Welcome to Friday – and Lib Dem Voice is already in Birmingham for the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference 2010. If you’re coming too, make sure you join us for the Lib Dem Voice fringe meeting: I’ll be chairing the discussion on how to Make authoritarian MPs pay at the ballot box, and we’ll be unveiling our new website which will help to do just that. 2 Must-Read Blog Posts What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: A bizarre political injury Jeremy Rowe vs the radio. Old-Fashioned Politics Helen Flynn hits the streets – and finds inspiration. Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing...

Although charged at Westminster magistrates' court with claiming a combined total of almost £60,000 in fraudulent expenses, they insisted the courts had no jurisdiction over them. Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine argued that, under the 321-year-old Bill of Rights, they could be judged only by the House of Commons. "When they emerged after the brief hearing, they were taunted again with cries of 'pigs' and 'oink, oink'. As they left in a taxi, one shouted: 'Don't forget to get a receipt.' Here is hoping that all they get are long jail terms, huge fines and plenty of man on man action when in...

The treatment in court of the three MPs charged with fiddling their expenses claims was not what they are used toFor the three MPs charged with fiddling their expenses claims, it may have been the unkindest moment. Their brief, Julian Knowles, wearing one of those vast chalk-stripe suits that possibly only lawyers may, by law, ever wear, asked the chief magistrate if the trio might be excused sitting in the dock.The chief magistrate, district judge Timothy Workman, said in the mildest and gentlest fashion that it was usual for defendants to sit exactly there. So the MPs, who had plonked themselves on comfy chairs towards the back, had to file into a glass cage in the corner of the court. It looked slightly like the bulletproof conservatory the Israelis built for Adolf Eichmann. A tiny...

Labour MPs and Tory peer plead not guilty and say workings of parliament should be dealt with by parliamentThree Labour MPs and a Conservative peer charged with theft over their expenses claims are to fight to keep their cases out of the criminal courts by attempting to invoke a 320-year-old law protecting them under parliamentary privilege.Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield appeared today at City of Westminster magistrates court to plead not guilty to charges of false accounting under the Theft Act 1968.The cases were committed to Southwark crown court after lawyers argued they raised issues of "high constitutional importance". If convicted, the four face a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment.Julian Knowles, representing the three MPs, stressed the...

David Chaytor, Jim Devine, Elliot Morley and Lord Hanningfield say the workings of parliament should be dealt with by parliamentThree Labour MPs and a Conservative peer facing charges over their expenses appeared in court today to argue that their cases should be dealt with by parliament rather than the criminal justice system.Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield answered summonses at City of Westminster magistrates court to be charged with false accounting under the Theft Act.Their cases were referred to Southwark crown court after lawyers for the men said the case was of "high constitutional importance" and they would be arguing their right for it to be heard by parliament.Morley, Chaytor and Devine appeared together in the dock of court No 1 as their lawyer,...

Today is the day that Jim Devine, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Lord Hanningfield are meant to walk around the corner from the Palace of Westminster to Westminster Magistrates Court to answer charges of false accounting relating to their expenses. I say meant to because Devine was too ill according to his doctor to appear before an employment tribunial yesterday.It comes the day after it...

Harry Cohen MP Tomorrow three Labour MPs will appear in court charged with offences under the Theft Act due to their Parliamentary expenses claims. Elliott Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor will appear in Westminster Magistrates Court. They are the first MPs to be charged with offences resulting from last year’s expenses revelations. The fourth MP under investigation is believed to be Eric Ilsley but tonight the Daily Telegraph is reporting that Harry Cohen has become the fifth Labour MP to be the subject of a criminal investigation. Cohen’s offence was reported as “particularly serious” by the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee. He was found to have claimed around £70,000 from his second home allowance whilst renting out the home that he...

Veteran Labour whip Tommy McAvoy has suprised Westminster by today becoming the 142nd MP to announce he will stand down from Parliament at the next election. McAvoy, who has served in the Labour Whips Office since 1997, is considered to be a bit of a bruiser. He is 66 years old, so age could well be the reason, but some Scottish political observers are more suspicious.The anouncement certainly came as a surprise to SNP activists in Rutherglen and Hamilton West since they've seen McAvoy out and about campaigning for what they assumed was his re-election.It could of coyrse just be absolute coincidence that his announcement comes after Jim Devine claimed a male Labour whip advised him to claim his expsenses in the way he did. This claim was followed up by the Labour Party launching an...

For some reason Jim Devine has withdrawn his question to the Prime Mentalist which was first on the order paper for Wednesday’s PMQs. Wonder if the whips told him to keep a low profile? He is after all still receiving the Labour whip… Tagged: PMQs...

A footnote to my post about the subsequent expenses revelations regarding the 21 Conservative MPs who voted down expenses reform in 2008, before the Daily Telegraph revelations forced everyone’s hand. Of the three Labour MPs now facing criminal charges, two also voted against reform (David Chaytor and Elliot Morley) whilst the third, Jim Devine, abstained on the vote. Well there you...

Watch this interview with Jim Devine (soon to be ex) MP. Most English people will see a spectacularly incompetent man who's been caught with his fingers in the till, wriggling on the hook. Most Scottish people, it seems, will see a working-class Scot being bullied by a middle-class Englishman. This is why Scotland still prefers Gordon Brown to David Cameron. They would rather see one of their own, no matter how useless, than one of the hated other tribe of Britain in the top job. Until Scots demand higher standards of their MPs than accepting whining "the shop-steward made me do it" when caught, the sooner Scotland will cease to be a second-world hell-hole....

Oral Questions to the Prime Minister Unless otherwise indicated the Members listed below will ask a question without notice. *1 Mr Jim Devine (Livingston): If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 10 February. Tagged: PMQs...

Although Jim Devine is not exactly acquitting himself well at the moment, Labour Whips have form when it comes to expenses abuse. And one senior Whip has more than most. Although a Labour Whip source told the Observer yesterday that Jim Devine’s ‘a Whip made me do it officer’ excuse was “absolute nonsense”, he would say...

Earlier this week it was announced that on 11 March Livingston Jim Devine will have to appear in Westminster Magistrates Court to make his initial appearance over his alleged expenses theft. However, from the Daily Record 8-10 March he will be in Court in Edinburgh for a review of the unfair dismissal case against him from his former office manager Marion Kinley.The initial finding over...

Jim Devine, the Labour MP for Livinston, who is currently trying to prove that Parliamentary privilege means the Theft Act 1968 does not apply to him, faces another problem.The Scottish Sunday Mail reports that the day before Divine is due to appear in court he will face an unfair dismissal claim from his former constituency office manager Marion Kinley. She worked for him between June 2006 and October 2008 and is taking him to an employment tribunal claiming bullying, harassment and unfair dismissal.She originally won a claim of unfair dismissal in August last year. You may not be surprised to learn that Devine failed to submit the forms required by the tribunal correctly.He later challenged the judgment and was granted a review in November. It will take place in Edinburgh from 8-10...

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has calculated that the three Labour MPs charged with theft from the taxpayers, Jim Devine, David Chaytor and Elliot Morley, will share between them a pay-off totalling £151,552 come election day.  They will also get generous gold-plated pensions.  This is an outrageous piss-take. Given that they are unlikely to be in Court before election day, the House should pass a resolution that any member facing criminal charges of financial impropriety should have payment of resettlement grants and pensions suspended until the result of the charges are known.  If found guilty they should lose all their pension rights.  They will still be drawing their parliamentary pay every month in any event. This is what would happen to a servicemen or police officer who was...

Nick Clegg and David Cameron, leaders of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties respectively, have agreed that the three MPs facing criminal charges over their expenses should not claim privilege as a defence. Cameron said he was disgusted and Clegg that the public would be outraged if Elliot Morely, David Chaytor and Jim Devine used their stated 1689 Bill of Rights defence...

We shall soon see the calibre of Steel & Shamash, the Labour Party lawyers who are representing the trio of dishonourable fiends – Chaytor, Morley and the curiously electable delectable Jim Devine. I thought their name rang a bell. They have ‘form’ when it comes to trying to hook Labour Party members out of the mire,...

If you were not one of the 57,385 visitors viewing 381,867 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed: Labour Will Have a Khrushchev Moment of Truth in the End Jim Devine Explains Everything Tim Yeo’s Green Networking in Parliament Pays Off Another Day, Another Fluffed Tory Announcement The Defendants Brown Under Pressure for Misleading House, Again Kirsty Makes NewsnightMore Exciting You are either in front of Guido, or you’re behind… Tagged: Blogging on Blogging, Statistics...

Jim Devine, soon to be ex-MP for Livingston:He insisted this type of accounting was normal practice in the union movement.Time to investigate the unions, then, isn't...

The three Labour MPs who have been charged with theft over fraudulent expense claims have declared that they are above the law and will fight attempts to put them on trial.Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine each face up to seven years in jail after Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, announced that he was charging them under the Theft Act 1968. Lord Hanningfield, the Tory frontbencher and leader of Essex County Council, faces six charges over his expense claims. In a joint statement, the three MPs announced that they would fight the charges by claiming parliamentary privilege over their expense claims. It said: “We maintain that this is an issue that should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner, who is there to enforce any breach of the rules.”The...

Oh dear. I don't think Jim Devine did himself any favours by doing this interview. He basically admits to Krishan Guru-Murthy that he provided false receipts to the Fees Office.It's do cringeworthy that you almost - almost - end up feel sorry for him when he starts digging himself so may holes he nearly creates a sieve.There is a bigger question which this rasies, though. How on earth did this man ever get selected as an MP in the first place? It's frightening to think that this buffoon legislates over the rest of...

As if it isn’t bad enough that they defraud the taxpayer through their expense claims to such an extent that the CPS has felt necessary to prosecute them – the first time so many parliamentarians have been brought before the courts since the build up to the Civil War – the three Labour MPs are trying to claim immunity. Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine… have employed leading constitutional lawyers to argue that their conduct cannot be tried in a criminal court and that only Parliament can discipline them. It is feared that the prosecution case against them could be delayed by months of legal wrangling over whether the MPs are right to assert that their actions are covered by parliamentary privilege… One of the main components of parliamentary...

In their statement yesterday MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine said:"We maintain that this is an issue that should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner, who is there to enforce any breach of the rules."However, the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided they they should be charged under the 1968 Theft Act. Keir Starmer in his statement said:"We have considered...

There are some weeks as a political commentator when you can find yourself racking your brain for something to write about. On others, though, you find yourself somewhat spoilt for choice. That the past week falls into the latter category there can be no doubt. We’ve had Clare Short giving evidence to the Iraq Inquiry, telling us that Tony Blair’s real reason for going to war was that he wanted to be up there with the ‘big boys.’It’s a pity she didn’t feel strongly enough about it at the time to join Robin Cook in resigning before the conflict. Who knows, by acting together they might just have prevented it.Then we had Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused of having let down the armed forces while Chancellor by imposing strict limits on defence spending prior to the invasion...

Tagged: Snouts in the Trough...

At the end of their joint statement moments after the charges against them were announced the three MPs Jim Devine, Elliot Morley and David Chaytor said they would not be available for media interviews.   However, that most mean that Devine's interviews with Sky News and the BBC didn't happen. So people didn't hear this:   "I'm absolutely distraught and astonished at the...

It seems that charges of theft have been brought against three Labour MPs and one Tory Lord.Former minister Elliot Morley, MP for Scunthorpe, will face two charges in relation to a total of £30,000 of mortgage interest claims on a property in Winterton, Lincolnshire between 2004 and 2007.The charges allege he made claims "in excess of that to which he was entitled" and - for part of the period when "there was no longer a mortgage on that property".David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, is accused of "dishonestly claiming" £1,950 for IT services and further sums of £12, 925 and £5,425 relating to rent claims on properties which he and his mother allegedly owned.Livingston MP Jim Devine is accused of "dishonestly claiming" money for cleaning services and for stationery using false...

The Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has confirmed three Labour MPs and one Conservative member of the House of Lords will face criminal charges over their expenses, Labour MPs Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor along with Lord Hanningfield will be charged under the Theft...

Jim Devine, Livingston's soon to be ex-MP foretold he would be 'astonished' is he faced criminal charges. After the event he actually says he is 'absolutely devastated'. His is accused of "dishonestly claiming" money for cleaning services and for stationery using false invoices.   Maybe he should put that crystal ball about his own reactions back on the shelf. If only he can find...