Forum Topic

The humbug of Ann Keen, MP

I choked over my breakfast muesli today when I read that Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, now supports reform of the MPs expenses system. Is this the same Ann Keen who has been claiming, together with her MP husband, Alan, almost forty thousand pounds a year in taxpayers' money in second homes' allowances? Strange she has suddenly decided to be pure. Is it because she was shopped by the newspapers? Perhaps she should call a public meeting here in Brentford to explain to her constituents her sudden moral conversion. (As for those who accuse me of having a rightwing agenda: not true. I don't like Etonian Dave, and voted Green, Jean Lambert, in the Euro election)

Stuart Parrott ● 6358d2 Comments

A nice idea Stuart but I'm afraid public meetings with constituants seem to be avoided at all costs by Mrs. Keen. To give an example I attended 2 hustings meetings in Brentford during the last general election campaign. All candidates attended except her.Her silence over the expenses scandal has been deafening. Instead of having the guts to confront the people that she is supposed to represent we get patronised by her husband and are shouted down by our favourite out of towner whenever we dare to criticise her.

Andrew Sibley ● 6358d

StuartMy advice would be to take allegations from the usual suspects that you have a right-wing agenda with a large pinch of salt.  It is the classic M.O. of certain of the people on here who are criticising your petition.  It is a tactic which has never once achieved its desired objective but these are not people to be deterred easily from their belief in their own political wisdom and infallibility. Robin in particular has an obsession with locating people's imagined place on the "political spectrum" (he does love his political spectrum).  I imagine him to have a little chart, rather like a child's sticker album, where he derives hours of innocent pleasure from placing Hounslow politicians and activists into their allotted spot.  My own spot is to the right of Nick Griffin (even though, like yourself, I voted Green), and I guess you will by now have been slotted in about three inches to the right of Jim Lawes, but just to the left of Ray Ferguson.Robin lives in a very simple world in which everybody including his own milkman has a place on the spectrum, and your place is often determined by the company you keep, by opinions expressed by your acquaintances (no matter how casual or occasional) or even by passers-by whom you may have been spotted chatting to briefly at the bus stop, or whilst standing at the latrines in the Rose & Crown.In spite of all this there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that your petition will be greeted with enthusiasm by the large majority of normal people throughout the borough.  As I indicated previously, we will help wherever we are able.

Phil Andrews ● 6358d