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MPs' Expenses

This sounds like fun! :twisted:

The Duck House: MPs' expenses satire heads for West End

Ben Miller is to play a dodgy politician in a new political satire about the MPs' expenses scandal.
The Duck House will open in the West End in December following a five-week UK tour.

"They say that comedy equals tragedy plus time, and traumatic as the expense scandal was hopefully we can all now have a bloody good laugh about it," said Miller.
"And if any MPs don't like it they can always claim for it on expenses." 8)

Miller's recent theatre credits include being part of the original cast of The Ladykillers, while TV appearances include Death in Paradise and The Armstrong and Miller Show.

The play also stars Olivier Award-winning actress Nancy Carroll and X Factor star Diana Vickers.

The story begins in May 2009, with Labour's Gordon Brown as prime minister and a general election one year away.
Miller plays Labour backbencher Robert Houston who switches sides to the Tories to save his seat. But as the MPs' expenses scandal breaks his switch from red to blue fails to go as planned

The play's title is a reference to the floating ornamental duck island which became became emblematic of the MPs' expenses scandal in 2009.
Conservative MP Sir Peter Viggers retired after it was revealed he had claimed £1,645 for the item.
The long-serving MP for Gosport in Hampshire described himself as "ashamed and humiliated" by his claim, which was rejected by the Commons authorities. The duck house was later sold for charity.

The play's authors, Dan Patterson and Colin Swash, are no strangers to political comedy.
Patterson created Whose Line Is It Anyway? and has produced Mock The Week, while Swash has written jokes for more than 40 series of Have I Got News For You and is a regular contributor for Private Eye.
"Between the two of us we have written topical jokes for TV for over 50 years, but there aren't usually enough on one subject to make a play," they said. "MPs' expenses were - as the MPs also found - the gift that keeps on giving." ;)

The Duck House, directed by Terry Johnson, opens at the Vaudeville Theatre on 10 December, following a UK tour that begins at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on 23 October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24108600
 
MPs to escape expenses investigations after paperwork destroyed by Parliament
House of Commons authorities have destroyed all evidence of MPs expenses' claims prior to 2010, meaning end of official investigations into scandal
By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent
9:30PM GMT 02 Nov 2014

MPs accused of abusing the unreformed expenses system will escape official investigation after the House of Commons authorities destroyed all record of their claims, the Telegraph can reveal.
John Bercow, the Speaker, faces accusations he has presided over a fresh cover-up of MPs' expenses after tens of thousands of pieces of paperwork relating to claims made before 2010 under the scandal-hit regime were shredded. :shock:

Members of the public who have written to Kathryn Hudson, the standards watchdog, to raise concerns about their MP’s claims have been told there can be no investigation due to lack of evidence.

Under the House of Commons' "Authorised Records Disposal Practice", which is overseen by Mr Bercow’s committee, records of MPs’ expenses claims are destroyed after three years. The move is necessary to comply with data protection laws, a Commons spokesman said.

However, under that same set of guidelines, the pay, discipline and sickness records of Commons staff are kept until their 100th birthday. Health and safety records are kept for up to 40 years, while thousands of other classes of official documents on the day-to-day running of the House are stored indefinitely in the Parliamentary Archive.

It means that the Telegraph, which exposed the scandal that rocked Parliament in 2009 after obtaining a leaked CD, holds the only unredacted record of claims made under the unreformed system. That leak followed a High Court battle by the Commons authorities to prevent the release of the information.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... ament.html
 
OneWingedBird said:
Speechless. :eek:

They really are above even their own laws.
Click to expand...

And they think we don't notice, or don't care.
 
Ed Balls among 12 shadow cabinet members who claimed expenses without receipts
Following shadow chancellor's advice that everyone should get a receipt for cash in hand jobs, Labour MPs put in spotlight over their expense claims
By Gordon Rayner, and Holly Watt
10:00PM GMT 16 Feb 2015

Ed Balls and 11 other members of the shadow cabinet claimed expenses for cleaning, gardening or odd jobs without submitting receipts, seriously undermining the shadow chancellor’s advice that we should all insist on invoices for cash-in-hand jobs.
Mr Balls claimed £1,610 for cleaners and his wife Yvette Cooper claimed £2,640 for cleaning and gardening, out of a total of £37,881 claimed by the 12 Labour MPs.

Mr Balls, in common with his 11 colleagues, did not submit a single receipt for the work done, despite his insistence on Monday that he had obtained receipts for every single cash payment since he entered politics 21 years ago. :rolleyes:

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...rs-who-claimed-expenses-without-receipts.html
 
Hmmmmm. MPs paying for odd jobs and cleaners.
Suddenly I see where all these new apprenticeship opportunities are going to come from.
 
To be fair, he hasn't paid the guy in cash. And a cheque can be tracked.

''Although the shadow chancellor had paid for these by cheque and bank transfer, not cash, his political rivals criticised him for lecturing people about what they should do in their own homes. Peter Bone, a Tory backbencher, said it was “total hypocrisy from a man who wants to be considered a potential chancellor”.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/17/ed-balls-ask-window-cleaner-receipts-criticised
 
I certainly don't trust him as chancellor. Or even trust him at all.
 
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