I’ve been off-’net for a week so I apologise if this sounds old. But there is a personal edge to it so I gotta blog it anyway…
Up until quite recently I lived in Levenshulme. That’s part of Sir Gerald Kaufman’s Gorton Constituency. Levenshulme was slightly more salubrious than Gorton proper of which Wikipedia has this to say:
In 2006 the Motor Insurers’ Bureau named West Gorton as the worst place in the UK for uninsured cars, with over six times the national average of drivers living there having no cover.
More recently Gorton has suffered from serious deprivation, which has resulted in high crime levels and burglary. The popular television series “Shameless”, which is shown on Channel 4 is mainly filmed in Gorton.
Well, I thought it was mainly filmed in Wythenshawe but you get the general idea. Oddly enough the area has for years had a curious graffiti meme circulating but that is a digression. Anyhoo, it’s not a rich place. Unlike the location of Sir Gerald’s pad in London:
The former environment minister was asked to attend a meeting with officials from the parliamentary fees office to discuss details of another claim relating to £28,834 of work on the kitchen and bathroom at his London flat.
He told them that the work was necessary because he was “living in a slum”, though his second home, off Regent’s Park, is in one of the most fashionable areas of the capital. He was eventually reimbursed for £15,329.
On one occasion he asked a civil servant “why are you querying these expenses?” and on another threatened to make a complaint unless a dispute was settled by noon on the day in question. In one document, an official in the fees office noted that invoices Sir Gerald had submitted took him to “within 6p” of his annual limit. He also claimed £1,262 for a gas bill that was £1,055 in credit.
Between 2001 and 2008 the Manchester Gorton MP, one of the Labour party’s longest-serving members, claimed a total of £115,109 in additional costs allowances on his London flat, which he owns outright. In June 2006, he submitted a claim for three months’ expenses totalling £14,301.60, which included £8,865 for a Bang & Olufsen Beovision 40in LCD television. The maximum amount MPs are allowed to claim for TVs is £750.
His excuse for this manic refurbishment is priceless:
“Old flat, facilities out of date, decrepit, health reasons, update, living in slum.” Sir Gerald added that he had “not carried out any repairs/maintenance for 32 years”.
Click the Telegraph link above if you haven’t already and prepare to rethink your definition of “slum”. Yes, folks any flat that hasn’t had nearly thirty big ones (about a quarter-third of the total price of a two-up two-down in Gorton BTW) spent on a new bathroom and kitchen and doesn’t have a nearly nine grand(!?!?) TV is of course a slum if you’ve been living high on the hog for decades like Sir Gerald. Stands to reason doesn’t it? When I was one of Sir Gerald’s constituents I watched telly on a 20 year old Sony portable and the bath seals were so shot I once had a shower and the water leaking through collapsed half the kitchen ceiling. Collapsed it catastrophically in front of my mother whilst my wife (girlfriend at the time) was explaining that the house, “Wasn’t as bad as it looked”.
If (and I still have my doubts) C4’s Shameless was filmed in Gorton (one South Manc sink estate looks much like an other) it shouldn’t have been about the antics of a dysfunctional underclass family but the abysmal troughing of that slithey tove Kaufman.
And as a further note. If Sir Gerald wanted a new telly he should have been informed that he could have got a very nice one for much less than an amount of money most of his constituents wouldn’t ever be able to afford to spend on a car. He could have gone to Aria Tech (where I still get my bits) which is within his constituency. Surely he must remember them? It’s only about four years ago that he opened their new building. I know this because there’s a bloody plaque on the wall commemorating the event.
The discrepancy between the lifestyles of Sir Gerald and his victims constituents is mind-boggling as are his desperate evasions. Even the most Rachmanesque landlord in Gorton would get round to doing something to the property in thirty two years! Alas poor Sir Gerald couldn’t manage it despite racking-in a salary which alone must have been consistently over the years at least four times the average income for the area. What a lying git and utter Hoon!
We got out of Levenshulme. We now live somewhere much nicer. Unfortunately our current MP is none other than veteran snouter Nicholas “Trust Fund” Winterton. Out of the Labour frying pan and into the Tory fire…
I would say “a plague on all their houses” but seeing as they were bought by you and me I’m not so sure. I think we should have ‘em back without the vermin.
I’m voting UKIP on June 4th. I’ll do that until LPUK get their act together round here…
Which is something I ought to get involved in. It’s well past time I chipped in my tenner and joined-up.
Understand the feeling (hey, my MP is Julie Kirkbride) but I’m not at all sure that UKIP are squeaky clean.
See e.g. this Times article.
None of the fuckers are squeaky clean JohnF, but like I keep saying, first things first.
There have been many dodgy characters in Ukip, like mister paint a tan, Kilroy Silk,and there probably are still, but until we get our Sovereignty back from the great unelected bureaucrats in the EU, the Politicians we actually elect can do nothing (though they pretend they can do everything, and flat out lie to us the electorate as to how important they are, and how much effect they have.
Their sense of self importance has led directy to this scandal of outragious expenses claims, but in their heart of hearts they know they are ineffectual little wankers on the edge of the real action, the EU, but will never admit it.
We are literally paying them to do nothing, or very little, wherever their second fuckin homes are!
We have come to a realisation in Britain, wonderfully all of a sudden that we have fourth rate Politicians with fourth rate minds, and we want a radical change.
Nobody is going to clean the Augean Stables of the EU. Even the Auditors have not had the bare faced cheek to sign off the accounts of that august body for twelve years, so embarassed are they at the corruption and waste.
So the only thing we can do is leave.
Then perhaps we can start afresh.