A very powerful piece of writing by Bryan Forbes
- Thread starter David Morton
- Start date
Ian Anderson
Lifetime Supporter
Perhaps Kieth will post here and advise how the world wide audience can view the BBC i player (I believe it is possible)
Ian
Ian
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
iCasualties | Operation Enduring Freedom | Afghanistan
two thousand four hunderd and fifty three. 2453.
Its time to write again please. If you need stamps bill me for them.
BUT WRITE......
two thousand four hunderd and fifty three. 2453.
Its time to write again please. If you need stamps bill me for them.
BUT WRITE......
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
British operations in Iraq are finally coming to and end. The last contingent (Navy)
have finished their duties today and have rejoined their ships. The Iraqi terrorists promptly celebrated by blowing up 13 of their people and wounding countless more.
Do you despair or do you not give a jot about their fate? I think I've reached the stage where I don't really care what they do so long as none of our troops are involved with them anymore.
If they prove to be a problem again, they should be glassed over with a couple of buckets of sunshine.
have finished their duties today and have rejoined their ships. The Iraqi terrorists promptly celebrated by blowing up 13 of their people and wounding countless more.
Do you despair or do you not give a jot about their fate? I think I've reached the stage where I don't really care what they do so long as none of our troops are involved with them anymore.
If they prove to be a problem again, they should be glassed over with a couple of buckets of sunshine.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
When will this idiot stop his procrastinations:
I think he may have an injunction or two is his closet.........
Archbishop: public needs protection from 'miasma of gossip’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced sympathy for public figures who take out super-injunctions, defending their right to privacy and attacking the “miasma of gossip and prurience” that surrounds them.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced sympathy for public figures who take out super-injunctions Photo: PA
By By Anita Singh 7:30AM BST 28 May 2011 9 Comments
Dr Rowan Williams said that very few people lead blameless lives and celebrities were not alone in wishing to hide from “ceaseless scrutiny” by the media.
Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive, and Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United player, are among the famous names who have taken out privacy injunctions in an attempt to keep their alleged misdemeanours secret. A High Court judge lifted an anonymity order covering Sir Fred’s alleged affair with a colleague at the height of the banking crisis, Giggs was named in the House of Commons as the footballer at the centre of a privacy injunction row.
Dozens of other high-profile figures are currently hiding behind injunctions. David Cameron described the rulings as “unsustainable” and “unfair” on the Press when the names were freely available on the internet.
However, Dr Williams told The Daily Telegraph: “Of course, if people behaved morally there would be no need for super-injunctions. But how many of us actually would be comfortable about the ceaseless scrutiny of every aspect of ourselves?
“This is a culture so obsessed with transparency that it can confuse that, I think, with this universal miasma of gossip and prurience.”
I DON'T THINK EVEN HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS SAYING, BUT FOR A SUPPOSED MAN OF GOD - HE SURELY LOVES HIS OWN PUBLICITY AND SEEMINGLY BELIEVES IN HIS OWN UTTERINGS.
I'M SURE SOME ONE WILL TOP HIM ONE DAY. IT WOULD ALMOST BE A MORAL DUTY TO GET RID OF HIM. WHAT A TOTAL SHIT HEAD.
I think he may have an injunction or two is his closet.........
Archbishop: public needs protection from 'miasma of gossip’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced sympathy for public figures who take out super-injunctions, defending their right to privacy and attacking the “miasma of gossip and prurience” that surrounds them.
By By Anita Singh 7:30AM BST 28 May 2011 9 Comments
Dr Rowan Williams said that very few people lead blameless lives and celebrities were not alone in wishing to hide from “ceaseless scrutiny” by the media.
Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive, and Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United player, are among the famous names who have taken out privacy injunctions in an attempt to keep their alleged misdemeanours secret. A High Court judge lifted an anonymity order covering Sir Fred’s alleged affair with a colleague at the height of the banking crisis, Giggs was named in the House of Commons as the footballer at the centre of a privacy injunction row.
Dozens of other high-profile figures are currently hiding behind injunctions. David Cameron described the rulings as “unsustainable” and “unfair” on the Press when the names were freely available on the internet.
However, Dr Williams told The Daily Telegraph: “Of course, if people behaved morally there would be no need for super-injunctions. But how many of us actually would be comfortable about the ceaseless scrutiny of every aspect of ourselves?
“This is a culture so obsessed with transparency that it can confuse that, I think, with this universal miasma of gossip and prurience.”
I DON'T THINK EVEN HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS SAYING, BUT FOR A SUPPOSED MAN OF GOD - HE SURELY LOVES HIS OWN PUBLICITY AND SEEMINGLY BELIEVES IN HIS OWN UTTERINGS.
I'M SURE SOME ONE WILL TOP HIM ONE DAY. IT WOULD ALMOST BE A MORAL DUTY TO GET RID OF HIM. WHAT A TOTAL SHIT HEAD.
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David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
Two Royal Marines killed in Helmand, Afghanistan
Two Royal Marines have been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.
Councils will be ordered to prioritise soldiers, sailors and airmen for housing Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
By David Harrison 5:01PM BST 28 May 2011
The marines, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, died on patrol when a roadside bomb exploded in Helmand province on Friday, taking the number of British service personnel killed since the start of hostilities to 368.
The blast was followed by three separate deadly attacks at locations around the country on Saturday, on what was a grim day for coalition forces.
The biggest loss of life came when a suicide bomber dressed in police uniform walked into a high-level meeting inside a governor’s compound in northern Afghanistan and killed six people, two German and four Afghan.
Among the dead was Gen Mohammad Daud Daud, the police commander of northern Afghanistan and former chief of the Northern Alliance which fought the Taliban a decade ago.
The injured included Gen Markus Kneip, Nato’s commander for northern Afghanistan, and Abdul Jabar Taqwa, governor of Takhar province, in whose compound the attack took place. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
<!-- BEFORE ACI -->Related Articles
The latest fatalities are further evidence that the Taliban is stepping up its offensive following the death of Osama bin Laden. Analysts said the campaign could affect US President Barack Obama's plans to withdraw troops in July.
The two dead British troops, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, were killed by an improvised explosive device.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The two Royal Marines were on patrol, disrupting insurgent activity, when they were killed by an explosion caused by an IED.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends in their time of grief."
Next of kin have been informed but the soldiers had not yet been named on Saturday night.
The battalion-sized formation of 42 Commando is based at Bickleigh Barracks in Plymouth, Devon.
The attack which killed Gen Daud occurred in a part of Afghanistan thought to be relatively secure, at the compound of Governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa in Taloqan, Takhar province. Officials were inside for a meeting when the blast went off, a police spokesman said.
Also killed was Shah Jahan Nuri, the police chief of Takhar province, while the governor was among the injured, the spokesman added.
The latest attacks are part of a "spring offensive" launched by the Taliban this month after the death of bin Laden, killed when US Navy Seals stormed his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2.
Forty-four Nato troops have died this month as insurgents have stepped up attacks against foreign troops, the Afghan government, its allies and some contractors.
On Monday, Colour Sergeant Kevin Fortuna, a British soldier from 1st Battalion the Rifles, was killed by a bomb while on a patrol in the Sayedabad Kalay area of the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand.
On Thursday a powerful bomb exploded killing seven American troops who were on foot patrol in a field in the Shobarak district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
The Taliban's spring campaign, code-named Badr after one of the Prophet Muhammad's military victories, threatened to disrupt President Obama's plans for troop withdrawal. General David Petraeus, the US and Nato's most senior commander in Afghanistan, said the scale of the withdrawal would depend on conditions on the ground.
Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor after the United States to the Nato-led coalition.
President Karzai yesterday ordered the Afghan defence ministry to take control of night raids, one of the more controversial tactics used by foreign troops fighting the Taliban. Nato-led forces defended the night-time operations as "indispensable", but said they supported the aim of making them Afghan-led.
* The father of the 300th member of the armed forces to die in Afghanistan began a non-stop charity walk from Eastbourne in Kent to Winchester, Hants, on Saturday in an attempt to raise £50,000 for Help For Heroes.
Richard Hollington, a 23-year-old Marine from near Petersfield, Hampshire, died in June last year from wounds he received while on active service with 40 Commando.
His father Robin Hollington headed a group of civilians and 14 Royal Marines that set off on the 103-mile march which is due to finish on Sunday evening.
Two Royal Marines have been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.
By David Harrison 5:01PM BST 28 May 2011
The marines, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, died on patrol when a roadside bomb exploded in Helmand province on Friday, taking the number of British service personnel killed since the start of hostilities to 368.
The blast was followed by three separate deadly attacks at locations around the country on Saturday, on what was a grim day for coalition forces.
The biggest loss of life came when a suicide bomber dressed in police uniform walked into a high-level meeting inside a governor’s compound in northern Afghanistan and killed six people, two German and four Afghan.
Among the dead was Gen Mohammad Daud Daud, the police commander of northern Afghanistan and former chief of the Northern Alliance which fought the Taliban a decade ago.
The injured included Gen Markus Kneip, Nato’s commander for northern Afghanistan, and Abdul Jabar Taqwa, governor of Takhar province, in whose compound the attack took place. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
<!-- BEFORE ACI -->Related Articles
- <LI class=bullet sizset="47" sizcache="34">Bomb kills Afghan general & injures Nato commander
28 May 2011 - Two Royal Marines killed in Afghanistan explosion
28 May 2011
The latest fatalities are further evidence that the Taliban is stepping up its offensive following the death of Osama bin Laden. Analysts said the campaign could affect US President Barack Obama's plans to withdraw troops in July.
The two dead British troops, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, were killed by an improvised explosive device.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The two Royal Marines were on patrol, disrupting insurgent activity, when they were killed by an explosion caused by an IED.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends in their time of grief."
Next of kin have been informed but the soldiers had not yet been named on Saturday night.
The battalion-sized formation of 42 Commando is based at Bickleigh Barracks in Plymouth, Devon.
The attack which killed Gen Daud occurred in a part of Afghanistan thought to be relatively secure, at the compound of Governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa in Taloqan, Takhar province. Officials were inside for a meeting when the blast went off, a police spokesman said.
Also killed was Shah Jahan Nuri, the police chief of Takhar province, while the governor was among the injured, the spokesman added.
The latest attacks are part of a "spring offensive" launched by the Taliban this month after the death of bin Laden, killed when US Navy Seals stormed his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2.
Forty-four Nato troops have died this month as insurgents have stepped up attacks against foreign troops, the Afghan government, its allies and some contractors.
On Monday, Colour Sergeant Kevin Fortuna, a British soldier from 1st Battalion the Rifles, was killed by a bomb while on a patrol in the Sayedabad Kalay area of the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand.
On Thursday a powerful bomb exploded killing seven American troops who were on foot patrol in a field in the Shobarak district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
The Taliban's spring campaign, code-named Badr after one of the Prophet Muhammad's military victories, threatened to disrupt President Obama's plans for troop withdrawal. General David Petraeus, the US and Nato's most senior commander in Afghanistan, said the scale of the withdrawal would depend on conditions on the ground.
Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor after the United States to the Nato-led coalition.
President Karzai yesterday ordered the Afghan defence ministry to take control of night raids, one of the more controversial tactics used by foreign troops fighting the Taliban. Nato-led forces defended the night-time operations as "indispensable", but said they supported the aim of making them Afghan-led.
* The father of the 300th member of the armed forces to die in Afghanistan began a non-stop charity walk from Eastbourne in Kent to Winchester, Hants, on Saturday in an attempt to raise £50,000 for Help For Heroes.
Richard Hollington, a 23-year-old Marine from near Petersfield, Hampshire, died in June last year from wounds he received while on active service with 40 Commando.
His father Robin Hollington headed a group of civilians and 14 Royal Marines that set off on the 103-mile march which is due to finish on Sunday evening.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
Incredibly brave men being sacrificed on the Altar of Politics. It makes me weep.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
From todays Sunday Mail:
As Dave 'does the talking', war dead are sneaked out of the back gate
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As Dave ‘does the talking’, war dead are sneaked out of the back gate The flag-wrapped coffins of dead servicemen are to be driven out of the back gate of RAF Brize Norton when it takes over from Lyneham (a few weeks from now) as the arrival point for the fallen.
They will then be routed down side roads to avoid nearby Carterton – a town almost exactly the same size as Wootton Bassett – and make their way to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford along A-roads and bypasses. There’ll be a small guard of honour near the hospital entrance (there already is) but somehow or other the cortege won’t go down any High Streets.
War dead: A flag-wrapped coffin is carried out of a plane to RAF Brize Norton where war dead are now to be driven out of the back gate
I will tell you in a moment what the official excuses are for this. I should have thought the mere words ‘back gate’ would tell most people all they need to know about this decision.
And despite the Prime Minister’s oily award of the title ‘Royal’ to Wootton Bassett, you can bet that he’d much rather the public scenes of grief and remembrance in that place had never happened, and that nobody noticed the frequent deaths his weakness and political cowardice are causing.
In the same way, the Defence Ministry has almost completely succeeded in covering up the appalling numbers of men who have been gravely injured in Afghanistan because the Government hasn’t the guts to quit this meaningless war. We hardly ever see them. Were they all to be assembled in one photograph, the nation would demand instant withdrawal and probably get it.
The official version is that the families of the dead will be using a new ‘Repatriation Centre’ at Brize Norton, and that it is near the back gate. Routing the hearses through the base might disrupt its normal operations.
Ceremony: Repatriation through Wootton Bassett has made public the frequent deaths of servicemen in Afghanistan
And here’s what was said by Andrew Robathan, whose stirring title is ‘Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans’. Speaking to Radio Oxford, he explained: ‘The side gate was seen by the Ministry of Defence and the police as the most appropriate way to take out future corteges.’
I love that word ‘appropriate’, the favourite adjective of those who have quietly forsaken the idea that there are such things as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
Weakness and political cowardice: David Cameron has prolonged conflict
He continued: ‘I am not sure taking coffins in hearses past schools, past families, past married quarters is necessarily the thing that everybody would wish to see . . . the focus must be on the families of the dead service personnel. They are the people who care most. That is where our focus is.’
This is a curious statement. None of us exactly ‘wishes’ to see a funeral going by. But surely death should not be hidden away. And surely it is right that all of us – especially the young and service families – should be reminded of the price of courage and duty, and given the opportunity to salute these fine things.
You can believe the various official excuses. Or you might recall that until (in April 2008) this newspaper highlighted the way the hearses were left to fight their way through indifferent traffic, even cut up by impatient motorists at roundabouts, they did not get a police escort for the final few miles to the hospital.
Mr Cameron says that he will do the talking about war, and the commanders should do the fighting. Well, he may have a point there, or he would if he were not militarily and diplomatically clueless.
But he might also mention that while he is doing the talking, real men are doing the dying, and their families are doing the weeping.
Personally, I don’t think he or his Government colleagues are grown-up enough to pay the price of their own vanity and bombast. So they sneak the dead out by the back gate, and hope it doesn’t get on the TV.
Read more: PETER HITCHENS: As Dave 'does the talking', war dead are sneaked out of the back gate | Mail Online
As Dave 'does the talking', war dead are sneaked out of the back gate
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As Dave ‘does the talking’, war dead are sneaked out of the back gate The flag-wrapped coffins of dead servicemen are to be driven out of the back gate of RAF Brize Norton when it takes over from Lyneham (a few weeks from now) as the arrival point for the fallen.
They will then be routed down side roads to avoid nearby Carterton – a town almost exactly the same size as Wootton Bassett – and make their way to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford along A-roads and bypasses. There’ll be a small guard of honour near the hospital entrance (there already is) but somehow or other the cortege won’t go down any High Streets.
I will tell you in a moment what the official excuses are for this. I should have thought the mere words ‘back gate’ would tell most people all they need to know about this decision.
And despite the Prime Minister’s oily award of the title ‘Royal’ to Wootton Bassett, you can bet that he’d much rather the public scenes of grief and remembrance in that place had never happened, and that nobody noticed the frequent deaths his weakness and political cowardice are causing.
In the same way, the Defence Ministry has almost completely succeeded in covering up the appalling numbers of men who have been gravely injured in Afghanistan because the Government hasn’t the guts to quit this meaningless war. We hardly ever see them. Were they all to be assembled in one photograph, the nation would demand instant withdrawal and probably get it.
The official version is that the families of the dead will be using a new ‘Repatriation Centre’ at Brize Norton, and that it is near the back gate. Routing the hearses through the base might disrupt its normal operations.
And here’s what was said by Andrew Robathan, whose stirring title is ‘Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans’. Speaking to Radio Oxford, he explained: ‘The side gate was seen by the Ministry of Defence and the police as the most appropriate way to take out future corteges.’
I love that word ‘appropriate’, the favourite adjective of those who have quietly forsaken the idea that there are such things as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
He continued: ‘I am not sure taking coffins in hearses past schools, past families, past married quarters is necessarily the thing that everybody would wish to see . . . the focus must be on the families of the dead service personnel. They are the people who care most. That is where our focus is.’
This is a curious statement. None of us exactly ‘wishes’ to see a funeral going by. But surely death should not be hidden away. And surely it is right that all of us – especially the young and service families – should be reminded of the price of courage and duty, and given the opportunity to salute these fine things.
You can believe the various official excuses. Or you might recall that until (in April 2008) this newspaper highlighted the way the hearses were left to fight their way through indifferent traffic, even cut up by impatient motorists at roundabouts, they did not get a police escort for the final few miles to the hospital.
Mr Cameron says that he will do the talking about war, and the commanders should do the fighting. Well, he may have a point there, or he would if he were not militarily and diplomatically clueless.
But he might also mention that while he is doing the talking, real men are doing the dying, and their families are doing the weeping.
Personally, I don’t think he or his Government colleagues are grown-up enough to pay the price of their own vanity and bombast. So they sneak the dead out by the back gate, and hope it doesn’t get on the TV.
Read more: PETER HITCHENS: As Dave 'does the talking', war dead are sneaked out of the back gate | Mail Online
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
I fear it will be four hundred from the UK (400) by Christmas.
iCasualties | Operation Enduring Freedom | Afghanistan
TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT FATALITIES IN TOTAL.
HOW MANY MORE SEVERELY WOUNDED?
I would speculate the ratio is about five to one so about twelve thousand very badly disabled. Write Write and Write again. It's your only chance to make a difference.
iCasualties | Operation Enduring Freedom | Afghanistan
TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT FATALITIES IN TOTAL.
HOW MANY MORE SEVERELY WOUNDED?
I would speculate the ratio is about five to one so about twelve thousand very badly disabled. Write Write and Write again. It's your only chance to make a difference.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
<TABLE id=post338865 class=tborder border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #deedf2 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #deedf2 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #deedf2 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #deedf2 1px solid" class=alt2 width=175></TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #deedf2 1px solid" id=td_post_338865 class=alt1><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- google_ad_section_end -->I just though I'd repost this photograph and caption.
He is parTof the Pinky and Perky act that has become known (loosely) as governement here in the UK.
A regular slimy turd. History will show what a lying obnoxious manipulative idiot this man has become.
Weakness and political cowardice: David Cameron has prolonged the conflict.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
He is parTof the Pinky and Perky act that has become known (loosely) as governement here in the UK.
A regular slimy turd. History will show what a lying obnoxious manipulative idiot this man has become.
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Charlie Farley
Supporter
I was reading about a Russian truck driver, who was shipping enriched plutonium between establishments. Somehow, he got to know that discrepancies of one eight of an ounce were accepted. He therefore stole small amounts and accumulated nearly two pounds, before the security services stopped him passing it on to Islamic rebels in Chechnya.
You can guess where it would have gone to from there.....
Check this video out, btw, great classic song. Have fun.
YouTube - Crime of the Century‏
You can guess where it would have gone to from there.....
Check this video out, btw, great classic song. Have fun.
YouTube - Crime of the Century‏
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Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
R.I.P. Todd Langley.
AUSTRALIA'S latest combat fatality in Afghanistan, Sergeant Todd Langley, was on his seventh tour of war zone duty when killed by enemy fire, Defence officials revealed today.
He was the 28th Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan, the seventh this year.
The 35-year old veteran of the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment was helping clear out an area in southern Afghanistan when he was hit in the head by insurgent fire and died on the battle field yesterday.
A second Australian in his group, whose name has not been released, was wounded and is now in a serious condition but has contacted his family
AUSTRALIA'S latest combat fatality in Afghanistan, Sergeant Todd Langley, was on his seventh tour of war zone duty when killed by enemy fire, Defence officials revealed today.
He was the 28th Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan, the seventh this year.
The 35-year old veteran of the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment was helping clear out an area in southern Afghanistan when he was hit in the head by insurgent fire and died on the battle field yesterday.
A second Australian in his group, whose name has not been released, was wounded and is now in a serious condition but has contacted his family
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
It's so crass.
David Cameron - he who told the Chiefs of Staff " I'll do the talking .You do the fighting." is still jabbering on like a bereft maniac and the troops are still dying.
This one phrase is the sword he will die on - it will come back and back until his political death - which may be sometime soon.
Maybe he should have uttered: "I'll do the talking. Carry on dying".
Thats what is happening.
David Cameron - he who told the Chiefs of Staff " I'll do the talking .You do the fighting." is still jabbering on like a bereft maniac and the troops are still dying.
This one phrase is the sword he will die on - it will come back and back until his political death - which may be sometime soon.
Maybe he should have uttered: "I'll do the talking. Carry on dying".
Thats what is happening.
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Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
Private Matthew Lambert 2R.A.R. killed by an I.E.D. yesterday in Afghanistan. R.I.P.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
2689.
Cpl. Douglas Grant, SAS, from New Zealand. His body was returned home to New Zealand yesterday.
All so very sad.
Cpl. Douglas Grant, SAS, from New Zealand. His body was returned home to New Zealand yesterday.
All so very sad.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
42 Marine lost a brave soldier today. His name is still to be released.
I despair. Yet another letter to Cameron and yet again it will be ignored
Or some insignificant detritus of a civil servant will pen a standard reply
thus wasting 5 minutes of a 6 h
our working day and a stamp. Just think...if they saved all those stamps they could pay another MP so much more big bucks in allowances.
I despair. Yet another letter to Cameron and yet again it will be ignored
Or some insignificant detritus of a civil servant will pen a standard reply
thus wasting 5 minutes of a 6 h
our working day and a stamp. Just think...if they saved all those stamps they could pay another MP so much more big bucks in allowances.
JimmyMac
Lifetime Supporter
From the Telegraph on line:
MPs' expenses: former minister Elliot Morley pleads guilty to dishonestly claiming £32,000
The former environment minister Elliot Morley has pleaded guilty to fiddling his parliamentary expenses.
4:15PM BST 07 Apr 2011
The ex-Labour MP dishonestly claimed mortgage payments worth £32,000.
Morley is the first former minister to face jail over the MPs' expenses scandal which rocked Westminster.
He pocketed £16,800 in claims on a phantom mortgage and £15,200 after inflating the amount he was previously paying.
Just days before he was due to go on trial, Morley entered two guilty pleas for false accounting over claims made against his home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe, Lincs, between 2004 and 2007.
Morley, 58, wrongly filled out a total of 40 forms relating to payments for his home.
<!-- BEFORE ACI -->Related Articles
He claimed thousands of pounds more than any of the other MPs convicted over the scandal.
- <LI class=bullet sizset="35" sizcache="33">MPs yet to learn lesson
07 Apr 2011 <LI class=bullet sizset="36" sizcache="33">Jim Devine: profile of disgraced former Labour MP
31 Mar 2011- Eric Illsley jailed for a year
11 Feb 2011
The prosecution overshadows a political career lasting more than 20 years.
An MP for Scunthorpe since 1987, the former teacher was one of Labour's most prominent voices on agricultural issues and the environment.
He was party spokesman on rural affairs and animal welfare from 1989 until the 1997 election victory, and served under Tony Blair as environment minister from 2003 to 2006.
Campaigners criticised him for not admitting his crimes earlier.
Emma Boon, campaign director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: ''It's a shame that Morley took so long to make an admission of guilt.
''Taxpayers had to suffer the insult not only of him stealing from them, but then lying about it for so long and dragging out an expensive prosecution.
''This change of plea is one more small step towards Parliament regaining public trust.''
Jim Devine, the first MP to stand trial in the wake of the expenses scandal, was branded a liar by a judge last month as he was jailed for 16 months for offences totalling £8,385.
Two other former Labour members, David Chaytor and Eric Illsley, have already been jailed after pleading guilty to falsely claiming £22,000 and £14,500 respectively.
Former Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick awaits sentencing after being convicted by a jury in January of falsely claiming more than £11,000 for travel and overnight subsistence.
Morley entered his pleas as it emerged that MPs were paid £3.2 million in expenses for the final two months of last year.
James Sturman QC, for the defence, told Mr Justice Saunders that his client accepted a jail sentence is likely.
After Morley delivered his two guilty pleas, Mr Sturman urged the judge to consider his "lifetime of public service".
But, referring to a jail term, he added: "We know it is not a question of if but how long."
Outside court, Morley said "any comments I might make" will be at the next hearing.
Grey-haired Morley, wearing a dark blue suit and striped tie, spoke in court only to confirm his name and enter two guilty pleas.
The brief hearing was adjourned for pre-sentence reports to be submitted by May 12.
Before leaving court, he was taken to a meeting room to consult his lawyer.
Dave,
Time flies doesn't it.
Morley is out already.
The Press Association: Expenses fraud ex-MP Morley freed
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