Time, I think, to take a look at the expenses etc of the three Sandwell MP's bearing in mind that Bailey, Watson and Spellar will soon be seeking the votes of the red-loving populace of the Borough who will apparently vote for a dog-turd if it sports a red rosette. No wonder nothing ever changes for the better!
MP's expenses basically fall into four categories: Office Costs; Staffing; Travel and Accommodation. Despite all the hullabaloo over the scandal that arose over MP's expenses (which, of course, featured The Rutting Walrus himself*) the records are still opaque and it is difficult to drill down into them for exact details.
* This from the Daily Telegraph of 2nd June, 2009:
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| Hull Graduate? |
"Mr Watson also featured in the Telegraph's MPs' expenses scandal disclosures.
Mr Watson, the minister for digital engagement, spent the maximum of £4,800 in a single year on food, and had his expenses cut after buying a set of dining room chairs that exceeded the limit set by the fees office.
He was forced to defend the appearance of a receipt for a "pizza wheel" on a Marks & Spencer receipt he submitted, saying it was given as a free gift after he went on a £150 spending spree at the store.
He also used his parliamentary allowances, along with fellow Labour minister Iain Wright, to lavish more than £100,000 on a shared central London crash pad since the last general election.
Both men later claimed for a half share of the legal costs involved in the original purchase of the Westminster mansion flat, and then the fees involved in buying the freehold of the property a short time later.
By purchasing the freehold, the MPs will have added significantly to the value of the apartment, but are under no obligation to pass on to the taxpayer any profits made when they sell the flat in future."
For the last FULL accounting year to 31/05/14:
1. Watson £20,429.44
2. Spellar £18,907.03
3. Bailey £17,551.45
As well as offices in London the MP's have constituency offices for which the taxpayer stumps up. Both Watson and Bailey advertise their constituency offices as being at Terry Duffy House in West Bromwich which, happily, is owned by Labour Party Properties Limited. Thus the taxpayer gives them money to pay rent to, er, the Labour Party! Watson paid the comrades £9,929.60 rent and Bailey £9,617.20 whereas Spellar's rent-only charge is less than half those sums at £4,000 per annum. Surely the Labour Party is not charging inflated rents to be paid by the taxpayer?
(Regular readers of this blog will also know that as part of the bent Public deal in the stinking SState of Sandwell, the College were also forced to rent space at Terry Duffy House thus happily putting more taxpayers' money into the Labour coffers).
Watson may spend much of his time swanning round the country promoting, er, himself but he is assiduous in claiming his expenses eg. 03/09/13 - stationery - £0.43p, and whilst he himself loves to live the high life (eg his campaign to save a Soho restaurant where he has devoted far more effort than saving some things in his own constituency) but when it comes to hospitality at his office he is somewhat less generous eg. 29/01/14 - hospitality - £0.65p (yes, you have read that right - 65 pence - presumably a cup of tea!)
Bailey too is diligent with his claims and didn't overlook the £0.22p he spent on stationery on 18/03/14!
STAFFING
1. Watson £136,778.95
2. Bailey £124,725.25
3. Spellar £107,513.60
The Rutting Walrus - being a VERY IMPORTANT PERSON - tops the list again with his large entourage and here we see the incestuous world of Sandwell Labour in all its glory with some of the local Labour Councillors also cashing in.
Watson employs Sandwell Labour Councillors Kim Frazer and the cipher, Paul Moore.
Bailey employs Sandwell Labour Councillors Peter Allen, Lorraine Ashman and Maria Crompton.
All this lot get their taxpayer allowances too for being on the council and all except Frazer special responsibility payments on top (2013/2014). Moore and Crompton sit on Sandwell's commode - sorry, the much diminished "cabinet" as well as doing the day job - and last year had allowances of £26,386.08 (Cipher) and slightly less for the female - £24,839.75 (Crompton) no doubt reflecting Moore's "extra responsibilities".
Bailey also employs his wife which is handy and was no doubt a great help when they purchased two Cornish holiday homes for holiday lets (he only claimed one at the beginning of the Parliament. Bailey also gets an additional £15,025 on top of his MP's salary of £67,060 for being a dynamic [sic] select committee chair).
(Of course, the alleged quondam resident of Edinburgh, Labour Councillor Paul Sandars, also works for an MP but outside Sandwell).
TRAVEL
1. Watson £9,043.80 (!)
2. Spellar £4,107.23
3. Bailey £3,817.05
Spellar is in a slightly different category here as he apparently owns a house in London and just makes "guest appearances" in the constituency but how can the other two neighbouring MP's have such widely different travel costs? The answer, of course, is that Watson likes to think of himself as a "national" figure and so he strives to represent the views of the left all over the country rather than just being tied to the long-suffering inhabitants of West Bromwich East (who no doubt follow his maniacal vendetta against Rupert Murdoch with considerable interest - yawn, zzzzzz).
As far as foreign trips go (and these are mostly paid for by private donors rather than the taxpayer) John "Air Miles" Spellar leads the way! Bailey has made do with a jaunt to China and one to Germany this parliament. Watson has been to Los Angeles and Australia not on anything to do with his constituents but on his obsessional anti-Murdoch crusade - the American pose-fest being paid for my the hard-working members of Unite the Union!
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| Detur Gloria Soli Deo Motto of Dulwich College (Let Glory be given to God alone) |
Singapore 2011; Australia 2012; Japan 2012; Singapore and Indonesia 2013; China 2013.
In addition there is his Jewish stuff with the Labour Friends of Israel sending him to the USA in 2013 and Israel in 2014 (plus he had another trip to Israel in 2011 paid for by a private donor).
Ex-public schoolboy Spellar (he went to the same public school as UKIP's Nigel Farage) also flew the red Socialist flag in Egypt in December, 2014 promoting the opening of, er, public school Malvern College's new branch there!!!! Yeah, right on Comrade!
(The records show some odd transactions around flights for Spellar to Stockholm and Helsinki late last year where there are claims from the taxpayer but also repayments and that jolly does not appear in his Register of Interests. I hope he will hasten to tell The Skidder what that was all about!)
Incidentally, Spellar can't be short of a few bob as he stood personal guarantor in 2010 to the tune of £12,995 for office accommodation in the Labour Leadership contest on behalf of another "Socialist" ex-public schoolboy, Unite's Ed B*llocks.
ACCOMMODATION
I have not done a league table here as there are not like for like comparisons. It seems that Spellar has a London house and so he only claimed £2,972.90 in the financial year ending on 31st May, 2014.
Bailey clocked up a whopping £18,312.95. Watson claimed £15,591.66 which, mysteriously, includes "an uplift" for two dependants - presumably his kids (?) In Sandwell, Watson has registered under individual voter registration to say that he is living for some of the year with Labour Councillor and would-be SMBC leader, Simon "Two Homes" Hackett. Whether any rent is paid (via the taxpayer) is not known.
The Daily Telegraph got something not quite right in the article quoted above, since they said this in 2009:
"Mr Watson is set to stand down from the Government when Mr Brown's reshuffle takes place.
Mr Watson, who is married with two children, is likely to say that he wants to devote more time with his family."
Watson's then wife did used to work for him and so more taxpayers' money rolled into Chez Watson but, alas, the couple split in 2012. Most of us were under the impression that this was because he was shagging away from home but this was just tittle tattle and The Rutting Walrus himself put the record straight by saying that it was the pressure of the, er, phone hacking enquiry which let to the breakdown! I was under the impression that the kids stayed with the ex-wife but, as above, Wealthy Watters is seemingly claiming an accommodation "uplift" for them. (More info welcome).
It would be remiss of me not to mention here the happier side [sic] to this tale since The Birmingham Mail no less reported that just 4 months after the split the fast-moving Walrus had been doing a bit of cradle-snatching and "had formed a friendship" with the young Labour Parliamentary candidate who has somehow bagged the candidacy for the marginal seat of Halesowen & Rowley Regis, Stephanie Peacock (20 years his junior).
I have no idea whether this pair are still an item (although it might explain the constant stream of crap on his twitter feed where The Walrus is pathetically trying to hang wiv da yoof and is constantly off to see "bands", visiting Glasto etc) but IF they are and IF they both get elected they will jointly do very nicely thank you from the taxpayer. IF she claims the same sort of expenses as Watters there will be nearly half a million quid a year of our money heading their way (excluding pension contributions). It is highly debatable what Watters has achieved for West Bromwich East during his very long tenure but with that sort of dosh rolling in he should be in a position to forget Sandwell completely and be able to continue to pursue his myriad other "campaigns". Perhaps he will tell us differently in the election campaign?
(Oh and by the way, Watson is still refusing to say who the "Derek Webb" is who so kindly donated £5,500 to his constituency party. I ask again - is it the same Derek Webb as the one who runs the "Campaign for Fairer Gambling"?)
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| Labour's top local "personality" - Adrian Bailey MP
I think people must accept the outcome of their life choices when they are fortunate enough to have the freedom to exercise them. If the people of the sinking one-party dictatorship that is Sandwell wish to slavishly follow Labour and see the Borough perpetually languish near the bottom of every league table going then good luck to them. Vote Labour and Vote Bailey, Spellar and Walrus!
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