Vera Baird QC – ’tis baffling.
MPs redacted expenses have been released this morning by the parliamentary authorities. HERE
Don’t bother looking up Tony Blair’s – so redacted as to be a miracle he admits his name is Tony Blair.
Gordon Brown’s is fun, ‘Noah’s animals’ – Noah’s what? Curtain material to go in the nursery with the rocking horse? Couldn’t be for his children, that is against the Green rule book, so must be for his parliamentary duties – the mind boggles.
Vera Baird’s was of interest to me. Heavily redacted of course, which makes it all the more baffling that she is claiming copious amounts for furnishing the second home that is essential for her parliamentary duties – and yet is receiving a council tax discount for a long term empty property.
Which is it Vera? Furnished – or empty and entitled to the discount? Is this one and the same property?
You see you had the keys to the property cut in November 2007, had a bed delivered there in December, carpets laid the same month, and yet your council tax bill for 2007-2008 says this is a long term empty property.
Gosh, its confusing, I suppose we’ll have to wait for the Telegraph supplement on Saturday to find out what you and all the other MPs have really been up to.
It’s all this new ‘parliamentary transparency’, it raises more questions than answers.
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June 18, 2009 at 12:59 -
Noah’s animals? Don’t tell me it’s true about the farmy-farm.
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June 18, 2009 at 13:00 -
I have just checked (using a powerful magnifying glass) Volume II of my copy of The Compact Edition Of The Oxford English Dictionary (P-Z) (Supplement and Bibliography) to find where ‘to censor’ appears in the definition of ‘redact’. Surprise, surprise, it doesn’t. To redact means to reduce and bring together into literary form but, interestingly, I did find that it could also mean “Brought or reduced into (in), to a state, condition, etc., or under one’s power.”
So that’s why everything of interest (and possibly incriminating?) is blacked out – it isn’t censorship, it’s merely that the form of the publication has been “brought under the power of” this transparent Government and therefore can be described as having been redacted. Phew! At first I thought it was censorship.
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June 18, 2009 at 13:20 -
I have read and heard the word ‘redacted’ more times today than in the last 26 years combined.
Is this the proper usage. Surely these expenses have been ‘censored’ or even restricted. Redacted I thought described the nessacary changes required to merge works. This seems like a euphemism to me.
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June 18, 2009 at 13:22 -
Ah, look before you leap Roger.
Sorry Gloria, you already made my point and did a better job of it.
Also my previous post reads as if written by a dyslexic drunk. So apologies all round I guess.
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June 18, 2009 at 13:25 -
You ought to ensure that you know of what you speak before you tittle tattle: The details that are balcked out are things like the names, addresses and bank details of staff. quite right too — none of anyone else’s business.
And your specualtion about how many homes Vera Baird has is just that: why would you assume that what appear to be the details of two different houses are one and the same property? To make mischief, of course.
If you persist in treating thsoe who have done no wrong in the same manner as those who have bought duck islands and such-like you do a disservice to the few who read your musings.
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June 18, 2009 at 14:12 -
Agree with all your comments although it does not do my Blood Pressure much good.
I just wish we could have the full details (accurate would be a better word) of Prince “Fatty” – our roving Air Mile golfing royal- as he lives a life of pleasure and luxury at the expense of US. I am beginning to really dislike all these royal hangers on. So glad I was never offered a gong! -
June 18, 2009 at 14:27 -
My blood pressure is normally around 118/70. It’s been up for a few weeks now. Think of the waste of public money just blacking out all the important detail, nevermind the process as a whole. They really don’t like us do they??
What do any of these thieves think their salary is for?
Execution is too generous for them
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June 18, 2009 at 15:25 -
Rather agreeable oak furniture (Toulouse by Christian Harold, I believe) but she only appears to have claimed the deposit of
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June 18, 2009 at 16:00 -
I’ve just coined a phrase, one that captures the spirit of these expenses…..
“An Exhibition in Black”
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June 18, 2009 at 17:06 -
I have an exclusive on the MPs expenses story.
Redacted redacted redacted redacted and redacted redacted redacted. This means that redacted redacted redacted if redacted redacted.
Redacted redacted redacted “Redacted redacted” a source close to redacted said.
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June 18, 2009 at 17:45
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June 18, 2009 at 17:52 -
Anna whatever happened to the word censored was it redacted?
BTW, I had not heard my hearing aid was redacted!
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June 18, 2009 at 18:05 -
Actually, since browsing the (easier to read) interwebbynet, I have come across ‘to black-out’ as a lesser definition of ‘to redact’, where it is listed as ‘censorship for political purpose’.
Redaction, Red Action, redaction, Red Action.
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June 18, 2009 at 19:05 -
M’mm I think the problem is, we’re still trying to find those who ‘have done no wrong’. ‘Innocent MPs’ appears to be an oxymoron.
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June 18, 2009 at 19:46 -
The same Vera Baird who replied on this very website when you discussed Lord Ahmed of Tub’s very lenient prison sentence, by any chance?
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June 18, 2009 at 19:48
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June 18, 2009 at 20:14 -
Just had a quick scroll through some MP’s expenses. It’s like playing a Black and White version of Tetris, only in reverse.
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June 18, 2009 at 20:34 -
Here’s yer cheque, mate.
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June 18, 2009 at 20:50 -
Btw, Tony Blair’s ‘accidentally’ shredded expenses covered a two or three year period and came to around
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June 18, 2009 at 21:32 -
Anon.
An address is a security risk. A rough postcode allows us to see when an MP is claiming on a house in Southampton when their constituency is elsewhere.
I shall await the Telegraph’s opinion as to the degree of censorship.
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June 18, 2009 at 23:45 -
They make my blood boil, anyone know a good doctor ?
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June 19, 2009 at 00:51 -
Dr David Kelly.
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June 19, 2009 at 09:57 -
At least today newscasters and commentators are usin
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