Osborne update: Information sent to Standards Commissioner

Dear ——- —-,

Thank you for your email of December 20, and for replying to my complaint about Rt Hon George Osborne MP so promptly.

Herewith please find copies of Land Registry documents relating to the properties in question. These may be obtained from the Land Registry on request. It is clear from them that both properties were owned by Mr Osborne and were sold together – as a single transaction – to the new owners. Under those circumstances it is unreasonable to expect that the valuation of £445,000, which appears on both documents for the period when Mr Osborne owned those properties, relates to those properties individually; it is the value of both properties, taken together. That is how Mr Osborne bought them, and it is how he sold them. It is unreasonable to expect anyone to believe there are separate valuations for the land and the building.

It must follow, therefore, that Mr Osborne’s claim for mortgage expenses towards use of the building in the pursuance of his Parliamentary duties also went towards payment of mortgage expenses on the paddock, and I understand it is now a belief that is widely held by the public, that Mr Osborne did not spend a single penny of his own money on the mortgage for the properties in question.

There are questions that I cannot answer for you. I do not hold details of the single mortgage he held, that covered both the land west of Macclesfield Road (the paddock) and at Harrop Fold Farm – that would be a private document and its details would be a matter for him to divulge. Therefore I cannot say for certain whether he claimed for all of the mortgage interest or just a percentage covering the house. As a reasonable man, however, I can say that it seems unlikely he would put forward an arbitrary figure – and how would he know the correct valuation for the building alone, when he bought it and the paddock as a single package?

You rightly state that the Commissioner has already inquired into Mr Osborne’s claims for his second home over the relevant period. The only conclusion I can draw from this, in the light of the above information, is that Mr Osborne may have misled the Commissioner about the true nature of his mortgage interest payments. I would imagine this is a serious offence against the Commissioner’s office; if it is not, I am sure that the general public would be as shocked as I would.

Bear in mind also that the sum of money concerned in this affair is around £1 million. This is not a paltry amount and, if the taxpayers of the UK have been unwittingly subsidising a profit-making scheme for this man, it would be unreasonable to deny them knowledge of the matter and recompense for the misuse of their tax pounds.

Thank you for your attention in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response. I understand that your office would not, in any case, proceed with an investigation without a written complaint, so I will put the necessary documents in the post at my earliest convenience.

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19 Comments

  1. Jon December 30, 2012 at 5:20 pm - Reply

    All very well and good but the missing point is the system itself that allows these multi-millionaires to charge US anything – and we then think it is ok because there is some statute that says it’s ok!

    It f*cking isn’t! And it’s about time the whole rotten lot was brought down.

    • Mike Sivier December 30, 2012 at 6:01 pm - Reply

      I agree. We have to start somewhere, and this is where I did.

      • Jon December 30, 2012 at 9:15 pm - Reply

        Yes Mike – and it is appreciated. :) I’m sorry if i sounded otherwise, its so blasted annoying eh. Keep up the good work and i recommend the following film http://www.fourhorsemenfilm.com/

      • Mike Sivier December 30, 2012 at 9:20 pm - Reply

        Interesting. I do agree that people in powerful positions are trying to control the way we think, and a LOT of people are content to let them.

      • Jon December 30, 2012 at 10:05 pm - Reply

        Yeah – but the whole film is more than that. It explains why our social systems and economic systems are the way they are. It explains about banking and how banks create money out of nothing and then charge you interest on it – and more.

        Essentially Mike, you are trying to educate the public – this film expands on that and helps you understand our world and what it is. And as the film says says – to understand something is to be liberated from it….

  2. Chris Tandy December 30, 2012 at 5:46 pm - Reply

    Once again, stirling work, Mike.
    David against Goliath. But one small stone hitting the odious osBumme right between the eyes can serve to bring him down to his knees.

    • Mike Sivier December 30, 2012 at 6:00 pm - Reply

      Don’t get your hopes up, too high!
      If he can worm his way out of this, he will. There’s an additional obstacle, possibly, in that the Select Committee is almost entirely Conservative or Liberal Democrat. I found one Labour member.

      • Chris Tandy December 30, 2012 at 11:01 pm - Reply

        Sadly he almost certainly will. But I and many others would still take pleasure in hearing him do so at your expense, Mike.
        And more worming will not do his reputation as a shrewd financial hard-hitting problem-solving c̶h̶a̶n̶c̶e̶l̶l̶o̶r̶…sorry, towel re-folder….. any good whatsoever….

  3. sharoot66 December 30, 2012 at 6:07 pm - Reply

    First rate! good on you for doing it :))

  4. Joanna Terry December 30, 2012 at 7:06 pm - Reply

    Well done Mike, hard work I know but I’m with you all the way. Is there anything that we could do,like writing additional letters that can help let me know. If we keep up the pressure on these weasels you never know, something may crack.

  5. Stephen Kelly L35 4NQ December 30, 2012 at 10:38 pm - Reply

    Have you thought of contacting Ed Miliband’s office?

    • Chris Tandy December 30, 2012 at 11:09 pm - Reply

      I think it would be a waste of a metaphorical stamp……I would have thought that Ed M knows all there is to know about The Towelman’s dirty doings; as is usual, will use the office carpet to cover up the dirt.

  6. Ash Martin December 31, 2012 at 12:00 am - Reply

    Keep going…corruption thrives in the dark.

  7. Marzia Nicodemi December 31, 2012 at 9:26 am - Reply

    A very happy new year.
    I am a new follower and thoroughly enjoy reading your blog.

  8. Editor December 31, 2012 at 9:47 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on kickingthecat.

  9. Mutlee December 31, 2012 at 1:54 pm - Reply

    You all realise that the correct way to deal with this is for all of us to petition our MPs for a vote of no confidence in this government, and of the monarchic financial regime. Then we take over government, re-write the rules under common law, renounce the UCC, and sling the lot of them in jail for treason, fraud and genocide.

  10. AP January 22, 2013 at 5:09 pm - Reply

    Mike, I wrote to them and got this reply:

    Thank you for your e-mail of 15 January to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. I have been asked to reply.

    The Commissioner has not accepted a complaint about Rt Hon George Osborne MP. There is therefore no current inquiry into Mr Osborne’s conduct.

    I hope it will be helpful if I explain how the Commissioner works. Before she could inquire into allegations against a Member, the Commissioner would need evidence, sufficient to support an inquiry, that the Member might have breached the Code of Conduct and the rules of the House. The rules on Members’ overnight expenses have been tightened considerably since Mr Osborne’s original expenses claims, and the Commissioner would assess the allegations against the rules as they were at the time of the alleged conduct. Without evidence of a breach of those rules, which had not already been inquired into, the Commissioner would not open an investigation.

    Any questions of criminal conduct would be a matter for the police, not for the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. It would be for the police to comment on any complaint that has been made to them.

    • janet renwick January 23, 2013 at 1:07 am - Reply

      I received an exact copy in reply to my e-mail.

  11. mikruiser January 28, 2013 at 11:45 am - Reply

    I also received the exact same reply.

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