Expensesgate - the Croydon connection
Having scrolled through all 83 pages of my MP's (the whipless Pelling) 2007-2008 expenses, I have found nothing scandalous, nor even anything vaguely amusing. It all seems to be stationery and mobile phone costs.
I think he overpays for paper and the like, but failing to shop around for the cheapest A4 is hardly a hanging offence.
A root around in the 2006-2007 expenses shows that the Croydon Central and South Conservative Federation had to send him an invoice reminder before he paid up for constituency services - page 39. He seems to specialise in USB stick drives, as he has bought at least three in the last two years. Mind you, so have I.
Elsewhere, I nominate page 76 of the expenses claim for the most idiotic piece of censorship. The model number of the HP scanner he bought is blanked out, although the fees office is happy for us to know that his Belkin USB hub was the economy model.
Moving swiftly on, Malcolm Wicks (Croydon North, Lab) specialises in waiting until he gets a reminder before ponying up for his bills. He also gets us to do pay for his tax returns (p34).
Richard Ottaway of Croydon South has already been monstered in the press, but I'm sniffing around anyway. We have a Dualit toaster at £50 (p3) - *major* bargain, as the signature model is circa £150. He also got us to pay for cutting his grass (p32)- well, the invoice says 'cut grass', so possibly he was buying the stuff. Further, he is not big on texting, and comes nowhere near to using his monthly text message allowance (p31). Rather unexpectedly, his newspaper of choice appears to be The Independent (p90). My favourite is the £490 to 'clear away dangerous tree in the road' (p9) I imagine said tree must have been packing an AK-47, and quite possibly an RPG launcher.
I think he overpays for paper and the like, but failing to shop around for the cheapest A4 is hardly a hanging offence.
A root around in the 2006-2007 expenses shows that the Croydon Central and South Conservative Federation had to send him an invoice reminder before he paid up for constituency services - page 39. He seems to specialise in USB stick drives, as he has bought at least three in the last two years. Mind you, so have I.
Elsewhere, I nominate page 76 of the expenses claim for the most idiotic piece of censorship. The model number of the HP scanner he bought is blanked out, although the fees office is happy for us to know that his Belkin USB hub was the economy model.
Moving swiftly on, Malcolm Wicks (Croydon North, Lab) specialises in waiting until he gets a reminder before ponying up for his bills. He also gets us to do pay for his tax returns (p34).
Richard Ottaway of Croydon South has already been monstered in the press, but I'm sniffing around anyway. We have a Dualit toaster at £50 (p3) - *major* bargain, as the signature model is circa £150. He also got us to pay for cutting his grass (p32)- well, the invoice says 'cut grass', so possibly he was buying the stuff. Further, he is not big on texting, and comes nowhere near to using his monthly text message allowance (p31). Rather unexpectedly, his newspaper of choice appears to be The Independent (p90). My favourite is the £490 to 'clear away dangerous tree in the road' (p9) I imagine said tree must have been packing an AK-47, and quite possibly an RPG launcher.
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What I don't get is why some MPs charge only a few thou' when they cd prob have got away with over 100k. (In the short term).
Dommy Grieve 3 tellies - square eyes!
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