I really do not know what to say about this story from the Express. A Tory MP puts the cost of a food parcel for the troops on expenses. After claiming it was an administrative error it also transpired that he had tried but failed to have a £10 Christmas tip paid to his gardeners reclaimed via expenses.
The MPs motto:
“ Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ ”
The MP for Billericay, John Baron, claims he would never knowingly make claims of this type and said he will investigate the error. He does donate four wreaths a year for Remembrance out of his own pocket though.
It seems as though MPs put as much paperwork as possible through the claims office just to see what the machinery squirts out the other end.
Even after John Bercow’s assertions that the new claims system is far superior to the old one we still have MPs happy to claim for virtually any old thing in the hope of a few quid back.
This whole affair has left me wondering if anything official that goes through Westminster on our behalf gets any real scrutiny at all from these people. If they can’t put through a few expenses properly what are they doing with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on a daily basis?
We cannot trust them to make proper and moral claims so I winder if we can trust them in any other area of their professional lives either.
------ Other articles of interest ------
More expenses revelations
Life is so hard for our MPsMPs claim expenses, the masses pay more taxes
Tory MP David Curry stands down as head of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee
Tags: MPs Expenses, News, Politics
Turns out he didn’t make a claim for the food parcel:
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/146437/John-Baron-MP
Not to be confused with Jeff Taylor,
Economist Geoff Taylor
Absolutely not!
Thanks for the link on the food parcel update Jeff