Nadine on Nadine

Read Nadine's blog and maybe have a think what is going on here now. I know I am thinking there is more to the story than just exposing bad MP's, there is now too much in the way of a holier than thou attutude. We know there are a few fraudulent expenses, we know there are some MP'S who have lost a sense of morality and common sense, but there are also a good number just trying to do a good job and for this they should be paid a good salary. I quote

I believe it is right of the DT to bring this issue out into the open. I praise their exposure of fraud and mis-appropriation.

However, it is wrong to conflate the deadly serious with the mildly embarrassing and genuine administrative errors. By doing that you deem the truly innocent, wholly guilty, make it impossible for the public to understand where to direct their anger, create an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity, which in turn, threatens democracy itself.

Does the DT have an agenda other than the desire to perform a public service?

Why would they expose this fiasco at the start of an election campaign if the priority was not to de stabilise the main political parties and to drive votes towards the minority parties?

I cleave to my original substantive point. If it's in the name of the public good, do it all in one day. Get it all out there. One big explosive edition. Let the guilty be found, the mistakes be rectified and the innocent go about their lives free from the potential impending ducking stool.

Is there not something slightly hypocritical about the DT increasing its revenue by an estimated £1 million per day in the name of public good?

Whilst democracy teeters on the brink of collapse, the DT is laughing all the way to the bank.

On day 15 the boil needed to be lanced. Two weeks away from elections it was time to turn the discussion to how we put things right.

Public anger was at such a level that the situation needed to be taken by the neck, dealt with and a solution to guarantee that democracy is never again threatened in this way, put on the table.

You would never allow a business to freefall in the way we were allowing the mother of all Parliaments to spin out of control.

My colleagues, my innocent colleagues, were literally being made physically ill by the bullying process deployed by the DT, as part of the drip, profit, drip, profit technique. It had to stop.

If I had to use one word to describe any personal quality I possess, it is loyalty.

I would never betray a friend and I always instinctively, fiercely, protect those I care for. Seeing the innocent amongst my colleagues, from all political parties, on all sides of the house, suffer in this way and threading together what I saw with what I have explained above, made me realise that we were in danger of being a long way from putting things right if the anger wasn't soon lanced.

I had no idea that the few words on my blog, written from a perspective of concern and care, would result in another 24 hrs of frenetic media or be quoted as the second item on the Today programme. I had only stated what was blindingly obvious to anyone and everyone who had been in Westminster that week.

It continues

Whilst waiting for my fate to unfold in Saturday's papers I was aware that if I had called the time wrong, I may be toast with my own association. I also reflected on the disproportionate, inappropriate action of the DT. The profile on UKIP's Nigel Farage in the following days paper did not surprise me in the least.

and the last bit

The phone rang an hour ago. An upset female MP, wrongly targeted by the DT. Her husband's company had received hate emails. The press were camped outside her house in a pack. Her very young son, unknowingly holding telephone conversations with journalists, even though he had told them mummy wasn't in. Her life and her family in bits, and in her case the DT have got it completely wrong. Decent people do not like to see the innocent victimised. I suspect this wont stop until June 5th, the day following the election. By which time much more harm than good may have been done.

I knew on friday morning that I had walked into the eye of a storm. I also knew that in voicing concern for all but the immoral fraudsters and the totally ridiculous, I would become a conduit for the anger which had yet to be earthed.

It was a mere rehearsal. If party leaders do not resolve this issue then backbenchers will need to pick up the gauntlet and find ways and means to bring about legislation which will.

Never again must democracy be threatened or the innocent be victimised whilst two of the richest men in the world, sit back and become even richer.

I finish on my initial point. If the Telegraph are doing this not for the advantage of minority parties, not to destabilise democracy, not to make themselves even wealthier, then handle it better. Leave the innocent alone and publish the guilty all on one day. Because if democracy is damaged as a result of the increased wealth of two men as a result of a minority of fraudsters and crooks, we will all in the long term be much worse off than we are today.

A Conspiracy? Bad Timing? Good Journalism, Bad Journalism? What is the answer. I know one thing the Daily Telegraph is not just doing this for it's own good.

Why I did What I did

BBC List of missing data misses out MP'S expenses

The BBC has put out a list of data missing in recent months from various Government systems. The list itself is already large enough without also adding the biggie that they have missed of all the data from MP's Expenses or Scamalot that was also strangely mislaid. This data, as I have said before, is not just a little extract but the complete contents of a database or system and should be hugely worrying to both the authorities and the general public.

Add to this list all the data that the NHS so regularly loses and we have a prospect of chaos as more and more data is stored by the government.

DO NOT TRUST THEM WITH ANY OF YOUR DATA. THEY WILL LOSE IT.

Here are other cases to emerge in the recent past:

MAY 2009: RAF PERSONNEL DATA

It emerged that data lost from RAF Innsworth in Gloucestershire the previous September included 500 highly sensitive files, containing details of individuals' extra-marital affairs, debts and drug use.

An internal MoD memo passed to the BBC warned that the material "provides excellent material for Foreign Intelligence Services and blackmailers".

On the same day, a report from the Information Commissioner told the NHS to improve its data security, after the watchdog took action against 14 NHS organisations in the last six months.

JANUARY 2009: PRISONER MEDICAL RECORDS

A health worker in Lancashire lost a memory stick containing the medical details of more than 6,000 prisoners and ex-prisoners from HMP Preston.

The data was encrypted, but the password had been written on a note which was attached to the stick when it was misplaced.

NOVEMBER 2008: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER PASSWORDS

A memory stick - holding passwords for a government computer system - was found in the car park of a pub in Staffordshire.

The Gateway website gives access to services including tax returns and child benefits. The memory stick was lost by an employee of a subcontractor called Atos Origin.

OCTOBER 2008: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE DATA

A computer hard drive containing the personal details of about 100,000 of the Armed Forces was reported missing during an audit carried out by IT contractor EDS.

It is thought to contain more than 1.5m pieces of information, possibly unencrypted, including the details of 600,000 potential recruits, a small amount of information about bank details, passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth, driving licence details and telephone numbers.

The Ministry of Defence police said it was investigating the disappearance but it is not yet known whether or not it was stolen.

SEPTEMBER 2008: JUSTICE AND RAF EMPLOYEE DETAILS

The government confirmed that a portable hard drive holding details of up to 5,000 employees of the justice system was lost in July 2007.

The details of employees of the National Offender Management Service in England and Wales, including prison staff, were lost by a private firm, EDS.

Officials only realised the data was missing in July of this year. Justice Secretary Jack Straw launched an inquiry.

Also this month, the MoD admitted that tens of thousands of personnel files had been lost from RAF Innsworth in Gloucestershire.

Hard disks containing the data, which included names, addresses and some bank account details, were taken from a secure area.

AUGUST 2008: DATA ON CRIMINALS

Home Office contractor PA Consulting admitted losing a computer memory stick containing information on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.

It also held personal details of about 10,000 prolific offenders.

The Home Office suspended the transfer of all further data to the private firm pending the outcome of an investigation.

An Information Commissioner's investigation later ruled that the Home Office had broken data protection laws over the incident and must sign a formal undertaking to improve its procedures in future.

JULY 2008: MEMORY STICKS AND LAPTOPS

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that 121 computer memory sticks and more than twice as many laptops than previously thought have been lost or stolen in the past four years.

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth gave a written statement to parliament saying 121 USB memory devices had gone astray - five of which contained secret data.

And in a parliamentary written answer, Defence Secretary Des Browne said 747 laptops had been stolen - 400 more than originally reported. Of those, 32 have been recovered so far.

JUNE 2008: TERROR DOCUMENTS

A senior intelligence officer from the Cabinet Office was suspended after documents were left on the seat of commuter train from London Waterloo. A passenger later handed them to the BBC.

The seven-page file, classified as "UK Top Secret", contained a report entitled "Al-Qaeda Vulnerabilities" and an assessment of the state of Iraq's security forces.

Cabinet Minister Ed Miliband said there had been a "clear breach" of security rules, which forbid the removal of such documents from government premises.

But Mr Miliband said national security did not seem to be "at risk".

Two inquiries - one by the Cabinet Office, the other by the Metropolitan Police - have been launched.

APRIL 2008: MCDONALD'S LAPTOP

An Army captain's laptop was taken from under his chair as he ate in a McDonald's, near the Ministry of Defence's Whitehall headquarters.

The MoD said the data on the laptop was not sensitive, and was fully encrypted.

This is the latest MoD laptop theft to be made public and it came after the government tightened the rules on employees taking computers out of work.

Whitehall staff are now banned from taking unencrypted laptops or drives containing personal data outside secured office premises.

JANUARY 2008: MILITARY RECRUITS

A laptop computer belonging to a Royal Navy officer was stolen from car in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

It contained the personal details of 600,000 people who had expressed an interest in, or applied to join, the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the RAF.

It contained data including passport numbers, National Insurance numbers and bank details.

Defence Secretary Des Browne later admitted the inquiry into the loss of the Royal Navy officer's laptop uncovered two similar thefts since 2005.

At the time, Dr Liam Fox, shadow defence secretary, said 68 MoD laptops had been stolen in 2007, 66 in 2006, 40 in 2005 and 173 in 2004.

DECEMBER 2007: DRIVING TEST CANDIDATES

The details of three million candidates for the UK driving theory test went missing in the US.

Names, addresses and phone numbers - but no financial information - were among the details stored on a computer hard drive, which belonged to a contractor working for the Driving Standards Agency.

The information was sent electronically to contractor Pearson Driving Assessments in Iowa and the hard drive was then sent to another state before being brought back to Iowa, where it went missing.

Ministers said the information had been formatted specifically to meet the security requirements of Pearson Driving Assessments and was not "readily usable or accessible" by third parties.

NOVEMBER 2007: CHILD BENEFIT RECORDS

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) lost two computer discs containing the entire child benefit records, including the personal details of 25 million people - covering 7.25 million families overall.

The two discs contained the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of people who received child benefit. They also included National Insurance numbers.

They were sent via internal mail from HMRC in Washington, north-east England, to the National Audit Office in London on 18 October, by a junior official, and never arrived.

The Metropolitan Police were informed of the loss in November and extensive searches began.

In December, a reward of £20,000 was offered for the return of the two discs, but they were never recovered.

This list is only the tip of the Iceberg.

BBC NEWS UK Previous cases of missing data

Ed Balls and the Wreaths - A fat boy did it and ran away

Apparently the excuse for claiming for wreaths by Ed Balls is as follows

The claim for a wreath was submitted in error by a staff member, as part of reimbursement for the up front costs she paid for organising 2 veterans badge presentation ceremonies for constituents, including for room hire at Parkside Methodist Church & Wrenthorpe Village Hall. Ed paid for wreaths every year – in 2005/06/07 & 2008- & this claim should never have been submitted in 2007. As soon as it was brought to Ed’s attention by the Fees Office he immediately reimbursed the staff member personally as he has done every other year. No erroneous payment was made by the Fees Office.

So of course it's not his fault, he uses the Fat boy did it excuse and runs away from any responsibility. These are his expenses and he is responsible for them.

A Wreath of Shame for Ed Balls

Ed Balls horror at being told he had to pay for Wreaths

After the post I wrote on James Gray who claimed for wreaths on his expenses I see that that paragon of virtue Ed Balls has done exactly the same thing. Well he is also an a***hole of the largest variety. Let us hope the media go to town on him as well, though it looks like the Daily Telegraph are trying to hide this story for some reason.

I know that attending memorial services is something that many MP's have to do as part of their duties but claiming for wreaths is just not morally correct, it speaks of disrespect for the dead and for their friends and families.

MPs' expenses: Alistair Darling's claim for help with his tax return - Telegraph

Alistair Darling's Flipping Tax Returns

The next batch of details from the Daily Telegraph on how MP's spend our money focuses on the fact that nine members of the Cabinet used our money to have their tax returns filled in.

This is taking the proverbial. They have the cheek to steal our money, cheat on taxes by flipping and then get us to pay for filling in their crooked tax returns. You just couldn't make it up.

The Daily Telegraph tells us that ex-Trot and Public School Boy Alistair Darling the Labour Chancellor is such an incompetent at dealing with the likes of Taxes that he got the public to pay up more than £1,400 for accountancy bills in two years. This included the cost of receiving tax advice for “the treatment of rental expenses against income”. During 2007, Mr Darling rented out his London flat after becoming Chancellor and moving into a grace-and-favour apartment. Mr Darling is also one of the few MP's who has managed to flip four time in four years.

Of course it's all within the "rules" the rules, you'll remember, they themselves have set. Of course the reason they need to get accountants to do this for them is because of all the new Labour government’s taxation policies that have made the process so complicated that it is very hard for ordinary tax-payers to complete their returns without professional advice. Professional advice that ordinary punters cannot claim against expenses

Ministers who claimed to have their tax returns filled in included Hazel Blears, Geoff Hoon and Jacqui Smith, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary.


MPs' expenses: Alistair Darling's claim for help with his tax return - Telegraph

Nigel Farage 2 Million Expenses - UKIP Troughing

Nigel Farage, who is calling on voters to punish

"greedy Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs"

at the European elections on 4 June, boasted of his personal expenses haul at a meeting with foreign journalists in London last week. Asked how much expenses he had conned out of us, the public, in the last 10 years he replied

"It is a vast sum," Farage said. "I don't know what the total amount is but - oh lor - it must be pushing £2 million."

According to the article as Ukip circulated new party literature saying Westminster MPs had "ripped off taxpayers", Farage, who employs his wife to help run his office and pays her from his allowances, faced a backlash as opponents accused him of hypocrisy. Denis MacShane former Europe Minister suggested that Ukip's attempt to pose as more honourable on expenses than other parties had been exposed as shameless and hollow.

"Far from being the party of the little man in Europe, Nigel Farage's astounding £2m raid on the taxpayer shows he is up there with any other politician, happy to line his pockets with gold,"

he said..

Do read the rest of the article. And have a look at the libertas.eu video below on UKIP



Ukip leader boasts of his £2m in expenses Politics The Observer:

Malcolm Bruce and Expenses

Full expose in the Daily Telegraph of Malcolm Bruce's expenses.

As he says on his own web site with an April 2008 update date and justifying his expenses

These allowances have been established because MPs do work long hours, are away from home for four days a week for much of the year and travel extensively around their constituencies and between London and Westminster.To do this they need staff support, a place to stay in London and the means to rent and run an office in their constituency.

So why is he claiming for an office outside his own constituency?

I also assume that he won't be claiming so much this year since his wife is now one of my local councillors having managed to come in second best in an election recently.

As I said at the time

I do hope that Rosemary can juggle her family life, Office Manager job (As hubbies 30k Diary Secretary) and the work of a Councillor, or will being a Councillor be second best to helping her hubbie.

Also nice to see how he can claim for an MP's office in a village more than 30 minutes from the biggest town in his constituency and at least an hour from much of his constituency. The Daily Telegraph has this to say

Between April, 2006, and March, 2008, he was paid a total of nearly £3,100 towards the cost of electricity, heating and cleaning at his main home in the village of Torphins, just outside his constituency of Gordon. Over the same period, he received a total of £61,186 from the additional costs allowance (ACA) for his second home in London.

The Torphins claim was made despite Mr Bruce having a constituency office in Inverurie, about a 30-minute drive away, also funded by the taxpayer. The ACA claim included regular monthly spending of more than £300 on food, close to the maximum of £400. In one month, August, 2005, he successfully claimed £451 for food.

As I detailed before we have also seen the following from the Bruce's

I see our prospective Liberal Democrat Councillor Rosemary Bruce in the Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside by-election advertises herself as an Office Manager.

She is currently an office manager, but has previously worked in both training and hotel management

Strange. I thought she was the Diary Secretary for her Husband, Malcolm Bruce M.P. , at a cost of about £28,500 to us, the general public.

No mention of who she was an Office Manager for and the fact that the office was miles from the people he represents.

MPs' expenses: Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce claimed running costs for two homes - Telegraph

A Scandal within a Scandal

The attached article in the Daily Telegraph tells the story of John Wick the intermediary who sold the MP's expenses story to the Telegraph.

The interesting part of the story is how the data was presented to him.

Rather than being a simple CD or such like, it looks like what has been given to the Daily Telegraph, is the complete system or database used by the Fee's office. If this is true then it is truly scandalous that a Government department should have such lax security that it allows data such as this to be available unencrypted in any form far less as comprehensive as this. As Mr Wick says

It was obvious there was also a major failure in the way the parliamentary authorities had handled such sensitive data. Government ministers had overseen a series of data losses involving the electronic records of ordinary people in recent times and here was the proof that they could not even properly protect their own information.

What does this say when the complete personnel details of over 600 of the top members of our government are available to the highest bidder. The details include enough information to take each of them for probably more than they have received in expenses.

Mr Wick then adds

Has the Govenment and Civil Service learned nothing in the past 18 months since the loss of the Child Benefits data. Have they not taken up any of the recommendations from the investigation into that loss.

I blogged on that quite a few times including a blog entry on 25th June 2008 which pointed out the words of our Shadow Chancellor that the loss of data was symptomatic of

the incompetence and systemic failure at the heart of this government. They were a guide to how not to govern this country

How can a government manage to continue to lose this sort of confidential data so many months after it has been castigated and had to apologise to 25 million people.At the time some of the factors causing the data loss were identified as follows:

• Some DSSM and IDG policies lacked sufficient detail and strength to guide staff
• Inadequacy of removable media and encryption policies
• Better implementation and enforcement of policy is required.
• Policy could be made more accessible and better communicated.
• Appropriate authorisation.
• Method of data transfer.
• Prioritisation of operational delivery over information security.
• Lack of policy awareness.
• Lack of training.
• Accountability for the ownership and guardianship of data.
• Lack of clarity surrounding authority requirements.
• Relations with the NAO.

Obviously no heed has been taken of any of the above in the Fees Office. At the time the report written by Poynter said

As regrettable as the Child Benefit data loss incident was, one positive may yet flow from it. It may provide the burning platform for these transformations, recognising it as an imperative rather than a luxury.

Obviously from what has happened here not a thing has changed. It doesn't matter that this data may have been obtained in the public interest, it is a scandal that it is available to anyone in this form and with apparently such ease. Remember these are the same type of people who are responsible or will be responsible for all sorts of highly confidential data on our whole population. I wouldn't trust them with one bit.

A video of John Wick telling his story is below



John Wick: I am proud to have exposed expenses scandal - Telegraph

For Ducks Sake - This is Quackers

Not satisfied with Moats and Jacuzzi's we now have a Duck Island in amongst the gaggle. Not sure if it was decorative or like the picture one for shooting ducks from. In any case this is one MP whose Goose is well and truly cooked.

According to Sky news

The Gosport MP's expenses were among the latest to be published in The Daily Telegraph. His claims included £1,645 for a floating "duck island" for the garden pond at his Hampshire home, the paper said.

In a statement, the Conservative Party said: Sir Peter Viggers has confirmed that he will retire as MP for Gosport at the next election.He will do so at the direct request of David Cameron. Sir Peter is the third Tory MP to say he will step down over expenses claims after Douglas Hogg and Anthony Steen did the same.

He is expected to repay more than £10,000, the Telegraph said.

I await with bated breath the next item that MP's deem as absolutely necessary for their job.

Expenses: Conservative MP Sir Peter Viggers To Step Down At Next General Election Over Claims | Politics | Sky News

MPs Expenses - Make Poverty History

Short but Sweet

Video is from Beau Bo D'or.

Hattip to: well he knows who!

YouTube - MPs Expenses - Make Poverty History

More Brownies from Gordon on Expenses

Watch this video at about 2:45 mins in when Toenails skewers Brown on when he actually dreamt up his plan.

As the BBC reports this is yet another Brownie by our dear Leader. The BBC report has this to say

Asked if he had been forced into a response by Mr Cameron, Mr Brown told the BBC: "I have been discussing this for days and we have been looking at this matter for some time. We had hoped to make some progress yesterday and now all parties are prepared to accept this."

But two senior MPs told the BBC he was "misrepresenting" what had been agreed by the committee.

They said the committee only agreed to examine the idea of an independent audit, that there was no "firm or final agreement" and would meet again on Wednesday after seeking advice on whether it was possible.

Even on an important point as MP's expenses Gordon just can't stick to the truth. Why should we trust him on anything. This whole interview is yet agian a car-crash as Gordon tries to grab all the kudos for sorting out a problem when in fact he has yet again been the problem.

BBC NEWS | Politics | All MPs' claims to be scrutinised

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

MP's Expenses - A view from 2000 Years Ago -

Tories, Labour, Lib Dems are all at it, feeding like a pig from the public Trough. Today it is Labour tomorrow it will be the the Tories and Lib Dems turn over the weekend.

Direct from Fraser Nelson in the Spectator.

Plato had it right on MPs' expenses. This from The Republic:

"We also have to make sure the guardians do not become like sheep dogs that turn into wolves and abuse their power to harm their fellow citizens. Therefore the guardians will have no private property, they will live transparently, they will be provided for out of taxes, and they will live together communally.

First, none of them should possess any private property beyond what is wholly necessary.

Second, none of them should have a house or storeroom that isn’t open for all to enter at will.

Third, whatever sustenance moderate and courageous warrior-athletes require in order to have neither shortfall nor surplus in a given year they’ll receive by taxation on the other citizens as a salary for their guardianship.

Fourth, they’ll have common messes and live together like soldiers in a camp.

We’ll tell them that they always have gold and silver of a divine sort in their souls as a gift from the gods and so have no further need of human gold.

Indeed, we’ll tell them it’s impious for them to defile this divine possession by any admixture of such gold… Hence, for them alone … it is unlawful for them to touch or handle gold or silver… In this way they’d save both themselves and the city. But if they acquire private land, houses, and currency themselves, they’ll be household managers and farmers instead of guardians – hostile masters of the other citizens instead of their allies. They’ll spend their whole lives hating and being hated, plotting and being plotted against, more afraid of internal than external enemies, and they’ll hasten both themselves and the whole city to almost immediate ruin."

Thought for the day Coffee House