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I was sorry to hear the Telegraph has exposed him because he paid rent to his long-term partner and the parliamentary expenses rules since 2006 have required that MPs don't pay rent to spouses.
Since he was not out and he and his partner had separate social lives, bank accounts and so on, I think it was quite legitimate for him to do as he did. How stupid the rules are. They put him in an impossible position. He couldn't have stopped claiming rent without raising questions which would have been liable to force him to come out.
I do hope Cameron refuses his resignation, if he offers it.
Why should a good man's private life be exposed like this? Why should it affect his job?
Love,
Anthony
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Trust the Telegraph!
No one should be outed if they don't want to be.
Things like this happen to people when they become 'famous' - particularly in the political jungle. It reminds of a a saying coined by a Jewish sage some 2000 years ago: "A name made great is a name destroyed".
I hope Laws weathers the storm.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Because he LIED.
You cannot expect to be a public figure and have a private life.
The sin was not in continuing to claim. It was in claiming at all. The rules have been in place for a substantial number of years. He claimed during that period and thus he deceived us and took our money.
That he is gay is wholly irrelevant. He lied.
That he is an economic expert is irrelevant. He lied.
His and his partner's social life is irrelevant. He lied.
And he and his partner benefited from that lie.
If his partner had been a secret heterosexual partner that would have made no difference. he lied.
And that means he had to be exposed, and he had to go.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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No, Timmy, he didn't lie.
The rules for expenses were changed in 2006 to prohibit charging rent paid to spouses as expenses. Laws had the choice of continuing to charge as he had done since 2001 or (maybe) having to explain why he had stopped. But he still lived at that address.
He wasn't 'out' - he didn't dare to tell his Roman Catholic parents.
I believe he is an honorable man, caught in a dilemma because society has not yet fully come to tolerate gay men.
Love,
Anthony
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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All he had to do was to stop claiming. Period.
By claiming, he LIED.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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But, Timmy, James Landie is not David Laws' spouse nor even his civil partner.
To establish culpability I guess we would both need to know more of the details of what was said.
Maybe all he did was send in a schedule inluding a line labelled 'rent'. When the rules were changed to prohibit payment of rent to a spouse it was not obvious to him (and isn't obvious to me) that the rule meant he couldn't charge rent any more.
Are you saying he ought to have moved to a flat next door - not so good and more expensive - and increase the burden on the public purse?
I think you perhaps could be a little less quick to condemn and a bit more tolerant of other people's failings.
Love,
Anthony
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Does this make James Landie a rentboy?
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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This is nothing to do with moving to the flat next door. You knew that argument to be facile when you posted it.
Every time he signed the expense chit after the rules changed, each and every time, he lied. Each time was an individual and unique lie. Each time was voluntary, and each time it was a lie. Each lie defrauded the nation of the sum of money for the rent.
Maybe that was likely to go undiscovered when he was a minor MP in a minor party. I'm surprised that his expenses weren't revealed before in the great furore last year, but they weren't. They've been revealed now. And, even worse than that, he had accepted a position that made such an expense claim "even worse" if it could be argued that there is something worse in this case than expenses fraud.
That he is gay and was not out is a distraction. That he wanted privacy is a distraction. That Cameron has said he is an honourable man is, frankly, a load of cock. He is a liar. And he has to go. Actually he has to go as an MP now, too. He is not fit to serve.
[Updated on: Sun, 30 May 2010 17:29]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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It would appear that it does.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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My guess Anthony, is that you don't see the whole picture eh?
Any Preoccupation With What Is Right Or Wrong In Conduct, Shows An Arrested Intellectual Development. -Oscar Wilde
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