It’s now three MEPs and one Shadow Cabinet member, Caroline Spelman.
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23 Comments
Same old Tories…snouts in the trough.
And let’s not forget Derek Conway, James Gray, Nigel Waterson, Andrew Pelling… Who else? I can see a theme here.
Could it be used somehow like this: “Don’t vote for ideologically and financially bankrupt Labour, nor for corrupted and criminal Tories”? Maybe LDV could have a competition in order to find something more rhyming.
Actually, these stories make me nervous. Let he who is without sin and so on.
OK, just hand the stone to me, if your hands are in dirt…
Persoanlly I enjoy the weak excuses. The Spelman story that the Nanny worked for board and lodging in her childcare role and for cash as a secretary is classic. Everyone else seems to go for the “extreme stupidity” excuse: they cannot be expected to understand the rules.
The BBC quotes the nanny saying she remembers answering the phone to take some messages from time to time, and posting some letters. I’m not a fan of Guido’s, but he’s right – MPs engaged in this sort of deception are stealing from the public. If I nicked thousands of pounds out of an MP’s purse I’d be prosecuted, so why aresn’t MPs prosecuted when they steal thousands of pounds out of mine?
Before you all rush to condemn Caroline, please bear in mind that she is a trustee of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, so I’m sure she can’t have done anything wrong.
Hehe
Sorry Laurence, I don’t understand your point. She’s an MP and she’s used tax-payers’ cash to pay her nanny. And she’s rightly facing questions over her future. What does her work with the Conservative Christian Fellowship have to do with it?
Russ, I guess you don’t understand irony?
I’ve now watched her statement to the press from the gate of her large country house. This brings the mid-90s all back to me. What fun!
What is the difference in paying a nanny and claiming childcare expenses?
I’m fine with the irony. Let us assume that Laurence is suggesting Caroline’s involvement with the Conservative Christian Fellowship makes her wrongdoing somehow more heinous (or at least interesting) than if she wasn’t involved. My question is, why would that be the case? My own feeling is that it undermines a rock-solid case against corruption in Parliament if we get distracted by irrelevant innuendoes or existing prejudices.
If Laurence, or anyone else, wants to argue the relevance of Caroline’s work with the CCF, I’d invite them to do so.
I do wonder if Labour and LibDems need to be a bit cautious here. The Open Europe survey which started off this run of scandals found Labour and LibDem MEPs even more reluctant to disclose their expenses than Conservatives.
Let us assume that Laurence is suggesting Caroline’s involvement with the Conservative Christian Fellowship makes her wrongdoing somehow more heinous (or at least interesting) than if she wasn’t involved.
Well if I was doing that, it would be a fairly standard case of pointing out religious hypocrisy. But in fact what I really think is that being a Conservative Christian is a far greater crime than any mere financial scandal!
Especially this one which is looking like small beer . . .
Mmmm, the nanny’s statement in the last couple of hours does seem to have let Caroline off the hook. So I guess all bets and related debates are off, at least until the next bit of account-fiddling comes to light. These politicians never let us down, I’m sure it won’t be more than a week or so…
Have you read the latest on BBC website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7442053.stm
Off the hook with the media, I should stress, who drive these things forward. Not actually innocent of wrongdoing.
ICM S.TELEGRAPH Con 42 Lab 26 LibDem 21 lead up 2 points to 16
LOL! Nuffsaid
@bishop Hill: I would suggest that any politician of whichever colour who has been fiddling their expenses and in effect stealing taxpayers’ money (aka my money) deserves everything they get. The fact that they wear a yellow rosette at election time would not make me any more forgiving.
From today’s edition of the Sun, “MEP Sajjad Karim also faces questions after paying his wife Zahida £26,000 a year of taxpayers’ cash.”
I am sure the Conservatives are very pleased to have him on board.
“ICM S.TELEGRAPH Con 42 Lab 26 LibDem 21 lead up 2 points to 16″
Tory share still lower than it was in 1979, 1983 and 1987, and about par with 1992. The Tories need to be doing far better than this two years away from a General Election.
@Sesenco: that’s only because our (LD) share is so high.