Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Moat man and his 'Lady' keep it in the family...

The unfortunately named Douglas Hogg, the Lincolnshire MP apparently caught with his snout in the trough has announced he will step down at the next General Election.

So-called Grandee Mr Hogg is MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham where I grew up. When the scandal was first exposed, former Agriculture Minister Mr Hogg, or Viscount Hailsham to give him his proper title, claimed he'd done nothing wrong and refused to pay back a penny of his outrageous claim for £2,000 to clean the moat at his 13th Century country estate in Lincolnshire.

Today, several days later, the Right Honourable member Mr Hogg says he now entirely understands the public anger over disgraceful excesses in expense claims allegedly made by MPs of all parties - including Labour.

Mr Hogg claimed his main residence wasn't his country pile in Lincolnshire at all - but a flat in London. He then apparently claimed £20,000 a year in public funds to clean his moat, repair the stables, tune the piano and employ a lady to look after his second home in Lincolnshire.

Presumably the lady looking after the family home is not Lady Hogg, his wife, who is facing an under investigation investigation herself, it was revealed today.

The so-called Lady Hogg is said to have attempted to justified a claim for £5,594 overnight expenses by saying her main home was, unlike her husband's...OUTSIDE London!

What a stench.

Must the manure.

9 comments:

Geoffrey G Brooking said...

Personally I think it is a very sad loss but it also puts your clueless lot on the back foot doesn't it!

fairdealphil said...

You obviously haven't seen tomorrow's Times Geoffrey which seems to suggest that it's Mr Cameron who's on the back foot, in contrast to the tough action on suspensions taken by Mr Brown.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6323104.ece

Geoffrey G Brooking said...

Bit late on that one Phil.

Dave started suspensions before Gordon even thought of it.

But thats all Labour ever do these day.

Copy tory policies.

fairdealphil said...

Geoffrey,

Gordon Brown is taking the strongest action to get the rules changed, get money wrongly claimed paid back to the taxpayer and prevent anyone who has broken the rules standing as Labour candidates at the next election.

As the Leader of the House has just said, no party has the monopoly on virtue and the solution must have cross-party support to restore trust in Parliament.

fairdealphil said...

Geoffrey,

You say: 'Dave started suspensions before Gordon even thought of it.'

So how many exactly has he suspended?

To help you out, the answer is er, None.

Robert said...

Ah well you can tell us Browns doing a lot of things the fact is without somebody asking for the freedom of information, and the shite hitting the fan Gordon Brown would have said f*ck all.

Whether he's getting the upper hand lets see how many of labours lot walk the plank I doubt it will be any.

fairdealphil said...

perhaps we can agree that without Labour's freedom of information act, none of this would ever have come out.

Robert said...

Well you can, but people will then have a laugh because they fought like hell to keep expenses secret by asking that the freedom of information did not cover them.

I also love Brown telling Lumley to day you cannot say anything , otherwise it will ruin my big day and I need one.

Robert said...

Does that include Labour trying to ban it for Political parties.