Friday 19 June 2009

Redaction Then Miracle Conversion

For all the talk by MPs about transparency, cleaning up Parliament, etc, etc there does appear to have been a miraculous conversion by two at least.

One can view here the list of 146 MPs who voted against recommendations to reduce the £25 threshold for receipted expenses to £0, voted against changes in the Green Book, voted against not being able to claim for furniture, household goods and capital improvements and voted against outer London MPs only being able to claim half of any overnight expense.

Candidates for Speaker have all vowed to 'clean up Parliament' and expressed a 'desire for transparency'.
How come then two names on the list of 'Speaker Candidates', namely Ann Widdicombe and Margaret Beckett, are also on the list of 146 above? Truly a Damascene Conversion!

What is also interesting is to note the names which are included in the 146 and who have featured as amongst the biggest 'troughers', or are on the list of 'refunders', the latter done often without any publicity.

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