Come back Hezza - all forgiven
The ban announced today on MPs claiming Commons expenses to buy furniture for their second home may have the unintentional effect of discrimination on the grounds of wealth.
Poorer MPs will now be much more obliged to rent furnished accommodation, since if they choose to buy a second home they'll have to buy the furniture themselves, an option which wealthier MPs might well be able to afford.
Still, it does bring a whole new meaning to that snobbish jibe against Michael Heseltine, once made by the former Conservative chief whip Michael Jopling as a sign of Heseltine's lower social status (rather than coming from a long-standing aristocratic background).
Jopling, according to Alan Clarke's diary, famously said: "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture."
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Comment number 1.
At 21st May 2009, Phillip wrote:The reason our country is in such a poor state is that we are now led and run by people with no idea about real life.
There are still far too many people in the Commons and most of the Lords who are like Jopling and Clarke.
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Comment number 2.
At 21st May 2009, chrisnicolson wrote:Does Michael really think someone with a salary of £64766 can ever be described as poor?
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Comment number 3.
At 21st May 2009, GerrardWinstanley wrote:I'm getting confused by all this flipping of properties. Surely the maid offence here is that at least three cabinet ministers have taken advantage of the finance available to them as officers of the Crown for personal profit. Isn't that treason? In any case, to use any public office for personal profit is an offence isn't it?
Also, if Ms Blears profit was £45000, then £13000 is not going to be a great pain.
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Comment number 4.
At 22nd May 2009, stanilic wrote:Funny thing: social class.
Hesseltine wears a Guards tie as he was a second lieutentant doing National Service for two weeks before there was a by-election.
I had two great uncles and a cousin who were all Sergeant-Majors in the Guards so presumably, not being the officer class, we are not as posh as Michael.
Yet we have some valuable family heirlooms in our furniture: one set nearly two hundred years old. No wonder I have always looked down my nose at Mr Hesseltine.
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