ARTICLE: M.P.s Demands Free Food

PAMPERED MPs want free meals after complaining of MICE and “stinking” cut-price grub in the Commons.

They want taxpayers to pick up the entire bill for all they scoff.

Many complain of “weird” menus served up in “Soviet-style” restaurants INFESTED with mice — and say the food is not worth paying for. But taxpayers fork out£5.8MILLION a year to subsidise their meals.

One MP wrote: “I saw a mouse in the Members’ Tea Room about which I made comment to a member of staff. The member of staff was pretty matter of fact — to the point that I got the impression that the sight of a rodent was par for the course!”

Scores moaned about the standard of their heavily-subsidised food in a survey of politicians and their staff.

They whinged about the wine waiters and complained that coffee bar staff did not know the difference between a cappuccino and a latte.

The complaints about the cheap meals and wine at Westminster come in a survey of MPs and their staff conducted by private pollsters — costing taxpayers another £27,790.

Details obtained under Freedom of Information laws lay bare the full extent of the dissatisfaction. A typical meal — rib-eye steak with hand-cut chips and Béarnaise sauce — costs two quid — £7.80, less a taxpayers’ subsidy of £5.92.

But one MP whinged: “The restaurants are Soviet-style. Vegetables are horrendously overcooked, meat is often raw.

“Sandwiches taste like they have been frozen for three months. It’s a shocker.”

Another blasted: “The food is really starting to stink.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/article4391212.ece

U.K.I.P. M.E.P. Ashley Mote -FRAUD

A British member of the European Parliament has been jailed for nine months for falsely claiming more than £65,000 in benefits.

However, 71-year-old Ashley Mote, a former Ukip representative, has not lost his seat because of a law that means he can only be disqualified if he receives a term sentence of more than 12 months.

The father of two, who is an MEP for south east England, was found guilty of 21 offences following a four-week trial.

During sentencing, Judge Richard Price told Mote: “To say that this case has ruined you is an understatement, it is a tragedy.

“You have worked amazingly hard as an MEP. Nevertheless, the charges of which you have been convicted can only be met by a custodial sentence, nothing else would be appropriate.”

Read on

MPs’ expenses: how they milked the system

MPs are required by Parliamentary rules to be “above reproach” when claiming expenses. But many found a way round the system, leading to widespread abuse.

Below we look at what they can legitimately claim and how some managed to maximise their income at the taxpayer’s expense.

What they can legitimately claim:

Under the additional costs allowance (ACA), MPs can claim expenses for the cost of running a second home for the purpose of fulfilling their parliamentary duties. In 2007/8, the last year for which complete figures are available, this stood at a maximum of £23,083.

The money can be spent on rent or mortgage interest payments. MPs who do not have a second home can claim for hotel rooms, for which they must submit a receipt.

Within the maximum ACA, MPs are allowed to claim up to £400 per month for food without the need for receipts and, until last year, up to £250 per claim in other categories without receipts.

This has since been lowered to £25. MPs can claim for utility bills, council tax, telephone bills, decorating, employing a cleaner, and even the purchase of furniture and electrical and household goods for their second homes.

The amount which MPs can claim for individual items is governed by the so-called ‘John Lewis List’. Personal items, such as toiletries and electric razors, cannot be claimed for.

The rules state that all ACA claims must be “above reproach” and there must be “no suggestion of misuse of public money”.

How they exploited the system:

A number of MPs used the allowance to pay for furniture and refurbishments for one property, before ‘flipping’ their second home designation to another property and claiming for improvements on that one.

Having used their taxpayer-funded expenses for renovations and repairs, some MPs then sold their homes at a profit. Some with constituencies in outer London bought second homes just a few miles from their main residence.

Others avoided paying Capital Gains Tax on the profit of the sale of their second home by telling the taxman it was their main residence.

A few MPs continued to claim expenses for mortgage interest on their second home even when the mortgage had been paid off.

Many MPs regularly claimed the maximum allowed for food. Others put in claims for utility bills, cleaning and repairs whilst avoiding the need to submit receipts by ensuring that the sums claimed were just below the £250 limit.

Others went on spending sprees towards the end of the financial year on order to reach their maximum ACA. Some bought furniture for their second homes but had it delivered to their main residence.

Among the frivolous and arguably unnecessary items claimed by MPs were radiator covers, pet food, manure and a duck house.

Read on

MPs’ expenses: MPs who milked the expenses system now complain about attempts to reform it

MPs whose controversial claims for accommodation costs, food and furniture were exposed during the expenses scandal are claiming the status of victims instead of offenders.

Members of Parliament whose controversial claims for accommodation costs, food and furniture were exposed during the expenses scandal are using an official inquiry to claim they were victims rather than offenders.

Several politicians revealed by The Telegraph to be taking advantage of their parliamentary remuneration have attempted to justify their behaviour to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Read on

Welcome to the sick joke that is Parliamentary “democracy”. How much longer can the People have trust in crooked, corrupt and EVIDENTLY CRIMINAL system?

(2009) UKIP M.E.P. Bob Spink -PARASITE

UKIP’s sole Member of Parliament, Bob Spink, has been exposed as a parliamentary expenses trough feeder like all other parties’ MPs, with an impressive expenses claim of £140,987 over and above his ordinary salary.

Mr Spink, the living embodiment of the “corrupt Conservatives in camouflage” UKIP, joined that party after defecting from the Tories.

Mr Spink, who is still listed on the UKIP website as an “enthusiastic member and supporter of UKIP,” last year took home a delightful £23,083 in housing allowances, £13,356 in office allowances, £82,472 in staffing  allowances (nearly one of the largest such “staffing” expenses of all MPs, making one wonder what huge staff this single MP employs), £1,005 on “central stationery,” £4,845 on IT provision, £1,148 on staff cover and £9,017 on travel (he obviously travels a lot).

The previous year, Mr Spink put in an even more impressive claim of in excess of £152,000, meaning that in two years he has claimed nearly a third of a million pounds from the taxpayers over his MP’s salary.

His latest £140,987 claim makes him one of the nation’s top trough feeders, a mere £9,000 below the expenses claim of the leader of the opposition, David Cameron. UKIP’s Mr Spink must be an important man.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage and his fellow MEPs have set the standard, however. They have consistently refused to publish their European parliamentary expenses, an act of extreme hypocrisy given the fact that their party makes much of the failure of the European Union to sign off its annual accounts.

There are also many simmering scandals within UKIP. Numerous questions hover over that party’s Ashford Call Centre, where 90 percent of supporters’ funds disappeared into a black hole.

Worse, there remain the pressing questions in relation to Mr Farage’s own South East region, where hundreds of thousands of pounds — the bulk of its turnover — disappeared in what was mysteriously ascribed to “other costs” between 2004 and 2005.

Read on for a full table of M.P.s’ expenses

(2009) UKIP M.E.P. Tom Wise -FRAUD

A British Euro MP was last night charged with fiddling thousands of pounds of taxpayer-funded expenses. Former UKIP politician Tom Wise is accused of false accounting and money laundering following accusations that he fiddled his generous Brussels staff allowances. He is thought to be the first MEP to face criminal charges over the use of Parliamentary perks. Wise, 60, a former policeman, was arrested in June last year after it was revealed that he had allegedly siphoned off nearly £40,000 of public money by claiming it was for a researcher’s salary. Detectives investigated after it was claimed Wise only passed on some of the cash and banked the rest. He allegedly spent £6,500 on a Peugeot 406.

He was alleged to have pretended that his own bank account was that of his then researcher Lindsay Jenkins which is against EU rules.

He is alleged to have channelled £39,100 into it, from which he paid Jenkins £13,555.

Read on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172167/British-MEP-charged-fiddling-staff-allowances.html

(2009) Ex-UKIP Candidate Jason Philips -PAEDOPHILE

A FORMER Worcester UKIP candidate –- who has since converted to Islam – has been sentenced for possessing indecent photographs of children.

Jason Phillips, who stood in the city’s 2007 elections for the Arboretum ward, had previously admitted downloading two indecent images of a child.

Sallie Hewitt, prosecuting, said police were alerted to Phillips when he sent sexually offensive messages to friends of his new girlfriend’s ex-husband through the social networking site Facebook.

When questioned by police he told them he had sent the message to be as offensive as possible.

Police officers seized his computer and in December 2008 it was found to contain the images, which were deemed to be Level 2 photos – the most serious being Level 5.

Read on: http://tinyurl.com/cgzxnh

(2008) UKIP M.E.P. Jeffrey Titford

AN EAST of England Euro MP last night said he had “nothing to hide” after it emerged a member of his own party had complained to police about alleged “financial irregularities”.

Jeffrey Titford, a former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), was reported to Essex Police after allegations were made against him and his political advisor, Stuart Gulleford.

The pair are now under investigation by police, but they and UKIP have both dismissed the allegations.

http://tinyurl.com/5e8ck8

(2008) UKIP Candidate Paul Kidd

UKIP candidate Paul Kidd pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault, six counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He also admitted 11 counts of making indecent images of a child and two counts of possessing indecent images of children. http://tinyurl.com/bc5ype