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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK
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 Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:24 pm Post subject: Nigel Farage Hits Back On His EU Expenses. |
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| Quote: | Nigel Farage has hit back over EU expenses claims saying he can spend his taxpayer-funded allowances "as he likes".
The UKIP leader said that the allegations made by The Times newspaper were "erroneous", saying the £60,000 he had received since 2009 for running his office in Lyminster, West Sussex, was legitimate and that he did not have to account for how it was spent.
In an interview with Sky's Dermot Murnaghan Mr Farage accused the newspaper of "conflating" his EU allowances with the row over expenses claimed by MPs at Westminster, which he said was an entirely different matter.
He said that like all MEPs he was given a general allowance of £3,580 a month to spend "as I see fit" and, under EU rules, he did not have to provide receipts.
He said he had spent £3,000 a year just on electricity for his office, which he enjoys rent-free as a gift from UKIP supporters, and estimated running costs were £1,000 each month.
He said: "I haven't bought a house or vintage wine."
The Times reported Mr Farage received £15,500 a year from the EU since 2009 to pay for the upkeep of his office but that his former office manager had said the office only cost around £3,000 a year to run.
Mr Farage said: "They are not expenses. We don't actually claim for anything. I have not claimed for an office. I have not claimed this figure of £15,000.
"The Times, who are the pro-establishment newspaper have deliberately tried to conflate the expenses row at Westminster, where people have been using taxpayers' money to buy houses and make large capital gains with the way the system works in the EU.
"I'm not defending the system, I want it to end but I get given, as does every other British MEP, £3,850, every month to spend in the UK and in my constituency as I see fit."
He said there was a list of "expenses" and he could spend the money on newspapers, on books, hotel rooms and restaurants.
He added: "We do not have to provide any receipts, any explanation for how that money is spent so what The Times has written is wholly erroneous." |
http://news.sky.com/story/1242928/farage-expenses-claims-are-erroneous
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Double row now. MEP and British MPs Expenses. They should all account for what they spend Tax Payers money on. |
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 916
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 1:13 pm Post subject: Re: Nigel Farage Hits Back On His EU Expenses. |
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| mark occomore wrote: | | They should all account for what they spend Tax Payers money on. |
They do. The point is, surely, that some of our representatives try and get away with adding a few things that aren't "approved" expenses. I was chatting recently to a person who, like me, has his own business and who was deriding the so-called fact that "all MPs" are fiddling their expenses (actually not true, but we'll let one pass) while in the other breath he was talking about having to make certain "adjustments" to his end-of-year tax SA5 return in order to limit his tax liability. It's the same difference, is it not? |
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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Looking on the bright side at least our Euro MPs who exploit the expenses system are getting one over on the rest of our fellow EU members because as I understand it it's the EU generally which funds these expenses not British taxpayers
On that basis one could make out a case that more of them should be doing it 
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| ruddlescat wrote: | | it's the EU generally which funds these expenses not British taxpayers... |
Which means that British taxpayers are funding part of it, given that the UK is a member of the EU! |
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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But my point is that it's hitting other countries within the EU far more than it's hitting the UK and so if like me people think that our country is disproportionately funding the current EU set up then it could be seen as a way of repatriating a small amount of that money back to Britain 
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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| ruddlescat wrote: | | But my point is that it's hitting other countries within the EU far more than it's hitting the UK and so if like me people think that our country is disproportionately funding the current EU set up then it could be seen as a way of repatriating a small amount of that money back to Britain |
That's one way of looking at it, I guess!  |
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Toggy
Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239
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| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:49 am Post subject: |
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Unsurprisingly he turns out to be another politician on the make and not a man of the people after all.
Now where is that none of the above option on the ballot paper? |
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unclebuck
Joined: 19 Apr 2010
Posts: 278
Location: Warwickshire
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| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:35 am Post subject: |
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Whether you like him or not, one can only conclude that as the establishment turns to orchestrating this kind of mud-slinging against Mr Farage, he must be doing something right.
The monies in question are given to MEPs as an integral and fixed part of their remuneration package..... as an 'allowance'.
There is no 'claiming of expenses', honest or, as in the case of our domestic MPs, dishonest, going on. There are no parallels to be drawn.
It is interesting to see the propaganda machine spring into action, presumably in anticipation of the European elections. As ever, it is slightly depressing that so many people swallow this rubbish. |
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 916
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| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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| unclebuck wrote: | | Whether you like him or not, one can only conclude that as the establishment turns to orchestrating this kind of mud-slinging against Mr Farage, he must be doing something right. |
How right you are. The Tories and Lib Dems are frightened stiff of the threat they pose at the next General Election - especially the back-benchers in the marginals. I'm not a UKIP supporter in any shape or form but I do enjoy seeing Farage wind up Cameron and Clegg & Co.
| unclebuck wrote: | The monies in question are given to MEPs as an integral and fixed part of their remuneration package..... as an 'allowance'.
There is no 'claiming of expenses', honest or, as in the case of our domestic MPs, dishonest, going on. There are no parallels to be drawn. |
Except that so-called journalists at the Mail and Express (etc) don't care for such facts! Their pages have to appeal to the handbag-waving blue-rinse brigade.
| unclebuck wrote: | | It is interesting to see the propaganda machine spring into action, presumably in anticipation of the European elections. As ever, it is slightly depressing that so many people swallow this rubbish. |
Agreed 100% |
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Toggy
Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:18 pm Post subject: |
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| unclebuck wrote: | Whether you like him or not, one can only conclude that as the establishment turns to orchestrating this kind of mud-slinging against Mr Farage, he must be doing something right.
. |
He's had an easy ride for far too long though. |
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