Why being a Conservative MP in the UK means not saying you're sorry (no spam)

[fable]

The details are here, but in essence: some clever people in the reporting businesses became aware that Conservative MPs were charging all sorts of interesting personal expenses to the taxpayers over the last four years. Much of the list is there, though my favorite is this one: Douglas Hogg, who charged to the public expense...2000 pounds for the cost of cleaning out his moat. Well, somebody has to pay for it, and why should it be Mr. Hogg, who must live somewhere, after all, and his second home is a country estate, after all, and besides, it's important that the Best People have the Stately Mansions that look good in photographs! That's what it's all about!

Then there was Francis Maude, who claimed 35000 pounds in mortgage interest payments to a home he bought, and rented to others...a short distance from the home he lived in. And Cheryl Gillan, who charged the government for her expenses in dogfood and curing boiler noise. And David Willetts, a creepy looking man and the shadow universities secretary, who paid more than 100 pounds to get workmen to replace 25 light bulbs at his second home.

I'm just curious what others thing of this. Personally, I'm sure most of us could accept the British Plan of reimbursements, provided it was extended to include everyone else in the nation. I just put out some tree gators to feed our young trees, and this is obviously an expense that would greatly benefit the state.

[Magelord648]

It's not just conservatives. All the major parties did it.

Conservatives were the worst but were also the first to clamp down on it when the Telegraph started publishing all the expenses.

Labour were pretty bad too. Though now Gordon Browns doing some cleaning up and we might even be losing someone as high as the home secretary.

Lib Dems weren't as bad but then again they don't have as many seats. They'll never come back to power anyway. (They've never even been in power as the lib dems)

It's because of this that everyone seems to be voting for fringe parties. It's likely that even the BNP will get a seat in the European election today.

UKIP are a bit crazy too. All they do is cry (literally) when issues come up that they tried to bring up before.

They're not all bad. the green party seems pretty promising. I know a few people that are voting for them.

This isn't entirely new though. As a country that hates the current leader because something isn't going well, everyone seems to hate Gordon Brown about the whole global depression thing. I think he's done pretty well. It's been disaster after disaster since he came in after Blair and he's handled it all and himself very well.

[fable]

It's not just conservatives. All the major parties did it.

Conservatives were the worst but were also the first to clamp down on it when the Telegraph started publishing all the expenses.

Well, yeah, they would be, trying to get the jump on blaming Brown when they're the number #1 offenders.

This isn't entirely new though. As a country that hates the current leader because something isn't going well, everyone seems to hate Gordon Brown about the whole global depression thing. I think he's done pretty well. It's been disaster after disaster since he came in after Blair and he's handled it all and himself very well.

Blair did leave him an antagonistic bunch of party members in Commons, thanks to his heavy-handed power plays. It doesn't seem to help that Brown has about as much charisma as a dead mackerel, though. He needs fresh blood--not personally, I mean, despite his dourness--but in his cabinet. And an articulated destination that's somewhere other than Blair's vision of heaven.

I actually like Brown, myself. But he's trying to do Blair, and I think he'd really manage a more convincing act on his own.

It's also pretty sad the way so many MPs are using him as a whipping boy for their own misuse of these housing funds. And it's not as though these were easy mistakes to make. I mean, "Oh, I didn't realize I couldn't charge the government a nice fat sum for the dredging of my mansion's moat! Must've been in the fine print that day my huntsman's cap got stuck in my eyes" just doesn't work.

[galraen]

I mean, "Oh, I didn't realize I couldn't charge the government a nice fat sum for the dredging of my mansion's moat! Must've been in the fine print that day my huntsman's cap got stuck in my eyes" just doesn't work.

It was even worse than that in a way Fable, he claimed to the reporter he was a victim of his own 'honesty' in being so detailed in his claim ,and had he just claimed thousands for an unnecessary mortgage no one would have noticed. "Like your leader did?" replied the reporter, "er, oh, ah well ...... I think someones calling my name.....

To be honest I don't know what the fuss is about, fiddling ones expenses is a national pastime, nearly everyone does it. I would stake a very large wager that the expense claim the hacks making hay with the story wouldn't stand a thorough investigation either.

[Robnark]

I'm shocked, shocked, that you didn't mention the [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/23/mps-expenses-conservatives"]duck island[/url]. As you can imagine, the newspapers treated the matter with the seriousness and restraint for which they're so renowned.