From 1st November, Air Passenger Duty is being increased. The rise, in two stages, hits long-haul flights hardest. In a year’s time, a family of four flying the furthest distance in economy will pay an extra £340, while a trip to the United States will cost another £240. APD will then be four times the [...]
Despite the furore over our own MPs’ expenses, the far more staggering amounts of taxpayers’ money sprayed at EU officials largely goes unremarked upon. It may be further away than Westminster, but a considerable proportion of it is still our money. Only thanks to France’s Court of Accounts (Les juridictions financières) have we been able [...]
The trousering of our money by most MPs pales beside the payoff to Glasgow City Council’s former head of education, Margaret Doran, whose redundancy package – despite only being in the job since 2007 – comes to a whopping £278,000. According to the Evening Times, she was made redundant because her department was broken up. [...]
Doesn’t it seem odd that MPs are being told to pay back money claimed on cleaning or gardening while those who had their snouts deepest in the trough, flipping the designation of their main home to avoid paying Capital Gains Tax or to wring the maximum possible from the poor taxpayer, get off Scot free? [...]
A great piece in Dizzy Thinks pointing out the banality of the twittering done by Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Particularly ludicrous is the tweet for Get Online Day, which exhorts people to get online who are, er, already online. Great value for money at a cost of a mere £1.13 per [...]
Remember a few months back when BBC presenter Carrie Gracie was interviewing Lord George Foulkes about MPs’ expenses and he demanded to know how much she was paid? To everyone’s suprise, she admitted on air that her salary was £92,000. What a shame that after she showed him hers, she didn’t ask to see his. [...]
Over a third of MPs have now repaid money they had previously claimed on expenses. Some £637,000 has gone back into the government’s leaky coffers. According to The Daily Telegraph, the figure is set to rise still further. As for those MPs grumbling that Sir Thomas Legg is introducing retrospective legislation, leading barrister Lord Pannick [...]
“Paying up is almost an admission that you’ve done something wrong. Most people aren’t going to write a cheque if you don’t believe you’ve done wrong.” – Geraldine Smith, Labour. “He [Sir Thomas Legg] has introduced new rules retrospectively, he has introduced caps retrospectively and that is against fairness and the rules of natural justice.” [...]
Compare and contrast Ian Clement, ex-deputy mayor of London. Claimed three meals with his girlfriend on expenses. Total cost £156. Result? A 12-week suspended sentence and 100 hours’ community service. Jacqui Smith, ex-Home Secretary. Put two adult films on expenses, not, apparently a “one-off” claim. Claimed £116,000 from the taxpayer for a house that turned [...]
GORDON BROWN insists it’s all over. Interviewed in The Telegraph today, he predicts that there will be strong growth over the next 12 months. “I think people have moved closer to our view that Britain is capable of coming back to growth at a higher rate next year than people were originally assuming, and higher [...]
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