Official MPs' expenses 'an insult to the public'
Official details of MPs' expenses have finally been released by the House of Commons.
But the disclosures have turned into a sour joke because so many of the details have been blocked out.
Instead of openness and transparency, we have been left with more questions than answers.
The blanked-out areas on the documents mean that in many cases the information which can be seen is virtually meaningless.
MPs were allowed to go through their claims and request which information was withheld, including home addresses, bank details and security arrangements.
But House of Commons officials had the final say on which information was finally released on the internet list.
One small example among the myriad of paperwork is an Orange phone bill submitted on behalf of Dan Norris, Labour MP for Wansdyke, which shows no details of a time frame, so it is not possible to tell whether the charges are for a day, week, month or a year.
Mr Norris, who said the mobile bill was for a phone used by a member of his staff, said the black boxes blocking out information were put on by the House of Commons' data protection officer.
Mark Wallace, campaign director for the Tax Payers Alliance, called the released documents the 'Black Marker Pen Edition'.
He said: "It beggars belief that after all the outrage of recent weeks, Parliament is still not willing to come clean with the public.
"This is half-hearted transparency that has allowed MPs to hide all sorts of crucial pieces of information.
"Quite frankly, this over-use of black marker pen is an insult to the public, who still are not being taken seriously by MPs."
The Evening Post has printed out the documents relating to the nine MPs serving the Bristol area – Dawn Primarolo (Lab, Bristol South); Kerry McCarthy (Lab, Bristol East); Stephen Williams (Lib Dem, Bristol West); Doug Naysmith (Lab, Bristol North West); Roger Berry (Lab, Kingswood); Liam Fox (Con, Woodspring); John Penrose (Con, Weston-super-Mare); Steve Webb (Lib Dem, Northavon); and Dan Norris (Lab, Wansdyke).
The stack of receipts is nearly two feet high. There are literally thousands of documents and receipts, which we will plough through to report on each MP.
The published information for all 646 MPs runs to more than one million pages.
The censored or "redacted" expenses were published online yesterday, more than a year after Parliament was forced to do so by the High Court and weeks after a full record of uncensored claims was leaked to the Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper obtained its information from computer discs carrying full details of all MPs' claims, understood to have been created during the process of compiling and censoring the documents and sold by an insider.
Although the published information includes receipts relating to MPs' claims between 2004/05 and 2007/08, many of the most controversial revelations made by the Telegraph would have been unlikely to emerge.
As addresses are not published evidence of MPs' "flipping" their allowances from one home to another to maximise claims and avoid capital gains tax on house sales could not be detected from the redacted receipts.
It would also have meant details of Luton Labour MP Margaret Moran, who received £22,000 to treat dry rot on a second home 100 miles from her constituency in Southampton, and Tory former minister Douglas Hogg, who asked for money to clean his moat, would have been unlikely to emerge.
And the official receipts show no sign that Tory grandee Sir Peter Viggers tried to claim £1,645 for a "duck island" on his garden pond, because claims that the fees office refused to pay out are not being published.
Parliament continues to be hit by scandal.
Yesterday it emerged that Shadow chancellor George Osborne claimed £47 for two DVDs of himself giving a speech on Value for Taxpayers' Money and Junior Treasury minister Kitty Ussher quit the Government on Wednesday night following allegations that she avoided paying capital gains tax by "flipping" her second home.
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by Finesse, temple meads
Saturday, June 20 2009, 4:41PM
“Telegraph 25 LAbour Big Guns 'the impact on the cabinet has been little short of catastrophic" - "Dawn Primarolo The Childrens and Families Miniister claimed second home expenses for her constituency home in Bristol until 2004, when she FLIPPED her expense claims to her London flat.
Overnight her monthly claims for mortgage interest went up from £317 to £1,313. Having claimed a relatively modest £12,553 in 2003-04, Miss Primarolo's total claims under the Additional Costs Allowance rose sharply after the move, and by 2007-08 she was claiming the maximum permissible amount of £23, 083.
Miss Primarolo also claimed for council tax, utilities, a cleaner and for her TV licence."”
by a g rawlings, truro
Friday, June 19 2009, 8:14PM
“Does this song sound familiar
in this corrupt nation? BLANKETY BLANK, BLANKETY BLANK.”
by geoff, clifton
Friday, June 19 2009, 7:12PM
“they all had they fingers in the pie,getting what can get before they get booted out.like the toaster for mr berry 170 pound.on the kingswood high st maybe a tenner or less”
by Fireman, Bristol
Friday, June 19 2009, 7:10PM
“True story that is, Derek!”
by derek, Nuremburg
Friday, June 19 2009, 6:31PM
“SorryFireman.I didn`t mean to imply that you were always on strike.I always have this report in my mind."the Green Godess fire engine (not one of yours),rescued a cat from a tree,grateful owner gives them cup of tea,then they drive off running over the cat on the way.I admire all services who do these difficult jobs Fire Nurses Police etc.Iwas only trying to say how bad it was in the 60/70`s to what it is now.My main point is,if we dont elect Labour Con what do we have left to govern Britain? National Front???”
by Fireman, Bristol
Friday, June 19 2009, 3:18PM
“"firemen on strike"
Point of fact, Derek, the fire service has only ever been on two national strikes. Both under Labour.
Don't let facts get in the way of a good rant though........................”
by anil, south glos
Friday, June 19 2009, 2:36PM
“Not sure why everyone's so disappointed. British politics is as corrupt, power-driven and ineffective as anywhere else. I grew up in a country where politicians are openly corrupt. It doesn't do that nation much good but no one's left under any delusions.
When it was a British colony, those who asked for accountability and transparency were imprisoned for "activities against the crown".
Apparently, nothing changes. On a recent visit to my country, friends commented about British politics with:"....and they had the audacity to criticise us?"”
by derek, Nuremburg
Friday, June 19 2009, 2:32PM
“Brinley.Agree with your sentiments but,someone has to govern Britain and it is to be hoped that in future with close scrutiny of all expense clains,that we can draw a line under all this and hope that whoever gets in will not dare try this on again.We can only hope,its allwe have left!”
by Grahame, Bristol
Friday, June 19 2009, 2:17PM
“I don't care as much about those who tried to buy duck-houses or clean their moats as I do about those who preached openness, lectured us on fairness and decried privilege while sticking their grubby little mitts firmly in the cookie jar. Those who shouted the loudest to advance the causes of fairness, social justice and egalitarianism are, quite rightly, also those who should get hung the highest for their breathtaking hypocrisy and lack of integrity. These are the ones I feel most let down by.
Everyone can be tempted and plenty of us would fail, but not everyone is venal enough to cynically stick their snout deep into the trough and then try to hide their ordure. Some politicians clearly have the personal morality of Orwellian pigs. The public reaction at seeing them for what they are tells us something good though. Despite a decade of having moral relativism shoved down our throats, we're still able to tell the difference between right and wrong.”
by How stupid does Dawn think we are?, Totterdown
Friday, June 19 2009, 1:58PM
“May 16th: "Ms Primarolo told the Post: "I'm just as angry as my constituents. I can't explain this behaviour by some MPs.
"It's so important for me to be transparent and to say to my constituents these are my claims and this is what it's for. I heard somebody say that trust takes a decade to build up and minutes to destroy. All MPs have got to look very long and hard at what is going on."I don't want people to think that I have done something that is dishonest, because I haven't. I just didn't have any idea all this was going on."
One month or so later teh Telegraph reveals:
Dawn Primarolo claimed on second home in Bristol. In 2004, switched to London flat and claimed mortgage interest payments."”