Maria Miller

[Tangled up in Blue]

Maria Miller to go in May or June?

I wonder if she'll be able to last even that long.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/05/maria-miller-support-ebbs-away

 

[mrsblue]

Cameron has not covered himself in glory in his defence of Miller and even though I like the man he is after all yet another toff not living in the real world.

Would be surprised if Miller still has her job during the next week.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Cameron has not covered himself in glory in his defence of Miller and even though I like the man he is after all yet another toff not living in the real world.

Would be surprised if Miller still has her job during the next week.

Yeah I think she'll do well to last the week too.

Apparently IDS was supposed to announce a benefit crackdown on the Marr show today but didn't because of the toxic atmosphere surrounding the Maria Miller affair.

 

[Firestorm]

If she had been caught fiddling expenses in a private company she would have been sacked.
However that threat does not stop many people claiming what they shouldn't on expenses.
I wonder how many of those baying for her blood have inflated an insurance claim.

I am not defending her imho she should be sacked, but there is a lot righteous indignation be spouted all over the place

 

[Cricko]

If she had been caught fiddling expenses in a private company she would have been sacked.
However that threat does not stop many people claiming what they shouldn't on expenses.
I wonder how many of those baying for her blood have inflated an insurance claim.

I am not defending her imho she should be sacked, but there is a lot righteous indignation be spouted all over the place

Probably a lot of people but I doubt it would of been for 45k, however had they been caught doing such a thing as she was what would of happened to them?

Quite a good report in the Torygraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...rt-rights-and-wrongs-of-ministers-claims.html

Of course she had no idea she gained so much, she was a busy lady who never had time to check,funny that she had time to re-mortgage the place though for double the original value and threaten the people who were looking into it.. Zzzzzzz.

 

[South Bank Hank]

If she had been caught fiddling expenses in a private company she would have been sacked.
However that threat does not stop many people claiming what they shouldn't on expenses.
I wonder how many of those baying for her blood have inflated an insurance claim.

I am not defending her imho she should be sacked, but there is a lot righteous indignation be spouted all over the place

I was thinking about this from my perspective as I've been claiming expenses my whole career. Anyone who has ever done them knows what an ABSOLUTE BALLS-ACHE it all is, how time consuming it ends up and how likely it is that most people actually end up under-claiming for everything that's due simply 'cos it's not worth the time, effort or grief. I've lost track of the number of times I'll be looking at a receipt and thinking "what the **** was THAT for!?"

My experience is: anyone caught fiddling their expenses would and should be sacked... which is where we fall back to the position taken by the cross-party (?) commission's acceptance that it was negligence rather than purposeful.

If this scenario had happened in a private company, my guess is some would've expected the lot back and some would have taken the same position as in this case. If they accepted the position, as the committee of MPs has, then very few scenarios would have ended up with a sacking.

There seems to be a growing tendency these days to see a bandit behind every bush: all the politicians are in it for themselves; every person with money is avoiding tax; every immigrant is milking the system, etc, etc... People get very passionate and angry about it, but it doesn't make it true.

What does seem clear is that Maria Miller will quickly become a liability as she's dealt with this very badly. And that will ultimately be to her cost. Which seems right.

 

[mrsblue]

Miller took the wee wee and it has come on top,She and the Tory party should have manned up took it on the chin and Miller walked away to be offered another cabinet job in say 12 months time,They did neither and now face the chilling prospect of Labour winning the election!

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Miller made fraudulent claims, she has balls it out so far BUT has done more harm to the whole elected parliament/public confidence system. She should have been sacked, deselected and prosecuted ( as Hanningfield was).

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

I'm not clear why am MP for Basingstoke needs a London house anyway. Politicians always seem to brazen it out when caught like Harman did. Miller should resign. If I did what she did in my job I'd be sacked.
She'll be gone by the middle of next week IMO.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Miller made fraudulent claims...

No. She didn't. At least not according to the Commons Standards Commission who had access to ALL of the facts and ruled otherwise.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

No. She didn't. At least not according to the Commons Standards Commission who had access to ALL of the facts and ruled otherwise.

Should MP's be allowed to mark their own homework though?

The Maria Miller case would indicate that MP's (of all parties) seem to have learnt nothing from the 2009 expenses scandal.

Time for a fully independent commission to be set up to replace the CSC,methinks.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Should MP's be allowed to mark their own homework though?

The Maria Miller case would indicate that MP's (of all parties) seem to have learnt nothing from the 2009 expenses crisis.

Time for a fully independent commission to be set up to replace the CSC,methinks.

If independence is the only way to remove doubt and satisfy the general public then I'm all for it. I still can't get my head around why Miller didn't pay the full amount back of her own volition and, yes, it does show a disappointing lack of empathy with public opinion that will ultimately cost her and perpetuate an ongoing problem for her colleagues.

 

[londonblue]

Looks like Lord Tebbit (a qualified airline pilot for what it's worth) has waded into the debate. At least one tory is saying the right thing.

BBC

Former Conservative chairman Lord Tebbit has called on her to resign.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Just seen the headline on the BBC news that Cameron said Maria Miller had done the right thing. I thought she must have resigned and I was flabbergasted to read that he was saying she had done the right thing by apologising to the Commons which she had been told to do. Huge misjudgement by Cameron. Tebbit spot on. They just don't get it do they?

 

[LCBB]

It seems very strange that Ian Duncan-Smith wants to have all the cheats hung drawn and quatered , but one of there own ? .

 

[Cricko]

There seems to be a growing tendency these days to see a bandit behind every bush: all the politicians are in it for themselves; every person with money is avoiding tax; every immigrant is milking the system, etc, etc... People get very passionate and angry about it, but it doesn't make it true.

What does seem clear is that Maria Miller will quickly become a liability as she's dealt with this very badly. And that will ultimately be to her cost. Which seems right.

You are correct to a certain extent,but during the last expenses debacle it was stated then that:

"Sir Thomas Legg, the auditor brought in to trawl through four years of claims, yesterday delivered a devastating verdict as he concluded that 389 of 752 current and former MPs had wrongly claimed money from the taxpayer".


That was over 50% who were "in it for themselves" Did they not learn from that time, well I think the answer is No. We need as you stated a completely outside jury for this, made up of people with no ties to government/politicians whatsoever and they see and pass ANY expense claims due.

MP's claimed 23 million in expenses during 2013, without staff costs, that is near on 40k per MP..:dizzy:

With staff btw it goes up to over 90mill an average of 140k PA per MP on top of wages...phew!

 

[londonblue]

It looks like we're all wrong. Our esteemed leader has told us she has done the right thing:

BBC

Obviously he wasn't bothered about this bit:

On Monday the Daily Telegraph made further allegations regarding Mrs Miller's home in Wimbledon, south-west London, which was sold this year for more than £1m above its 1995 purchase cost.

In 2009 she redesignated it as her main residence and stopped claiming second-home allowances on it. This, the Telegraph says, was in an effort to avoid capital gains tax, which is payable at a rate of 28% on profits made from the sale of second homes.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Our esteemed leader has told us she has done the right thing...

No. He hasn't. Anyone reading past the headline would understand he has told us she has done the right thing by apologising. There is a significant difference as well you know.

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

No. He hasn't. Anyone reading past the headline would understand he has told us she has done the right thing by apologising. There is a significant difference as well you know.

I think that is what Londonblue meant - that Cameron thinks that apologising was all she needed to do to make amends.

 

[londonblue]

I think that is what Londonblue meant - that Cameron thinks that apologising was all she needed to do to make amends.

Correct. I think I owe her an apology of my own. Obviously I was wrong and she needn't pay the whole lot back. A simple apology (that lasted 32 seconds) was all it needed to make up for her "oversight" and for obstructing (or not helping) the investigation.

Silly silly me. There I was expecting better of the people that tell us that the press can't self regulate. Not to mention IBS who doesn't like benefit cheats, but is happy to back an expenses cheat.