Gordon Brown's expenses: Andrew Marr asks questions

Gordon Brown has been revealed by the Daily Telegraph to have made some very suspect expense claims. Andrew Marr is to quiz the Prime minister tomorrow on some of these expenses.

It seems he has been claiming for 30 Billion pounds a year for interest payments on the government debt of the UK. This level of debt had been run up over a long period but since 2001 when Gordon Brown was the Chancellor of the Exchequer it has risen significantly. Since Mr Brown became Prime Minister he has increased this claim to £35 billion, and may ask for up to £45 billion for 2010.
The £30 Billion pounds of interest payments is equivalent to most of the UK defence budget. The defence budget itself also contains some suspect claims.
As we saw a few days ago the government has ordered 232 fighter planes at £86 million pounds each, when the average price of a modern fighter plane is around £40 million.
Mr Marr failed to ask about the cost of two wars that the Labour government insisted were necessary in fighting, but moved onto a smaller claim for £300,000 for four new pieces of modern art for the Welsh Assembly's building in 2005.
Mr Brown had a claim of 2.4 Billion for a running track to be installed in the East End of London approved in 2004. Since then he has added a swimming pool, and various stadiums and a village accommodation to the project, making a further claim for an extra £7 Billion.
When we asked about this, Mr Brown said that it was entirely reasonable and that he may need to ask for another £2 or £3 billion if the project is to be finished to a decent standard by 2012. Asked how long this Olympic village would be required for The Prime Minister beamed "Oh..it will get weeks and weeks of use."

Mr Brown was also asked about his claim that Labour has more than doubled education spending since 1997 from £29 billion to £63.7 for a world beating education system. Mr Brown has insisted that this money has been properly accounted for and every penny has been well spent. He did admit to paying back , or not spending, some £45 Billion on the refurbishment of schools programs when he realised how much he claimed in government spending for 2009 already.
"I asked the IMF if this level of spending would be within the current financial rules and they said no. So I have agreed not to spend some of it."
Andrew Marr then asked the Prime Minister if he could justify his £65 Billion spending on his second parliament in Brussels.

"This is an arrangement going back to the 1970's. This Parliament makes 75% our laws, so it really is essential" said Mr Brown. But the BBC man then asked "If this is the main law making Parliament then why do we have 650+ MPs and all their costs and upkeeps in Westminster. Plus the cost of the Welsh and Northern Irish Assembly and the Scottish Parliament and all of their members and expenses?"
Mr Brown insisted that these were all necessary to carry out his role as Prime Minister.
Andrew then tried to question the Prime Minister about a further 500,000 examples of waste and incompetence from "The Bumper Book of Government Waste: The scandal of the squandered billions from Lord Irvine's wallpaper to EU saunas"

Mr Brown murmured something about setting up a commission to review the claims...

The apology bandwagon

In light of the recent outcry surrounding the Telegraph's unwarranted publication of MP's expense claims, I have been asked by my parliamentary colleagues to join the Prime Minister and the Shadow Prime Minister, and the other fellow in apologising for the recent scandal..

We are very sorry.

Very sorry that the gravy train has temporarily hit the buffers. We are sorry we have been found out, despite our best efforts at maintaining secrecy. We are very sorry that the security arrangements for keeping expenses from undesirable elements was not adequate.

We apologise for not being able to tippex and indelible marker pen away the names and addresses of MPs quickly enough before the claims were published.
The house is extremely regretful of ever having been stupid enough to have voted into law the freedom of information act, that was clearly meant to be in relation to corporations, and not parliamentarians. This inexplicable lapse of sound secretive judgment cannot be excused.
We are very contrite at having failed to prevent publication using tried and tested methods.
Through the courts, the European court, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the official secrets act, gagging orders, the terrorism act , the Metropolitan police, MI5 and other proven methods of publication prevention that have worked so well in cases as diverse as 'Spycatcher' and the Saudi arms deal. In this instance, for reasons that have yet to become clear, these formidable institutions failed parliamentary democracy.

We, the Honourable Members of Parliament, are regretful that we have been found out, compunctious that we have been exposed. We remain penitent that some members may have taken the expenses system too far, while others secretly think, in light of some truly amazing claims, that they have ,perhaps, not taken enough themselves. We fully realise that the current system of second homes allowances is unsustainable. The whole house has therefore pledged to reform the system to ensure a less transparent, easier to conceal, much more impenetrable and significantly more secure to access, and hopefully more profitable arrangement.

In conclusion, MPs of all parties are mightily sorry.
Sorry that you found out. Sorry that we are embarrassed. Sorry that a temporary loss of income must inevitably take place and sorry that our MEPs in Europe are carrying on as if nothing has occurred there, where of course, nothing has.

Finally, with the coming cuts in public spending and inevitable massive tax rises and looming inflation I should like to indicate that in the not to distant future, you, the taxpayers, will as likely be as sorry as we are now.

Bill Quango MP.