It’s rather embarassing for the Ipswich Labour Party that they get more from their MP’s office allowance than they do from their members, but both these sums come to less than 10% each of their income.
The vast bulk of their income comes from a more surprising source, and that’s gambling. And not any old gambling, [...]
Bridge Ward News
News from Bridge Ward, Ipswich including the Hayes, Old Stoke, Prince of Wales Drive, Maidenhall Estate and Wherstead Road
Browsing the archives for the Chris Mole Expenses investigation category
9 Mar 10
Ipswich Labour’s funding, no wonder they want to gamble on our future
6 Mar 10
The taxpayer pays more to Ipswich Labour Party than their members do
All this Ashcroft got me wondering about the Ipswich Labour Party’s finances.
The 2008 details are here (in PDF format). The bulk of the Labour Party fundraising is through a profitable door to door gambling operation that reaches out into other parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. It’s lumped together as “fundraising”.
Anyway the rent that we the taxpayer paid [...]
15 Oct 09
Chris Moles’ Office – what’s the difference?
So David Wilshre, the rather unpleasant Tory MP has been thrown out of Parliament because he paid money to a company controlled by him. (Yes, I know he’s the same party as me, but it’s about theft not party identity)
(Photo courtesy of Guido Fawkes).
Oddly this issue was about the misuse of constituency office allowances and [...]
16 Sep 09
Chris Mole’s magic circle
I asked some time ago when talking about Chris Mole’s website, “who is this Double SS design” that created his taxpayer funded site.
I got an email recently saying that it was actually Double S Design, run by Soo Smart, the wife of very long serving Bridge councillor Phil Smart.
How cosy.
23 Aug 09
Ipswich councillors – Better than the MPs
I’m not always complimentary about councillors, so I’m going to have to take a deep breath and be nice about some of them now.
The Evening Star’s excellent piece of investigative reporting that dug up councillor’s expenses across Suffolk shows a couple of interesting things about Ipswich. I’ve done some further number crunching (you can see [...]
5 Aug 09
Chris Mole’s website – Labour benefits, you pay
The website of Chris Mole was paid (at double the going rate) for by you and me, as taxpayers.
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/chris-mole/Chris_Mole_0506_IEP.pdf
If you’re a Labour loyalist then this is a good deal, if you’re not then you’ve been robbed.
When one of the most prominent links on their website is to a scaremongering Labour website you can almost hear [...]
2 Aug 09
Does David Ellesmere see the light?
I don’t know Ipswich Labour Party leader David Ellesmere, although he represents the next door Gipping ward. He does have the reputation of being highly partisan, and so it’s good to see some sense coming through.
Councillor Ellesmere has attacked Ipswich council for an “unnecesary” meeting that cost £400. And he’s got a point. £400 to [...]
23 Jul 09
Chris Mole’s Website costs, guess who pays
Chris Mole has a website, which is all very nice, and it’s a very good party political website. However, and you’ve probably guessed it, who pays for it. Well, I’ve got an expenses claim:
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/chris-mole/Chris_Mole_0506_IEP.pdf
That’s £2408.75 for a website. That is as much as it looks. For example, Public Impact, the rule breaking Labour campaigning group, [...]
15 Jul 09
Chris Mole – An Apology of sorts
An anonymous commenter (and they want to remain that way as they went to the trouble of using an anonymizer to make this web posting) has taken me to task for pointing out that Chris Mole was using Public Impact to send out party political propaganda using his taxpayer funded office expense account, against parliamentary rules.
I said at [...]
14 Jul 09
Chris Mole’s expenses – Wholly, exclusively, necessarily?
Chris Mole MP faces questions over the use of public money to fund access to local papers for Labour Party purposes.
