Wonderful title.

Thank goodness this jerk is going.

What a twat.

And Steen’s just jealous because he hasn’t got a moat. It comes to something when a Tory MP says “the Telegraph has a lot to answer for”.

He has a point though, when he is talking about the discrimination between mortgage interest and other expenses. Just look at how the Telegraph deals with David Cameron:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5305130/David-Cameron-limits-claims-to-mortgage-and-utilities-MPs-expenses.html

He’s seen as a positive example, because he ‘only’ claimed for mortgage interest. No interest in the fact that taxpayers are handing him £1700 a month for these payments, effectively financing an interest free loan with wich one of the definitely more affluent MPs can pay to acquire prime real estate for himself.

It seems quite curious that the one thing is seen as abuse of the system and the other as not just following the letter but also the spirit of the rules.

So there is a fair bit bit of hypocrisy out there and before anybody get’s the wrong impression, I find both pratices equally troubling.

It’s always jealousy, isn’t it? Never because they’re lying, deceitful, arrogant, incompetent or anything like that; just jealousy. I blame Political Correctness. Ever since it went Mad this country has become an envious, green boil of disrespect for people who are simply better than everyone else.

Philbert – I completely agree. The Telegraph has completely whitewashed what Cameron did just so he could be seen as a brave figure trying to clean out his party from scammers.

I blame Political Correctness. Ever since it went Mad this country has become an envious, green boil of disrespect for people who are simply better than everyone else.

hah! I love this comment.

That is quite superb.

I am going to try to work that in to a conversation.

Why do Tories think everyone is jealous of them? Steen thinks everyone is jealous of his pad, Iain Dale thinks everyone is jealous of his status as the “leading blogger” (maybe we’re all jealous that he got rumbled for lying about Tom Watson – hey, I want to be dishonest too!).

I am not a crook

Steen could always claim ageism.

“Why do Tories think everyone is jealous of them?”

Because most Tories are arrogant , smug , snobs.

“I blame Political Correctness. Ever since it went Mad this country has become an envious, green boil of disrespect for people who are simply better than everyone else.”

I take it this is satire? Nobody could be that stupid. But then again, judging by the usual standard of moronic trolls on here I am not so sure.

I’m jealous.

I always wanted to be a thieving cunt but never had the opportunity.

Sally, I think it’s safe to assume Trumpton was taking the piss.

And the prize for biggest wank-face cock-dribble in Westminster goes to…

Heh! I almost involuntarily lost several mouthfuls of tea listening to this guy on the Today show…

Interviewers must dream of such moments – when someone just keeps coming back again and again, each time with a more outrageous (taxpayer-funded) spade which they proceed to use to dig themselves an ever-increasing hole.

Then they jump in it. And keep shouting.

Fantastic.

Philbert,

“He has a point though, when he is talking about the discrimination between mortgage interest and other expenses.”

No, he doesn’t. If you run a business, you can’t put down businesses expenses with HMRC for a crate of beer and then say “but I didn’t claim for my PC”. If that’s the principle that dishonourable members expect the rest of us to follow, they should do likewise.

from memory, gbp160 per employee per year for beer is legit. aaah, those jolly pre-crunch days when there were dangers of exceeding that….

If anyone wants to know exactly why I can’t stand most Tories and don’t trust them even when they’re saying stuff I completely agree with (which they do at times, scarily).

Anthony Steen was my MP from when I was 9 until I moved out of my parents home. He’s still their MP, and that of more than half my family, cousins, both surviving grandparents, etc.

The above quotes? Make him look like a fairly decent bloke compared to his usual demeanour. Gotta love those safe Tory seats.

This is the same guy that parked in a disable bay for a week because “there were too many disabled bays in the station car park”. # of times he’d raised this as an issue in his 30 years as an MP? Zero.

Oh, and he paid his daughter several grand a year for doing about half an hours work per week writing press releases for him.

And he still can’t see what he’s done wrong. My MP.

I agree with Philbert on this.

And it’s nothing to do with taxable expenses.

Multimillionaires Cameron, Osborne, etc have had not a single negative thing said about claiming so much money. Even Tory-boy extraordinaire Gove with his multiple lucrative jobs got away relatively unscathed.

(And for some political balance: James Purnell is also two-faced twat for cutting benefits while getting away with as much money as he can)

He’s trying to paint this as class war. I don’t blame him (his side’s been winning for so long) but its a bit pathetic to still spout the same drivel.

There’s no envy on my part for someone so vainglorious and deluded. Shouting “Envy” and “Jealousy” is meant to divert attention from his conniving actions. Good riddance.

Btw, I second your comments on James Pernicious.

Btw, I second your comments on James Purnicious.

I third the observations about Workhouse Purnell. I’d like either the Liberal Democrats or some form of loose network of independents to go after the most obnoxious ministers & decapitate them.

How many of the honest working-class folk in the Tameside area really want a repulsive fucker like that “representing” them?

XYZ, my problem with your analogy is that you use a scenario where one party does something which is allowed under the rules, while the other party does something which is not. But on the facts that we are discussing both claims were legitimate within the rules of the expense system.

Our argument is about moral legitimacy. Surely it is within the spirit of the expense system to claim for necessary maintenance. If MPs are entitled to a second home for their constituency work, then it seems only fair that they are also allowed to fix the roof if it starts leaking and to claim for that.

In the case of Mr Steen the maintenance was a bit more luxurious and you might ask why taxpayers should pay for a mere gimmick – for want of a better word – which only serves Mr Steen’s enjoyment. And this seems to me quite analogous to Mr Cameron’s desire to live in a house which is much more expensive then what roughly 95% of the population of this country could ever hope to afford.

Don’t get me wrong. Wealthy MPs should have the same rights as less affluent ones and I’m perfectly fine with Mr Cameron financing his house via mortgage and claiming the interest, even if he could buy it outright.

But this to me seems only fair as long as the house is reasonable in comparison to his needs as an MP and not to the lifestyle that he is used to.

Maxing out his second home allowance on the – apparently – morally unproblematic mortgage interest to me seems to display the same, ‘it is there I might as well spend it’ attitude, as Mr Steen’s tree maintenance.

According to his homepage, Mr Steen “conceals a deceptively shrewd mind behind an appearance of endearing battiness”. Let me be the first to congratulate him on his formidable powers of deception.

The arrogance of this person amazes me! I hope one of his aggrieved constituents punches the worthless fucker in the face. He deserves it.

“They made me look like a crook and the one thing I am not is a crook.” No, Tony, you *are* a fucking crook. Now fuck off.

@4: It comes to something when a Tory MP says “the Telegraph has a lot to answer for”.

Whatever else anyone says about the Telegraph, they have performed a valuable public service in exposing crooked MPs for what they are.

What a stupid, stupid, STUPID man. Of course, these will be the comments that everyone now remembers whenever they think of MPs; it’s almost as if they’re all purposely trying to destroy themselves in some masochistic rampage.

Whether or not you’re an MP, you should maintain your own house at your own expense, not ours!

Well, look on the bright side – maybe MPs will do something about properly taxing the weirdo Barclay brothers and “non-dom” Lord Rothermere.

How much do you think we can raise here on LC in order for Steen to afford an attractive house? While you lot were saying what a cock he is, I’ve been sat here thinking how many trees does it take to make a house a home?

“He went on to blame the “wretched government” for introducing the system”

This is the most priceless comment of the lot. In effect, someone who represents a party that believes in the power of the individual is complaining that he could not control himself . He obviously could not make an individual decision to show some restraint.

Makes you realise the whole Tory philosophy is a crock of shit.

Jealous? We’re not jealous Mr Steen. We just don’t like working our arses off and getting scrutinised by the revenue for every penny, only to find that stupid fucking idiots like you not only use the money to serve yourself but then arrogantly attack the system that found you out, the newspaper that blew your cover and then tell the country it is none of our business.

If YOU are a public servant and WE are paying you to be that public servant then sir you are very much mistaken. It IS our business and we are glad you have been pursued over it. To say the government “mucked up the system” is quite ridiculous. Mucked up your deceptive, deceiving, money grabbing system maybe, But I say Hooray for that!

As for Nadine Dorries MP stating that “I think people are seriously beginning to crack” and that a suicide is likely. Is this meant to sate the public appetite for righting the wrongs? Is this supposed to calm the public mood and make us back off. Sorry Nadine. We’ve heard enough bullshit from all sides and we look forward to more exposures, resignations, sackings and de-selections and a suicide if need be!

In case anyone’s interested, I’ve written up a fuller account of some of his more egregious transgressions over on my place, duplicating it here is probably a bit OTT:
http://matgb.dreamwidth.org/363629.html