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Not good front pages for Maria Miller. The Times & Telegraph are leading on story pic.twitter.com/64iUGSaM4F
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"Scotland is just like your younger brother who thinks he can be independent because he's managed to set up a tent in the garden."
I don't have a strong view on either Maria Miller or the Grand National - maybe PINEAU DE RE each-way but the value's gone to be honest.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/conservative-mps-expenses/10746003/Maria-Miller-expenses-report-how-Culture-Secretary-tried-to-bully-MP-watchdog.html
and the transcript of the conversation:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/conservative-mps-expenses/10746009/Maria-Miller-expenses-transcript-of-advisers-conversation-with-Telegraph.html
you will find that it is the Telegraph which is doing the bullying.
The chances of her leaving the Cabinet have just fallen in my view. Cameron - quite rightly - doesn't like being pushed around by witch-hunters, and, whilst he might have been thinking of shuffling her out before this erupted (she hasn't been the greatest of ministers), it will be hard to do so now.
A good reporter would have asked for clarification re that Leveson comment at the time.
HW: I’m not meant to knock on people’s doors?
JH: Knock on the doors of people when they’ve just come out of [removed] and had [removed]. Yeah. I would suggest that was probably a good thing.
Given that Leveson was all about press intrusion, it seems a pretty reasonable thing to flag up.
"And Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors’ meetings around Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to flag up that connection for you to think about." can certainly be taken either way: that such behaviour on the part of the newspaper is unwise given the Leveson furore, or as a threat that she could use her position.
It's extremely unwise at best. But it is at least one person removed from Miller herself, and I can understand why people around her would be angry.
Maria Miller's punishment? Repays £5,800 expenses but keeps a £1.2m profit on sale of the house. Disgrace"
twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire/status/451678733020434433
Sorting it out should be a priority.
JH: I should just flag up as well, while you’re on it that when she doorstepped him, she got Maria’s father, who’s just had a [removed] and come out of [removed]. And Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors’ meetings around Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to flag up that connection for you to think about.
It does seem extraordinary that at the height of the Leveson discussions a Telegraph reporter was door-stepping elderly and sick parents.
Isn't Cam wonderful!
But the one which made me laugh out loud was the next paragraph:
The Commissioner later found Mrs Miller to have broken the rules and recommended that she repay more than £40,000 — but the decision was overruled by a secretive committee of MPs.
She's safe, if that's the level of the scandal.
Shouldn't the Law Society be on to that? Looks like unfair restriction of trade to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzUat_wC6Ko
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sleazy-playground-money-launderers-paradise-allround-basket-case-a-dystopian-vision-of-britain-under-the-rule-of-nigel-farage-9239461.html
Oh for the days of Alistair Campbell and pressures brought to bear on the unfortunate Dr. Kelly and the later vengeance wreaked on Andrew Gilligan and the poor BBC
Miller is but a shadow of the past.
The Independent piece? Not hugely funny, but impressively full of detail in its 'vision' of the future.
I don't have a view either, but I'll probably back Tidal Bay. I don't think it will win but I have to support a horse that is nearly as old as me.
An old girlfriend once described my thighs as being of the type that British Rail used to make railway track curve.
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
The press smell Maria Miller's blood. And they are not letting go. pic.twitter.com/vw0lLCBQID (via @hendopolis)"
twitter.com/sunny_hundal/status/452195483952644096
Actually I did notice an orange-jacketed fat dude on all fours for Dave to rest his foot on as he did *heroic stance*.
They certainly deserve a decent salary and compesation for the most taxing elements of the job that impact upon the rest of their lives. The debate comes down to what is decent and what is reasonable. The base level salary they get would for most be considered very reasonable for the work they do, and even if they are right and it is still tough, there's no need to make it completely comfortable - it should be tough, grinding, arduous, work. That's why it is still a service and not a cool career choice for political wonks building up their CVs for directorships and the like later in their lives (or so we hope), for all it should also be satisfying work.
Make it a little less attractive and generous, and we would probably lose some good MPs who find they cannot handle the pressures. But there are only 650 of them needed. Out of a population of 60 million I think we can find that many who would make fantastic MPs able to survive on a decent salary without extraordinary expenses and perks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10745182/The-artwork-of-George-W-Bush.html
http://www.conservativehome.com/video/2014/04/watch-maria-miller-apologises-after-an-investigation-into-her-expenses.html
Deleted! Andy got there first.
@SeanT could do far better
In that vein, I recall an MP supposedly claiming for a trouser press (Huhne, perhaps), and my first thought was 'Well, you need formal attire for the job - pretty sure the Speaker throws a wobbler if you are not formally dressed in the Chamber itself for instance - so if an MP cannot afford a suit, then the state should provide one. But the job doesn't care how good your creases are, so you can pay for the upkeep yourself'.
Ah, good fun was had by all during the expenses scandal, such amazing stories.
The farce of letting them maintain 2 households is the key issue, for me. Stop that, make it fairer on the taxpayer, but also that the MP can maintain a good family life, and we're all in clover.
It was like trying to eat dessicated fruitcake.
I want them all to lose.
What really stinks to me is not having the same rules apply to MPs. If the same rules applied on taxation and benefits in kind as apply to us plebs, then I would find the whole expense business tolerable, but it doesn't.
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/250x250/46692604.jpg
The Empire will compensate you if she fails to survive!
Is that a reason to destroy her life? I don't agree with her politics either but she strikes me as a decent family woman and she has been found not guilty. Shades of the Harriet Harman stuff, such is the feeding frenzy.
I will have to pick up the answer tomorrow. A good night to all.
To no doubt wildly take out of intended context and show a deficit of imagination, to quote from 'The Thick of It'. it's the difference between being punched in the face and punching oneself in the face'.
Miller might be innocent on parliament's eyes, and she might be a great family woman, but why do I have to pay for her second house?
Only allow MPs expenses for renting an abode in the capital. This would have two excellent effects:
1. I'll give odds that within 2 years there will be reform of the housing rental market.
2. It'll discourage property speculation by MPs (Hello, Maria!) and perhaps stop the blowing up of the property bubble by successive Governments.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs0-7x2bESA
(The start of the song sounds a bit like the James Bond theme, two years before the first James Bond film came out).