Wednesday, June 03, 2009
MPs' expenses: Jacqui Smith - her rise and fall
After Jacqui Smith became Home Secretary at the age of 44, the second youngest since Winston Churchill, her stock was so high some predicted she would be Labour's first woman prime minister. But it is the revelations over her expenses which has cost Miss Smith her reputation as a straight-talking, no frills politician.
First there was incredulity at Westminster that the Home Secretary had designated her sister's second bedroom in Peckham as her principal home while saying the imposing five-bedroom house in her constituency – where her husband Richard and two sons live – was her second home.
It meant that the minister in charge of law and order could, under the rules, claim £116,000 to furnish her family home in the most prosperous neighbourhood of her Worcestershire constituency.
However, Miss Smith was dealt a terminal blow when a full breakdown of her expenses was published which showed that not only had she claimed for an 88p bathroom plug and £550 kitchen sink but also for two pornographic films, watched by her husband, who is her paid parliamentary adviser.
Also "Wacky Jacqui" had done a rotten job as home secretary.
IMO: Winston Churchill also was said by many people outside the UK to have mulcted the UK funds for his own benefit, he certainly machinegunned down legitimate UK protestors, he nearly lost WW1 at Gallipoli and during WW2 he seems to have actually made little real attempt to deal with members of the public - perhaps not as bad as the Viscount Stansgate (aka Tony Benn) during his later free time at Westminster. So from the record maybe wacky Jacky could be the next Labor PM, at least not as destructive as Ed Balls.
Under-fire Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing a Commons grilling after a day of resignations, fresh expenses revelations and party dissent fuelled fresh questions about his leadership.
IMO: Brown seems to have been the wrong PM with strange unworkable ideas such as his "public/private/partnership". Cameron has recently equivocated during BBC interviews and has made statements incompatible with recent Tory advertisements. In short any statements made by Cameron must be mistrusted, he is yet another lying sociopath. In top of this, all the MPs - I cannot say "nearly all" as I know of no genuine exceptions - have used their job as their own personal convenience - they have metaphorically crapped on the voters who elected them. Go and vote on June 4th, but not for Labor, Tory or Libdem.
First there was incredulity at Westminster that the Home Secretary had designated her sister's second bedroom in Peckham as her principal home while saying the imposing five-bedroom house in her constituency – where her husband Richard and two sons live – was her second home.
It meant that the minister in charge of law and order could, under the rules, claim £116,000 to furnish her family home in the most prosperous neighbourhood of her Worcestershire constituency.
However, Miss Smith was dealt a terminal blow when a full breakdown of her expenses was published which showed that not only had she claimed for an 88p bathroom plug and £550 kitchen sink but also for two pornographic films, watched by her husband, who is her paid parliamentary adviser.
Also "Wacky Jacqui" had done a rotten job as home secretary.
IMO: Winston Churchill also was said by many people outside the UK to have mulcted the UK funds for his own benefit, he certainly machinegunned down legitimate UK protestors, he nearly lost WW1 at Gallipoli and during WW2 he seems to have actually made little real attempt to deal with members of the public - perhaps not as bad as the Viscount Stansgate (aka Tony Benn) during his later free time at Westminster. So from the record maybe wacky Jacky could be the next Labor PM, at least not as destructive as Ed Balls.
Under-fire Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing a Commons grilling after a day of resignations, fresh expenses revelations and party dissent fuelled fresh questions about his leadership.
IMO: Brown seems to have been the wrong PM with strange unworkable ideas such as his "public/private/partnership". Cameron has recently equivocated during BBC interviews and has made statements incompatible with recent Tory advertisements. In short any statements made by Cameron must be mistrusted, he is yet another lying sociopath. In top of this, all the MPs - I cannot say "nearly all" as I know of no genuine exceptions - have used their job as their own personal convenience - they have metaphorically crapped on the voters who elected them. Go and vote on June 4th, but not for Labor, Tory or Libdem.
# posted by uv : 12:23 AM
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