I have submitted an e-petition to the government’s website, calling for action after the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards refused to accept a complaint about George Osborne and the paddock, for which he claimed expenses, along with another piece of land and a farmhouse in Cheshire.
The farmhouse was the only part for which an expenses claim was permissible, and Mr Osborne has now sold all three pieces of land at huge profit. I submitted information including Land Registry documents that showed there was a prima facie case against the Chancellor, but apparently that’s not good enough.
It seems to me – and to many readers of this blog, to judge from the comments I have received – that this was wrong, so my first e-petition calls for the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to be replaced by an independent organisation that is capable of investigating offences by MPs in a more robust manner.
I have included a link, sending readers who want further information to this page. If you are one of those readers, the whole story is mapped out in the following articles:
https://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/osborne-update-met-passes-the-buck/
https://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/osborne-update-standards-commissioner-ignores-the-facts/
Please sign the petition; let’s make sure MPs who misbehave face the full force of justice.
Many thanks for you continued informative posts and helping the public in this struggle. Just a quick suggestion that a link to the online petition would be really helpfull to everyone who recieves this post.
I will, when the petition appears on the government website!
The rules of the e-petition website mean you only get 1,000 words to say what your petition is about, so I decided to write an article with links to the relevant entries on this blog, and put a link to it on the petition – that way, when people read the petition, they’ll be able to click on the link and get the background information, and I didn’t waste any words.
The trouble with including a reciprocal link is that it may take a week for them to get the petition up (if they even approve it)!
Rest assured I will update this article with that link, and put it up elsewhere as well, when it becomes available.
Thanks Mike x
Well done! Will sign when up, and post on my FB and twitter!
The e-petition has been rejected. Read all about it in the new blog article: https://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/rejected-e-petition-is-refused-but-none-of-the-reasons-match-up/
Just a thought Mike…how about the Parliament Ombudsman?
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
Ian Smith
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.