Our MP's expenses
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Fatal Character Flaw
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This article first appeared in the iNewspaper.
Watching a wounded animal in its death throes is never an edifying
experience, and that is exactly how it’...
20 hours ago
40 comments:
How can you claim for a Sky subscription before you install it?? MMmmmm Luxury McVities Biscs.
what about the £40,000 re-vamp of the council private area?
Anon 11.50 AM:Surely he has not claimed for the £40,000 re-vamp of the council private area.
MMmmmm Luxury McVities Biscs, Latex gloves and size 10 safety boots
and mirrors....
TV - £499.99???
wheres the moat cleaning! and the chandeliers! and the claims for his pets accomodation!!?? And the £6000 to family members for cleaning!!???
Oh right yeh, that was other MPS....
At LEAST they didnt dare claim for Toblerone!
Once he realised he could get up to £250 in petty cash every month, with no questions asked and no explanation needed, he just couldn't resist!
Oh come on people. £500 for a tv is hardly excessive - and the toblerone issue is just a nonsense. On balance I think this is mostly quite reasonable - GIVEN what the rules were in the first place. Personally I strongly object to paying his second mortgage (even the interest) and to the £400 blanket claim for food (whether he was there or not - what, he's only eating because he's in London so it's a work-related expense?) but that's an issue for reform of the system, not Brendan's personal habits or even his accounting. I see overnight stays at £20 to £55 - that's hardly going overboard is it?
For avoidance of doubt I'm no fan of his, AA's or the nats.
5:02 It's not a case of his claims being outwith the rules. It is a case that having stood up and made himself the guardian of public morals etc. he should have kept his snout out of the trough. How can any of them claim a blanket £400 per month for food or £250 for unreceipted expenses with a clean conscience? Oh yeah, I forgot; we're talking about politicians here aren't we?
£400 per month for food. Let's just think about this one.
He only stays in London a maximum of 4 days per week.
He is an MP who is supposedly working a lot of hours.
They have Tescos, Lidl, Aldi in London.
I am part of a family of five, living in the islands and managing to spend no more than £100 per week feeding my very hungry, growing family, which I sometimes struggle to fund.
Now let's revisit the £400 per month on food, for one person. Does that not sound a tad excessive....
On top of his heavy salary he effectively claims (and gets) £650 of tax free income which is unreceipted. How many people on the Western Isles would give their right arm to get paid £650 per month and would be prepared to do a decent month's work for it?
I notice that AJ Martin has done pretty well out of the deal. Weren't they touted by Alex Salmond in his Holyrood campaign as a business that supports the SNP. Obviously a lot of back scratching going on there and he got a full reimbursement in guaranteed work. And isn't Mr. Martin's daughter our MPs ex parliamentary assistant. Oh it's all so very cosy....
How many times has Mr MacNeil claimed £843 per month for his mortgage when his interest payments were £834 per month (paperwork from the Woolwich states very clearly what his interest payments are). This was knocked back by the payments office only a handful of times. I know it's only £9 but wouldn't we all like that £9 per month in our own pockets rather than out of our wages to profit Mr MacNeil?
Seems very modest to me.
Please show me where there is a Lidl or an Aldi in Central London. All you get are very expensive Tesco Metros. But in fact, given the lunatic operational hours of the HoC (designed to allowed Tory and Lbour Qcs to sit in court in the mornings) the availability of supermarkets is of marginal interest.
House of Commons sits until (at least) 10.30pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, and til 7.30pm on Wednesdays. The reality is that almost no meals are taken by MPs or their staff at home. The hours effectively force them to eat out. On that basis £400 is relatively modest.
As a civil servant I'm entitled to £42.50 a day for food - a heck of a lot more than £400 a month.
As for biscuits. Don't know what sort of skanky offices you lot work in - but anywhere I've worked they have biscuits for staff meetings, entertaining of guests and the like. When I was in the Isles there was a tradition of hospitality...
7:54pm
As a civil servant I'm entitled to £42.50 a day for food
I really wouldn't be too proud of that fact. If you think that this comment is a defence of Mr MacNeils expenses claims then you are very wrong. Everything about your comment is wrong and if you cannot see that then there is something very wrong about you as an individual.
Please try to understand the real world as it stands in 2009 particularly in the Western Isles.
£28 for a "fine cotton sheet"
£10 for a pillowcase.
Pray tell, who, if they were spending their own money would spend that much on a single sheet?
3:47pm
Just because there was someone who did worse than you doesn't make what you did any less wrong.
£400 for food. From what I hear you can live quite cheaply of the subsidized restaurants at Westminster.
All judge and jury from the comfort of our armchairs…. How very convenient.
£400 per month for food, say 4 days/week…. 16 days/month…. That’s £25 per day IN LONDON. Respect goes out to AB.
On business, I can’t spend that little in any city. Please don’t compare the costs of feeding yourself and your family from Tesco in Lewis to business expenses when in a city like London. Apples to apples….. etc, etc…..
8:44pm, the whole point here is that the expenses are 500 miles from his home in the 3rd most expensive city on the planet. The costs of London may be wrong and immoral however, unfortunately, that is the real world. Nipping home (the 2nd one) for lunch is not normally an option in London and I’d like to hope our MP is too busy to shop in Aldi and cycle back and cook dinner.
The company I work for has 50000 employees and they had a £25 (£35 in London) per day allowance for food for the last 10 years, last year they finally admitted that it was not enough to cover reasonable expenses. The last hotel I stayed in London it cost £22.95 for breakfast (slightly extreme example as it was a nice hotel).
When you are rushing about in places like London using taxis, hotels, airports, etc, etc it is very, very expensive. My only wish is AB would rush about a wee bit more.
8.47
Yes but you need to put things in perspective or the ones who have really been taking the proverbial get off relatively lightly.
cummon people, if we spent as much time solving this problem as we did insulting those who caused it... My own personal solution would be: only certain stores (chosen by tender to keep costs down) allowed to supply. meanwhile someone SENSIBLE goes round with a list and checks the average cost of things MP's have to buy within the average price (no more expensive corkscrews) if they want to buy something more expensive - it comes out of their own pay.
Or you could have a system where MPs are only allowed to buy certain brands (preferably British goods - thus making them more desirable not just in Britain but possibly all over the world) or makes - if they want other again they have to go fish in their own pockets! LS
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you.
I am from London, lived and worked there for over 30 years in the City.
Most large companies have a subsidised canteen, I am sure that Westminster is no exception.
I was running around working 12 - 16 hour days and never spent more than £10 per day, maximum on feeding myself which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. A sandwich from Tesco (including Metro) costs about £2, with a piece of fruit and a packet of crips you are talking £3 max.
A subsidised meal in the restaurant was about the same.
Even Macdonalds (if that is your thing) only costs about £4 for a meal deal, so please don't try to con us into thinking that you cannot economise in the City of London there are just those who choose not to.
theres an architectural competition out just now to try and sort this mess (the second homes part of it anyway). All solutions welcome, including mooring a crusie ship on the thames, locking them in a prison, or providing them with a cardboard box for a street corner....
Any ideas!?
Six grand a year plus rates to the SNP in rent and presumably the beach boy doing the same. Not a bad slush fund. Add to that the 650 a month in unreceipted food and "incidentals", not to mention the 209 grand mortgage plus every penny he could get rihgt down to clearing the drains. This a guy who discovered a gravy train and decided to climb aboard. Look forward to Donnie Gazete's detailed coverage.
7.54
A civil servant entitled to £42.50 a day?
Don't know what office you work in, but it's not the ones occupied by the workers in the DWP jobs in Lewis that Calum Macdonald secured during his term of office.
The reality the defenders of Macneil won't face up to is that the Toblerone, the vodka, the bunk beds etc etc may not amount to much, but the more serious issue is having an MP who is totally disengaged from the needs of his constituency. Say whatever you want about Calum Macdonald, he was never on the single-minded ego-trail that Angus Macneil has carved through the Western Isles, and even during the years of being in the opposition party, he produced results.
update from Bagh a Chaisteal:
1. My MP no longer drinks in the Castlebay Bar. Cant stand the heat
2. His new crofter house is known locally as Westminster Abbey - it's so f....... large
3. Her-in-doors lost sympathy because she was also on the make as a "case worker". Everyone knows the poor soul can't and doesn't work on constituency cases.
4. Reports rife in Barra that he actually claimed for a pair of Wellies, yes a pair of Wellies.
5. Come on Angus keep us up to date. By the way can anyone tell me who Councillor Maroot is? He's apparently his adviser in Lewis on all things to do with Wee Frees/Sunday ferries and Proddies in general.
I thought Maroot owned the SNP office in Bayhead?
Maroot is the nickname of Cllr Murdo MacLeod, multiple property owner and 'religious' hypocrite of this parish.
Maroot owned the SNP Offices from 1995 until recently when he apparently transferred ownership to his son. That way it didn't have to appear on his register of interests. His son sold the offices at a nice profit to the SNP Constituency Association who rent it to MacNeil and Allan. Paid for by us, the taxpayer.
The propery was generously valued by his neighbour, Bob Adam, and the improvements undertaken by his brother-in-law AJ Martin who is a donor to the SNP campaign.
Maroot owns property in Back which was made available to both MacNeil and Allan before the elections.
But the lure of letting income was too great. As was letting the property in Stornoway, and the two houses (since sold?) in Newmarket.
And wasn't he managing the let of his daughter's house in Goathill Crescent to the Health Board at the same time as being in charge of joint working between CnES and WIHB?
Thankfully, all the properies were in the name of his wife or his children and therefore didn't need to be declared or cause any conflicts of interest. Although the Guidance to Councillors may suggest otherwise....
Thank you for interesting information. Sounds like a nice little racket in which Maroot makes money, the SNP make money, MacNeil's cronies make money and the whole thing is funded by the taxpayer. Or have I missed something?
cant find the wellies in his claims. anyone help?
Regardless of the price of a meal in London, why was he claiming for when Parliament wassn't even sitting?
Doesn't Jane feed him?
MacNeil is getting very accident prone.
11:57,
No need for such trivialities as the truth here...it's enough for commenters like 4:13 to say "Reports rife in Barra" and it becomes true.
A bit like the Daily Mail saying "a government source said..." which should be read as "a lying Daily Mail hack said..."
Anon 1:58pm
I've heard that Barra is the 2nd most expensive place to eat in the world, 2nd only to London.
Apparently a miserly income of around £70k per annum can barely keep one in houses across the UK let alone to buy fillet steak and prime halibut, vodka and the odd toblerone.
So of course you should understand why us rich taxpayers should continue to fund his lifestyle even when he can't be arsed to go down to Westminster.
11:56am
And don't forget that MaROT [sp] stood as an independent in the council elections.
Maroot should consider his position. An honourable man would step down. If he doesn't in 7 days I may make a few phone calls to 01383 428058. That is the Standards Commision in case you are wondering. Lets get this island tidied up.
PS: What is going on in Nis? FIOS is full of corruption this issue. Sadly I dont have the back issues.
As the £400 "food allowance" pm is tax free it is equivalent to nearly £700 per for us mere mortals.
With a maximum 4 day week for 34 (?) weeks work a year in London, thats £60 per day when a three course meal with wine in the House of Commons gets change from £20.
10:02
I heard that Maroot was using his position on the joint working board and meeting time to try to get the property let rather than doing the job that he was being paid for.
MP'S Expenses according to the Green Book:
Personal Additional Accommodation
Expenditure (PAAE)
Purpose of the allowance
PAAE is available to reimburse Members for the additional
expenses necessarily incurred in staying overnight away from their
main home for the purpose of performing their parliamentary
duties. It may only be used to meet the following costs:
Rent or mortgage interest,
Hotel expenses, Utilities and telecommunications charges, Furnishings,
Maintenance, service agreements, cleaning, insurance and Subsistence.
Eligibility:
PAAE can be claimed if the principles set out in Part I have been complied with
Toilet rolls. Why? He wipes his bum on his constituents.
What did Angus' father get out of it. He helped renovate the office too!!!
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