Tag Archives: 17

New MP scandal as they’re claiming rent on expenses while renting out dwellings

Extra cash for MPs who rent: it’s not exactly a backhander because it’s in line with Parliamentary rules – but the practice certainly shouldn’t be.

Do Tory MPs receive a manual on election, entitled Tories On The Take: How To Do It?

Here’s the latest:

In fairness, two of the MPs accused represent Labour – but commentators other than This Writer have called them Red Tories:

The Independent, which lists 16 of the accused MPs, states:

Over the past five years, 16 MPs have claimed over £1.3m in taxpayer-funded rent while collecting thousands rent letting out properties in the capital, according to submissions published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) and the register of members’ interests.

Claims for rent are permitted under Ipsa rules, which state that MPs can receive taxpayer funding for “rental payments and associated costs”. An Ipsa document in 2017 conceded that some arrangements could be controversial – but advised against any change to the rules.

“We recognise that there can be a perception of personal gain if an MP receives rental income from their own property while living in an Ipsa-funded flat,” it said. “However … We do not want to judge an MP’s private arrangements and whether or not they should live in a property they own.”

That may be about to change.

If a member of Parliament is able to carry out their work from their own home, but rent accommodation and charge it to the public purse while taking rent income from their own property – and the rental income means they profit from the arrangement, then they are running an expenses scam and it should stop.

That’s how members of the public are likely to see it.

They may have a good point, I think.

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Brexit ‘red tape’ slashes UK trading revenue with EU by £17 BILLION in just three months

Prophetic: I made this infographic in December 2020 – almost a year ago.

Remember when David Cameron – the architect of the EU membership referendum – said his Conservative-led government would ‘slash red tape’?

It’s almost funny, with hindsight.

Today we learned that the departure from the European Union that his referendum triggered has resulted in a loss of £17 billion in revenue to UK businesses, while they have been swamped in a quagmire of red tape that Brexit has created.

According to The London Economic:

Despite promises from the Leave campaign that red tape would fade after Britain quit the EU, UK companies have had to fill in an astonishing 48 million customs declarations and 140,000 export health certificates in the eight months since the UK quit the single market and customs union , according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO blamed Brexit for a sharp decline in trade between the UK and EU this year. “Total trade in goods between the UK and EU was 15 per cent (£17bn) less in Quarter 2 when compared with the equivalent quarter in 2018,” the watchdog’s report said.

An additional £600 million in costs has hit British importers since January according to HMRC data seen by The Guardian. The cause has been identified as Brexit, because the taxes were not required for EU imports when the Britain was in the single market.

But isn’t that the exact opposite of what Boris Johnson promised? Didn’t he say there would be no barriers to trade after Brexit?

Why, yes – yes he did:

In fairness, Cameron did cut a lot of “red tape”.

It turned out that these rules and regulations were necessary to keep us safe and secure in our workplaces and financial transactions. I’m sure you can think of your own examples.

Their loss has endangered us.

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Owned: Scrounging skinflint Tory Nigel Adams gets what he deserves

Nigel Adams: He only recently resigned as a government minister so there’s not much he can do in recompense for this goof.

Labour has announced that, the next time the party is voted into office, it will extend the adult living wage to cover people aged 16 and 17. That means it will be £10 per hour.

This didn’t go down well with Nigel Adams, the Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire, whose political career (so far) has been conspicuously inconspicuous. He was a Wales Office minister and a government whip, but resigned over Theresa May’s Brexit talks with Theresa May.

“Why not throw in a free iPad and free Spotify subscription?” he sneered on Twitter.

Why not indeed?

After all, as Rob Thompson made perfectly clear – with an illustration: “You bought a keypad for £169 and then made US BLOODY PAY FOR IT!”

Yes indeed. It was all in the expenses account. He charged the taxpayer for that so, if Labour did thrown in a free iPad and Spotify subscription, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if he opposed it.

Labour isn’t planning to throw in a free iPad and Spotify subscription, to the best of This Writer’s knowledge.

So when the legislation comes around to extend the living wage to £10 per hour for everyone aged 16 onwards, it’s good to know Mr Adams will support it. Right?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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Tory hypocrisy exposed again: They oppose votes at 16 while letting 15-year-olds choose their leader

David Lidington stood in for Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions on January 31.

This is shameful, isn’t it?

If you didn’t hear the exchange between Emily Thornberry and David Lidington at PMQs, it included the following, from Ms Thornberry:

At 16, we are free from parental control, we can leave home, we can start a family, we can get married, we can start work, we can pay taxes and we can join the forces, so can he give us a logical explanation of why a 16-year-old should not have the right to vote?

To this, Mr Lidington replied thus:

it was the last Labour Government who raised the legal age for buying cigarettes to 18, raised the age for selling knives to 18, raised the age for buying fireworks to 18 and raised the age for using a sunbed to 18.

It’s a valid point – although there is an argument in that all the things for which Labour raised the legal age are potentially harmful, whereas voting is usually done in the interests of the person concerned and (it is to be hoped) the nation as a whole.

And now we learn that Mr Lidington was taking a completely false position, because the Conservative Party allows votes at 15 in its own internal elections.

Perhaps he thought it doesn’t matter so much, because the average age of his party members is 72.

David Lidington has been accused “hypocrisy” for suggesting 16-year-olds lack the “sufficient maturity” to vote in general elections, despite teenagers aged 15 and over apparently being allowed to vote in Tory leadership contests.

Under Conservative Party rules, 16 and 17 year olds are allowed to become full members of the party.

“There is no upper or lower age limit on membership, although children under the age of 15 cannot be enrolled as full voting members,” party guidelines state.

Members have rights including “one member, one vote in the election of the Leader of the Party” and “a vote in the selection of candidates for Westminster and Europe”.

It costs just £5 for anyone under the age of 22 to join while it costs £25 for anyone over the age of 23.

Source: Tory ‘Hypocrisy’ For Opposing Votes At 16 While Letting Teens Pick Party Leader

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Labour peers dispute claims that EU vote for 16-year-olds would cost £6m


Tory MPs are fabricating costs in order to get their own way, it seems.

Is anybody surprised?

They’ll try this again, even if it fails, on other issues. We’ll all need to keep our wits about us.

Labour peers will on Monday dispute claims by the government that extending votes to 16- and 17-year-olds in the European Union referendum would cost £6m, as the EU referendum bill returns to the House of Lords.

Parliament’s two chambers are at a standoff, as a majority of MPs in the Commons are opposed to giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote in the EU referendum, while a majority of peers in the Lords are in favour.

Before a vote on the matter in the Commons on Tuesday, the government claimed that lowering the voting age would incur costs of about £6m, meaning that the Speaker could rule it to be a financial measure and therefore exempt it from further interference from peers.

But it is understood that the shadow Foreign Office minister, Lady Morgan of Ely, who is tabling an amendment to the bill, will cite a letter from the chief executive of the association of electoral administrators, John Turner, in which he questions the government’s claim, saying that £4.2m of that figure relates to the cost of polling – money which is already accounted for in a consolidated fund.

Source: Labour peers dispute claims that EU vote for 16-year-olds would cost £6m | Politics | The Guardian

Poll: Votes for 16-year-olds

Abby Tomlinson: The teenage founder of 'Milifandom' is a strong supporter of reducing the voting age.

Abby Tomlinson: The teenage founder of ‘Milifandom’ is a strong supporter of reducing the voting age.

David Cameron has said MPs will be able to vote on whether people aged 16 and 17 should be able to vote in the EU referendum.

Let’s have a poll on it now!

[polldaddy poll=8922771]

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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Labour launches plan to attack political corruption

westminsterfromwater

If there’s one area of British life that needs reform, it’s politics.

Every day, Vox Political receives at least one comment from somebody saying that the system is corrupt and desperately needs an overhaul. Today (Tuesday, March 3), Labour is due to announce its plans for tackling this very issue.

The trouble is, of course, that many people are saying Labour is part of the problem.

The claim is that the party and its high-level members have a vested financial interest in keeping the system as it is – and the gravy train rolling along. How will Labour combat these?

Well…

There are plans to consult on new powers for the Speaker to tackle the worst and repeated instances of rowdy behaviour in the Chamber with a so-called ‘sin bin’.

Former Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans described the idea as “rubbish”, pointing out that the speaker already has the ability to remove MPs in certain circumstances and has lots of discretion at present.

But the Speaker himself, John Bercow, has given a cautious welcome to the suggestion that MPs face a rugby-style “yellow-card” temporary ban for bad behaviour in the Chamber. Answering questions at a Hansard Society event at Westminster, Mr Bercow said: “I think there is merit in it, it’s not for me to decide, it’s for the House to decide.”

Other measures will be revealed at an event in Parliament, by Shadow Leader of the Commons Angela Eagle. They include:

  • Overhauling elections with measures including introducing votes at 16 and trialling online voting
  • Changing how Parliament works with a Prime Minister’s Questions for the public and a new process for law-making that gives people a say
  • Tackling vested interests by regulating MPs’ 2nd jobs and creating compulsory rules for lobbyists, and
  • Devolving power across the UK and replacing the Lords with a ‘Senate of the Nations and Regions’.

Some of these measures have already been trailed, like votes for 16-year-olds, public PMQs and regulation of MPs’ second jobs. One has been claimed by the Conservative Party, although Labour’s Austin Mitchell describes the plan for devolution to Greater Manchester as a “deathbed repentance by a government which had centralised continuously in a country that is over-centralised already”. He claimed that a concentration of power in London and the south-east of England “needs to be reversed so the rest of us can have a chance”.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Angela Eagle said: “The recent debate over MPs’ second jobs reminds us that so much needs to change in Westminster. When trust in politics and politicians is already at a record low, only radical reform will restore faith in our political process.

“Labour’s plan will deliver the reform our politics needs. We will reform the Commons to strengthen its ability to hold the government to account. And we will ensure our political system always puts people before rich and powerful vested interests.

“Our politics works on an adversarial system, but sometimes MPs take it too far and it turns the public off. A Labour government will consult on new powers for the Speaker to curb the worst forms of repeated barracking.”

This writer is particularly keen on online voting. It is to be hoped that the trials go well, so that this may help restore interest – and confidence – in democracy.

Does it go far enough? Undoubtedly people will say it does not – but at least, it seems, Labour will do something to arrest the corruption that seems to have seeped into the very bones of the Palace of Westminster (the building will be unusable within 20 years, it seems, unless expensive restoration work is undertaken).

What would you do?

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