A Few Receipts That Stand Out....

From Shaun Woodward, a £429 phone bill from BT which seems a bit steep, but that's nothing next to his £1,056 Electricity Bill, labelled a "Green Electricity Bill" -

See Here.

Here is the infamous Jacqui Smith bill where hubby Richard had put in for Dirty Movies...
This and the rest are HERE.

... The thing is, Ms Smith accepted the mistake for claiming the additional packages as an error, and an embarrassing one at that.  However, other Virgin bills of £57.25 in December 2008 and £73.50 in July were claimed for in full.  Seems the real error here was that Hubby Richard only sent in the itemised page for the one they got caught on... Perhaps in the interests on honesty these should have also been submitted so that the phone package and broadband could have been itemised for?

We also kitted out the Smith Redditch residence with a 32 inch HD LCD to the tune of £555.74... this because Jacqui Smith declares her Sister's home in London as her Primary residence, so hubby and the kids were free to enjoy a free TV....

Well, at least the picture quality on any future pay-per-view films will be fantastic!

According to my work colleagues (half the office is looking through these today with venom in their eyes)... the BBC are reporting that Quentin Davies tried to claim £20k for a Bell Tower... Well he did, here is the receipt...

The fees office declined to pay the full amount, but did cough up £5,376.91.  Perhaps Mr Davies can explain to us how a Bell Tower is a wholly and necessary requirement of him being an MP?

Lembit Opik gets a special mention as he happily renovated and upgraded his second home with a £6,655 contribution from the taxpayer towards his £12,955 refurbishment in one sitting...

See HERE.

All of the work must have worked up an appetite.  MP's are still allowed to claim up to £400 per month for "food" without receipts.  Lembit however managed to get in a claim for £2,000, no doubt back charging for an "allowance" he had not claimed for a while. 

He must be one hungry bugger to have consumed that much food!  But here is the thing; he did it twice in one year.   A final claim of £800 ensured that the Lib Dem MP claimed the maximum £4,800 during the year on this particular "allowance".  This is not even the most interesting thing in his claims.  It seems the Lib Dem MP had some electrical problems, so he called out an Emergency Electrician... but why on earth did he call someone who had to travel hundreds of miles to do the work??

(Click to enlarge)

That requires some special Lib Dem Logic!... I can only wonder allowed what the Carbon output must have been.  Not very considerate on Mother Earth was it.

If I get chance, more will come later on.  Feel free to email or leave any that you may have caught in the comments.

I Have Decided To Take A Holiday..

Now see here, I have decided that I am going to take the month of August off of work; basically, I work quite long hours during the rest of the year and I have to travel quite a bit so I am quite tired. I know you have paid a lot of money in taxes to buy me a second home, furnish it, keep an office, hire staff, pay for a few luxuries, not forgetting a generous salary; however, like I said, I am a bit tired so I am going got do it anyway. I work on your behalf in a stressful environment and everyone I work with deserves the same.

Don’t be surprised, I am allowed 85 days off, People think thats unfair but it is not... I am just taking August - as in September I have decided that I shall do some work nearer home…Nobody ever thinks to mention that I work in September! I expect a hysterical response from the masses because they are too thick to understand that I really am working hard. If you get upset reading this then you may well be hysterical or thick, or both.

Also, I normally take August off, or I have for the last four years since I have been in this job; usually I “phone in” a couple of times each day,… so technically even though I am at home, on a beach or in a bar you really should recognise that this is a sacrifice I make for you. But this year, I feel I deserve a break so I am going off for a month and I am not going to phone in, I will be incommunicado.

I really don’t see why anybody could be upset in the slightest.

Nb. I am not really… but I have paraphrased someone who is. See Here.