Does This Mp Really Need A Flat?

[anotheoldgit]

/// http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280872/Nadine-Dorries-says-doesnt-use-taxpayer-funded-flat-return-home-look-pet.html ///

Seems like some are using their pets for all sorts of get out excuses these days, a pet cat as proof of a functional family in a deportation case and now a dog in this case.

/// Contraversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries has come up with a novel excuse for being the centre of an embarrassing expenses probe – it’s all her dog’s fault. ///

[Zeuhl]

So does she not have a dog that needs looking after?

It seems she does - I know the feeling

She is entitled to the flat - and she does use it especially when she has to work late at the House.

The fact that she doesn't do so as a matter of 'routine' but opts to schlep back and forth to Bedfordshire doesn't seem to be much of a scandal.

Though of course the Public School Boys in Tory HQ - never that fond of this council estate ex-nurse and self-made business woman- will have briefed their poodles at The Daily Whinge to 'have a go' at every opportunity after her unflattering remarks about Dave and Cleggy being out of touch 'Posh Boys'

[joeluke]

People who are away from home a lot and can't commit themselves to looking after a dog properly shouldn't get one in the first place

Must be a lonely old life for our furry friends who are home alone for long periods

[Zeuhl]

^ joe

maybe she got the dog when her circumstances were different
marriages break up, kids grow up; people's lives change - dogs go on ...

[emmie]

i came across this and thought it rather interesting, though sometime or other she seems to have confused her MP's life with being a celeb.

as to the dog business why have one if you aren't there to look after it.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries

[LazyGun]

I am not a big fan of Dorries at all. She comes across as self-serving, even by MP standards, attention-seeking, a wannabee celeb.

She, to put it charitably, dissumulates - a lot. During her first brush with IPSA, she was forced to admit that her blog was "70% fiction", because her whereabouts in the blog conflicted with her expenses claims. As a consequence, it is difficult to know what to believe.

As far as the flat goes - If an MP lives some distance from the HoC, I am perfectly happy for them to have decent and reasonable living arrangements - a second flat/ house makes sense if you are working in a government role, or what have you. But if you only use the flat very occasionally, as Dorries herself appears to admit, why should the taxpayer be funding the monthly rental? Why does she not just get a hotel room for the night or nights in question?

One cannot help but think that the purpose of the 2nd home might be to feather her own nest - sub-letting at the taxpayers expense, so that definitely needs investigation.