Calilasseia wrote:Tory Minister Robert Halfon Charges Taxpayer £30,000 For 'Secret Meetings' With Mistress

A Conservative minister charged taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds to stay at a private members club where he would allegedly meet his mistress.

EIM31660 - The general rule for employees’ expenses: wholly and exclusively

To be deductible from the earnings of an employment an expense must be incurred wholly and exclusively in the performance of the duties of the employment. The words "wholly" and "exclusively" prevent a deduction for expenditure that serves a dual purpose, a business purpose and a non-business purpose....

mcgruff wrote:

Calilasseia wrote:Tory Minister Robert Halfon Charges Taxpayer £30,000 For 'Secret Meetings' With Mistress

A Conservative minister charged taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds to stay at a private members club where he would allegedly meet his mistress.

To be honest it sounds like he does have a valid reason for overnight stays - which he is allowed to claim for. It wouldn't be a taxpayer-funded affair unless the sole reason for staying at the members' club was to hook up.

ED209 wrote:Well, there is this:

EIM31660 - The general rule for employees’ expenses: wholly and exclusively

To be deductible from the earnings of an employment an expense must be incurred wholly and exclusively in the performance of the duties of the employment. The words "wholly" and "exclusively" prevent a deduction for expenditure that serves a dual purpose, a business purpose and a non-business purpose....

Calilasseia wrote:Why can't he stay in a YMCA instead of a fucking posh Tory club? The one I stayed in during a trip to Cambridge for medical reasons was perfectly adequate, and that was after a 200 mile train journey lasting five hours, not a fucking short hop across two London districts.

mcgruff wrote:

Calilasseia wrote:Why can't he stay in a YMCA instead of a fucking posh Tory club? The one I stayed in during a trip to Cambridge for medical reasons was perfectly adequate, and that was after a 200 mile train journey lasting five hours, not a fucking short hop across two London districts.

Is £90 a night unreasonable for London?

George Osborne plans to breach Treasury welfare spending cap
Chancellor has concluded the department cannot find enough savings to compensate for decision to slow pace of cuts to tax credits

George Osborne has set in train plans to breach the Treasury’s welfare cap after deciding he cannot find enough savings to compensate for the decision to slow the pace of cuts to tax credits.

The chancellor has held discussions with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to arrange a Commons vote that would give the government permission to breach the cap.

The vote will be passed by MPs but the decision is likely to be seen as a political embarrassment for Osborne since he largely invented the self-imposed cap in the last parliament as a trap to show Labour is lax on welfare spending. In the end the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, embraced the cap...

Sendraks wrote:Big cuts coming to social care funding as well, because apparently that sector isn't financially close to the bone enough for George. I'd expect to see at least a couple of the bigger providers pull out of the market after the SR announcements, which is going to put the care of thousands of people into jeopardy.

ronmcd wrote:
I read somewhere yesterday (cant remember where, I'm in a pre xmas work rush haze mixed with coffee and alcohol) that Gideon's increased spending on NHS this week was cover for reducing spending on *prevention*. Which, of course, will cost the NHS more.

ronmcd wrote:Yes, he's going to pass the social care responsibility - without cash - to local govt, which is being crushed itself. None of it makes sense except as ideological bollocks.

ronmcd wrote:I see Polly Toynbee on BBC at the moment, suggesting - probably spot on - that this statement will effectively be the end of social housing, destroying the housing associations and council housing, and continuing to boost the private housing bubble.

Fuckers.

THWOTH wrote:
and forcing those who may have had access to those properties into the arms of private sector landlords.

Labour furious over timing of Jeremy Corbyn Syria briefing

Opposition accuses No 10 of ‘outrageous’ games after offer of airstrikes meeting coinciding with autumn statement

Labour has reacted with fury after Jeremy Corbyn was invited to a government security briefing on airstrikes in Syria with just 12 hours’ notice and at a time that clashes with the autumn statement.

Senior Labour aides accused No 10 of playing “outrageous political games” after Cabinet Office officials offered Corbyn and his team a briefing at a time he was clearly unable to attend.

David Cameron has said he plans to stage a quick Commons vote on extending airstrikes in Syria next week. He will make an oral statement to MPs this Thursday and then ask them to consider his proposals over the weekend before going to a full debate and vote.

It would be convention for the leader of the opposition to receive a fuller security briefing before then, so that he and his shadow cabinet can come to a collective decision about whether to back airstrikes and whether MPs will be given a free vote.

The government had already given a security briefing on Tuesday to the DUP, which has eight MPs, about the case for UK airstrikes against Isis to be extended to Syria.

After Labour said it had not received an invitation to such a briefing, it is understood the Cabinet Office sent an email at 8.11pm on Tuesday night to Corbyn’s secretary inviting his team to Whitehall for a discussion about military action between 11.30am and 1pm the next day.

At that time, Corbyn and his entire shadow cabinet were to be at prime minister’s questions, followed by the autumn statement.

On Tuesday night, the Cabinet Office insisted Corbyn had been offered a briefing, but Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, was unaware of the late invitation, so it was reported as a split between Benn and Corbyn.

A senior Labour aide claimed this was a deliberate attempt by No 10 to manufacture a division between the two men...