can you imagine if David Cameron had done these things? Do think the BBC - and other media - would show the same lack of curiosity.

George Laird

Dear Old Safety Enginerr

Your post was amusing.

It appears that your outrage has been unleashed like a tornado because those some of the people in the 'Julie Must Go' campaign have a political agenda.

You state that none of these people are Tories and that they are "bastards".

As I recall in the Andrew Mackay video, it was wall to wall Tories calling for his head on a spike.

Are these Tory supporters who have a political agenda also “bastards”?

Julie Kirkbride exercised massively bad judgement in my opinion, well below what I would expect from a figure in Public Office.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Verity

It wuz Dave wot done it!

Seeping around the place blaming the Tories, whose offences, while still major offences against the public purse and public trust, are infinitesimal when compared to Labour's sins, was David Cameron. When he started drawing attention to the Tories' few sins, masquerading as a righteous crusader (if not a very bright polician), Labour must have thought they'd died and gone to heaven.

RK

BBC bias as usual, report tory expenses to the heavens, bury labour expenses with hardly any coverage.You can see BBC are doing everything they can to stop getting Cameron elected - I wonder why, saving there jobs, bonuses and pensions come to mind

J Spilsbury

I`m very worried that this is turning into a witch hunt of Tories. Brown won`t sack his lot who will dig in like limpets until the diehard Labour voters of his client state return them next time. We live in an age where if you`ve got absolutely no shame you can get away with anything - we haven`t seen the last of the ginger chipmunk.

TGF UKIP

Impossible to have any real sympathy for the Cameron Tories over the lousy treatment they get from the BBC when they resolutely fail to confront or complain about the BBC.

Indeed, Dave himself wrote a piece in the NoW recently saying how much he loved the BBC.

Small wonder the BBC feel able to wipe their feet on the Cameron Tories.

David Ossitt

Verity

'Labour must have thought they'd died and gone to heaven'

Verity; I doubt that many of this lot will make it to heaven!

Ben Elford

These two MPs have merely aggravated their offences by taking so long to announce that they are stepping down, and by producing such lame excuses for their behaviour, or as their reasons for leaving.

Let us bear in mind that in any other walk in life they would have been dismissed instantly, rather than being allowed up to another year in office, with the prospect of a generous redundancy payment at the end.

Verity

And now Richard Littlejohn's at it in The Mail. Everyone is taking their cue from Cameron, who, with grotesque ineptitude, grabbed the spotlight from Labour and focussed on the Tories' few malfeasants. The Commons is awash with, knee deep in, Labour sleaze, and instead of spotlighting the socialists, Cameron chose the role of Boy Scout and highlighted his own people.

Is there no beginning to this man's talents?

jose garcia

"What is going on here?
I have listened to BBC 5 today and Sky News at lunchtime; the ONLY story is Kirkbride with passing reference to that awful Luton MP. What has happened to Hoon, Straw, the Ballses, Blears et al? Are they now totally exonerated?

I hold no brief for Kirkbride but what has happened to balanced coverage? Has Alastair Campbell returned?"

i tried to post today about it but the post didnt go thorough.

for the last week in the media and the associate press only stories about corrupt tories.

not a word about the whole of the labour cabinet from blears to brown and with the "balls" in between (pardon the punt) .

truly shocking , the BBC once they get into power must be made privatised

Colin

Interesting that the bbc and the BT/Yahoo website both report the tory scandals more than the ubiquitious New Labour scandals - how many other major companies have taken this stand and I hope Cameron is monitoring them.

Old Safety Engineer

George [Laird]

I think perhaps you misunderstood my post - I will do you the courtesy of NOT assuming that you did it intentionally!

First - I hold no brief for Julie K - for what she did there was never any chance of avoiding the guillotine.

Second - I did not state that none of these people (ie the ones with clipboards collecting sigs) were not tory - the BBC man said they were all local election candidates for other (non-tory) parties. Not having been to Bromsgrove I have no personal knowledge - but we can trust the BBC, can't we???

Third - I have no quarrel with any constituent - of any party - signing the petition.

My reflections on the parentage of these people was because I suspect that is very unlikely that they revealed their party allegiances to the punters.

And actually - I am not outraged by any of this - on the contrary I think it all very funny - to all these MPs trying to maintain some kind of dignity when up to their necks in smelly stuff.

A sense of proportion is required -
The total cost of all the really excessive claims is a few millions - while the First Lord of the Treasury is hosing away billions every day - that's what causes me real anger.

Old Safety Engineer.