'This is Gordon Brown. Now, about my expenses…'
The Telegraph editor-in-chief, Will Lewis, has been telling friends of the extraordinary night his newspaper went to press with the first of its revelations.
In the middle of the evening he gets a call from the prime minister, Gordon Brown. Mr Brown is well aware of what is about to happen. His call is not a short one – it lasts a full half-hour.
Indeed, in the course of it Mr Lewis suggests to him he might like to get a press officer to call, to leave him free to do something else. But Mr Brown says he wants to handle the matter himself.
The prime minister spent the entire half-hour discussing his own personal expenses. At no point did he ever raise the general issues involved, nor indeed urge Mr Lewis not to publish.
He only wanted to discuss the fine print of his own expenses and the matter of sharing a cleaning lady with his brother.
Related posts:
- Why were Tony Blair's expenses shredded?
- Brown considered ditching lobby system
- Lords' expenses: it's a wonderful life
- MPs' expenses: there is much murkier gravy to come
- Expenses, recession, war will dominate the election
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Do you think that Gordon Brown is, perhaps, “not all there” at the moment?
One reads such things from time to time and I have always felt they were mischievous. Sometimes, however, when such details emerge, one wonders.
a poem by Emily Dickinson
“Speech”—is a prank of Parliament—
“Tears”—is a trick of the nerve—
But the Heart with the heaviest freight on—
Doesn’t—always—move—
Emily Dickinson
Revealing though not even surprised. Image, self-service and vanity… aka looking out for their own wretched selves. Hey, Jon that’s given me a thought. Why not do a piece on this with Michael Caine et al singing: “We Are The Self-Preservation Society”. Sticking with the theme you could tail off any report with Mat Monroe crooning: “On Day’s Like These”. Perfect.
It was interesting listening to David Cameron on the radio this morning.
Asked what he would do about any profit he made on his, I understand rather large and expensive, second home, to which the taxpayer has contributed generously, he replied that he had no intention of selling it.
Does he really believe that is an answer to satisfy taxpayers?
Does he really think that adding an asset subsidised by ordinary people to the already considerable Cameron portfolio that will pass down to the next generation is in some way more morally acceptable than selling it and pocketing the cash?
It seems even those speaking loudest about cleaning up the system really do not get it.
How dary you speak about our betters in such terms? Do you live in a bog? Have you no deference?
Enjoyed your doorstepping…did you actually get inside the car showroom or did you spend the entire time outside?
Other networks inside… perhaps we are ll getting too old foer the doorstepping lark…don’t think you would have done the same way back in your IRN days by the way Derek (and Pat) Grant now living in Spain send best wishes ( ex IRN)
In any other profession, an asset bought by an employer to enable an employee to work is the property of the employer and should be returned on cessation of need.
This must apply to second houses for politicians. Given that MPs “pay” something towards their second homes, that still suggests that any capital gain belongs to the country. Can you ask someone, Jon?
Surprised C4 news did not mention Camerons petition and call for an election, announced at his EU launch. Not even mentioned in passing, so far as I recall.
Irrespective of whether it is right or wrong, there’s a school of thought that an immediate election would help to defuse the problems in Parliament, so surely it was worth reporting – particularly as we are in the midst of a Constitutional crisis, with MPs ganging up on the Speaker ?
To be fair though, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot going on yesterday and I had the impression that you were a bit over-stretched, what with one crew tied-up in Cannes. The Cantona interview was pretty interesting actually, so worth doing. Just unfortunate how the timing of these events work out sometimes…
I keep waiting for my phone to ring and for a familiar voice to say “This is Gordon Brown, now about your Blog Mr Worzel …!”
Funny actually. If that happened, I’d put the politics aside and would try to have a good constructive chat with GB. Hope he would too.
I’ll let you know if it happens !
Jon – Will the BBC journalists (being publicly funded) be publishing their salaries and expenses for the past 4 years? and haven’t the Westminster correspondents known about the expense system for a long time? I hope all this brings a new attitude to public money and its use.
As for MP’s there is no defence. The lawmakers cannot be exempt from the laws they make, and when they moralise to us, it is those morals by which they will be judged
[...] Snowblog – ‘This is Gordon Brown. Now, about my expenses…’ – Gordon gets his priorities straight… [...]
Whatever happened to the Seven Nolan Principles for conduct in Public Life, epecially the duty of ‘selflessness’?
The principles are mandatory for Local Governmen members and officers. Why do MPs think that they are exempt?
MPs should pay Stamp Duty, like all property purchasers, as well as CGT. No offers yet to pay Stamp Duty on the second homes. Why not?
Gordon Brown isn’t any good at spin and media stuff… why did he insist on dealing with it personally?
I’m a constituent of David Cheater- sorry Chaytor – currently suspended from the Labour party. How on earth does Gordon B or anyone else suppose that I could trust this guy to sort out any problem I might consult him about? And since there are dozens of other people in dozens of other constituencies in the same boat, of course there should be a general election. We have no real representation.
we have just been fined by the tax office for a mistake in one year , our punishment is to be fined for an additional 4years. lets see how the MPs are dealt with for deliberate miss use of public funds je
Keep at ‘em Jon. Don’t let all these tea leafs off the hook. Michael Martin made a huge mistake but it is chicken feed in comparison to the MPs. If they think sending Martin packing to his Scottish abode, calling for a General Election or even talking about – and I do mean talking about as I won’t believe it until I see action being taken this week – having a new accountable system regarding MPs expenses, then they still haven’t got it.
Dodgy MPs have to resign toute de suite! No hanging around mate, just chuck ‘em out and then let them feel the full weight of the law.As the old saying goes: ‘evil prevails when good men stay silent’. Time for all the good men to give these thieves a good ole proverbial going over.
From what Mr Lewis says it would appear that the PM already knew what was to be published. Therefore he must have had knews of the leak before he phoned. I hardly think that Mr.Lewis would have let the cat our of the bag before his paper hit the streets.
If that is the case it gives the impression that the leak was engineered by the PM thus it would not have come as a surprise. This supposition is supported by the fact that the PM did not ask for Mr.Lewis not to publish. Well he would’nt if he, the PM, wanted it published would he? DB.
The Speaker, the first for 300 years, effectively ejected from his job in disgrace – to collect a fat pension and a peerage. Several MPs – hopefully maybe – also effectively will be ejected, even if they ‘resign’ – to collect their cushioning ‘redundancy payments’. And MPs have the gall to criticise bankers??!!