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I've always maintained that, even before this issue came up, all politicians are crooks! They are lying, two faced, promise breaking crooks! That applies to Labour, Tories, Lib Dem, Green, the lot of them. All a shower of shite, allegedly...!
But, were I an MP, would I have filed such expense claims? Bloody right I would have...
There is a huge irony in finding journalists getting all 'moral' about MP expense claims.
If there is any other group out there who would stand a better chance of winning the 'Booker Prize for Fiction' with their expense claims it is the journalists themselves
Irony perhaps, however there is a significant difference.
Newspapers TV etc (BBC being the exception) are owned and run by private business. It is within my/your direct control how powerful/successful these private business are by voting with our wallets.
However with MPs you and I have until now (cough), had no say in what is spent where, by whom and on what, least of all their expenses, wages, second incomes, or other incentives.
We are allegedly all given the choice to bring about change during an election, however a party manifesto is more likely to cover issues that the parties want us to have a decision on and want us to be interested in. Even then, the big vote winning issues in a manifesto are usually quickly side-lined and promises made during elections completely forgotten about.
Two things that have annoyed me about all this are, that big nosed Eton educated twat Stephen Fry pointing to the camera and saying "this is nothing, it's insignificant, there are more important things happening around us, there's no one who hasn't fiddled their expenses <then turns to the camera and points> even you!" What an arrogant and uninformed twat. It is bloody well important. How our taxes are spent or wasted is of the highest significance to me and should be to him. If the politicians have done nothing wrong and are merely playing the rules with their expenses (this begs the question about personal morality, especially when one states publically "it's wages in anything but name" as expenses are not taxable but wages are), then there is something wrong with the system. I have to submit every receipt for anything I claim regardless of the value, and there are strict guidelines to what can and cannot be claimed. Also how dare he (Fry) accuse you, me, my mother, my father, my mate, my neighbour of being dishonest without even meeting us, let alone having carnal knowledge of our expense claims!
Secondly that dosey cow Margaret Beckitt stating that without these expenses and other perks, only the rich could afford or would want to be politicians. Sorry but I know a few honest folks that would love to double their salary overnight by becoming an MP, even without the expenses. Unfortuantely they feel that they are not sufficiently educated, connected or qualified for the position.
Sorry for the rant, but idiots trying to justify the unjustifiable is almost as bad as the original offence to me.
Mugabe calls for UK to be kicked out of Commonwealth Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has written to the Queen to demand that the UK be suspended from the Commonwealth.
In his letter he claims that this week’s expenses revelations are symptomatic of the widespread corruption within British politics. Other commonwealth countries are supporting the call, with President Zardari of Pakistan set to demand that UN economic sanctions should be imposed on the UK unless free and fair elections are held within the next six months.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has responded by banning all foreign journalists from the UK, stating that the allegations are completely erroneous, blaming all of Britain’s current problems on the ‘bad magic’ being spread by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.
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