Zac Goldsmith MP deserves credit for sponsoring a bill to introduce a mechanism for the recall of MPs and to ensure that it was effective. He won a vote in the Commons in support of the principle of his bill, but the government ignored it, as they have done in about 20 instances in this […]
Posts Tagged ‘MP’s Expenses’
Even with MPs, it’s only the small fry who get collared for fiddling their expenses
May 11th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The fifth anniversary of the Daily Telegraph exposures about MPs’ expenses once again brings to mind that, like so many other cases involving the Establishment, it was the little people that got done over while the real culprits escaped free. No-one can condone the offences for which half a dozen lesser known MPs were […]
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Grant Shapps: four times asked to back Maria Miller and four times declines
Apr 6th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.Support for Maria Miller within the Tory party is disappearing fast. Take the Tory Chair, Grant Shapps for example. Interviewed this morning by John Pienaar on BBC Radio 5 Live (available for 7 days here, with quote below starting at 12:50), Shapps was asked four times whether he backed Maria Miller, whom Michael Meacher called […]
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Maria Miller should resign or be sacked
Apr 5th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.It is shocking that Cameron, who has repeatedly said in the past that he is cleaning up on MPs’ expenses, now says he is giving “very warm support” to Maria Miller, the disgraced secretary of state for culture, media and sport. Miller, a haughty Tory lady of the grande dame variety, became an MP in […]
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A dishonourable discharge for Hazel Blears
Feb 21st, 2014 by Jon Lansman.So farewell Hazel Blears who is to step down as MP for Salford and Ecclers at the next election. We’ll forgive Ed Miliband for saying she has been a “brilliant MP” and that she was “always fighting for those in most need. Parliament will miss her” — he’s the leader and has to be generous […]
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Why we could do without another MPs’ expenses scandal
Sep 13th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The last MPs’ expenses scandal and continuing “cash for questions” exposés have revealed numerous cases of corruption and venality which rightly shocked the population. The media hysteria, however, failed to distinguish between the genuinely corrupt, the windfalls from an awful set of rules and the downright trivial. It muddled “expenses” with staff salaries and office […]
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Lord Hanningfield’s Guantanamo experience
Nov 11th, 2011 by David Osler.Tory peer Lord Hanningfield is just out after a couple of months in HMP Standford Hill, a minimum security open prison of the type that the newspapers which support his party routinely characterise as ‘holiday camps’. True, he still has to wear one of those electronic tags, and is subject to a 7.15pm curfew, which […]
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MPs, journalists and moral collapse
Sep 2nd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.After the August riots, Ed Miliband rightly made a connection between the “me-first” culture evident in the riots and that which was displayed in the scandals involving MPs’ expenses and phone hacking. And yet, in spite of the connection that is now frequently made between those two scandals, there has been an unsurprising lack of […]
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New Labour sleazemongers still at large
Aug 30th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.It continues to defy explanation how some MPs were selected to be dealt with harshly by the press, their party or the law, whilst others, whose actions seem far more dubious, have escaped scott-free. One prime escapee from justice (though not from the verdict of the electors who booted her out) is Jacqui Smith, former […]
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The Woolas episode has some unexpected implications
Nov 8th, 2010 by Michael Meacher.Since 1997, Phil Woolas and Michael Meacher have been the two Labour MPs representing Oldham in parliament. In spite of political differences, they have worked together on many issues and have shared an office. Here, Michael presents his perspective on recent events. Of course MPs should tell the truth. It is not for me to […]
