Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

House of Frauds, Tory Lords of the Manor Expense Claims

Politics / US Politics May 12, 2009 - 05:22 PM GMT

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Politics

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleThe Telegraph continued with its leaking of outrageous expense claims at tax payers expense, where the reaction from the Speaker of the Commons was to deride the media for publishing the content rather than on seeking to hold MP's to account, which is not so surprising given his own past track record of going on spending binges to the tunes of several hundreds of thousands at tax payers expense beyond his salary.


My last article briefly covered the Labour Elites expense claims, the release of the Tory claims clearly show that the Conservative members of Parliament operate as Lords of the Manor exempt from normal taxation such as Capital Gains Tax, and living off of the back of the mass of tax paying serfdom.

The list is near endless, but here are a select few items of Tory Claims, for in depth coverage go to the Telegraph site:

  • Former shadow defence secretary Mr Ancram, claimed £98.58 for the repair of a swimming pool boiler, and reimbursement of £1,117.43 for a gardening bill.
  • Sir Alan Haselhurst, Deputy Speaker of the Commons, claimed £142,000 on his country house, and £12,000 for gardening bills.
  • Mr Arbuthnot, chairman of the Defence Select Committee claimed £1,471 for garden and swimming pool costs, and £2,433 for an housekeeper.
  • Communities spokesman Mr Jackson claimed £304 for refurbishing his swimming pool.
  • David Heathcoat-Amory, claimed more than £380 for horse shit.
  • Douglas Hogg, former Agriculture Secretary, claimed more than £2,000 for clearing the moat on his Lincolnshire estate.
  • Sir Michael Spicer, chairman of Tory 1922 Committee, claimed £5,650 for having his garden maintained.
  • David Davis claimed more than £10,000 for home renovations and furnishings, including a new £5,700 portico.

Lib-Dems are Not off the Hook

  • Nick Clegg, party leader claimed £23,000 maximum annual allowance for mortgage and renovation costs.
  • Andrew George claims mortgage expenses for a £300k flat used by his daughter
  • Menzies Campbell charges to tax payers £10,000 for flat renovations.

Key Problems -

The Property Shuffle - Claiming for second homes for furnishings and mortgage payments, council tax bills and maintenance, and then nominating the same properties on their tax returns as their main homes for capital gains avoidance purposes. Therefore the property shuffle results in a double fiddle - a. Where the tax payer pays for the total running costs multiple properties as MP's shuffle between properties during a year, and b. the tax man does not get the resulting capital gains tax payable on second homes despite the fact that many MP's had claimed expenses on the properties AS their second homes. This in effect allows MP's become property developers with the tax payer paying the renovation costs and then without incurring any capital gains tax liability. All legal off course, after all the MP's masterfully drafted the legislation in the first place to allow them to get away with robbing the tax payers - LEGALLY!

Abuse of Expenses - Voters are outraged by the behaviour of MP's after seeing evidence of the abuse that seems to know NO limits, from claims for chandeliers, porno films, expensive hotels, lawn mowers, moats, swimming pools and the list goes on... Basically everything that ordinary people have to pay for out of their salaries the MP's have been claiming as EXTRA expenses.

Despite whatever Michael Martin the Speaker of the Commons says, the The Telegraph has done a great service to the British public for had the MP's had their way then much of the claims would have been blacked out and released after the June 4th European Elections, furthermore MP's had actively sought to exclude themselves from the data information act so as to prevent the voters from knowing the truth of how they are being taken for a ride. At least now the MP's have a real incentive to do something to make themselves more accountable.

The Voters of Britain need to send a clear message to the MP's of ALL THREE mainstream parties at future elections that this is totally unacceptable behaviour by voting for the fringe parties such as the Greens and UKIP and other independents, only under the threat of losing their seats will the MP's take the action to make themselves fully accountable and stop the abuse of tax payer funds.

I also note that the comedian Stephen Fry attempted to excuse the MP's from fiddling of their expenses to the tune of tens of thousands per year, even going so far as to admit that he also fiddles his own expenses, well £30,000 of expense fiddling a year may not amount to much to a rich multimillionaire comedian, but to the ordinary average voter, £30,000 a year is more than their take home pay! Perhaps the Inland Revenue need to take a closer look at Stephen Fry's tax returns given his public admission.

By Nadeem Walayat
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright © 2005-09 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on the housing market and interest rates. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 250 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

Nadeem Walayat Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in