As my co-editor returns to the fold, after her jaunt to Paris – a city I regard with some disfavour, having had my laptop stolen there – the "colleagues", or some of them, are set to take over.

Courtesy of Nicola Smith in yesterday's Sunday Times, we learn that the European People's Party (EPP) – of which the Conservative <s>pigs</s> MEPs are members – is set to start work in the capital, attending some important "study days", at the minuscule cost of some £200,000 to the grateful taxpayers.

View full article here

I'm not sure that £200,000 figure is correct, as the article says that 200 of the pigs are going.....I somehow doubt that £1000/snout will be the true cost of sheltering, feeding, watering and transporting all the swine for 3 days ....the cost of hotels alone would cover that, plus these are world class trough feeders....I think we can put another nought on the final figure...so make it @ £2 million freeby...

There was a time when this sort of behaviour was the preserve of the aristocracy who (sometimes/mostly) paid for their own excesses...and hoi polloi justifiably complained about it.

Today it is the barefaced incredible chutzpah of this swarm of porcine boondogglers....& I don't have any doubt that they truly believe their behaviour to be justified, well-earned & worthy of public approbation....and hoi polloi must shrug its shoulders because there's f**k all else it can do.
The cost of these 'jollies' probably finds its way into the EU ( accounting ) system, to be published some time or other...other, I imagine

My information is that Not since its inception has the EU or its former gestalte produced any audited accounts...NOT EVER.

In the real world, the board & managers of EU Plc would have been behind bars these many years.

Mr. Fed - up,
I think that in this case the FU stands for Financially Underestimated. A small wedding party at the Ritz by my boss, who stupidly thought his credit card would cover the feast had him on the phone to his bank, 4,352 euros a head, ( new Co. law quotation before you book ) look at the costs of mega yachts, a week for 6 up to 1,500,000, Internet, ( dozens and more expensive) arrange transport pigs 3.7 euros a km but that's the squealing normal type, we however are talking the bottomless pit variety.

Two comments:
1. I could not open the YouTube link about the MEPs' deplorable expenses-grubbing behaviour on the EUReferendum webpage (ie "It's not your business"). However, I got this link from the German TV channel RTL, & it worked much better. Here it is:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xnMtc_QJ4 ... anded.html

2. This behaviour, & the similar trough-guzzling excesses referred to in the later article "Good & faithful servants", is surely a breach of income tax law. As I understand it, MEPS as expenses claimants can either get their 3-day 'freeby' around Paris, but no expenses, or use their expense allowances to pay for
everything out of that allowance (though if that is insufficient they may be allowed to apply for extra reimbursement on a strictly '1 for 1' basis. But they cannot have it both ways. OTHERWISE, SURELY THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW!

Why? Because their expenses are not genuine expenses, but the equivalent of income. And therefore taxable. And they are breaking normal tax law if they fail to declare any expense-related income which does not reasonably match their actual expenses. This is how Al Capone finally got nailed!

Tax departments in every country depend heavily on tip-offs for that sort of hard-to-get information which ultimately leads to criminal charges being laid for TAX EVASION. And I suspect quite a few MEPs would end up being found GUILTY if their tax departments suspected evasion, & then prosecuted them. Such tip-offs
might be a good substitute if & when voters' intentions are frustrated!

Agincourt