to select the Labour candidate in Reading West of course. On Thursday Newsnight did a feature on the Reading West constituency and this feature indicated that people who previously voted Labour are not minded to do so again. They filmed the event in Reading East of course. Now I don't know where the Reading West selection is being held, I suppose the boys might break their habit of years and have it in Reading West, I would like to think so. Because whoever is selected today should do their campaigning in Reading West and not East, and not follow Mr Salter's example. In any case the boys are looking for the weakest candidate they can get, which is why they stitched up Mark Bennett, who could have held the seat for Labour. They believe it is going Tory and they want Labour representation in Reading, rapidly becoming a distant memory thanks to their activities and the covert Tory support of Singleton-White and Sutton in particular, to be remembered as the utter stonking wonderfulness of Mr Salter, who managed to represent Reading West while hardly ever setting foot there.
Anyway, some people have been trying to post a story on this blog about my alleged claiming of parliamentary expenses (it's a long time ago boys, get over it) for a "palatial" property in Reading. I have let one such remark through and posted that it is a lie, which it is. But I know their ways. So if you have been told anything of the sort it is not true. During my eight years in Parliament I claimed Additional Costs Allowance for a flat in London. I had a flat in London during those years. I don't now. End of story. Mr Salter however claimed £1000 a month between 1997 and 2001 for a flat in London he did not have, and used the money to go fishing in India and Canada, and he now has a rather fine large property in Tilehurst on the proceeds. Nice if you can get it. And he can't say it was within the rules because it was not.
8 comments:
Sorry to split hairs here, but I don't mind if Salter is never in Reading West: he was sent to Westminster to represent his electorate there, not the other way around. OK, if he is not in Westminster either, or always hanging around in another constituency (such as Orkney, or Reading East) then I would have a problem with that, but once they are elected, make the bloody legislators sod off to the bloody legislature and get on with the job, not ponce around town trying to suck up to their voters.
The same goes for Rob Wilson, by the way. What the hell was he doing at the Birthday Party for Sainsbury's in Friar Street? We have a perfectly good Mayor to do that sort of stunt.
Spot on about Stuart Singleton-White, Howarth and Sutton wanting Reading West to go the way they managed Reading East to go. Then they've only to lose the Council and their dream of a Tory victory in Reading will be complete.
They'll be sat around their co9cktails after collecting their pensions saying how it's not as good as their days in the 90's. Forgetting that they have been responsible since 2004 for Reading going Tory. They'll also be able to go on at length about how wonderful their love, the fraud, Martin Salter was. No doubt they'll say he's second only to Mik in the pantheon of great Reading MPs. Hell why stop there? They can say he was the best ever and it all went downhill when he left, forgetting about their success in giving Reading East to the Tories in 2005, and the losses on the Council thereafter.
Naz got it.
And the loser ,sorry winner, no, right first time, loser has been selected !!
Go back to your constituencies and prepare to lose your deposits !
Re: the allegation about Mr Salter's false expense claims.
It seems a bit strange that it's been left hanging in the air.
Why doesn't Martin sue (which he has done before) or at least issue a public denial?
On the other hand, perhaps there is a case for a criminal investigation as this seems a case not so much of bending the rules as outright fraud.
It simply defies common sense that the expenses records no longer exist.
It was interesting that the Reading West nomination winner has described Mr Salter as "whiter than white" with regard to expenses (see the getreading website). No prizes for guessing what that is an implied reference to.
'..it's a long time ago boys, get over it..
Sauce for the gander eh?
How on earth did the Labour folks of Reading West end up with a chancer from East London as their candidate? The guy is referred to in his local paper in Waltham Forest as "gaffe-prone councillor Naz Sarkar". His only local credentials here are "teaching at Denefield School".Funnily enough, this freelance maths teacher was also a "teacher in Streatham" when he tried to win candidacy there last year and ended up with 3 votes out of 300+. Sounds a real winner!
If you had a palatial residence in Reading, why was I ever only invited to little houses and flats when you lived there?
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