I’m more sickened that I can say about the figures released by parliament which show MPs receiving large sums of money to close down their offices, often staffed by family members when they had made it quite clear up to four years previously that they would not stand again.
Some MPs who received large sums as termination payments are now in prison or awaiting sentence that will surely mean prison; some had excellent jobs in the private sector to go to up-on leaving parliament; and yet others have moved across the hall to the House of Lords where they will be on a standard salary (paid as expenses) of £300 a day, as long as they turn up for work.
Labour’s Jacqu
i Smith the disgraced former Home Secretary claimed over £38,000 as a readjustment fee. Some of that of course would be to pay redundancy to her husband, who was part of the reason she was in disgrace. His taste in pornographic films has been shared with the country, mainly because the country was paying for them. Jacqui has gone on to make radio programmes about porn... so at least she profited from the whole experience.
But Labour is not alone in this. Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat (Winchester), received £41,518 to resettle after having announced his retirement 4 years ago, after his affair with a prostitute.
Michael Howard, ex-Tory leader (a possible Lord Chancellor if the right wing of the Tory Party have their way) picked up over £26,500, and a Mr Boswell, ex-Tory MP for Daventry, received a whacking £42,708 to wind up their offices so that they could set up new offices in the Lords. Why either of them required a brass farthing is beyond me. They had plenty of time to ready themselves for a future without a Commons salary, both having announced their retirement in 2006.
Greedy to the last John Reid, who had every job under the s
un in the last Labour government, got his sticky little hands on £37,157 after announcing he would not contest his seat at the next election way back in 2007. Not only has the grasping little man gone to the Lords which means a guaranteed income for life, but he is also Chairman of Celtic FC, a job he held whilst being an MP if memory serves.
Incredibly one MP tried to claim more than the maximum permitted amount. Labour’s Christine McCafferty, ex-MP for Calder Valley tried to claim £42,739, which is £7 above the maximum. Only a bloody MP could do that!
Some MPs who received large sums as termination payments are now in prison or awaiting sentence that will surely mean prison; some had excellent jobs in the private sector to go to up-on leaving parliament; and yet others have moved across the hall to the House of Lords where they will be on a standard salary (paid as expenses) of £300 a day, as long as they turn up for work.
Labour’s Jacqu
i Smith the disgraced former Home Secretary claimed over £38,000 as a readjustment fee. Some of that of course would be to pay redundancy to her husband, who was part of the reason she was in disgrace. His taste in pornographic films has been shared with the country, mainly because the country was paying for them. Jacqui has gone on to make radio programmes about porn... so at least she profited from the whole experience.But Labour is not alone in this. Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat (Winchester), received £41,518 to resettle after having announced his retirement 4 years ago, after his affair with a prostitute.
Michael Howard, ex-Tory leader (a possible Lord Chancellor if the right wing of the Tory Party have their way) picked up over £26,500, and a Mr Boswell, ex-Tory MP for Daventry, received a whacking £42,708 to wind up their offices so that they could set up new offices in the Lords. Why either of them required a brass farthing is beyond me. They had plenty of time to ready themselves for a future without a Commons salary, both having announced their retirement in 2006.
Greedy to the last John Reid, who had every job under the s
un in the last Labour government, got his sticky little hands on £37,157 after announcing he would not contest his seat at the next election way back in 2007. Not only has the grasping little man gone to the Lords which means a guaranteed income for life, but he is also Chairman of Celtic FC, a job he held whilst being an MP if memory serves.Incredibly one MP tried to claim more than the maximum permitted amount. Labour’s Christine McCafferty, ex-MP for Calder Valley tried to claim £42,739, which is £7 above the maximum. Only a bloody MP could do that!
Pics (1) How much did you get Mick? Wow... THAT much?!?! Awesome!
(2) The Noble Lard Reid, completely useless as a minister but a bruiser. You could always tell when there was no excuse for something the government had done. They would set Rottweiler Johnny on the case, and without talking any sense at all he would bulldoze his way through the press. A complete b*****d!
(3) Ah bless her, Teenie trying to squeeze the last little bit out of her expenses, despite having had 5 years knowledge that she would retiring in 2010, at the age of 65. I like this line from her Wikipedia biography: "Personal Life: She married Michael McCafferty. They had a son. She then married David Tarlo." Class!
They must know what they're doing, or have some insane internal logic. I don't understand how a person even needs these amounts of money...
ReplyDeletetris
ReplyDeleteif they shut up shop etc they would be responsible for redundancy payments to their staff etc
Has anyone heard anything of Denis MacShane recently? He was sent to the naughty step for claiming £25,000 (per year, I think) for the use of his garage as an office.
ReplyDeleteHe was suspended from the Labour party but was still sitting and debating, when last heard from.
edd
ReplyDeleteyeah! he has been given a Westminster medal for claiming expenses above the call of duty.
we wont mention the English Tory and English Ukip scum who have done the same and far worse
Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation
Normally people who are made redundant get some sort of payment from the company (and if that's impossible) from the state.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you don't get it if you have been crap and got the sack, or if you have been crap and thieving and been sacked, or if you have simply resigned, or indeed if you are either over the age of retirement (and therfore entitled to a pension), or within one year of that (if I remember rightly).
Those who decided to leave, surely should be, like everyone else who does that in any job, responsible for their own resettlement. Those who were voted out, were effectively sacked, usually because they were crap.
I do not know why we give them any money at all.
It's like saying; "you were useless, no one wanted you any more, we sacked you, so here's £40,000... oh, and despite the public not wanting you, you can have a seat in parliament anyway Lord Whatsit, so stuff the stupid public and their stupid ideas that they have some say in who runs this country, your lordship, bow bow scrape.... Now who can we lecture about democracy today?"
Hi Mr S:
ReplyDeleteI took this info from Wikipedia.
"It was reported on 14 October 2010 that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards (on instruction from the Standards and Privileges Committee[36]) had referred a expenses related complaint about MacShane from the British National Party[3] to the Metropolitan Police. This refers to the claiming of a total of £125,000 in expenses for his constituency office, which was revealed to be a shabby single garage. The Labour Party confirmed MacShane had been suspended from the parliamentary party in the meantime.[37][38] On December 9, 2010 it was reported that the file had been passed from the Metropolitan Police to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of further action.[39]
MacShane had previously written an article for The Guardian in which he played down the expenses scandal writing "there will come a moment when moats and manure, bath plugs and tampons will be seen as a wonderful moment of British fiddling, but more on a Dad's Army scale than the real corruption of politics."
Aye, that's as may be Den Boy, but right now, we people who have been paying for all your thieving don't quite see it that way.
You should read his Wiki page. It is absolutely astounding just how horrible this man is. His list of failed relationships maybe give some idea of this...
Niko:
ReplyDeleteI agree that staff should be given redundancy pay, even if they are brothers, wives, husbands, sisters and even dogs. But we should't trust MPs to distribute that money, on the basis that over 50% were on the fiddle.
I wouldn't trust them to pass on the money.
I think that in Scotland an MSPs' employees are, in fact, employees of the Scottish Parliament, and therefore, any redundancies are paid by them.
Niko, with respect they are no worse than Labour... and probably no better.
ReplyDeleteRadio Wales 1.15 in. another sponging family.
ReplyDelete