Well...would you look at the expression on that little piggy’s face.
The angry and defiant look from Mr Woolas, or Wool Ass as I prefer to call him is, it seems, directed at the new parliamentary expenses agency. Perhaps they have refused him his wife’s cosmetics, blouses and underwear on his expenses.
According to the Telegraph, disgruntled MPs have threatened to bring down the new supposedly independent allowances watchdog in protest at being treated like ordinary human beings and not the gods they think they are.
Now when I say it is independent, I use the word loosely because the MPs have to vote for its funding. They have already had some of the rules changed because it took time for them to get their money..... and they are not like ordinary people and have to make arrangements to suit when public bodies mess them around.
So members of the Speaker’s committee refused to sign off on the budget for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) a
nd demanded officials provide new information before they would agreed to fund the body, raising the prospect that it will not be able to continue.
That’s the way to do it guys. I wish I could just refuse to fund the Revenue or Jobcentre Plus or DVLA or TV Licencing.... or whoever happens to be making a mess of my finances this week. Come to that I wish I could stop financing the Royal Bank!
MPs crowded the committee room and shouted and barracked the staff of the IPSA as they answered questions. (It’s nice to know that they can get really worked up about something, isn’t it?) and one was heard to shout “Bastards”, perhaps after a particularly liquid lunch, possibly on expenses, so it’s good to know that our representatives are showing our kids a good example on the behaviour front.
Presumably they will be fighting with equal vigour the next time that one of their constituents gets done over by some public body. Or maybe they’ll just yawn and pass the letter over to some clerk to deal with.
Bob Russell, LibDem, called the organization the most inefficient he had known in 40 years of public office. He should get out more. Really!
Nick Brown, Labour Chief Whip, indicated that there were no satisfied MPs... Well of course there aren’t, you balloon. No one who has had an open cheque book for years and years is ever happy with being kept in check! People like Winterton resigned because of it.
Charles Walker, Conservative, accused IPSA of wasting money after a compliance officer was appointed to investigate questionable claims. Erm, Charlie, don’t we have the same sort of thing on TV Licences, Tax, Social Security? Aren’t there snoopers all over the country making sure that we stump up and don’t cheat? Why would you be different?
On the basis that evidence turned up by the Daily Telegraph showed that over 50% of your number cheated on their expenses and took what was not there (in other parlance stole), I think it’s not unreasonable that you should be treated just like ordinary mortals.
A word of warning: don’t try to mess with this committee you set of conniving, dreary little cheats. We’re angry. You should know that. We haven’t forgotten. We are all suffering hardships to pay back for the incompetences of the last few years. Don’t add insult to our injury by continuing to assume that you are above it all. That would be really foolish.
Pics: Phil Woolas, Joanna Lumley's doormat, a collection of MPs, and Charles Walker who clearly has been off planet over the last year or so... out to lunch maybe (they have long lunch breaks in parliament)?
The angry and defiant look from Mr Woolas, or Wool Ass as I prefer to call him is, it seems, directed at the new parliamentary expenses agency. Perhaps they have refused him his wife’s cosmetics, blouses and underwear on his expenses.
According to the Telegraph, disgruntled MPs have threatened to bring down the new supposedly independent allowances watchdog in protest at being treated like ordinary human beings and not the gods they think they are.
Now when I say it is independent, I use the word loosely because the MPs have to vote for its funding. They have already had some of the rules changed because it took time for them to get their money..... and they are not like ordinary people and have to make arrangements to suit when public bodies mess them around.
So members of the Speaker’s committee refused to sign off on the budget for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) a
nd demanded officials provide new information before they would agreed to fund the body, raising the prospect that it will not be able to continue.That’s the way to do it guys. I wish I could just refuse to fund the Revenue or Jobcentre Plus or DVLA or TV Licencing.... or whoever happens to be making a mess of my finances this week. Come to that I wish I could stop financing the Royal Bank!
MPs crowded the committee room and shouted and barracked the staff of the IPSA as they answered questions. (It’s nice to know that they can get really worked up about something, isn’t it?) and one was heard to shout “Bastards”, perhaps after a particularly liquid lunch, possibly on expenses, so it’s good to know that our representatives are showing our kids a good example on the behaviour front.
Presumably they will be fighting with equal vigour the next time that one of their constituents gets done over by some public body. Or maybe they’ll just yawn and pass the letter over to some clerk to deal with.
Bob Russell, LibDem, called the organization the most inefficient he had known in 40 years of public office. He should get out more. Really!
Nick Brown, Labour Chief Whip, indicated that there were no satisfied MPs... Well of course there aren’t, you balloon. No one who has had an open cheque book for years and years is ever happy with being kept in check! People like Winterton resigned because of it.
Charles Walker, Conservative, accused IPSA of wasting money after a compliance officer was appointed to investigate questionable claims. Erm, Charlie, don’t we have the same sort of thing on TV Licences, Tax, Social Security? Aren’t there snoopers all over the country making sure that we stump up and don’t cheat? Why would you be different?
On the basis that evidence turned up by the Daily Telegraph showed that over 50% of your number cheated on their expenses and took what was not there (in other parlance stole), I think it’s not unreasonable that you should be treated just like ordinary mortals.
A word of warning: don’t try to mess with this committee you set of conniving, dreary little cheats. We’re angry. You should know that. We haven’t forgotten. We are all suffering hardships to pay back for the incompetences of the last few years. Don’t add insult to our injury by continuing to assume that you are above it all. That would be really foolish.
Pics: Phil Woolas, Joanna Lumley's doormat, a collection of MPs, and Charles Walker who clearly has been off planet over the last year or so... out to lunch maybe (they have long lunch breaks in parliament)?
This just goes on and on. I guess they now think that we are all sick of it and they can go back to getting away with it.
ReplyDeleteAye tris, gaun yersel. Get them telt. Dinnae mess wi us, fer we're yer electorate an' we rule. End o'.
ReplyDeleteThe constant dronin an whinin o' their wee piggy voices, claimin that they're haein tae sleep oan their desks they're that skint, is giein me a worse head than a fu 90 meenutes o' vuvuzelias, which gies me a migraine, except when England are gettin beat.
Munguin:
ReplyDeleteI realise I've posted plenty on this in the past, but that’s why I'm keeping going with it.
They seem to think that, now the election is over, it's back to business as usual.
I'm trying to get a message out... (in a tiny little way).... that says:
You're not special in any way shape or form; you do a job that requires no qualification, no professional memberships and no particular talent. That's not to say that some people don't have them, but it's not necessary. You're not rulers, you don't rule over us; you are employed by us to keep the country going in the way WE want.
All this nonsense about chauffeurs, and first class travel and no receipts, and the best of everything belongs to a by-gone age of Kings and Dukes and Princes. They are over. You're ordinary.
Learn to live with it, and its consequences. We don't trust you an inch, you have proved that you are not, in any case trustworthy; you are as disliked as estate agents. If you don't like it why don’t you sod off and do something else which would pay you far more, as you keep on telling us.
Whatever you do STOP WHINGEING! We all face this kind of thing every day, and just because you once met Joanna Lumley and were pasted all over the floor by her does not make you better than us.
And don't think you can slip back to the old ways and we'll not notice. I'm pretty sure that the Daily Telegraph will see to it that we won’t.
Oh Sophia sweetheart... it took me a whole 8 paragraphs to say what you did, and much more eloquently, in two.
ReplyDeleteYou're a wonder so you are!
(PS. I expect you can give up watching now then....)
Tris rant over? LOL you keep at them, and I will keep up the frothing republican anti-monarchy rants OK? Then we will be like Jack Sprat and his wife!
ReplyDeleteClean platter munguin?
ReplyDeleteYes betwixt the two of us etc
ReplyDeleteHurray! The Iconoclastic paity's still got life in it! Ye ken, ah used tae buy up aw WoolWorth's stock o' Shaker-Maker cos ah used tae enjoy smashin the wee men oan ma doorstep. It brought back happy memories.
ReplyDeleteNaw ah dinnae ken whit a paity is either.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's the problem Sophia; Labour's more right wing than the Tories, and the Liberals are the Tories and have more or less given up on anything even moderately liberal....and Ken Clarke is more left wing than either of them.... then there's the problem of the Scottish branch offices being the same party as the London one, but London forgets to tell them when they are about to make a 180 degree change in policy (that's a U-turn Margaret).
ReplyDeleteYep, it's all awfully complex.....
Super post Tris. I listened to 3 of them on radio5live yesterday morning. Two whined and the other (can't remember his name) said he'd had no problem, had a credit card for travel and everything else he needed.
ReplyDeleteThe other two more or less called him a traitor for coming on the programme. I think he was the bloke who stood down from the labour leadership to let Diane Abbot get his votes.
Thank you kindly SR.
ReplyDeleteIf one of them can make it work, why oh why can't the rest of them?
I suspect it is because they have become feather bedded, and so sure that only the best ois good enough for our "rulers".
So, they need to be left in no doubt that that will not do.
What's the point of an "independent" orgaization set up to stop them thieving if they can clip its wings by telling it how many people it can employ and refusing it funding.
Woe betide them if they think they can get round the theft ban that way.