Tuesday 13 October 2009

Money, Money, Money … !!

Phew … !

Remember me writing about Brentwood’s MP, Eric Pickles?

And his assorted adventures in Laptop Land?

Well …

I’ve got to be honest, I was never really satisfied with the amount of fairly bland bumf I had back from his office, telling me that the £1, 169 scanner he’d bought — and paid for with public money — was used “in his daily work as party chairman”.

Not exactly open and honest!

So, given that Conservative party leader, David Cameron has being telling people what he’d be doing, in light of the letter sent round by Sir Thomas Clegg, here’s the email I fired off.

Dear Mr Cameron,


I’m writing regarding the ongoing MP’s expenses row and wish to ask a question or two.


As you may know, I’m a constituent of Conservative Party Chairman, Mr Eric Pickles. You may also know that many hear in Brentwood have questioned the reported £7, 500 of public money he spent on what the Brentwood Gazette described as a ‘State of the Art’ laptop; I found – and published on my blog – the fact he’d spent some £869•50p on a Lenovo laptop.


I should add that Lenovo are known more for workmanlike laptops, rather than innovative ones.


However, what concerns me is the simple fact that Mr Pickles seemingly bought a scanner from Quinique, for some £1, 169•13p. It strikes me that, given many much cheaper all -in-one printer-scanners-copier’s are available for considerably less, this seems something of a waste of public money.


But here’s my questions, though; why had Mr Pickles picked this rather expensive model of scanner, and why has he used public funds on it?


When, as Party chairman, he could surely have paid for it, from party funds?


Before I sign off, I should also point out that I will be adding this email to the series of post on the subject, on my blog; you can view theses on http://niknaksoldpeculiarblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Eric+Pickles, and here .


Thank you for listening.


Paul Downie.


Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar.


Here’s hoping I get an answer that’s a bit more informative!

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