The jungle rumbles on

Mid Beds MP Nadine Dorries has been forced to apologise after she failed to declare earnings from her "I'm a celebrity" Rumble in the Jungle last November, in Ozland. According to the Independent (see link below and a zillion other news outlets) 

"Ms Dorries had refused to declare the payment on the Register of Members' Interests because she claimed it was made to her company, Averbrook, rather than to her personally."  

Whatever.

I actually thought she was giving this money to charity or something as a way of demonstrating that she went to the jungle to promote her views  on abortion or something. I.e. not for the fee. Whatever.

She also says she doesn't claim any expenses now because she took umbrage at how the authorities investigated the expenses she did claim. Anyway, whatever.

For the record I have never voted  for Nad's party and those who know me, know I  never will. But I still can't understand why every time Mid Beds as a constituency is in the news usually Nad is waxing indignant  about being held to account for something. Or other. 


See the story in
The independent

When she was investigated for a breach of Parliamentary rules she accused the Commissioner for Standards of conducting a “witch hunt” against her and threatened to sue.

But today the House of Commons Standards Committee threw out her defence and concluded she had breached the MPs code of conduct through her “attitude to the Commissioner's inquiries”.

It ordered her to make a formal apology for behaviour to MPs and said she must publish the fees she received from ‘I’m a Celebrity’ and eight other media appearances in full.

show business for ugly people

Check out the Sunday Mirror front page tomorrow. Mid Beds' most famous person (currently) is on it and it's not great reading. What no one, I think, has mentioned is that the MP for Mid Beds will have stuff in her diary for the next month which she will not be attending to. Parliamentary votes are actually a very small part of an MP's work and their absence, authorised or not can easily be covered. 

But busy MPs have surgeries, meetings with local councils, discussions with ministers and visitors to Parliament to be getting on with. I assume all that has been put on hold, postponed or cancelled without notice. 

There is an expression that politics is 'showbusiness for ugly people'. Well we can't deny the ugly people bit but showbusiness is another matter. All public decision making (aka politics) from parish council to national parliaments involves endless processing of information and discussion of minutiae. Its deadly dull, profoundly unsexy and there are few glittering prizes. We sometimes have people join and leave the parish council very quickly when they discover the revolution will have to wait till the next committee cycle. LOL

I reckon Nadine Dorries is after some glittering prizes and we may well see a Mid Beds by-election next year. Hopefully it will be someone, regardless of party who isn't headline chasing. And only goes to the jungle during their (ample) holidays.

Down under for Nadine

Mid Beds MP Nadine Dorries is heading for Australian to take part in I'm a celebrity get me out of here 
She could be out of the country for a month missing crucial votes. I expect she will be star of the show.
How will she fare with the giant pom-eating spiders and other tests of character?