A good day to announce an expenses cover-up

[Barman]

I linked to this in the 'Heathrow' thread but it is so disgusting it really shouldn't be allowed to drop... 

Remember the clampdown on MPs expenses which was promised after it emerged Derek Conway was paying his sons to work for him? Full transparency and an end to the John Lewis list? Well a year later, and on a busy newsday, Harriet Harman has announced the watering down almost all the restrictions.

According to a document unveiled with no fanfare on the same day as the Heathrow announcement, the House is preparing to block the publication of all receipts for MPs expenses, which had been ordered by an Information Tribunal.

Read it and weep...

Utter, utter, utter bastards! 

[Snoopy]

Yes I saw that too. Utter Utter Utter Utter Bastards. 

[Nick]

I fear they will get away with it too, the utter bastards. I did my tax the other day. Will HMRC let me claim expenses without receipts?

Of course not  

[GROWLER]

** No receipts to be submitted for items costing under £25. "It has been argued that it would be excessively burdensome for Members to have provided receipts for all transactions

Are these absolute and utter piss taking thieving arse wipe bastards for real?

I've just endured instant combustion in the nether regions.

[Nick]

I have a fire extinguisher 

[Uncle Mort]

Officials had planned to release a full breakdown of MPs' expenses, down to the last receipt, after the Commons authorities lost a three-year legal battle over FOI requests demanding disclosure of a receipt-by-receipt breakdown of MPs' spending on second homes.

However, the autumn deadline for publication passed, with officials complaining that the process of scanning and redaction – expected to cost about £1m – was proving even more complex than first thought.

Delaying tactics no doubt.

£1m to scan a few documents? and why the need for redaction?  Surely thay have nothing to hide?

[Nick]

Perish the thought. Mandelson, Derek Conway, The Balls Brothers...................................................

[Uncle Mort]

The stress of government taking it's toll I see.




Shame 

[Nick]

Is that Harman or Jacqui Smith? 

[Snoopy]

Raddled

[Grumpmeister]

I see that the clunking fist is now being used to force the cover up through parliament. So just what are these 'other' considerations Gordo?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7841702.stm

[Uncle Mort]

So just what are these 'other' considerations Gordo?

From the BBC PMQT page:

Mrs Beckett says more information about every MP will be published than ever before. She says there are security reasons, not for MPs but for people who work with them. She says if every receipt has been gone through to remove names of workmen with keys to MPs' homes, she says the Department of Finance would have to be "trebled in size

 

[Barman]

So just what are these 'other' considerations Gordo?

From the BBC PMQT page:

Mrs Beckett says more information about every MP will be published than ever before. She says there are security reasons, not for MPs but for people who work with them. She says if every receipt has been gone through to remove names of workmen with keys to MPs' homes, she says the Department of Finance would have to be "trebled in size

 

Completely outrageous... 

[Barman]

And only 32 of them against it... 

[Snoopy]

To be honest we don't want to see the receipts, we don't want to see the tradesmen's names, we don't even want to see the addresses. What we want is to see how much they are spending and on what.