£10,000 offered to leak MP's expenses

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Gayle

A scenario - you're allowed to claim up to £20k expenses per annum, the accountant says you can claim for more or less anything as long as you have a receipt, you find a reciept for carpeting the hall or for shopping and put it in, the accountant accepts it, you've done nothing wrong.

I think you will find that some peoples wages are boosted by there expenses. That is the whole idea of it in some companies, mainly because they can claim VAT back and don't have to pay national insurance and pension contributions on the expenses.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by katex

Still say, the majority of the public are not whiter than white, and have all cheated the system at some stage when given the chance, albeit in smaller ways.

Put me down as a not cheated my expenses please.

[katex]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

They should be made to live on a basic pension, or invalidity benefit for a few weeks and then they would find it easy to live off their salaries.

That is the flip side of the scale as me comparing Susan Boyle's forecasted income to an M.P's (agree it was irrelevant)

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Kate, the journalists are not paid out of the public purse and if they were caught they would at least be dealt with justly, by being deprived of their job....they would not be able to sit tight and wait for a golden goodbye and a fat pension.

Yes, they are living off the public purse ... gaining income that they are not paying Income Tax on e.g. blank taxi fare receipts is a common fiddle... double fraud, cheating the company, cheating the tax man ...... I've been offered these on many occasions.

Originally Posted by Neil

Put me down as a not cheated my expenses please.

Sure you are as pure as the driven snow Neil.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by katex

Sure you are as pure as the driven snow Neil.

No I am not but I would not risk loosing my job for a few quid.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by garinda

I heard yesterday that the Telegraph are only a third of the way through drip feeding the story.

Ya Rindi, but I don't know about you but its now getting boring now, in fact I just don't bother listened to the stories on the news anymore

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Bernard Dawson

There are some poor Councillors though Margaret. I can speak with some authorty on that.

I've always said that councillors earn every penny they get Bernard, irrespective of party, its the hardest job in the world working for the general public, because your damned if you do and damned if you don't

[gynn]

Originally Posted by Neil

Within the rules is why it is not fraud. Those who are outside the rules or who have submitted false expenses should be held accountable. The rules may not be right, that is the main issue I have with all this.

It is fraud if an MP deliberately falsified claims for money that had not been spent. One of the MPs submitted a bank statement saying that one of the transactions was a mortgage payment to a building society, when in fact it was a payment into a savings account.

If the rules allowed for extravagant expenditure to be paid for from the public purse, it is not fraud as such, but it raises a question of whether the spending was essential for the carrying out of the MPs work, or whether it was a benefit in kind that the MP should have declared for income tax. They may have opened themselves up to a charge of tax evasion.

It is the arrogant way that each MP who has been found out squirms with his answers to the TV interviewer. Bill Cash was excruciating.












I

[Mancie]

just watched Paxman questioning William Hague about his friend..a tory MP that has been fiddling expenses and don't even live in this country...first time i've seen sweat drippin from his bald head..and he's only fourteen! great stuff

[Mancie]

here come the girls!

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Mancie

here come the girls!

A bit better than the big girls blouses that frequent Downing Street at the moment

[SPUGGIE J]

Originally Posted by jaysay

A bit better than the big girls blouses that frequent Downing Street at the moment

Why the 3 Stooges can you not do better than that?

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by SPUGGIE J

Why the 3 Stooges can you not do better than that?

Looks like they're of on a shopping trip Spugs, bet they're looking for a new Plasma TV. and a couple of nice pictures for their London homes

[BERNADETTE]

Greg Pope has published an apology in the Observer for buying items for his second home on his expenses account. He says he knew as soon as he made the purchases he shouldn't have put them through his expenses account and started the process to repay the money he had claimed. However he claims that he hasn't "broken any rules" but if he truly believes that is the case why apologise and arrange to pay the money ? I find this whole charade an insult to my intelligence!!! Am I alone in feeling this way?

[garinda]

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

Am I alone in feeling this way?

No you're not.

I'd honestly have more respect for someone who had the balls to admit they had been sheep, who'd participated in a system they knew was flawed, but didn't technically break any of the self imposed rules, and weren't going to repay the damned money.

Why pay back any money now, only because the issue is in the public domain?

It's rather like Germans protesting after 1945, that they'd only been obeying orders.

Let's hope tomorrow's election results are the kick in the arse that many mainstream politicans need.

If after being elected by us, they then make laws and moralise to the general public, they'd better make sure they themselves are both moral, and live within the law.

[webglynne]

Hyndburn Constituency.

Our M P has regrets over expenses. But it leaves questions unanswered; he moved his second home; second homes? He bought things for this move but did he walk out of the first second home with just his clothes and what happened to furnishing ‘left behind?’ Or where they left behind? Ebay? And how often are they ‘allowed’ to claim for such moves?

And with all the fuss about expenses why did he wait to explain about his expenses till; possible hoping against hope that as a back bencher his expenses would not be highlighted; and made his explanation needed?



And what about the Olympics? Will some M Ps rent out at vastly inflated rents these vitally necessary second homes and if so who will get the rents?

To be honest and to stay within the rules of decency that should go into the national purse and not into the coffers of the greedy.


If some ‘independent’ body sets the Pay and conditions for M Ps at an industry level then industry standards should also apply; the ability of the elector to remove; not after 2 - 3 – 4- years but at the time of any transgression or shift of allegiances from one party to another one.