Nadine Dorries’ Blogging ‘Lies’ Are A Public Service
NADINE Dorries has a blog. The Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire writes things that are not true. As she says:
My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another. – Letter to the Commissioner from Ms Nadine Dorries MP, 1 March 2010
If ever there were a comment that will come back to haunt an MP that surely is it.
Tim Ireland has been onto Dorries for ages. His full version of events is here.
Dorries “twice moved her primary residence, an omission that was described by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards as ‘not acceptable’.”
The watchdog reported that Miss Dorries had been “in breach of the rules of the House” by failing to tell the authorities when she moved her main home to Stratford-upon-Avon in July 2007, and again when she changed address to another property in the area in January 2009.
Neighbours “broadly confirmed” her claim that she spent most of her time in the Cotswolds, and the allegation that she breached rules on allowances was “not upheld”. – Telegraph
And:
The Mid Bedfordshire MP had been accused of wrongly declaring her constituency property as her second home, even though it was thought she spent most of her time there.
The arrangement meant she was entitled to allowances worth £24,000 a year to fund the property.
However, standards commissioner John Lyon concluded that the MP had not breached the rules – because she was actually spending the majority of her time in the Cotswolds.
Dorries told the probe the Bedfordshire property was merely used “as a means of maintaining a base in my constituency in order to assist with my duties as an MP”.
Lyon challenged her over posts on her blog that seemed to indicate she was spending more time in Bedfordshire than she really was.
One, from 15 May 2009, informed readers her daughter was going to school there. – Guardian
How long before Nadine tells us it was all a ruse to show the follies of believing what you read on the web? It’s all a public service, dammit…
Posted: 22nd, October 2010 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
