localzuk Posted June 18, 2009 Author Posted June 18, 2009 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! Yeah. I didn't mention the £140 - £250 a month mobile phone costs for my MP. £700 a year is a ridiculous amount for computer support. I can get server support for that!
beeswax Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 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! I believe that the Olympic Village currently being built for the 2012 Olympics has been suggested as a London residence for MPs.
john Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 I forgot to add that he still has a quarterly BT Bill of around £120 each time, and then pays Tiscali £15 a month for ADSL and still paid Kingston Communications over £100 for a Dial Up Connection!?! I really don't get it. Is his second home in KCom land or what? Very strange, I do feel a letter will be written to the local rag when I get time.
featured_spectre Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 My local MP is pretty clean. Kelvin hopkins. in the past 4 years, he claimed a total of £5000 (or around that figure)
localzuk Posted June 18, 2009 Author Posted June 18, 2009 My local MP is pretty clean. Kelvin hopkins. in the past 4 years, he claimed a total of £5000 (or around that figure) Wow, Ian L-G came to £166k according to the BBC, for a single year...
john Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 My local MP is pretty clean. Kelvin hopkins. in the past 4 years, he claimed a total of £5000 (or around that figure) What a good guy, mine, David Curry has claimed nearly £132K according to the BBC!!! I knew it was a lot by just scanning over the tickets but geez!
pete Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Yeah. I didn't mention the £140 - £250 a month mobile phone costs for my MP. £700 a year is a ridiculous amount for computer support. I can get server support for that! Maybe the guy who supports him raised his prices to £700 in an unsuccessful bid to drive him elsewhere? Money is great and all, but some customers just aren't worth the hassle and inanity.
powdarrmonkey Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 The only interesting thing in mine is £750 a year web and domain hosting services
russdev Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 The problem is security services will never allow an mp village as it would cost just a much to secure. Lets have all uk MPS in one place hmmm think that idea is a non starter.. Russ
RabbieBurns Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Blank Cheques Scots Mps Claimed 25m In Three Years (from The Herald ) ...Christopher Fraser claimed more than £1800 for cherry laurel and red cedar trees, Fabian Hamilton £135 for an iPod Nano and Liberal Democrat Lembit Opik £20 for a wig for a charity event. You couldnt make it up... ... George Osborne claimed £47 for two DVDs of his speech on "Value for Taxpayers' Money"
IanT Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 As everyone should be aware of the official MP's Expenses have all been published............Alistair darling claimed £3 for a bus ticket!!! £3!!! heard it on LBC this morning
chrbb Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 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!! When my husband worked away alot when our children were younger I don't think he could have justified claiming expenses for the entire family to stay with him in 'family homes', he was there to work! Why should an MP be any different to 'normal' weekly commuters?
Andrew_C Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Why should an MP be any different to 'normal' weekly commuters?I feel there are (at least) three different arguments here. 1) Should MPs get the second home allowance etc? I'm not convinced they should, I feel a hostel arrangement would be better, and although it would be a security issue, at least you would only have to protect one location, not 600+. However, this is how the rules stand at the moment. This is what we should be judging them against. 2) If an MP "plays" the rules but doesn't break them, flipping homes and profiting by this, should we be giving him a royal slapping? Yes. 3) If an MP continues claiming his mortgage after paying off the home, should he go to jail; just like a benefit cheat? Yes, in spades! Bring back Lord Denning, he'd send the bggrs down!
witch Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 My MP - Annette Brooke is one of the good guys - she rents a tiny flat in London and claims very little else. She works ridiculous hours, she spends more time in the Commons than most MPs but she also spends a huge amount of time in her constituency, where she has lived for many years. We sometimes think that she may have been cloned, as she seems to be everywhere at the same time. (she's a Lib Dem, BTW) Another point: if a political party 'parachutes' someone into a constituency - but they don't live there - why should we, the taxpayer pay for a big 'second home' in that constituency? The party that chose them for the post should pay for their accomodation in that case. As for the rest - I agree that people will always claim as close to the limit of what they are allowed if they can - twas ever thus - and to be honest, I think a lot of us would, if we could. What I want to know is - is something going to be done about the fees office allowing some of these very dodgy claims? As for accomodation, a Met policeman friend of mine reckons that, whilst you wouldn't want all the MPs in one place for security reasons, several locations of flats across the city wouldn't be a problem at all
Martin Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 The problem is security services will never allow an mp village as it would cost just a much to secure. Lets have all uk MPS in one place hmmm think that idea is a non starter.. Russ Better make sure that nobody tell the Terry Wrists that lots of MPs gather in a big building near Big Ben most* days mb * Well, at least for a few months of the year, when they aren't on one of their holidays^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hrecesses!
Andrew_C Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Latest news 19/6/09:- Scotland Yard are to investigate some of the cases!
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