Monday, August 16, 2010

Iris and the Montblanc. The End?

Two NI MPs, Willie McCrea and Iris Robinson, have been amongst a total of 23 UK politicians who've have received £42,000 from taxpayers after the Commons committee which audited their expenses decided they returned too much.

I did worry previously that the Reverend had perhaps been a bit over-generous:
Dr McCrea was overpaid by a total of £661.21 for mortgage interest in 2008-09.

He was also paid £139.50 twice for a TV licence in 2008-09.

He was also paid £4,694.12 for bedroom furniture in 2006, exceeding the guideline price of £1,540 by £3,154.12.

He was further overpaid a total of £496.12 for service charges in 2008-09.
Total repayment recommended: £4,450.95

He certainly got his sums wrong on that bedroom furniture but anyway, he was requested to pay back: £4,450.95

Which if your calculator’s working better than the Rev’s was in IKEA is the exact total of the figures detailed above.

Instead Dr Willie paid back: £5,329.74 which is difference of £878-79.
Lo and behold, 878-79 GBP refunded for the South Antrim MP and you can all rest easy.

Mrs Robinson, in contrast, has found herself, coincidence or not, only £299.83 better off:
In 2006, Mrs Robinson submitted a receipt for £352 - the printed receipt showed a £300 Montblanc pen, a £6 bottle of ink and £46 for perfume.
Should we assume the Montblanc has now been given the all-clear?
If so, not much point in having a fountain pen without the ink to write with or, indeed, the perfume to make one smell so much nicer whilst finishing off all that paperwork.

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