"Today, on the 21st day of our inquiries, it can be disclosed that a Conservative grandee avoided paying capital gains tax after making a £600,000 profit on the sale of his taxpayer-funded house, which he designated as his second home.

Sir John Butterfill submitted regular claims for the cost of running the six-bedroom country house, including £17,000 alone on servants' quarters."

View full article here

Really Richard, when servants are not serving they should be kept in the attic and cellar, barns are for cows.

My latest offering to the Telegraph:

Sir,

Our MP's have allowed our country to be effectively federalised with the rest of Europe, with an Executive/government completely unelected. This is a constitutional outrage which makes the West Lothian question look like a walk in the park.

Our MP's have allowed over 100,000 pages of law to be made without their scrutiny and hence the EU is the Westminster Bypass. Our MP's also continue to allow tax payers money to pass to an organisation that hasn't had its accounts pass audit for the last decade and more. Is it any wonder they engorge themselves of tax payers money and exempt themselves from paying tax. Who would want to be a British voter in these times?

But we only have ourselves to blame for letting our representatives take us for such a ride. We need to take back control of our country and those who seek to represent us. We need a political system that helps us keep control of our scoundrels and unfortunately we cannot look to any of those present scoundrels to create such a system.

We need to take far greater care of who we elect and not just look at the colour of their rosette. We are leaving more than an economic legacy for our grandchildren.

From wikipedia, John Butterfill was awarded a knighthood in 2003 for 'his services to Parliament'. Given that his 'services to Parliament' were mainly his self-enrichment through the taxpayer, I find his knighhood a bit hard to stomach. It does show just how much the honours system has been debased by government, and by Labour in particular.

See also this ... from the same source:



This is also quite interesting:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetai ... DMID=34188

Alas, the current economic downturn has meant that one has to 'let go' , to use the ghastly modern term for firing, of some of the servants. I could not bear to part with faithful old Hendricks, however, so did the decent thing and shot him behind the stables. Rum deal, but I know he would have appreciated it as the instrument used was one of Papa's finest hunting rifles.

I am now keeping the rifle for the next MP that knocks on the drawbridge asking if I can rely on his vote.

I do hope you will be keeping the moat clean ... one would not want his poor carcase soiled when the undertaker picks it up. One has to think of the staff, y'know.

It is only the ghastly lower orders who bill the taxpayer for moat cleaning. My good friend, HRH Prince Charles, tells me that dead politicians make splendid compost when mixed with other forms of shit from the farm.

Got to keep the moat clean for the Pirahnas. Got to have Piranhas for DEFRA visits. Not much choice being rich y'know.

Politicians are bio-degradable? You sure?

Toxic waste m'boy.