We think that describing Richard Ottaway, MP for Croydon South, as a greedy git meets all legal requirements, because it falls under the defences of honest opinion and fair comment.
After all, how else can you describe a man who has been in Parliament for 18 years and yet who claims £44 of taxpayers’ cash for the cost of a guide to the House of Commons?
Or the man who has managed to claim more than £7,000 in just over a year in expenses, in addition to his MP’s salary?
It is certainly fair comment that Ottaway fails to keep his promises: it is nearly a year now since he posted his expenses claims on his own website – as he promised his local Conservative Association and the Croydon electorate.
So, top marks to the Croydon Guardian this week for unearthing the little gem that Richard “Why-should-I-pay-for-anything-when-I-can-get-you-poor-saps-to-cough-for-it” Ottaway needs a guide to the Commons.
They write (with undue deference, calling him “Mr”):
“Mr Ottaway, who has been Conservative member for Croydon South for 18 years, claimed £44 back on expenses after grabbing a copy of the Times Guide to the House of Commons in July…
“Mr Ottaway has filed claims for more than £7,300 in expenses since he stopped collecting a second home allowance in March 2009.
“They include £425 on buying newspapers, £578 in mobile telephone charges and £2,400 signing up to the Conservative Parliamentary Resources Unit.
“Mr Ottaway declined to comment on any of his recent expenses, which he said had been approved, authorised and audited by the new Independent parliamentary standards agency….
“Mr Ottaway said: ‘My expenses up to the end of Dec 09 are on the parliamentary website.
‘We were advised that they would be then published quarterly so I stopped putting them on my website.
‘Since then the authorities have got themselves in a mess and nothing has been published’.”
So it’s not his fault then that he has failed to do what he promised. It’s someone else’s.
Next time a pompous, self-righteous Tory tries to blame the previous Labour government for the financial crisis created by the bankers, and comes up with some wannabe-Churchillian catchphrase like “Let Us Go Forward Together”, just remember Dicky Ottaway’s 44 quid claim for a guide book.
