Geoff Bladon, Campaign For Justice Group, 13 Maudlin

Drive, Teignmouth, Devon, writes:

Richard cares – for himself

I have been vocal in my criticism of our MP Richard

Younger-Ross known as RYR, relating to the scandal of

MP'S expenses. When the first allegations surfaced I was

vilified publicly by Lib Dem supporters. I was accused of

trying to "score points" on the back of RYR's difficulties

relating to his claiming expenses for luxury household

goods, As a former Police Officer I wanted the truth. I

stated then there was more to come out and I have been

proved correct.

RYR made serious errors of judgement which led to a

damning report by the Independent Commissioner for

Parliamentary Standards and upheld by a "jury" of

members from the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges

Committee, his own peers. They found him guilty.

Ordered by his fellow MPs, RYR wrote an apology, he

was told to repay half of the £8,031 pounds he got from

an American Property Company back to the public, a sum

in addition to the £4,300 he had already paid for claiming

luxury items.

I have waited to see if he had the courage to stand

up and apologise to us, his constituents in the same

manner he apologised to Parliament Well, I'm still

waiting. !!

RYR was given the support of the Lib-Dem leader

Nick Clegg after the details of his dealings with Westbrook

Associates had become public in the press nationally and I

raised them locally.

In common with his calls for action from the leaders

of the other main parties to sanction members embroiled

in secnd home scandals Nick Clegg should now follow his

own advice.

Richard Cares - about himself, the official report

says so in concluding that RYR breached the rules on MP'S

Code of Conduct and I quote, "by putting his personal

interest before the public interest" a decision that the

report concludes "led to substantially increased costs to

the public purse" which is precisely what I said had

happened. I have been justified in raising the issue.

RYR states that he believed he acted within the rules

and in the public interest. The Commissioner responded

to this defence "However, in our view the fact that two of

Mr Younger-Ross's colleagues separately considered

whether to accept a similar offer and rejected it on the

grounds of principle is not helpful to this defence." I made

a point of this when I raised this issue in the papers.

RYR alleges that the money he received was passed

on to the taxpayer as he used it in his "office" to pay for

his constituency costs, therefore indirectly we, his

constituents, benefitted. How we benefited we will never

know. RYR never kept a record of the accounts nor

produced receipts for where the money went.

The Commissioner concludes and I quote "Such

informal allocation of the money left no audit trail, and

there was no check to make sure the use of the money

was within the rules. It had the effect of adding an extra

category of expenses to his entitlement, which other

Members could not access," So where did the money go?

The important figure here is £8,031 pounds; why

were no records kept on where it was spent, where did

that money go? We need an independent inquiry into all

this. When he was found guilty by the Parliamentary

Standards Committee he should have done the honourable

thing and resigned immediately.