please empty your brain below
Good post. Like the Galloway comment too!

Rob | 14.05.09 - 8:47 a.m. | #

The thing that makes me laugh/gasp most about this debacle is the wording of some MPs statements when they announce they are to give some money back. Yes, they should give it back, but they sound like bank robbers expecting us to treat them like ordinary customers and leave it at that if they get caught during the getaway and hand over the swag.

Handing back the money in no way addresses the reason the public are angry, and for someone liek Hazel Blears to talk as if it does just goes to show how morally dubious she is.

Rhys | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 9:02 a.m. | #

Hey, what about those new trews you got. Explain yourself. Were they a 'mistake'? Didn't mean to buy them - couldn't resist etc...

Bina | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 10:07 a.m. | #

Now you say this is all your expenses but waht about those in your cat and dog's name? Even if they only use them part of the time.

I have acknowledged you in my post today.

Mo | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 10:21 a.m. | #

We don't need self supporting angels, we just need people who operate under the same rules that their own inland revenue impose on the rest of us. You try putting a tax claim for moat cleaning on your self assesment and see how far it gets you.

And let's not pretend that MPs are poorly paid to start with - or that they work really hard.

ian | 14.05.09 - 10:51 a.m. | #

I think a post on the Value DG gets from one Oyster Card costing £1136 per annum would be most interesting. Number of journeys made, cost per mile, delays experienced, escalators and lifts out of order etc etc.

I'll bet he has the stats to hand already

Blue Witch | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 11:42 a.m. | #

My problem with all this expenses business is that we are getting an "it may not be right, but I have broken no rules" excuses from members of a government that want us to be all so morally proper.

Your expenses are ludicrous though - you're just not trying hard enough. No mention of haircuts, no taxis to Tesco now the bus doesn't go there, and you could have overcome your decoration phobia if only you had claimed to be living with parents.

Simon Brand | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 12:21 p.m. | #

I found myself pondering our company bike scheme yesterday. A new bike but tax deductable for cycling to work. 40\\% off a new bike! Do I cycle to work - no, not from Sussex. Is there any requirement to say you would use the bike to cycle to work? No.

Am I any better than 99\\% of MPs? Certainly not. Lets deal with the fraudulent claims but then get over it!

Ian | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 1:00 p.m. | #

Bow Flyover McDonalds drive-thru rocks.

walter | 14.05.09 - 2:14 p.m. | #

thats because it has dodgy foundations.

Capability Bowes | Homepage | 14.05.09 - 3:37 p.m. | #

So MPs fiddle their expenses a bit, big deal, it's probably the one consistent thing that's been happening in Parliament since 1265. It's across all parties so there's not even any political gains to be made from it. I'm not sure about you but it's starting to bore the pants off me ...

Johnny Topaz | 14.05.09 - 4:41 p.m. | #

What a disgusting waste of public blog-payers money.

You should move to West Yorkshire where a zones 1-3 annual travel pass is only £830.

A nony mouse | 14.05.09 - 5:02 p.m. | #

I always think it's funny how the politicians always try to wriggle out of their dodgy expenses claims on Newsnight and Question Time. Yes, what you did may not technically be illegal, but then neither is shouting fire in a crowded theatre when there's no actual fire. Would you honestly do it though?

A great post today.

Andrewh | 14.05.09 - 10:03 p.m. | #

If the Bow Flyover McDonalds drive-thru is good enough for La Winehouse, it's good enough for Best Mate.

McFlurries all round!! On the company Visa card of course

sboy2010 | 14.05.09 - 10:13 p.m. | #

LOL! Great post!

But I do think you should have declared all those Creme Eggs while you were making a clean breast of things!

CornishCockney | 14.05.09 - 10:42 p.m. | #

I'm listening to Lord Norman Tebbit: "People could vote green, they could vote for all sorts of wider people...."

So I'm going to boycott this blog, and read a blog on the environment, and other things.

Steve Barker | Homepage | 15.05.09 - 12:28 a.m. | #

I think you caught the spirit of the farce very well, DG. Rather better than some of your commenters methinks.

Rick | Homepage | 15.05.09 - 10:58 a.m. | #

It's all a load of old bollocks! Sure establishment politicians are out of touch with ordinary people, but them how many of them were ever 'in touch'?
They clearly thought they weren't doing anything wrong, claiming this & claiming that is what politicians always do, the laws never apply to them, as in all night drininking in Parliament buildings, massively subsdised at that!
But who let them claim all this, if it's suddenly wrong? When are the incompetent faceless amndarins going to get their comeuppance for letting it it happen just by ticking a chit?
Let's be honest...if we were in an MP's shoes we'd have done the same! And don't kid yourself anything else...it's human nature!

Rodders | Homepage | 15.05.09 - 11:48 a.m. | #











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