Alex Salmond was among several MPs who charged the taxpayer £14,100 in legal costs for a failed campaign to impeach Tony Blair over the war in Iraq.
Last night opponents of Mr Salmond, who is now Scotland’s First Minister, described the claim as “extraordinary, bizarre and outrageous” and said it could not be right that Mr Salmond could claim the cash from his office running costs to pull a political stunt.
My attitude remains that MPs shouldn’t be unilaterally making decisions regarding "public interest" on behalf (and spending the money) of the taxpayers in this kind of case although almost all those who commented on my post disagreed. Couple more thoughts have since come to mind here.
Were there no constitutional whizz-kids within either party who could have done the relevant research for free on this?
Secondly, wasn’t it always going to be a waste of money anyway if it was almost a 100% certainty the House of Commons would vote any such attempt down?
Whatever the answers to those questions, at least we can all rest easy knowing one undeserving family did well out of the whole fiasco!
The legal bill was paid to Matrix Chambers, the law firm of which the Prime Minister’s QC wife, Cherie, is a partner, in 2004 and claimed back by the MPs.
4 comments:
>>Were there no constitutional whizz-kids within either party who could have done the relevant research for free on this?<<
I'm sure most of it was done beforehand. However should the matter have proved to have merit then they had to employ a legal team.
Your democratic standing is on a shoogly nail here o'neil. Are you seriously questioning if our democratically elected members should be holding the government to account? Was it not in the publics interests to highlight this matter in such a way? I suspect that you just don't wan't it to be the Welsh and Scottish nationalists doing the right thing.
How dare they!
I can think of no better use of public money than registering disapproval at something as catastrophic as the Iraq war.
More money on this, less on fountain pens and duck ponds please.
You are right, O'Neill, your commenters wrong. It was misuse of the Office Expenses monies for Salmond to do this - rob us to pay for HIS political pursuits. That money was meant for office expenses to carry out constituency business NOT to attempt to get "regime change" for Britain.
Who the hell does this sneakit little squirt think he is?
If Blair had fallen, and perhaps his government, Salmond, the leading Disintegrator of Britain, could now be sitting in Downing Street!
And don't tell me that this 'principled' man would have said, "oh, naw, no me" if offered the job!
(I'm a Scot too, btw.)
The only reason the hypocrites on here and in other places do not see how WRONG this was is that they too have decided that Blair was guilty as charged (in the court of public opinion.)
Registering disapproval is one thing - and Salmond had already done that over and over in parliament and in his Impeach Blair campaign.
But using OUR money to pursue an elected prime minister out of office and into the courts is some brass neck. More than that - it is ILLEGAL, imho.
Salmond should be arrested and charged, as should all the other anti-Britain MPs who threw in OUR money to this scurrilous campaign.
As you might guess I do NOT think Blair is 'guilty as charged'. But whether he is or not he has NOT been charged or found guilty of anything.
Until he is, he is innocent until proven guilty.
If Salmond was so sure he WAS not innocent, he should have dug into his OWN pocket, not yours and mine.
Dreadful behaviour.
>>That money was meant for office expenses to carry out constituency business NOT to attempt to get "regime change" for Britain.<<
The obvious irony in your silly allegation is of course that it would be the citizens of the same country looking for regime change, not foreigners acting on intentionally false information. WMD anyone?
>>Who the hell does this sneakit little squirt think he is?<<
A highly succesful First Minister, and the single most popular politician in these islands, or so the polls say. Who are you btw?
>>If Blair had fallen, and perhaps his government, Salmond, the leading Disintegrator of Britain, could now be sitting in Downing Street!<<
In what capacity?
>>And don't tell me that this 'principled' man would have said, "oh, naw, no me" if offered the job!<<
Whit joab are ye refferin tae ma man?
>>(I'm a Scot too, btw.)<<
So where did it aw go wrang fae this auspicious start?
>>Salmond should be arrested and charged, as should all the other anti-Britain MPs who threw in OUR money to this scurrilous campaign.<<
I take it that you are cheering on the Mullah's in Iran as we speak. Seriously though are you a Blairite? Cos I thought we may not see them for twenty years or so, vis a vis the way Thatcherites are now coming out from under their rocks.
Get back from whence you came I say!
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