Ann Widdecombe: Who else was going to cut my lawn? The cat?
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Independent Minds
The first thing you are asked to say when you are going in front of a selection meeting to be adopted as a parliamentary candidate is that you are going to live in the constituency. Since you are also going to spend 60 per cent of your time in London, this means you are going to have to have two homes.
Most people cannot afford two homes. I could never have afforded two homes. We do not want to go back to the situation in the middle of the last century when the only people who could afford to be MPs were the very wealthy, on our side, and the trade-union sponsored on the other side, so it is right that the public pays for an MP to have a second home, and for the necessary upkeep.
And I say "necessary" because there is an enormous difference between having a widescreen television, and repairing the central heating. I never had a television in my second home throughout my 17 years as an MP. I never had a washing machine – I borrowed somebody else's. I got the crockery from my brother's old vicarage, but each room was painted once, and the exterior twice.
When you are spending most of your time in London, you have to pay for someone to cut the grass. Who else was going to cut my grass? The cat? The cat did not even live in my second home.
I have reservations about David Cameron's idea of a scrutiny committee, because on balance I would have preferred to have waited for the report from Sir Christopher Kelly rather than have everybody rush in with their own solutions. It's not helpful, and it's not as if we are going to have to wait until the second coming for Kelly; it is only until July.
I have called for a dissolution of Parliament, but there is a genuine worry that if people become disillusioned with all the main parties because of this, they will turn to the extremists.
But I must say having people from the journalist profession passing judgement on anyone's expenses is a bit like having Satan heading a commission on sin.
Ann Widdecombe is Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald
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Comments
I have decided that I am not supporting new Labour this time around for the European vote or the next G/E.
The only real option the public has in my view is to vote Conservative in so far as the G/E is concerned, at least by voting for them, we will hopefully have another G/E in 4/5 years time, not so sure about that if an extreme party gained power. I have to say it really goes against the grain to think of doing this.
What a hopelessly terrible position we have arrived at in this country, how rotten it has all become. I dread tomorrow's, Saturday's & Sunday's papers and net news for fear of finding more disclosures concerning men and women I once looked up to. not so now I am afraid.....
My own MP is Mark Tod, so far, so good...hopefully it will stay that way, for I know he had some misgivings concerning the expense system on his arrival in the HoP. so I doubt he has taken undue advantage..I can but hope.
UKIP are a very extreme party, I mean just look at some of their outrageous policies...
They want to leave the political EU and trade globally and freely.
Restore standards in education including Grants instead of Loans.
Reform the NHS, the Police and Sentencing.
Restore traditional British farming and fishing and territorial waters.
Introduce a simple flat tax system, scrap Inheritance Tax, say no to 'Green' taxes.
Simplify the Welfare system.
Look into reopening some railway lines and make Foreign Haulage firms pay for using our roads.
Plus lots more exteme stuff.
The Conservatives so deserve our vote for NOT opposing the 3000 plus new 'laws' that Labour intoduced to curb our Liberties.
For NOT opposing legislation that allowed the Financial Sector to put the country into this current crises.
For their tireless suppport for the illegal wars we are now embroiled in.
For their sycophantic support of the 'Bailout' scam.
For their silence over the current expenses cheating. (easy to explain that one, don't you think?)
For NOT demanding that the Labour Party uphold their promise to allow the uneducated peasants of this land a vote on the EU Constitution aka Lisbon.
If you believe by voting CONservative we will have another General Election in 4-5 years then you haven't realised what the Lisbon Treaty actually is. It is a transfer of Sovereignty to a Foreign Power (Treason). Fully supported by ALL three main parties.
Once we're in then no more elections for us.
If you want everthing to remain as it is, then VOTE CONSERVATIVE.
.
The expenses I must remind her are for conducting her parliamentary dutes, which would not included lawn mowing.
I suggest you help the cat do it, shouldn't take all day should it?
Plenty of people visit London and stay in things called HOTELS..
The very simple answer to this "systematic trough hoovering" is for the state to maintain various comfortable and servicable suites for the use of local and foreign MPs etc.
Then there would be no need for all this fiddling about and no room for all these unhappy "mistakes".
The pressure of an MPs lifestyle even now is quite catastrophic for them and their families in all too many cases.
Worse, MPs now may have to decide whether to vote for or against GB declaring war. We need them in good condition, not frazzled.
OUR interests, and theirs.
However the sort of characters that have penetrated the upper eschelons of governance are not worthy of you defending them.
Put it simply; they were not claiming for simple expenses such as " cutting the lawn", they were more than knee-deep in the mire of fraudulant claims.
And a custodial sentence should be their only option.
As you represent an area very close to London, and well served by trains and coaches to London, did you really need two homes? Surely there are many people who commute daily from Maidstone to London and return home each evening?
The occasional late sitting of the House would easily have been dealt with by staying in a hotel, surely? The House of Commons only 'sat' for 165 days last year and so the number of late sessions was small.
By using the 'pairing' arrangement you could have ensured that you did not need to attend every sitting of the House of Commons, and so did not always need to be in London.
Given the above facts Ann, what is the point that you are trying to make?
These people carry large responsibilities, at times life or death decisions are theirs, and, as Malik pointed out, they may well work a 90 hour week.
It appalls me that my fellow countrymen and women are bent on becoming a crazed vigilante posse.
The current hysteria reminds me of Princess Diana's death, the dangerous dogs act period, and Beatlemania. None of those was so damaging to our country however.
We must seize the moment to demand a written constitution.
Ann Widdecombe: You and your cat in all the papers. The cat? You worry about the cat. The lawnmower, while you are plastered in all news and we are starving. You are cruel baby.
Who else was going to cut my lawn? The cat? No. Send this to the Rats. Seen Tom and Jerry? Jerry wins at times. Dog is better as he licks the plates and you do not have to use more water. Swine these days are safe but ask the Tories about this.
Tory view And if you will allow I wrap up the Cat , dog , hotdog and the swine .
I have called for a dissolution of Parliament, but there is a genuine worry that if people become disillusioned with all the main parties because of this, they will turn to the extremists.
The expenses scandal creates a golden opportunity that cannot be wasted
I fully agree with you. Tell me one thing. UK is living without any constitution. I was under an opinion that English had concocted the word from Latin and Vikings and nor Red Indians. Let me take you where there is no law and the mess we have in there, then we come back to UK.
Obama Tries to Block Release of Detainee Photos
Mr. Obama advised his top military commanders about his decision in a meeting on Tuesday at the White House. Several military officials had argued against the immediate release of the photographs, saying such action could harm American troops in the field.
I agree to this concept of hiding truth. We not are being honest. And who likes like the deceitfulness.
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UK Finance Minister Alistair Darling yesterday set out his budget for 2009-2010. The results cannot be good for the Labour Party. ...
I would suggest, if you live honestly, you would live more in the eyes of the human.
David Cameron ordered senior Conservatives to pay back thousands of pounds to the taxpayer yesterday, in a brutal attempt to show that he was getting to grips with the expenses scandal embroiling all parties.
The Tory leader humiliated several members of the Shadow Cabinet by calling them in one by one and telling them the price for remaining in his top team was returning or forgoing sums up to
He then named them at a Westminster press conference. Where is the money, Cash taken?
The expenses scandal creates a golden opportunity that cannot be wasted?
Therefore, you are saying we draft the constitution on the expenses only or the new book of all the laws that have the flaws.
Have you spoken to your editor who pays you? He may have a better and shorter idea of calling the police and throwing away the pages of those not wanted like we had Enron. Rewriting will take years and Mr. Brown stays, as you cannot get rid of him now. That is the legality. Moreover, for that matter, even the police will change their dresses and will go to the garden to rest or will not chase your cat, dog, hotdog or swine. They are too scared.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
Miss Widdecombe,
Can't you just stay in the Travel Inn across from Westminster, like any other business person who spends an inordinate amount of time on the road and away from their homes and families?
I am not sure the justification is automatic for a 'need' for 2 homes for MP's, particularly when attendance records in parliament and debates are so pitiful.
Not a lotta people know that !
But now a lotta people know that. In fact to much people know that now !
How many do you suggest? One is for the wife; one is for the kids you stay in the hotel with the waitresses. Is that asking too much from the government that sends the students at the age of 4 by Balls. Ed Balls.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
You know, like everyone else does, well, would if they had a large enough salary and a house with a large enough lawn to worry about these kind of things. Working away from home is not an excuse to demand ordinary people pay for your maintenance.
As with so much of this stuff, MP's should ask themselves 'What Would An Average Taxpayer Be Legally Allowed To Do?'.
At last some retaliation from a member of parliament. So well done Ann !
And can we have a few more articles like this from MPs who are "clean" enough to brave the parapet ?
We do need to find some balance in this debacle.
However....I cannot agree with the final paragraph about the journalist profession; catchy though it may be. Judgement is being made by the public at large.
At the next general election, heads will roll. It seems there is no other mechanism available. The French model hardly seems warrant endorsement.
http://www.yrtk.org/
As for this article , a perfect example of how MP's of all generations seem to believe they deserve to have it all payed for by people with very little . Your self importance is sickening but truly explains why they always seem to be so out of touch ... it is because they are , living in a world that resembles ours not one bit .
The infprmatoion due out in July was subject to prior vetting. Given the record of opbstruction by MPS I would rather trust the jornalists than the MPs
Poor Mz Widdecombe, such an important person no time to cut her own grass like the millions of the voting peasants in the country who have to combine such chores with real work.
And she has the nerve to warn about so called 'extremists' -just like the eastern European communists before they got their just desserts at the hands of an enraged people. The real extremists have been defrauding us for years. No wonder the BNP is being received like a liberating army across the country
It is a part time job and should be rewarded as such.
And the man who has obstructed every investigation of MPs allowances and is responsible for the Fees Office, the Speaker Michael Martin, should probably face charges of malfeasance. The chicanery was condoned from the top and that is where reform should begin.