Saturday, May 09, 2009

Wreathed in Shame - James Gray


Five minutes after writing a post about the death of a Gurkha Soldier in Afghanistan, I read the story of The Rt Hon James Gray MP who tried to reclaim £60 to pay for wreaths to honour the fallen. This man is a complete and utter a***hole and should not belong in the Conservative Party and certainly should not be a Conservative MP. As Conservative home reports this man ashames us. The NOTW has this to say

"Top Tory MP James Gray is exposed as a greedy skinflint after claiming for Remembrance Day WREATHS on expenses. Astonishingly when this perk was finally stopped he had the nerve to COMPLAIN to the Leader of the House. Embarassingly for the former Shadow Defence Minister, we uncovered his SELFISH whining yesterday just as SELFLESS hero soldier Major Phil Packer-who lost the use of both legs in a Basra rocket attack- completed the London Marathon on crutches after a gruelling 14 days to benefit Help for Heroes.

In a shocking twist on the scandal surrounding MPs' outrageous expenses claims, onetime Tory whip Gray moaned he was £60 down on the deal after buying three poppy tributes to Britain's fallen heroes to place at war memorials in his North Wiltshire constituency. He demanded taxpayers foot the bill and was put out when he got turned down, claiming he'd always got away with it in the past.

Unabashed, the MP said: "It's necessary for me to attend three ceremonies and I have therefore to buy three wreaths at £20 each, so I am out of pocket to the tune of £60.""

More here.

What can you say. Making money from expenses is bad enough but this sort of behaviour is just truly disgusting. This man has form and should be got rid of as soon as possible. As I said earlier MP's should live by a simple rule Not for Self But for Country

James Gray shames the Conservative Party - thetorydiary

2 comments:

James Burdett said...

James Gray is a disgrace. His feet shouldn't touch!

McNoddy said...

Shame he feels his 'duty' in attending these ceremonies for presumably fallen constituents doesn't register with him as part of the trappings of office.

He could of course just not attend if he feels it is so expensive. I'd have been proud to attend and recognise the sacrifice made by constituents. This should be an honour not a sound bite moment. Even as such £20 a time is cheap self-advertising I would have thought if one wants to actually debase the event enough to think that way, but of course Politicians, of any hue wouldn't think that way would they, eh?