“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ‘WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER’?”

While thousands of Tameside Children, Mums, Dads, and Grandparents were queuing willingly in Shops and Supermarkets to spend record amounts to buy their poppies to honour those who lost their lives during the first world war and to commemorate the original Armistice of 1918, it has been revealed that one of our ‘Members of Parliament’ claimed back the £17 costs of the Remembrance Day Wreath on her expenses.

Details of the expense show the MP made the claim on 21 October 2014 for "Wreath for Remembrance Sunday".

Sarah Champion, is the Labour MP for Rotherham, who, ironically, was elected following the imprisonment of Denis MacShane, who had been jailed for expenses fraud; billed the taxpayer for the tribute as "office costs", describing it as "necessary expenses".

Of course, now she’s been found out, she has admitted that the claim should never have been made" and she will reimburse the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) immediately.

It’s worth asking yourself; with the General Election, only a few weeks away, if anything has changed with these MPs or whether they are purely canvassing our vote to enable them to keep their noses in the trough at our expense?

Obviously, for some, their “miserly” £67,731 wage (from April 2015) is not enough.

Perhaps instead of waffling on about the history of ‘Dukinfield Park’ or some other trivial subject, our local wordsmith might like to comment on this continuing scandal?