A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the nefarious activities of Harry Cohen MP. He claimed for a second home but rented it out to tenants! Made a fortune. Last Friday he apologised to a ‘scarcely-attended’ House of Commons.
'I'm here to apologise to the House. I do so without proviso.
'There was no intention of wrongdoing on my part, and I am sorry for my assumption that I was eligible to claim as I did, which was wrong.'
'The good people of Leyton and Wanstead do not deserve to have their faith in their parliamentary representative so severely shaken. They deserve the best, untarnished representation. Also, the best of my efforts over the last 27 years has been to take up their cases, including of injustice to them.
'In the last intensive nine months of this inquiry into me I have had to give a lot of time to my own case, when I would have much preferred to have been dealing with theirs. I am sorry for any shortfall as a result.'
Note the weasel words, “There was no intention of wrongdoing on my part.” I just happened to rent out a property for which I was claiming 2nd home allowance and pocketed at least £66000. This “no intention’ claim stands alongside the Reverend Blair’s, “I acted in good faith,’ in the egregious hall of infamy.
He will not get his £60000 ‘resettlement allowance’ when he stands down at the election. But he keeps the £66000 and apologises and everything is fine.
How did the House of Commons respond to the apology and debate? According to Simon Hoggart in the Guardian, there were 3 Labour and 2 Tory MPs present. That says it all. They refuse to get it and they wont get it until they are all thrown out. And I mean ‘all’. What about the reasonable ones? They should to be thrown out too. They have colluded with this betrayal of trust by letting these criminals off.
one of your tick boxes says 'relevant'. Relevant to what?
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