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Next entry: Truck on Tandridge Lane
Previous entry: Blind Faith
In May 2009 the Telegraph newspaper started publishing details of expense claims by our MPs. On 21May 2009 my local MP, Mr Peter Ainsworth, sent the following letter to the parliamentary expenses office:
With a hat tip to Daniel1979 who points out that sunlight is proving to be the best disinfectant with regards to MP’s expenses claims.
It is reported that up to 120 MPs may be standing down at the general election expected by June 2010, which would be the largest number at any election since the end of the Second World War. This is also ascribed to the sunlight/disinfectant effect. Peter Ainsworth is not likely to be one of those standing down. He has so far escaped major criticism. In my mind I have put this down to the “friendly” local press and (as I jokingly put it previously) the fact that the people would elect a monkey in this constituency, as long as it had a blue ribbon pinned on it.
The local newspapers have reported that he is beyond question in the expenses scandal, that he is doing a great job, that his expenses are available online (and in his constituency office) and that he continues to cut ribbons, support local campaigns, kiss babies, and grow his hair in the 1980s style of a 1990s Tony Blair. If you dig a bit deeper however you see that he is not completely beyond reproach. Besides for the “mistake” above, Peter Ainsworth appears on the list of MPs who flipped their second homes in order to maximise expenses, and he made (and attempted to make) some rather dodgy expenses claims. Mr Ainsworth lives 22 miles from London, and many of his constituents work in London and commute daily. Yet Mr Ainsworth has claimed from taxpayers to pay for a second home in London (Wandsworth apparently).
Can I be the first, and if necessary only, voter in his constituency to suggest that he owes us a sincere and deep apology?
[The photograph at the top of this post is from Birmingham City University‘s Flickr stream].
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (1) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share
Well what do you know, he’s decided to stand down at the next election: http://bit.ly/5XyZWz