They Never Seem To Learn !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31580374

Two more high profile MPs caught out in a sting.

[Gromit]

Boris does the London Mayor as a second job while he gets quarter of a million a year for his full time job as Daily Telegraph columnist.

[Canary42]

////And not one of them attached to UKIP, what a shame for some. ////

I don't believe UKIP have many MPs. But as usual, you don't let facts get in the way of your relentless propaganda.

[youngmafbog]

Looks like the politics of envy is in full swing on here!

What really surprises me is how some are trying to score political points out of it!!

Come on all sides are clearly at it, although as far as I understand it the law has not been broken, just another of those 'morality' questions.

[Canary42]

I don't see that the politics of envy is any more reprehensible than the politics of greed.

[youngmafbog]

Depends on how you class greed.

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31589202

Rifkind HAS been suspended

[anotheoldgit]

Canary42

/// I don't believe UKIP have many MPs. But as usual, you don't let facts get in the way of your relentless propaganda. ///

Who said anything about having to be a MPs?

[Gromit]

^^^^

Better late than never.

I can't get my head around an MP claiming to be self employed? Do they send an invoice for the £80,000+ they pick up from the tax payer? It sounds like nonsense to me or it could be just another scam.

[andy-hughes]

For once Red Ed has done something I entirely agree with - he has advised that in the future, all Labour MP's will be banned from taking directorships and consultancies for pay.

Mr Cameron thinks that outside interests add to an MP's experience in terms of doing his job as an MP.

I'm with Mr Milliband on this - I want my MP to be gaining experience as an MP ... by being an MP - that's what I voted for him to do!

[Zacs-Master]

Let's be on the look out for more defections to UKIP by Labour MPs then.

[ludwig]

// I can't get my head around an MP claiming to be self employed? Do they send an invoice for the £80,000+ they pick up from the tax payer? It sounds like nonsense to me or it could be just another scam. //

Rifkind was on Radio 4 this morning apologising for this remark and for saying he wasn't paid a salary, both of which he acknowledged weren't correct. He offered the usual 'taken out of context' mitigation.

[Gromit]

I hope Rifkind doesn't take this out of context, he sounds like a liar.

[andy-hughes]

Ludwig - "Rifkind was on Radio 4 this morning apologising for this remark and for saying he wasn't paid a salary, both of which he acknowledged weren't correct. He offered the usual 'taken out of context' mitigation."

Was it also 'out of context' when he told the reporter that he has plenty of time to go for walks, and his days are his own.

As an ex-government minister, hew should be ashamed of himself.

The problem is, when he blithely says he doesn't 'earn a salary' - he really believes it to be true, and thinks he has to go scratting around to ear a crust.

Based on what he has said about taking walks and reading all day, I would be inclined to agree - he indeed does not EARN his salary, but he is still paid it.

Shame on him!

[ferret69]

I can't understand why anyone would ask Straw anything or even consider paying him, he must have known it was a sting when they bothered to contact him, or does the fool really think he might be of use ? very sad.

[McMouse]

The good news is they've blown goodbye to their peerages. What a shame.

[mushroom25]

//The good news is they've blown goodbye to their peerages. What a shame. //

that pre-supposes the authorities will find evidence of wrongdoing.

cue investigation to be led by lord hutton.

[mikey4444]

What I find so disappointing in this affair, is how easily some MP's greed seems to get the better of their common sense. This isn't the first sting operation that the Media have pulled, and it certainly won't be the last.

You would have thought that as soon as the disguised reporters asked " what is your daily rate", they would have smelled a rat with immediate effect, and started running in the other direction !

These two chaps aren't just some newbie, nobody MPs...they are both high profile former Ministers.... What wassocks !

[andy-hughes]

The interesting attitude from Rifkind's suporters is outrage that he has been 'stung' - not that the sting can only work if he is unethical enough to hang himself on tape and film.

Ethical MP's don't get stung!

On Newsnight, the former Chair of the security committee that Rifkind now runs was polite enough to suggest that Rifkind must be a faster reader than he is! Kim Howells said that it was a full-time job reading the vast amount of complex info he had to ingest as Chair, and it has to be done in their offices, for security reasons.

So Rifkind is supposed to be doing that, AND being a constituency MP, and he still has time to snout around for dodgy outside work?

The man is a disgrace, he should be deselected before he has chance to retire.

[DaisyNonna]

Wonder what the percentage of criminal acts is between MPs and the rest of society?