MP's Expenses

[localzuk]

So, over my lunch today, I've been having a nose at the expenses of our local MP. (Ian Liddell-Grainger).

 

I've found a couple of items in his incidental claims which shock me, namely 2 computers he bought.

 

1 was bought in March 08, which was a quad core machine with a 8800GTX 768Mb graphics card and dual 500Gb hard disks etc... For £2995

 

and the other was one bought 6 months before (sept 2007) which cost £2800 (this included moving another from one office to another).

 

WTF does an MP need £3k computers for?! Espcially 2 of them in the space of 6 months!!!

 

Anyone else had a look at any of the expenses stuff?

 

EDIT: Oh, another one. £2790 in March 2007. That is nearly £9000 of computers in 1 year...

Edited June 18, 2009 by localzuk

[powdarrmonkey]

WTF does an MP need £3k computers for?! Espcially 2 of them in the space of 6 months!!!

 

Because after a year, when they're "no longer fit for purpose", they can be adopted^Wrecycled.

[Geoff]

That spec smells like a gaming PC. Ask him for his steam id?

[witch]

As he is your MP, ask him! Have the local paper done anything on him?

[Jamo]

Gotta love expenses. He obviously needs it for power emailing, and maybe someone installed Ubuntu and compiz so he could have the cube desktop for efficiency...

 

Sounds like hes getting a new one at every release of Ubuntu too, see if he claims this Oct

[Butuz]

Clearly he needs to play Crysis in order to do his job.

 

Butuz

[mossj]

I don't know why they haven't all been arrested where its obvious... had they been working for a company they would have been given the sack + reported to police.... but no MPs get to resign with a £40,000 goodbye gift.

[AngryTechnician]

That's a pretty interesting find! The MPs in my area were pretty clean - one was in fact named in the Telegraph expose as one of the MPs who claims the least expenses, and I had a nose through the other one's receipts earlier today. About the dodgiest thing in there is that he claims his entire Virgin media subscription on it (TV too, not just internet and phone). No pay-per-views though!

[ICT_GUY]

For 3K I would have dual x Quad cores, 16 gigs of ram a raid 5 controller running 3 x 1tb drives and dual 1 gig graphics cards. He was robbed!

[localzuk]

For 3K I would have dual x Quad cores, 16 gigs of ram a raid 5 controller running 3 x 1tb drives and dual 1 gig graphics cards. He was robbed!

 

You could get that now... Not in 2008. What he got in 2008 was top of the range, but yes, was still a little over priced.

[rush_tech]

hes running a mini lan party in his loft:D how many kids has he got??

[k-strider]

you aught to alert your local wragg though, pcs like that aren't essential to do his job. the news guys probably won't get / know that they were gaming type machines from the receipts..

[localzuk]

you aught to alert your local wragg though, pcs like that aren't essential to do his job. the news guys probably won't get / know that they were gaming type machines from the receipts..

 

Already have done...

[powdarrmonkey]

BBC NEWS | Politics | MPs' expenses - tell us

[localzuk]

BBC NEWS | Politics | MPs' expenses - tell us

 

Done that too

[dwhyte85]

I like the idea of him being a closet gamer, firing up a bit of source before he goes to bed haha.

[russdev]

Our mp opened his books and his second home to the local rag last week (assuming he knew that was going to get published this week anyway).

 

MP Andy Reed gives Echo a tour of his London home - Loughborough Echo

 

Russ

[DSapseid]

Ive just checked our local mp and he claimed for a beer fridge!!! How cool is that

[srochford]

I don't know why they haven't all been arrested where its obvious... had they been working for a company they would have been given the sack + reported to police.... but no MPs get to resign with a £40,000 goodbye gift.

 

I've no intention of defending this or any other MP abusing the system but it's simply not true to say that in industry they'd have been sacked for behaviour like this.

 

One of the problems is that everyone talks about "MP's Expenses" and if you think of them like that then there is absolutely no justification for what people have done. They're actually called "allowances" and if you tell someone "you're ALLOWED to claim up to £23,000 per year; you just need some plausible receipts" then many people are going to claim that money.

 

It doesn't mean they're not greedy but it does meant that they're not stealing or committing fraud (in most cases!)

 

The allowances have been in place for decades (Margaret Thatcher increased the amounts which could be claimed but I think they were in place before that)

 

One of the most infuriating things is how little the press have commented on the whole thing previously. Yes, we never knew that people were claiming for duck houses and gaming computers but it's always been known that MPs could claim £23k per year (or whatever the amount was). Why was no-one saying "why do they need this money?" After all, lots of people commute huge distances per week or have to live away from home for part of the week - most of them get to cover basic costs for this so why should MPs be different!!

 

And while I'm on a rant, can I just talk about David Cameron? His constituency is in Abingdon, he lives in London which is less than 70 miles away and yet he couldn't possibly support the idea of hotel type accommodation for MPs because they must have family homes! He claims he "needs" to maintain 2 family homes so that the whole family can move between them. Well, very nice, but I don't see why we should pay for it!!

[beeswax]

I think you'll find that Margaret Thatcher introduced the allowances scheme.

[powdarrmonkey]

I can understand not wanting hotel-ish acommodation for those with families, but a reasonable compromise (at least to me) would be an MP's village of flats, in a block with a communal garden and so on. All the associated costs (gardeners, bins, security, phone lines, shared internet, etc) are amalgamated into one building, everybody gets a fair deal, and the taxpayer knows exactly what the true cost is.

[GrumbleDook]

I suggested a community facility for MPs to a friend who is a civil serpent ... and apparently it has been looked into a number of times but the problem was to do with trying to stop politics overflowing into the home ... the civil service do *not* want politicians talking too much between themselves when civil serpents are actually trying to run the country ...

 

I wasn't too sure if he was serious or not actually!

[pete]

Penny Arcade! - The Case Of Texas vs. KryoLord

 

Explanation: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-sumrow_11met.ART.State.Edition1.466c73e.html

[elsiegee40]

Toner cartridges, envelopes, rubber bands, secretarial services, the odd taxi, room hire for surgeries... all pretty boring.

 

My only query is why an MP who lives less than 40 miles from London needs to claim nearly £1400 a month mortgage costs on a second home

[john]

My MP has a very expensive PC, a £700 a year Maintance Agreement on it, which doesn't include home visits! What on earth does he get for £700 a year!!! You could buy a new flipping PC each year for less than that if you argue that its a vital tool for him so get a new PC with warranty each year for like £450 its still less than the £700. He also rents his Mobile Phone for about £45 a month, and still have a bill for calls from O2 ranging from £60 to £140 so surely a blackberry that he rents is free as his contract is a £50 a month!! Overall he does have very expensive claims, but too much is blanked out I do feel a letter to the local rag is in order, as an IT pro, I would love to make £700 a year for just being on the end of a phone and potentially doing nothing much and then still giving them a bill if I left my desk and went for an on-site visit!

 

My MP is a Conservative as well if were keeping tags on which party is the worst!