TaxPayers’ Alliance welcomes criminal charges over expenses and urges swift trials

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:  

“It is excellent news that the CPS have decided to bring charges against these politicians. It is essential that MPs face justice, just like any normal person who had behaved like this. The taxpaying public wants to see justice done, and it is right that MPs aren’t able to simply wave repayment cheques and walk away from this. It has taken a long time to get to this stage, and the priority now must be for trials to be held as soon as possible. Anyone found guilty of breaking the law in their expenses claims should be punished severely for their breach of trust.”

For any further comments, or to arrange broadcast interviews please contact us on 07795 084 113.

Blogs

3.00pm, Better Government
John O'Connell
Quangos back in the news - just

Amidst all of the revelations on MPs’ expenses, taxpayer funded lobbying, and bungled swine flu preparations, some further news was buried. The Cabinet Office released its annual Public Bodies list, detailing the Government’s version of what they consider to be quangos... - Read More

2.00pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
New, higher estimate of green taxes from the ONS

In December, we reported that excessive green taxes now amount to between £10.2 billion and £23.6 billion, or between £408 and £944 per household.

The ONS have just released new estimates of the amounts charged in environmental taxes. They put the total at just over £38.5 billion. By contrast, our most recent estimate of the total charged in green taxes and regulations was £35.8 billion... - Read More

The Times: Spending on quangos rises by £10bn despite Gordon Brown’s pledge
Daily Telegraph: Police cannot attend every 999 call public would not expect them to, says chief constable
Daily Telegraph: Good day to bury bad news? Government admits spending on quangos jumps by 25 per cent
Daily Mail: Dinner in the Commons... at a price: MPs offer private rooms to firms which then paid them thousands
Daily Mail: MPs' expenses farce: Scathing report orders HALF of them to repay £1.3m but judge says 'they've done nothing wrong'
Daily Mail: It's official, the swine flu 'pandemic' is over
Daily Mail: Don't expect us to attend every 999 call
Daily Mail Online: Three Labour MPs and one Tory peer to be CHARGED with false accounting over expenses claims
Daily Express: MPs' bill for expenses goes up
Daily Express: Swine flu scandal
Daily Express: Secrets of Westminster's dining rooms
Daily Mirror: Dole cheat entitled to claim more
Mirror.co.uk: MPs and peer charged over expenses
Independent.co.uk: Three MPs and a peer charged over expenses
Independent.co.uk: Fury as MPs charged over expenses
The Scotsman: MPs claim back £11m a year for second homes
The Northern Echo: Sir Paul Kennedy upheld challenges by 44 of 75 appeals
Western Morning News: Cornish MPs to pay back £10,000
Western Morning News: The day MPs' expenses went up the pole...
Ipswich Evening Star: Council leader to be charged in expenses probe
Yorkshire Post: Brown 'angry' as three MPs and a peer charged over expenses
Metro: My force can't get to 999 calls... still, it's got a blogging police dog
Metro: £192,000 claimed in just a year
Metro: Bad day to have an early finish...
Islington Tribune: A1 20mph limit row
Glasgow Evening Times: Council spends £5000 on garden bonsai tree
Sky News Online: Swine Flu Crisis Ends - Leaving 411 Dead
Politics.co.uk: Taxpayers' Alliance: MPs must repay money immediately
Jewish Chronicle: EU 'funding Palestinian terror’

BBC Radio Scotland: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace urged the CPS to prosecute MPs for their expenses abuses
BBC Radio Tees: Mark Wallace said that there should be full transparency over police officers' second jobs
BBC Radio Three Counties: Mark Wallace criticised the Highways Agency for forcing people out of their houses unnecessarily
BBC Look East: Mark Wallace said the Highways Agency had behaved disgracefully and disrupted innocent people's lives
SunTalk: Mark Wallace and John Gaunt discussed the absurdity of police forces refusing to attend to 999 calls

Comments

[A St Pierre]

It seems that we taxpayers will have to fork out the £1.25 million costs of the inquiry that has decided that our MPs have swindled us out of and should repay us the sum of £1 million.
Should we not demand that the guilty MPs should also repay, pro rata, the costs of the enquiry?

[jailhouselawyer]

And the one that got away from the Tax Payers Alliance http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/07/prisoners-sue-denied-vote-election

The Association of Prisoners would like to take this opportunity to thank the Labour government for donating £64,000,000 of taxpayers money to such a worthy cause.

The alternative does not bear thinking about does it? In case you have forgotten, it cost the taxpayers £112,000,000 to repair and refurbish Strangeways Prison after the April 1990 riot.

[Adrian Peirson]

Isn't all this expenses scandal a smokescreen

small change compared to the £1 Trillion debt we now owe the PRIVATE Bank of England.

Does it never occur to anyone to ask why we as a Sovereign Nation BORROW our money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6NcAzqAd6M