Monday 18 May 2009

Honourable Members

A brief peruse of the latest Private Eye, following the recent discovery of the Fees Office's complicity in thieving from taxpayers, reveals that not only do the MP's have a supine internal expenses regulator, but they also have their own branch of HMRC that deals with their tax claims, Public Department 1.

And apparently, PD1 has been "encouraged" to believe that if it's good enough for the Fees Office, it's good enough for them.

AND that possessor of the ultimate moral compass, one JG Brown, Esq., also slipped through a bunch of income tax exemptions for MPs in the law.

In a nutshell:

1. MP's create the rules for themselves.
2. The Parliamentary regulation is incredibly lax and is also alleged to have encouraged members to fill their boots.
3. The tax man has been gently encouraged to turn a blind eye.
4. That is if there is anything to turn a blind eye to, thanks to the generous exemptions that Gordon Brown allowed to MP's.

But it's only a few bad apples, honest!

3 comments:

Turk Thrust said...

Of course, Brown himself has a blind eye which he turns at every opportunity.

By the way, has he hidden himself away again? You can always depend on him to hide at the first sign of trouble, or of anything needing leadership.

What we need is a proper constitution. Fuck this democracy nonsense, let's go for a republic where the rule of law is supreme.

Anonymous said...

It just gets worse by the minute, we now have one trougher refusing to pay back mortgage interest claimed frauduently so we can all fuck off and if you don't like it, tough. Gorbals Mick and his oh so charming taxi loving wife is hanging on in there and why not? A fucking tinker (sheet metal worker up to 1/8 of an inch, above platers work)Go back to Glasgow you gotta be joking but Tam, Eton educated and what exactly do they teach these fuckers there expense fiddling (advanced) is "relaxed about his claim for £18,000 bookshelves. Now please excuse me while I pour a stiff drink paid for by me.

Anonymous said...

£141,866 is both Ed Ball's salary and his wife's salary.
After the usual tax and NI is paid (I HAVE to assume they do pay THAT?!!),the total comes to £7,500 EACH per month net salary.
So £15,000 per month joint net salary in the Ball's household.
Annual net salary = £180,000
Per week = £3,461

They claim £600 per month for food.

Now,think of the pensioner who is living off an annual state pension of £4,716 per year.
= £90.70 per week.

Any savings they have saved over their lifetime as any kind of nest egg has virtually zero returns at the moment.So they are now eating into their nest egg just to pay the hugely increased utility bills,food bills etc.

Think of a 75 yr pensioner,living alone and trying to simply survive on £90.70 per week while these two MP's bank £3,461 per WEEK and then claim £138 per week (£600 per month) on food.

So the WEEKLY net income for these two characters is actually 73% of the 75 yr old pensioner's ANNUAL pension.

Feeling comfortable with the sums so far? Obviously Jack Straw will need help understanding these figures as of course "accountancy is not my strongest suit" - he is, after all, only the Justice Minister.

Or perhaps another way of looking at it is this;

Balls and wife claim ONE AND A HALF times more, for their food every week,than a pensioner gets every week to live off.

Now think of those people who are trying to earn a living and are paid the minimum wage - the kind Mr & Mrs Ball's have helped to ensure they have another 7 PENCE per hour........

Still feel comfortable?

Of course,if any of these calculations are incorrect (I have checked them several times),I will revert to Mr Ball's excuse - "I made a mistake / it was an error".