South Devon Tory MP milking the system - Herald Express letter 200509

Below is a letter referring to the £87,000 expenses claim by Totnes (Tory) MP Anthony Steen. This is the unedited (and as yet unpublished) version !


John Kiddey tries to suggest in these pages that Marcus Wood ( Conservative PPC) has been a fearless campaigner on the issue of MP's expenses. However this 'fearlessness' only extends to situations where Mr Wood feels he can portray, rightly or wrongly, the Lib Dems as the bad guys.


In the interests of political even-handedness I asked Marcus for his comments on the £87,000 expenditure, at our expense, on Anthony Steen MP's £1million plus (second) home in Devon. His response, and I quote from his web blog ; "As to Anthony he will face his executive on Friday - it is for them or the voters of his constituency to judge him." Clearly in Marcus world it's open season in the press on Lib Dem MP's locally, but it's not for him to judge Conservative party colleague Mr. Steen. Hypocrisy and evasion of the kind that gives politicians and politics bad name.


What mealy mouthed nonsense ! Mr Steen milked the system and you say nothing ! Is this yet another example of political misjudgment, following your earlier fulsome praise for your Tory colleagues Bye and Carroll ? Lets start talking about policies rather than personalities Marcus, for whatever people in the bay are looking for in their MP it certainly isn't politics by press release that you currently offer !