Speaking of foxes in henhouses, what about the chief fox, Michael Martin? Palau already mentioned some of the highlights of his career, but here’s the summation from Wikipedia:
On 11 October 2007 Martin was criticised for spending more than £20,000 of taxpayers’ money on lawyers to challenge negative press stories. Media lawyers Carter-Ruck were employed to represent him following articles querying his conduct. Martin was also criticised for the exemption of his wife, Mary, from security checks in the Palace of Westminster, where they live, and for trying to block the publication of details of MPs’ £5m-a-year travel expenses under the Freedom of Information Act.[5]
More controversy followed in February 2008, when press sources reported that Martin used air miles accumulated on official business to fly his children and their families to London in business class. According to guidelines issued by the Members Estimate Committee, which Martin chairs, such air miles should be used by him to offset his own official travel costs.
On 24 February 2008, John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, was asked by the TaxPayers’ Alliance to investigate whether Martin had abused parliamentary expenses and allowances. Lyon is obliged to examine all such complaints though the Commissioner could rule that the complaint is unfounded. This followed a week in which Martin’s spokesman, the veteran Whitehall communications chief Mike Granatt, resigned after admitting that he had unwittingly misled the Mail on Sunday over more than £4,000 in taxi expenses incurred by the speaker’s wife, Mary Martin. Granatt blamed unnamed officials, but not the Speaker, for falsely informing him that the expenses were legitimate because Martin’s wife had been accompanied by an official on shopping trips to buy food for receptions. It turned out that she had in fact been accompanied by her housekeeper, and catering for such receptions is the responsibility of the parliamentary caterers.[6]
On 29 March 2008, the Daily Telegraph revealed that refurbishment of Michael Martin’s home has cost the taxpayer £1.7m.[7]
On 19 April 2008, an editorial in the left-leaning Observer newspaper renewed called for his retirement as Speaker, saying:
“A fish rots from the head down and in parliament the precipitous decline in ethics and probity begins with the speaker, Michael Martin. For years, the speaker and Mrs Martin have been plundering the public purse for an almost grotesque array of personal perks and foreign junkets. Only last week, we learnt of new beanos to the Gulf, in the wake of similar trips to Hawaii and the Bahamas.” [2]
No wonder the BBC’s PM programme is reporting him as “visibly angry” and “trembling with suppressed anger” about the leaked MPs’ expenses. Who knows what else this fuckwit has to hide. This after all a man who has built his entire career on toadying and has seen all the perks and benefits as no more than what he deserves. He’s the epitome of New Labour’s sense of entitlement.