Simon Jenkins – Nail, head, hit

Leaders and frontbenchers of both main parties have paid back money filched from taxpayers under a regime that would have prosecuted those taxpayers if they had done the same. This patent admission of guilt left them blandly claiming that they had “done nothing wrong”. In that case, why pay it back? Had the house-flipping and [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin Barron’s Mortgage Interest Claims

On re-reading the documents Kevin Barron has submitted, I have found a letter from Nat West in January 2007 informing Kevin Barron of an increase in interest rates that increased his mortgage payment to £2007.70 per month. The rate increased to 7.44%, which assuming Kevin borrowed the money over a standard 25 year term, points [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin Barron’s Un-Redacted Expenses

The Telegraph had said they would publish the un-redacted expense claims of all MPs. Currently there are only two pages of Kevin’s on their website, which relate to his unexplained large jump in mortgage interest claims. They show a claim of £1791.72 in December 2005, rising to £2007.70 in September 2007.
We know from Kevin’s expenses [...]

Continue reading »

An Unanswered Letter I Sent to Kevin on May 14th

I sent this letter to Kevin Barron on May 14th. He still hasn’t replied. I went in to his office in Dinnington yesterday to ask some questions, and I have been told by his staff there that they will get back to me – get this – by email.
Fortunately I’m quite patient.
Dear Kevin Barron,
Re: expenses
I’ve [...]

Continue reading »

WITHOUT PREJUDICE: Kevin Barron MP – Expenses Issues

I’ve still not had chance to go through all the documentation from Kevin Barron’s expense claims because contrary to appearances I have other stuff to do!
However, from what I’ve seek so far there are a number of key issues Kevin Barron needs to explain to his constituents with regard to his expenses.
Issue 1 with the [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin’s Camera(s)

It’s Friday afternoon, it’s raining, and I’m wishing I was on holiday on a beach somewhere. Sadly business isn’t great due to the credit crisis, so I won’t be going anywhere exotic this year – but the great thing about the internet is that you can at least look at pictures of places and imagine [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin Barron Posts Expenses Claim in his Window

The Rotherham Advertiser has picked up on the story that Kevin Barron has used that most effective communication strategy of putting a notice in his office window to let us know about his expenses.
There isn’t much detail in the story, which suggests to me that there might not be much detail in the window.
I’ll have [...]

Continue reading »

MPs publish expenses as fiasco continues – The Star

Rother Valley MP Kevin Barron has placed his expenses claims from recent years in the front window of his Dinnington office, which show he asked for money solely to cover his mortgage and bills.
MPs publish expenses as fiasco continues – The Star
Putting one’s expenses in the window isn’t really effective communication with the whole constituency [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin Barron – Expenses in Context

What with Kevin Barron being my MP I’m keen to know what his expenses cover but as yet we don’t know, despite a court ruling that MPs expense details should be published, and the fact that the Telegraph has a copy.
We do know what Kevin Barron claimed in broad categories, and they are listed in [...]

Continue reading »

Kevin Barron thinks the Speaker was Hounded out by ’snobbery’

Kevin Barron doesn’t seem to understand the public’s anger at the row over MPs expenses.
He doesn’t seem to understand that the Speaker of the House stands accused of:

Spending huge sums of money pointlessly trying to block publication of the details of MPs expenses
Being biased
Making dodgy expenses claims of his own
Seeking to divert attention away from [...]

Continue reading »