Oh dear, Labour just do not get public anger over expenses, do they. As if it wasn't bad enough that last year the local Labour MP spent nearly £10,000 of taxpayer's money on self-promotion we now have another example of it today.

I have just been sent a copy, from a very angry resident, of another communication funded by taxpayers which has been delivered in the south of the Isle of Axholme. Yet again, it has been funded from the taxpayer via the Communications Allowance. Why won't the local MP learn, he can't get away with using our money to promote himself locally. It's just not right.

I suppose what makes it worse is that most of the issues in the newsletter are ones we have updated people on already, via our non-taxpayer funded communications. Some of them are weeks out of date. It just proves what I have been told by certain people within the Labour Party locally, they have no network locally and so rely on taxpayer funded communications instead.

I certainly won't be using taxpayers money to try to buy the next election. It's a shame Labour seem happy to try though.

They really can't get anything right this Government can they. I saw Brown's big speech on Monday and was absolutely staggered to watch him, after 12 years in power, basically admit that they had got it wrong and basically failed to deliver in a range of policy areas. As a teacher I was aghast at his rubbishing of targets. Hello, isn't this what most of have been saying for years?

It got worse though when he got to the end of his speech without saying how any of it would be paid for. If that wasn't bad enough today we see that one of Brown's key pledges, local houses for local people, will actually be illegal under Labour's new Equality Bill. Just like British jobs for British workers, its all spin. That is a real shame as I have always argued that local authority housing allocations should be able to take account of strong links to the area. The Housing Board I sit on has tried to achieve this through discretionary allocations but its not perfect.

Simon Hoggart in the Guardian yesterday morning offered the best analysis of Brown's way of running, or rather ruining, the country -

"We are in a strange, dream like world in which everything is promised but almost nothing happens."

Quite!

It's been a funny few days locally with Labour activists attempting to use all sorts of bully tactics to stop me talking about my opponents expense claims. Former Labour candidates  from West Yorkshire and former Labour agents have all been trying to have a pop at me.

They obviously hate the fact that I have dared to point out that Mr Cawsey claimed £15,000 in food from taxpayers despite earning over £250,000 in salary in the same period. Forgive me for saying so, but I simply think that is just wrong and I am not prepared to be bullied into silence.

It would seem my pledge not to claim many of the allowances available to MPs has really upset them. It shouldn't come as a surprise as I have been saying much of this for years. In addition,  a few years ago I was one of four Councillors who sat on a panel which abolished many of the allowances available to Councillors. I also refused the option of a Council, taxpayer funded, pension when offered to me.

I have always believed that people in positions such as MPs and Councillors should receive a reasonable remuneration and nothing more. Councillors used to be paid on a basis of allowances rather than salary. As that changed and it moved towards a salary, their expenses have tended to drop. That is why the panel I sat on scrapped lots of the allowances available to Councillors. MPs however, have received bigger salaries and more generous allowances - clearly that is wrong.

One Labour member who contacted me, who seems to be quite a nice fella actually, challenged me to declare how much my local newsletters cost.

I am happy to confirm that my newsletters, which keep people updated on all sorts of local issues, cost the taxpayer £0. Similarly, advertising and promotion of myself locally also cost the taxpayer £0.

Contrast that with Mr Cawsey who spent £10,000 of taxpayers in just one year promoting himself via the Communications Allowance in 2007-08, £300 sponsoring a football match in his name and much more buying a caravan to go round agricultural shows promoting himself.

We saw examples a few weeks ago nationally about how Labour plan to use bullying tactics to get at the Conservatives. It would seem they have started to use them locally too.

I don't blog about my work life too much but I recently accepted a new job teaching in a local school. From September, I shall be teaching in a local school two days per week and as such I shall be stopping my current part-time employment.

This means I shall continue to have plenty of time to devote to campaigning for our area, free of charge. Apparently, someone probably connected with Labour, has been trying to suggest that my jobs are funded by the taxpayer so I can;t really comment on MPs expenses. So that would be teachers, nurses, doctors, dentists and health visitors all barred from commenting. An interesting idea that one!!!!

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting stuck back into teaching on a more permanent basis. Obviously, they are aware of my other commitments so its all good!

Oh and by the way, unlike the Labour MP for this area, I shall be paying for my own food at school.

I have just read the response of Labour MP Ian Cawsey on the issue of his absolutely whopping expense claims. Mr Cawsey seems to think that making a claim for £300 every month for food is not excessive!! So despite earning over £60k per year Mr Cawsey thinks taxpayers should pay £300 towards his food as-well!!!

The biggest insult however comes in what he says about his claims that will be released in October. He says that those will show that he has made no claim under the second homes allowance in the past year! So despite claiming over £74k in this expense since 2004, we are now expected to be grateful that he has made no claim in the year before a general election!! Does he really think the electorate are that stupid?

The claims released show that he billed taxpayers for -

• £15,000 in food over a three and a half year period. Included in this are attempts to overclaim during 2005-06 and 2006-07.
• Cleaning totaling over £2000 over the same period.
• A caravan!
• Sponsoring the match between Brigg Town and Goole in his own name. He should be sponsoring it as the MP but he shouldn't use to taxpayers money to effectively advertise himself.
• Nearly £10,000 in one year to promote himself using taxpayers money via the controversial Communications Allowance.
• £40 for Christmas Cards.
• Renting and watering a hanging basket.

Now, I am sure that he would claim all of these are within the rules but you have to ask about the judgment of someone who earns over £60,000 per year expecting the taxpayer to pick up a bill of over £300 for food every month.

I am also sure that sponsoring the football match and the hanging basket were very worthy projects, but he should have paid them out of his own pocket, especially when it is his name getting promoted.

It's been really hectic recently so my apologies for not blogging for a very long time. There are so many issues going on in the constituency at the moment that I haven't really had time to update the website as much as I would like. Have only just got in from another public meeting in the constituency.

Anyway, the weekend of June 6th I had the pleasure to accompany veterans to Normandy for the 65th commomorations of the D-Day landings. It was a very moving weekend and something I found quite emotional. Every since I can remember I have had a deep interest in the Normandy campaign, perhaps because my Grandad was one of those who went across on D-Day +1. My favourite film is the Longest Day which I have watched more time than I can remember!

This was my first trip to Normandy and so I found the whole weekend absolutely fascinating. Visiting sites like Pegasus Bridge, Omaha Beach, St Mere Eglise, Caen etc was like a living history lesson to me and I only wish I had more time to take in more locations. The cemetery at Omaha Beach, which was the site of the fiercest fighting on D-Day, was particularly moving.

We must never stop commemorating Normandy or other events such Arnham and I therefore hope that we will continue to see official commemorations. Certainly, if I get elected I shall push for the Government to ensure that the 70th anniversary is as well commemorated as the 65th was.

I'm pictured next to one of the many memorials which pepper Normandy. This one is to the Green Howards who are of course a Yorkshire Regiment. They are also the regiment my Great Grandad served in during the first world war.

I have been asked by quite a few people what my view is on expenses. Let me start by saying that as a school teacher by profession, I find many of the claims that have been made outrageous. When I decided to enter teaching I accepted that I was not going to get rich from it. I was interested in the public service, and the same should be true of MPs.

A few residents have mentioned that I have been banging on about expenses in my newsletters for the past few years and they are right. Long before all of this broke, I had been campaigning hard against my opponent's use of the Communications Allowance and I had already pledged not use first class rail travel, not to use the Comms Allowance and not to claim for mileage driving around the constituency.

When I go to school to teach I buy my own lunch and I pay my own diesel to get to school. MPs earn enough and have to eat wherever they are, be it London or in their constituencies so why they have ever been able to claim for food is beyond me. Likewise, they earn enough to pay their own petrol bills and if they are so precious that they want to travel first class, they should pay for it themselves!

So here is what I have been pledging for the past couple of years, with a few new additions. If I am elected -

• I will not claim for food, furnishings or household goods.
• I will not claim for travel costs around the constituency.
• I will not make use of the Communications Allowance.
• I will not make any claims for first class travel.
• I will campaign for MPs to lose the power to set their own salaries.
• I will publish all of my claims on-line every month.
• My second home designation will remain London, no flipping between constituency and London home.

I am also not convinced that MPs should receive any pay rise over the course of the next Parliament but then, having argued that that should be a matter for an independent body, it would not be right for me to make a pledge which interferes with that.

There are obviously some things which MPs need to be provided with, office staff to deal with constituency casework and accommodation in London, as well as the ability to actually get to London. Beyond that, I can't really see what else they should be allowed to claim.

Incidentally, earlier in April, before The Telegraph stuff, I sent the following Freedom of Information request.

3. I request a full breakdown of claims made by Ian Cawsey MP for
mileage and travel from parliamentary allowances since April 2007. In
particular I request details of how many times this MP has used first
class rail or air travel under these allowances.

The response I received is below, so much for open access -

"This information is not subject to FOI and therefore the House of Commons is not obliged to disclose it. For further information about the application of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to information of
this nature please refer to the linked document:"

I have had a lot, and I mean a lot, of e-mails and calls from people today relating to the expenses scandal which is presently engulfing Elliot Morley and, by extension, Ian Cawsey. People are really angry about this and the other revelations which have appeared.

For those who don't know, the crux of the local scandal is this - Elliot Morley claimed for a mortgage which had been paid off over a year before. He flipped his second home and also rented his London flat out to his very good friend Ian Cawsey who then claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers money to pay to Mr Morley in rent!!! According to the story on the BBC website, both MPs were apparently claiming on the same property for a few months.

I just cant believe that one MP is allowed to claim taxpayers money to pay to another MP, who also happened to be a close friend and former employer of the MP, by way of rent without any external oversight or audit!

I am sure the system allowed this to happen and the arrangement was within the rules but it is absolutely clear that these sorts of arrangements have got to end!!

Just last week, I highlighted how Ian Cawsey and Elliot Morley had jointly used their expenses to take out a paid advert in the local press promoting themselves courtesy of the taxpayer. It would appear that that was not the only arrangement they had with each-other involving taxpayers cash.

It would be easy to be cheap about this scandal but I shall resist that opportunity. I don't think MPs of any of the parties have come out of this issue well. My solution would be to scrap this whole system and strip them of the power to set their own salaries and expenses. This power should be given to an independent body who should decide on a new system which would also require MPs to publish their claims on the internet on a monthly basis.

I have been watching the expenses debacle with interest and increasing astonishment over the past few days. As someone who does not enjoy either an MPs salary or MPs allowances, it has been a real eye opener to see what has been going out. I think the publication of these expense claims has been long overdue and I hope that it will lead to the whole system being scrapped.

I personally have been campaigning against the current expenses regime for a number of years, most recently highlighting the use by my opponent of taxpayers money to promote himself in the local press. Sadly, this is not a one off and has been a pattern of behaviour which he seems to consider appropriate and shows no sign of ending.

However, it is clear that this whole issue is engulfing MPs of all parties who have been party to what is clearly a broken system. All parties are implicated and whilst the claims may have been allowable under the rules, it is patently clear that the public do not accept them.

Long before these expenses were revealed I made a pledge that if elected I would not use the Communications Allowance, claim for first class rail travel or claim for driving around the constituency. My reason for that pledge was that personally I don't think taxpayers should pay for MPs' self promotion, nor do I believe that the taxpayer should foot the bill for first class rail travel. Likewise, I think an MP's salary is big enough to stand the cost of their travel around their constituencies.

The challenge to my opponent is to see whether he agrees with me that public money should not be used for these purposes, we shall see by his use of the Comms Allowance in the next few weeks and months.

In other news, I did some canvassing in Goole recently which was fantastic. One chap on the doorstep who has never voted anything but Labour gave me enthusiastic (sic) support by declaring that he would vote for me because the Conservatives couldn't do a worse job than the current lot!! Not quite as enthusiastic as I would like but it will do :)

Readers of one of the local papers will see in tonight's edition that the Labour MP for this area has joined with Scunthorpe's Labour MP and taken out a full page ad in the paper promoting the alleged policies of the Labour Government. No mention however was made of their rises in fuel duty, car tax, national insurance or their cuts to local services such as the Probation Service.

You might well say that is their prerogative and normally I would agree. However, on closer inspection it is clear that this piece of shameless self-promotion has been paid for not by the MPs or Labour, but by you and I. The advert is paid out of the controversial Communications Allowance which uses taxpayers money to allow MPs to promote themselves locally. It is basically politics on the rates.

I warned a few months back that as we get closer to the election Labour would use more and more taxpayers money to try to con people into supporting them. Alas, I have been proved correct.

Considering this advert coincides with yet more fuss over MPs allowances this is a massive own goal on the part of the Labour MPs!

Most amusing of all is that they couldn't even come up with an original title for the ad, they stole the title of my regular and FREE local newspapers! Oh well, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is just a shame that you and I have to pay for their poor attempt.