David Chaytor Is Sentenced To 18 Months

Disgraced Labour MP David Chaytor

Disgraced Ex-Labour MP David Chaytor is due be sentenced for Parliamentary expenses fraud at 2:15 pm today.

Chaytor who used to represent Bury North submiited forged invoices gaining him over £18,000 of payments, he was not entitled to receive.

Where Are They Now – Jacqui Smith The Redditch Saddleback

April 2009 and those movies are global news

One minute they are all over the papers and TV, the next minute they are gone without trace, its as if they never existed.

Who are these disappeared ones?

Politicians who lose their seats and then drop off the radar Jacqui Smith being one, another being Bill Brammel. Brammel in case you have forgotten was the slap head rock ape who stood in for Bollocks Bob Ainsworth when Labour lied about how they had failed the armed forces, or needed to smear the daughter of a serving General Officer.

General Election – Hazel Blears In Salford And Eccles

Hazel Blears the former Communities Secretary, disgraced in the MP’s expenses scandal with some spectacular troughing is standing for the new seat of Salford and Eccles.

The problem for Blears is the expenses scandal just wont go away as the Salford Star reports on Salford Question Time:

At a stormy public Question Time at Salford Arts Theatre last night, Hazel Blears accused the media of lying about her during the expenses scandal. The Salford MP said “There’s an awful lot that’s been reported in the papers that is simply not true.”

Unfortunately Hazel didn’t mention all the stuff that was true… over £8000 on furniture, over £50,000 on mortgage payments, over £1000 on fees for personal tax returns, over £200 on bath towels and over £1000 on food when Parliament wasn’t even sitting.

Panel member Alex Halligan, representing the TUC, said “MPs, paid for by us, were basically taking the piss out of the ordinary people who voted for them…I didn’t mandate my MP to rob the taxpayer blind”…

MP’s Expenses Three Labour MP’s Think They Are Above The Law

Labour MP's Devine, Chayter amd Morley think they are above the law

Three Labour MP’s were in court yesterday, trying to slither out of any legal reckoning by using the Bill of Rights to argue they are “above the law” and could only be judged by the House of Commons.

The arrogance of these troughers is unbelievable, so arrogant are they after 13 years in power they believe they can only be judged by fellow troughers in Parliament, and until told by the Judge that they must stand in the dock, they refused to do so.

Expenses – 5th Labour MP To Be Investigated By Police

Labour MP Harry Cohen subject of Police investigation

Another Labour expenses fiddler is about have his collar felt by the Met, Wanstead and Leyton MP Harry Cohen is to be the subject of a criminal investigation; Cohen claimed expenses in excess of £70k for his second home while he rented out his first home.

The Met have asked the HoC authorities for documents relating to expense claims made by Cohen, though the Police have yet to question Cohen.

Also under investigation is Eric Illsley, Labour MP for Barnsley who is alleged to have made phantom claims for Council Tax, whatever that may be.

Question Time Last Night

By Tory Aardvark

There will be endless articles written about Question Time last night and Aardvark is not going to pontificate at length about the program except to say that Nick Griffin as a political heavy weight has less presence than Hazel Blears; which given his policies of hate is just as well. Baroness Warsi was impressive and talked a lot of sense, and was both politically and intellectually several leagues above Griffin.

What really made my ears twitch was when Dimbleby said “Jacqui Smith will be on the program in 2 weeks time”, the audience reaction was to boo.

Smith apology to HoC lasted less than 2 minutes

Jacqui Smith is a member of the Labour Political Elite as is not subject to the same laws as us plebs. This has been another cynical and spectacular white wash by Labour again.

Bet you never thought when you saw the headline it was going to be about the Saddleback from Redditch.

Labour Backbenchers Discontent Is Growing With Gordon Brown

By Tory Aardvark

Yesterday there were rumblings of discontent from 5 Labour MP about their Sir Thomas Legg repayments

Another mess I have got myself in

Today the rumblings are getting stronger and even Labour Ministers are admitting that Gordon Brown has become the focus for backbench discontent.

Sir Thomas Legg has not worked out as Brown had hoped, it all backfired rather badly for the Prime Mentalist when Sir Thomas asked him for more than £12,000 in over claimed expenses.

MPs warned that the revolt would become even bigger if they are sent backdated tax bills by HM Revenue and Customs, which is investigating whether furniture and fittings bought under the “second homes” allowances should be regarded as a taxable benefit. “That would mean hitting us twice – one repayment for Legg, another for the tax man,” one Labour MP said.

Labour MP’s Threaten By-Election Nightmare For Gordon Brown

By Tory Aardvark

More bad news for Gordon Brown as the expenses scandal continues to cause damage to all parties, especially Labour.

Mixed messages from Brown and Harriet Harman about the Legg demands have done little to cast Brown in a positive light.

There are allegedly 5 Labour MP’s who are considering resigning immediately and forcing by-elections in safe seats, apparently their Legg demands are so big that this is the most economic way for them to hang on their ill gotten gains.

The message is simple: if Brown doesn’t curb Legg’s retrospective cap, then he faces a string of potentially devastating by-election losses. “It’s Gordon’s nightmare – by-elections in safe seats in the depths of winter,” says one source. more from Paul Waugh

When will MP’s of all parties wake up and do themselves some favours instead of clutching on to money they should never claimed for.

At Least One MP Is Expected To Be Prosecuted

By Tory Aardvark

About time, the expenses scandal has dragged on and on, and now it looks like there are going to be some prosecutions, and hopefully some jail sentences for the political elite.

Mr Non Existent Mortgage

Hot favourite for prosecution and mailbag sewing is disgraced former Labour Minister Eric Morley who claimed £16,000 for a virtual mortgage he forgot he paid off. A common mistake Aardvark is sure, paying your mortgage off is such a forgettable event.

Labour MP David Chaytor and Labour Peer Baroness Uddin are also hot favourites to have their collars felt. Stephen Wright in The Mail has more

The tax affairs of 27 MPs are being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs, the department has confirmed.

Jacqui Smith – Enough is Enough Say The People of Redditch

By Tory Aardvark

The mealy mouthed apology from Jacqui Smith has bombed badly with the voters in her Redditch constituency, as Gordon Brown’s Labour again let one of its own off the hook.
There is one rule of law for Labour politicians and one rule of law for the rest of the population.

Smith apology to HoC lasted less than 2 minutes

The scandal of MP’s expenses has done little to improve the contempt that the public have for their politicians, how could the Standards and Privileges Committee seriously believe that a verdict like this would increase public trust in MP’s? On every occasion Labour has protected it’s own at the expense of the credibility and integrity of Parliament.

The actual makeup of the Standards and Privileges Committee on the day the verdict was reached was 5 Labour MP’s and 1 Conservative, so with a 5:1 majority Labour again protected one of it’s own and justice was not done.

With their usual arrogance Labour have just assumed it would all blow away and in due course Smith would be elevated to the House of Lords, after the General Election.

This time it looks unlikely as people have finally had enough of Labour and it’s one rule for us and one for them.

MPs’ expenses: campaign launched to deny Jacqui Smith peerage The Telegraph

MPs’ expenses: rebellion over ‘Lady Smith’ on the streets of Redditch

Photograph Andrew Fox

A campaign to remove Smith has gathered over 5,000 signatures, but Smith of course will not step down as her constituents “need her”.

The Redditch Advertiser has details of Smith’s grudging apology; the interesting part is the comments from the voters of Redditch.

As is so typical of the New Labour MP Smith will doubtless hang on until May for her gold plated pension and further opportunities to trough from the Public Purse.