Kevin Barron on Sky

Well I watched the video of Kevin Barron on Sky before I left work tonight. My favourite quote was “I didn’t doctor bills that I’d paid for previously, I submitted bills that took me up to the limit for what I could get for the year. ”

Not ‘what I needed’ or even ‘to which I was entitled’ but ‘what I could get.’ A very revealing use of language from Kevin Barron I thought. And where did the idea of doctoring bills come from. That seemed an odd thing to mention apropos of nothing.

I wonder if all those bills he submitted to get him to the limit were as legitimate as the one seemingly raised by his son for work on a website that very few people recall seeing?

Incidentally Kevin is wrong; he hasn’t submitted “bills” for the amounts referred to in the interview, or invoices, or even statements. The letter shown in the previous post makes this quite clear.

Posted by Wordmobi

Kevin Barron MP – Expenses for 2008-9

Regular readers (hi Kevin) will know that I have made the point several times that Kevin Barron MP has not submitted mortgage interest statements with his expenses, so we don’t know quite why his interest payments have risen quite as much as they have done. The details are in this post, but in summary the documentation Kevin Barron MP has deemed appropriate to submit suggests that the capital sum borrowed on his mortgage rose by £38,000 between 2004 and 2007, which coincidentally kept him just within his claim limit.

Quite why Kevin Barron has not submitted the correct paperwork remains a mystery – perhaps it is simply because Kevin knows best, or perhaps it is because of the information the statements contain. We can only speculate.

However, it seems I’m not the only one who is baffled and frustrated by Kevin Barron’s refusal to submit the required paperwork with his claims. He had a letter making the same point from the fees office about it in March this year. Quite why they continued to pay him despite the lack of paperwork I don’t really know. Perhaps he now submits statements, we shall see when newer information is released – but what we really want to see are the older statements showing just how much capital he has borrowed. I’m patient though.

Kevin Barron MP Talks About Expenses on the Tellybox

Kevin Barron MP was on Sky last night, talking about expenses. He’s getting quite vocal on the subject recently. Perhaps he might get around to answering the questions about his own expenses soon? He took on Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes – I’ve not actually watched it yet as I’m at work with no sound, but here it is anyway. I’m guessing Kevin Barron MP doesn’t come out of it smelling of roses. Guido has also written about the interview here . His comments are very interesting:

Guido isn’t sure what Labour MP Kevin Barron was expecting when he agreed to go on Sky News last night – the day details of MPs’ expenses were released. Beforehand in the green room he was lamenting to former LibDem MP Richard Allen that the expenses gravy train had come to an end. Once in front of the cameras he tried to make out he was some kind of reformer. Guido wasn’t having that. After [the] on screen exchange he called Guido a rude word. How hurtful…

Literacy and Leaflets

Let’s get the hypocrisy out of the way first – it will be clear to even the most casual of readers that I am neither a very proficient typist, nor a diligent proof-reader.

I’d like to think though that if I was spending public money on a couple of thousand leaflets that contained nothing but a heady mixture common sense (store your bin within the boundary of your property), impractical suggestions (put your bin out by 7 am, but not the night before your collection) and dictat (your bin must be removed the same day as you collection) that I’d at least have a bit of check of it before sending it to the printers. Just so I could spot any really obvious errors.

Whoever is ultimately responsible for the full colour leaflet that was hand delivered by not one but two Community Support Officers today clearly feels the same way. The leaflet has the logos of the Wentworth Area Assembly, South Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and Rotherham Council on it, so perhaps they all want a share of the credit for this piece of text, which as far as I can tell contains no errors whatsoever.

I must be getting old -not only am I complaining about spelling and grammar (does ‘using the wrong word – not even a homonym, just the wrong word’ counts as a grammatical error) but I have seeming also missed lots of bins ‘been’ set on fire.

MPs Expenses – Kevin Barron Throws Stones

In PMQ’s the other day, Kevin Barron MP – who knows what’s best for you – asked a question about MPs expenses. Well, sort of. He actually asked a question about the possible future expenses of someone who wishes to stand for election. So that’s a question about expenses that haven’t been claimed, by someone who has said they won’t claim them, in the event of them winning at some point in the future enough votes to be eligible to claim them.

That’s pretty thorough, Kevin. A commendable focussing on the whys and wherefores of something that might, or might not, happen at some as yet unknown point in the future.

The actual question, badly phrased as it is, was:

Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab): Does the Prime Minister agree that people who purport to stand to be Members of this House, and give interviews to national newspapers saying that if they are elected they will not claim expenses, and that their wealth makes them incorruptible, only for us to find that that wealth is held in tax havens abroad, are unfit to be Members of this House?

Kevin Barron is referring to Zac Goldsmith’s comments in the Telegraph that he won’t claim the second home allowance if elected, by the way, in case that particular slight draught in a teacup had somehow escaped your attention while real life was going on and the Chancellor was telling you how we are all going to pay for the government allowing the economy to go mammaries aloft. Note that Zac Goldsmith has said he won’t claim second home allowance as he already has a home in South London, which isn’t quite the same as saying he won’t claim expenses, which is what Kevin Barron MP suggests he said.  Remember that Kevin knows best though.

I’m surprised Kevin Barron asked the question though as he has been notable only for his reluctance to say anything on the subject of his own expenses thus far. Perhaps this represents a thawing of his silence? Perhaps he has finally found his mortgage statements that explain why his interest only payments went up by more than the interest rate rise suggested they should have, for example?

Kevin – I know you are my most loyal reader – as you are now asking questions about expenses that have not been claimed in the past and will not be claimed in t he future, perhaps you can answer some of my questions about the expenses you have actually claimed? Like why was your non-existent website so expensive to maintain, and who are K&R Consultants who did the work?

Oh, and if you want to explain how asking a question at PMQs about the prospective candidate for Richmond Park benefits the people you represent in the Rother Valley, then I’d be interested to know.

Do You Serve Your Constituents, Kevin?

I’ve mentioned before that Kevin Barron MP for Rother Valley isn’t much inclined to rebel against the party line – and most of the times he does rebel it’s to on a vote to do with reforming one House or the other, or expenses.

I’ve also noted with some exasperation that he doesn’t seem that interested in his constituents, seemingly feeling free to ignore questions from them, and even from the press, and to treat them with a certain amount of contempt.

Well, it seems we have an explanation for this attitude at last. You see whilst most of us were labouring under the misapprehension that as our MP, Kevin Barron served us, his constituents,  Kevin thinks that he serves the state in the Rother Valley, stating on the 12th November:

We are the state’s representative in our constituencies and we should not be frightened of taking decisions on behalf of our constituents, because that is to the general good.

So Kevin thinks his job is to present the views of the state to us, not to present our views to the state. This must be because Kevin feels that the State is much better at making decisions for people than the people themselves. – that the State is somehow superior to those that elect it. Kevin, your Communist roots are showing – perhaps it’s time you joined your old ally Arthur over at the Socialist Labour Party if you feel that way?

In the meantime I feel it best to explain to you that, actually, under the UK Parliamentary system, you represent us. You’ve got it back to front – although after being an MP for twenty five years I’d have rather hoped you’d got to grips with it all by now.

This statement explains a lot about Kevin’s dismissive attitude to his electorate, but casts further mystery over how he got to be elected in the first place.

Mortgage Paperwork

I see Sir Thomas Legg has said that mortgage claims made as part of MPS expenses must be accompanied by statements, rather than cover sheets. Failure to provide these statements means the MPs are liable to pay back all the mortgage interest they have claimed.

Kevin Barron, MP for the Rother Valley is one of those who claimed for mortgage interest without submitting statements.

Kevin, I hope you’ve kept copies of everything. Hopefully they will end up in the public domain as they always should have been, so we can see quite why your interest payments went up as much as they did, as you don’t seem keen to actually tell your constituents yourself.

Posted by Wordmobi

I’ll Post Soon

The two posts below are to remind me of the stories – I’ll expand them later – bit busy at the moment!

Any other ‘Kevin’ stories, do let me know!

ttfn

MPs ’should get pay rise and homes cash’ – The Star

Rother Valley MP Kevin Barron said the issue of MPs’ pay was a “major problem”, adding: “I agree it would be possible, but I suspect impractical, to increase the level of basic pay to form part of simplifying current arrangements.”

MPs ’should get pay rise and homes cash’ – The Star

Blogged with the Flock Browser

MPs’ submissions relating to family members made to the Kelly Committee – Telegraph

Kevin Barron, Labour MP for Rother Valley: “The essential thing is that they do the work they are paid for and that I can trust them implicitly, especially with confidentiality and the political sensitivities of the job.”

MPs’ submissions relating to family members made to the Kelly Committee – Telegraph

Blogged with the Flock Browser