Moats, Duck Ponds and Bigoted MEPs

Brighton’s Tories have a cheek. They go on the attack about matters of public record, but have today announced they are sitting down in a Euro Parliamentary group with the Law and Justice Party, who ban gay marches in Poland.

So despite the appalling abuses of the expense system by Tory MPs, Douglas Hogg and Sir Peter Viggers, who respectively put in taxpayer claims for clearing a moat and creating a duck pond island, they have decided to go on the offensive about Green MEP Caroline Lucas’s transparent accounting about what she is paid, what she pays her staff and what she claims as a Euro MP.

You'll also note that Caroline Lucas tops the league table of British MEPs for transparency and amongst other things, attempting to reform the corrupt Brussels system.

They ask if Caroline really needs to employ seven members of staff. Some of these people are part time, and yes, if you want to do a good job of representing people in an area as big as the South East, you need the staff.

The note of the release is almost apologetic, as though they just had to put this on their site. They say much lower down the release that:

“To be fair to Caroline Lucas, all MEPs are entitled to the same amounts and some claim more.”

So which Conservative MEPs opted in to claim a second Euro pension at an exorbitant cost to EU taxpayers? That would be, er, all of them, with the possible exception of Christopher Beazley, who for some reason scores 1 out 3, when 3 out of 3 indicates that you have opted out.

If the Conservatives really do think this line is going to help them win Brighton seats, please do continue. I think what will be much more relevant to the electorate not just in Pavilion where I once lived, but also Kemp Town and Hove, despite a more gay friendly image, when it comes down to the crunch and political manuoevring, they have still been willing to form a political group with homophobes.