Why won’t my employer pay me to look after my castle while I’m in London?

A. MacAulay

Instead of allowances, buy each MP a little farm in France where they will be subsidised by the German taxpaxer. When elections are lost, the MP's like a Roman Consuls, will be required to retire to said latifundia. In this way Britain will export its toxic politicians, the duration depending on their half-life and the French will have to put up with the smell. a good deal, I think.

john problem

And what about the Speaker? Now there's a wonder. He reminds us off the fact that here in our treasured isle we are ruled by leaders of unmatched honesty, probity, intelligence and competence. He should definitely stay in his post, a post which he has dignified over the years by his creative accounting and his unswerving loyalty to his staff. It is only right and proper that it should be this man, this fine figure of dignity, this exemplar to us all, who precedes Her Majesty when she enters that august shrine to democracy and fair-play, the House of Commons. Where look down the shades of other great men - Gladstone, Disraeli, Palmerston, Churchill..... all puking as they watch.

Carol Kemp

I cannot understand why James Gray is being vilified for his claim for Remembrance Day wreaths. It seems to me to be a legitimate claim for official constituency business. Do you think that all the mayors and other dignitaries who lay wreaths on Remembrance Sunday pay for them personally? What interests me is why the Fees Office decided to disallow this while accepting other more ludicrous claims. There seems no logic as to how they arrive at their decisions.

alan hoey

they get £64,677 p/a and they're still charging for tampons? one shall request back the offending items- i'm sure there's a bencher who would be a willing recipient

terence patrick hewett

Has the Daily Telegraph got enough money left to buy the disk with all the Euro MPs expenses on it.

Kevyn Bodman

Of course there are some MPs who go into it for the money.

£63,000 for a job that involves very little decision making because the whips tell them what to do, very little need to supervise and/or motivate a team, no responsibility for seeing a project through to conclusion. Jobs with that low level of responsibility outside the Commons might pay £30,000 to £35,000?

Add to the salary the expenses, which mean that their discretionary spending power is at a level that would need a much higher salary in the real world.

Add to that the status, because it's only very recently that scorn and contempt for MPs has become both strong and widespread.

Many MPs are nothing but self-serving nothings,sucking up to the leadership and bonding with each other to the detriment of the voters.

I would love to hear the way MPs speak in private to friends and allies in the House about their constituents.
I would bet that, like teachers about pupils, policemen about members of the public,bus drivers about passengers,shop assistants about customers etc. there are times when MPs just don't want to be bothered by constituents at all, and tell each other that.

As for fraudulent claims, of course they should be prosecuted if there is evidence of criminal activity.
Why would that be in doubt?

Well, it's in doubt simply because MPs see themselves as above us and because the police, as they have demonstrated, would rather clamp down on peaceful dissent than deal with crime.

Mike D

Think you've got problem? Zoomer's new lot are trying to find out what a moat is and where they can buy one. The popular vote is a very fancy breed of French goat.
At least yours do some work.

John Galt

Off with their heads !! QED.

TomNightingale

And now Shahid Malik. He has just been on TV explaining that he gave up a better salary to become an MP, to serve his people. He seems to conclude that, because he is such a good and honourable man, he is entitled to a few tax free backhanders on the QT!

EyeSee

Firstly, the Conservatives have the stupidest claims, but it is Labour with their ingrained feeling of entitlement who have defrauded to the highest degree. And if politicians think they deserve more money, then let them change the tax laws to allow people to keep more of their own money. That would work for everyone. But then, it wouldn't make them feel special anymore, would it?

Pip Gold

Was it Phil Woolas who provided a (Tesco?)grocery receipt showing a staff discount ? I presume Mr. Woolas is not moonlighting and staff discounts are not transferable.
I often collect a trolley for shopping and find people have left their receipt in it- how easy would it be for MPs to simply gather receipts randomly to "prove" purchases and gain money which has not actually spent.

A. MacAulay

We should be grateful that our kleptocrats haven't been accepting hand outs from the Russian taxpayer. I mean one has to be fair

Soccer doc

Rod, this is not to offer any support whatsoever to MPs who have claimed expenses fraudulently, and please dont take this in personal way(though if the cap should fit ...)but for JOURNALISTS to come on all high and mighty about ANYONE's expenses is quite simply beyond parody. If there is one profession that has "expenses claims" to a fine art it is your own, I think. So, as the Good Book, says "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". Perhaps we might look for explanations as to the cause of this in all the media advisors (former journalists most of them I would guess) employed by MPs these days - sort of symbiotic learning effect maybe?
More seriously though, does for instance, Douglas Hogg's moat (and who cleaned it) not pale into total insignificance compared to the disaster of the UK banking system. But not for our wonderful media. I wonder why?

DaveP

Kevyn Bodman

Your reamark that only recently has the job of MP become a matter of contempt, may give some MPs the idea that they need financial compensation for doing a job that attracts contempt from the public.

I don't think we should give them any further ideas how to fleece the taxpayer.

Steve.W

Rod, thanks for having a go at the lobby correspondents, I needed that. I could well be off topic here but I failed to spot two names in your post, so can I have a go?

I'd like to say how glad I am that Tam Dalyell got done for £18000 for no other reason than he is the most pompous b*****d ever to be an MP. Also I'm very happy to see Sir Gerald Kaufman done for £8865, the second most pompous b*****d ever to be an MP.

Thanks once again, as I've said before, I feel much better now.

rod liddle

Stevie W - I missed Tam. There are too many of them.

Soccer Doc - I suspect most people wouldn't think of me as being a beacon of morality, but I have never claimed expenses fraudulently in my life, nor ever would. And of those journos I've come across who have claimed fraudulently, it was on nowhere near the scale of this bunch.

soccer doc

Rod, I did say that this was in no way ad hominem (and nothing more than "should the cap fit"), and I accept that you havent claimed expenses fraudulently. But you really know of no journalist who has claimed expenses fraudulently? I would be most surprised by that. Does this make all journalists crooks? Of course not - some are at, some arent.
Arrangements for paying expenses almost invariably have a set of rules to be followed. Most sets of rules (see for instance tax law, or the offside rule) are open to exploitation one way or another (this is why there are highly paid tax lawyers and why Fernando Torres is worth as much as he is). Exploring the bounds of systems of rules is something that people do - all people and certainly not only MPs. Working on the edge of rules MIGHT be unethical (and I recognise this is an argument that can be made about our MPs) but its not illegal (that is the dfference between tax avoidance and tax evasion). Thus I would condemn those who have gone beyond the rules (eg the clown who claimed mortgage interest on a mortgage that had been paid off), BUT the rules allowed our elected officials to claim back expenses within the rules that operated at that time. That is not illegal. If we dont like the result then we need to look primarily at the rules (though I would accept that there are some "bad apples" - though whether its a big proportion of 600 and something MPs I would doubt).
Lastly, can someone explain to me how/why this story is getting the big licks that it is, while the Treasury Select Committee report on the Banking crisis isnt so much buried as simply ignored? This is about events that didnt involve thousands of pounds, not even hundreds of thousands but millions, trillions. Many of those who caused it have walked off into the western sunset having filled their boots. More worryingly some of them are still there. Most worryingly there are calls for market freedom to be maintained and arguments made that regulation would be bad for the economy. I would simply repeat Joseph Stiglitz's reply to Paxo on Newsnight last year, when asked by Jerry if we had learned anything from the "credit crunch", Stiglitz replied "yes if you have no speed limits, you get bad driving".

Len Burch

In answer to Soccer.doc (above):

If the kettle is black then there is no reason why the pot should not say so.

Helena Mikas

Absolutely brilliant . All items back ( tampons can be presented as a modern art collage) Maybe the Tate Modern would be interested . Then OUT with all , yes all who have flipped and twisted whilst living off us and our tax . Let them get a job where they actually work and leave the few decent MP's to keep the show going. Who needs 600+ layabouts ? No more food allowances etc etc either .

Wilhelm

Do yourself a favour, Rod and look at my brilliant blitzkrieg on pompous windbag Tam Dalyell on the coffeehousers wall.

Its sheer genius.

L Miller

Surely there are a couple of empty buildings in Central London that could be converted to a few hundred bedsits that MPs could use...the building conversion would provide a few jobs and once open - housekeeping staff would also provide some employment...and maybe a canteen where the MPs could enjoy an evening meal and tea & toast in the morning