Scamalot

It is so reassuring to know that scandal, corruption, deceit and greed are not just representative of the States.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?video=d=228030&title=Scamalot

For the past month or so the news in England has been filled with the "MP Expense Scandal" details and how England's finest who are equivalent to the United States senators and congress have been padding their income on the backs of the tax payers. There are roughly 650 MP's who represent England. Mr. Jeopardy has pointed out that this is the same number England had when they ruled half the world! We can sure cut that number in half because that is NOT the case anymore.



Who needs Rod Blagojevich trying to buy a senate seat when you have news like this!!! What galls everyone is that we are in a deep recession here in Britain and many people are struggling to make ends meet as in the colonies. Here are my favorites because if you can't laugh at the audacity of it all you will most surely cry. Perhaps Barack Obama can find room for them in his cabinet with the other tax shirkers......

Background: Most MPs have to live in two places - in their constituencies and in London where they attend Parliament. They are allowed to claim expenses to cover the cost of running a second home. Details of what has been claimed on second home expenses have never been revealed before the Daily Telegraph got hold of a leaked copy of all the claims. Many MPs have been accused of extravagance, of over-claiming and avoiding tax on home sales.

Douglas Hogg, the former agriculture secretary, submitted a claim to have the moat around his country estate cleared. He submitted the £2,000 claim for the Kettlethorpe Hall estate in Lincolnshire where he lives with his family. The MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, whose father was Tory grandee and former Lord Chancellor the late Lord Hailsham, also submitted claims to help meet the cost of a full-time housekeeper, including helping her to run her car.
Hogg, 64, also claimed for a piano tuner and for work to his stables in the estate, which has a fourteenth century gateway and hall.

A British opposition lawmaker will quit after claiming 1,600£ for a "duck island," the latest embarrassing revelation in an expenses row, his party said Thursday.
Conservative MP Sir Peter Viggers bought the wooden structure for the pond at his home in Hampshire, southern England, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

A millionaire Tory MP was forced to apologise last night for spending £1,471 of taxpayers' money on maintaining a swimming pool on his country estate. James Arbuthnot, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, admitted the claims were a mistake and promised to return the money. Mr Arbuthnot, who is the second son of a baronet, submitted an invoice for a three-month period for 'grass, strim, pool, fuel' which came to £776. Another bill for two months came to £594.

Mr Elliot Morley had claimed for mortgage interest payments of £16,000 - 18 months after the mortgage was paid off. He has apologised and repaid the money, blaming "sloppy accounting".

A Labour backbencher has apologised for submitting an expenses claim for a £5 donation he made at a church service commemorating the Battle of Britain.

Veteran Tory MP Bill Cash reportedly claimed £15,000 in expenses to rent a flat from his daughter, despite owning one which was closer to Parliament.

The Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, Julie Kirkbride has been speaking to the press about why she employed her sister - even though she lives more than 100 miles from the constituency - and allowed her brother to live rent-free in her taxpayer-funded second home.

Andrew Mackay, an aide to David Cameron, has resigned after he and his fellow MP wife claimed on their parliamentary expenses for both of their homes. Mr Mackay became the first person to lose his job over the MPs’ expenses scandal that has been exposed by The Daily Telegraph over the past week. He used his second home allowance to pay almost £12,000 a year in mortgage interest payments on their joint flat near Westminster. Meanwhile his wife, Julie Kirkbride, the Tory MP for Bromsgrove in Worcs, has used her expenses to pay off a similar amount on the loan for their family home in her constituency. Mr MacKay named the family home as his main home while she named the London flat as hers for at least eight years, with the approval of the Commons authorities, and they were able to use public funds to pay for both.

Unfriggenbelievable!