Con your way, Derek

Derek Conway has today been suspended by the Conservatives after getting caught funding his son with his expenses: your money.

Good. But there are still plenty of others that need to go. Like these greedy bastards (sourced from Sky News/Bloomberg):

£185,421: Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury
£178,116: Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Hodge Hill
£173,691: Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield North
£172,733: Dan Norris, Labour MP for Wansdyke
£172,327: Tim Farron, Lib Dem MP for Westmorland & Lonsdale

I'm not surprised they are trying to become exempt from the Freedom of Information Act so they can conceal their expenses. It's mad that they can even consider this: expenses should be transparent and honest but as we all know it's anything but. They seem to want to keep it as muddy as possible so nobody can track how much public money they are siphoning off to fund their families' champagne lifestyle.

Check this one out: last year Barry Gardiner, the environment minister, claimed mileage equivalent to driving his own car to Delhi and back. He has an official government car and is a London MP. Unreal.

David McLetchie, the Scottish Tory leader, could not account for why he had claimed £5000 in "personal" taxi fares. He resigned, but only because he was caught.

This is what these bastards get (from timesonline.co.uk):

Staffing allowance

£84,081 To pay for employees’ pay, pensions and perks

Additional costs allowance

£21,634 To cover mortgage interest for a second property, utility bills, grocery bills, council tax and insurance

Incidental expenses allowance

£20,000 To pay for office and surgery costs. MPs can also pick up £250 every month in petty cash from this allowance

Travel expenses

No maximum(!)


The Capitalist Nightmare

I don't blame them for taking everything they can within the rules. Why not? You'd be a fool not to. We are not in a society where morals matter any more, it's the capitalist pinnacle, or rather the capitalist nightmare. Things admired just because they are expensive. People respected based on earnings and status. Greed and wealth above all else.

Why do young girls all want to be Posh Spice? Is it because she's talented and intelligent? No, it's because she wears expensive clothes, has an expensive lifestyle and is married to someone talked about more because of the money they earn than the sporting talent they have.

Why is Tony Blair being talked about lately? Is it because of his role as a United Nations ambassador? Is it because of the things he has done in his career as a MP and Prime Minister? No, it's because he's now being paid half a million per year by JP Morgan and probably a similar amount by Zurich for basically doing nothing and bullshitting about the global hysteria that is "climate change".

His wife's no different. All we know about her is that she's unattractive and gets paid £300,000 per year defending asylum seekers.

Anyway the rules for MPs expenses must be changed.

Currently they state that employees must be: “employed to meet a genuine need in supporting you, the member, in performing your parliamentary duties; [be] able and (if necessary) qualified to do the job; [and] actually doing the job.”

I've decided that MPs should simply be banned from employing their own family. It's quite clearly wrong that MPs can turn their expenses allowance into their own household income, in many cases doubling their money. It stinks.

Take the housewife that would otherwise be doing nothing; perhaps she answers the phone once in a while? Here's £40,000 a year plus pension and perks for your trouble, love.

Unqualified son studying geography full time at uni? £40,000 over 3 years, son. Shame on you Conway.

MPs are set apart from everyone else. They are in it to win it and take as much cash as possible and do as little as possible for it. There are too many examples of greed and arrogance to deny it so there needs to be a crackdown and anyone caught siphoning money unnecessarily should be out.

The UK is bordering on the Italian style Government where as soon as someone gets on the gravy train so do their whole family. Corruption city. The British Government used to have an integrity that it has now lost with scandal after scandal of outright arrogance and in some cases criminality - whether found guilty or not it does not matter.

Once the smoke starts to billow, it no longer matters whether there is a fire. If you think about Blair and the cash for honours for example, does anyone actually think it didn't happen?