Friday, June 26, 2009

Five Grand on a bookcase!...

TonbridgeBlog never had many, if any, doubts about you Sir John! But even so it's good to have it confirmed that you are indeed "Squeaky clean" as the Kent and Sussex Courier reported today, echoeing the same phrase this blog used some weeks ago. Unless of course you consider £998.75 on plastic folders to house over 10,000 letters a year a vice, or £200 on a mattress, or £40 on a garment rail. In fact The Right Hon. Sir John Stanley, Tory MP for Tonbridge and Malling, claims that he is makes the lowest allowances claim in Kent. Good on you I say cos that's how it should be. Good job he wasn't anything like neighbouring MP for Tunbridge Wells, Greg Clark, who claimed over £6,000 for a, get this, training course in Parliamentary Speaking! It beggars belief, surely he should be paying for that himself, if it's to further his own career. Or MP for Sevenoaks, Michael Fallon, who appears to have got carried away shopping when he claimed over £5,000 for having a bookcase fitted to house his monthly copies of the paliamentary log, Hansard. Should have gone to Ikea Mr. Fallon, I managed to fit out a whole bookshop for less than £2,000, shelves which house around 15,000 books! Hansard is an incredibly boring read anyway, try the new Victoria Hislop novel instead, far more gripping and stop trying to rip off the tax payer, we're hard up enough as it is!...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I dont understand is what kind of mortgage Greg Clark has. Last year he has claimed exact sums of £3000 and sometimes £2000 per month. I guess this takes him up to the limit. I can only conclued he has a mortgage in excess of £600,000 and us tax payers are buying his lux pad for him.

More snouts in trough at KCC yesterday where the council voted themselves and increase of 8% in their allowances. I know they have not had an increase for 4 years but neither have many others and councilors are supposed to be doing public service, not gaining at out expense. But I guess such arrogance and disregard for what going on in the real world can be expected from such a dominating party. At least local KCC cllr Horne did not claim any additional expenses last year. A good example to the others.

Hallum said...

Yes, it has been facinating to look up their expenses. John Stanley also claimed close to the 24k limit on his second home allowance, including £130 each month (unreceipted) on 'food'

Anonymous said...

They are not as squeaky clean as you are made to believe they are!
And why does John Stanley need to have £130 per month on (unreceipted) food. Is this true? If it is then why does he need to spend that amount a month on food and secondly a second home is a bit of a joke. I travel up and down to London easily every day and so do 1000 of others from around here. The last train leaves after midnight. He could be home and tucked up in bed within the hour. Enough is enough - Sir John I don't think this is actually acceptable if it is all true. Oh and is his second home a nice little pad in Westminster for family and grandchildren to share. Warning - don't trust any of them. They are all on the take!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Well it is certainly nice to know that our local MP has one of the lowest sets of claims and nothing obviously dodgy. Nonetheless a look at his accounts on the Guardian site (http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/mp/492/) shows even he is claiming around £1600/month second home allowance covering mortgage (or rent) council tax, TV licence cleanig food etc. A very useful £20k/year addition to salary - no-one I know can claim anything like that and if our employers did give us allowances like that they would certainly be taxed (not sure the good self employed could get away with anything like that either) so this is equivalent to a £30k salary top up.
There is also a curious window of a few weeks in April-May 2006 when he stopped claiming a second home allowance. Maybe this was a fine case of honest accounting when he stopped using the house, or was it a little bit of flipping to avoid capital gains tax?

Anonymous said...

At last someone who is writing sense. I am sick and tired of everyone being so 'nice' about Sir John. 30K salary top up - now that's something isn't it. He really didn't have much to say or follow up when I have written to him about a pollution problem in Tonbridge. Money for old rope I say. As mentioned before I communte and have done for years - close to Westminster at that. If I can do it and hold down a responsible position so can he. He doesn't need a second home. I am sure he has a nice fat first home. Plaxtol is it?????? Oh don't start me off here. I have had enough of the lot of them. Can somebody please expose and find out what happened in this 2 month gap of his. I would like to see MPs exposed for what they are taking even if it is just a little tiny bit of a few thousand. I certainly couldn't get away with it so why should they. Off to London now on the train with a season ticket I have paid for myself with my very hard earned cash from which taxes have been taken out and gone to MPs like Sir John who have such an easy life. 'Sir' and what's that for. It's sickening - what has he really ever done for me or you that shouldn't be in a normal day's work.

delai said...

Second home? No longer needed!!! The high speed train was on its way this morning taking 35 mins from Ashford to London. Oh please expose this missing link - this 2 months that have disappeared into an unreachable unexplainable void!!!!!!!