UKIP-ocrisy? Or hypocrisy all round?

Posted by Etan Smallman May 21st, 2009 | 5 responses

euro-dropAll of Westminster’s dirty secrets are continuing to flood out. The penny has most certainly droppped here in Britain that transparency and honesty about how taxpayers’ money is spent is the only answer. But has the euro dropped on the issue of MEPs’ expenses?

Well, the BBC’s Daily Politics show has turned its attention to the EU expenses system. “Shouldn’t it be the case that anyone seeking our vote for re-election for the European Parliament should publish their expenses for the last four years” was the very straightforward question posed to a number of MPs in the studio. None was able to give a direct answer.

The programme also surveyed all seven parties in Britain with MEPs to ask for their policies on expenses - and to ask whether they are going to make public all expenses that their MEPs have claimed since 2004. The response they received is far from convincing…

  • LABOUR - Committed to publishing MEPs’ expenses details in the next parliament. Have been publishing certificates to show that their MEPs’ expenses have been independently audited since 2000, but, they haven’t committed to publishing any details for the last five years.
  • CONSERVATIVES - Committed to publishing MEPs’ expenses details in the next parliament. Have been publishing details online since last summer. But, they say it’s not possible to give retrospective details going back to 2004.
  • LIBERAL DEMOCRATS - Committed to publishing MEPs’ expenses details in the next parliament. Publishing details for the last year. But, they say it’s not possible to give retrospective details going back to 2004.
  • SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY - Committed to publishing MEPs’ expenses details in the next parliament. Aiming to publish records from the last 5 years.
  • GREENS - Committed to publishing MEPs’ expenses details in the next parliament Publishing details for the last year. Aiming to publish records from the last 5 years.

And, last but by no means least, UKIP. As a small party, they claim they have “neither the time nor the resources” to show the British public how they are spending their share of that £40 million daily bill that they are always going on about. How they can reconcile this lack of transparency with their constant attacks on the Parliament’s expenses system is anybody’s guess.

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Meanwhile, Libertas has created the above video to attack the party’s “UKIP-ocrisy”, accusing them of “going native” and having “become the problem”.

“During the past European parliamentary term, a full quarter—25%—of UKIP MEPs were either convicted of fraud, expelled for the same reason, or resigned in disgrace,” they say.

(… And, if you watch till the end of the BBC vid, you’ll find out whether UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom’s wife is still cleaning behind the fridge. Well worth watching.)

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5 Responses to “UKIP-ocrisy? Or hypocrisy all round?”

  1. Robin says:
    May 21, 2009 at 20:43

    I hope for Libertas`sake no one does a video like that, as already EUrophiles claim Ganley is taking money from dubious sources.
    That highly edited piece naturally doesn`t point out that the MEPs that were under suspicion or banged up were thrown out of UKIP long ago.Unlike the other main parties. Why not show a doctored film about the Tories with Jeffrey Archer in it or one about Labour with John Stonehouse? Actually no need as the latest, ie relevant and current rather than history, revelations dont even need flashbacks, quick switches and aural blurring.
    The 40 million per day is what we British taxpayers pay into the EU, not to UKIP.

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    May 22, 2009 at 18:50

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