More on Bill Wiggin and his "open to all" meeting

Early in July I posted this about Leominster MP Bill Wiggin and his supposedly open meeting for constituents to question him about his expense claims. The meeting was clearly not open as many constituents who tried to gain access were barred.

As a result of that post, one of Mr Wiggin's constituents, Ray Borge got in touch with me by e-mail. He was prevented from attending the meeting and has provided the following synopsis of what happened from his perspective and some detail about what he and fellow constituents hope to do about it:

Held in the local Conservative Club. An intimidatory tactic & it only holds 150 people, so ensuring many would be locked out, but Tory members would be there in the majority (they were told to come early).

Supposed to have been a public meeting, yet the local press were not informed, but Tory members were, because one let slip they had all been told when he thanked the chairman for e-mailing him about it.

At 4pm when many would still be at work.

3 scruffy bouncers on the door as I walked in, another intimidatory tactic.

Not recognised as a Tory party member so a Tory activist blocked my entrance at the door & asked for my name & address, despite my showing my driving licence ID as proof I lived in the constituency. He then wrote this down on a clipboard (pure dictatorship tactics).

People still trying to get in after meeting had begun but Wiggin shouted to them because of H&S regulations they couldn't let anymore in. But the YouTube clip (see below) clearly shows Tory town councillor, Brig Peter Jones still letting in those who say they are Tory supporters. The guy with the black jacket & satchel is the guy who found the clip & posted it on YouTube.

Result was approx 90% at the meeting were Tory supporters.

Wiggin was asked through a window by people locked out why he hadn't booked the much bigger leisure centre (the venue they used to select him in 2001). He replied with a smirk to his many supporters inside, 'How was I to know so many would turn up, do I have a crystal ball?'

When asked did he think he was morally justified claiming expenses of £1,300 mortgage payments & £400 for food per MONTH when many in the area don't even earn that amount he replied, 'Yes, I am'.

When asked why he did not downsize from his £900,000 London home to ease the burden on the taxpayer he replied, 'Other people can live like that, I can't!'

As a result of all this, along with other like-minded townsfolk we have started a Leominster Independents Group. Totally independent of Independents on the councils or any party our aim is to overturn Wiggin's 13,000 majority at the next election & work towards town council reforms.

I think the best way for constituents to get rid of Bill Wiggin is to vote for Lucy Hurds, our excellent Lib Dem candidate. The Lib Dems were second placed at the last election are are best placed to take the seat from him.

Also, I must make it clear that Mr Wiggin did not need a crystal ball as he so flippantly said. As I mentioned in my previous post, this meeting took place 5 days after Andrew MacKay's meeting in my own constituency where hundreds of people turned up. He should have known 150 places would not be enough and I think there is a very strong case for suspecting he did and that he restricted places deliberately.

The worst thing is that it seems to have worked. Mr Wiggin's position as MP and candidate at the next election seems secure and David Cameron has backed him. But as the comments above and the YouTube video show the meeting was a joke. I think Ray raises some very important issues and I would be interested to hear what other Tory members think about the tactics used here.

I think Mr Wiggin needs to call another meeting where he can be properly held to account.

YouTube video of the meeting referenced above:

Right, I'm back off holiday

I have just returned from my nearly 2 weeks of camping in Ireland (beautiful country which I had only really seen when out there on business previously and would highly recommend it as a holiday destination).

Although UK newspapers were readily available I tried my best to steer clear of them as much as possible. So what have I missed?

In no particular order, here are a few random things I need to download from my brain at the moment. I may blog on some of them in more detail later.

1. Gerry Ryan is a fantastic radio host (he does the 9:00am - 12:00noon show on RTE 2FM) and I will probably still try to listen to him when I can online now I am back. I cannot think of a parallel UK FM radio show that has such time for its callers (some were given 10 minutes or more to talk on air) and the depth and breadth of subjects covered was remarkable. Are any readers familiar with his work?
2. I read Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan's "The Plan" (in a 4 hour session whilst in Connemara) and was taken with some (not all!) of the ideas contained within. I will post a fuller review of this (possibly broken down into parts) soon. It seems all the more relevant now given Mr Hannan's recent comments about the NHS and one of the chapters in the book is devoted to this.
3. Wimpy have a bizarre policy of not allowing you to specify water as the drink as part of a children's meal.
4. I have finally found something on prescription called Scopoderm that for me, completely stops the symptoms of travel sickness that have plagued me since childhood (even on a choppy ferry bouncing around) although it is not without its side effects.
5. I have been contacted by someone from Bill Wiggin's constituency who was very pleased to see my post on him and his behaviour in May and is astonished that no action has been taken against him by the Conservative Party. He also has some interesting details about his meeting that I was not aware of.
6. The V Festival is on next weekend, not the weekend after as I had originally thought (we have tickets) which has led to all kinds of fun and frolics today trying to rearrange various things!

I will be back to blogging normality imminently!

Jacqui Smith may not get away with it after all...

A few months ago I lamented on here that despite what appeared to me to be the possibility of fraud having been committed by the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in relation to her second home claims, that the media and the authorities were basically going to let her get away with it.

Then more recently the police indicated that they were not going to investigate her. I always thought this was very suspect and the anecdotal evidence I have seen from neighbours etc. would suggest to me that her sister's home was not her main residence. Frankly it beggars belief that a box room in her sister's house could ever have been considered her primary residence when she had a proper house in Redditch.

Anyway, Guido announced today that he is donating £5,000 to fund for the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics which is gathering evidence for a private prosecution against Ms Smith. I support this action as I think this particular example needs to be tested in court properly as it seemed so blatant a contravention of the spirit and possibly the letter of the rules. I cannot afford to give anything like £5,000 but I will give a little bit to this and hopefully many others will so that they can get to the £100,000 they think they will need to launch this prosecution.

I am well aware that Guido helped set this centre up. He has been accused in the past of being partisan although he claims he is against all "sleazy" politicians and I therefore hope that it does not just focus on Labour but that they also look closely at some of the Tories who have been implicated in serious wrongdoing. Bill Wiggin for example would seem to be a prime candidate for an investigation of this nature also.

You can find out the ways to donate here.

Was Leominster MP Bill Wiggin's meeting a sham?

Here is footage from outside Tory MP Bill Wiggin's constituency meeting in Leominster in May this year that he had called to face his constituents in the light of the MP expenses allegations against him:

As can be seen from the footage there were a lot of people who were turned away, even some Conservative activists. It seems that although the meeting was billed as "All Welcome", they were turning people away on the grounds that there was "not enough room". You can also see that when some people identified themselves as Conservatives who Bill had invited, they were ushered in and the line became "You can't come in unless Bill invited you".

I suspect that Mr Wiggin learned from Andrew MacKay’s experience here in Bracknell. I attended MacKay’s meeting and it was a bloodbath. At that meeting that was open to all constituents held in a very large hall (400 odd people were there I estimated) I would say that 80% – 90% of the attendees were against him and there were at least 2 people who filmed the whole thing.

Mr MacKay's meeting was on the 22nd May. The next day he was forced to announce he was standing down at the next election by David Cameron. Mr Wiggin's meeting was a few days later on the 27th May. I suspect that Mr Wiggin saw what happened with MacKay and decided to pick a venue that was far too small and also to do his best to only let Conservative supporters in. The only footage of him available seems to be of him making a statement to camera unchallenged by anyone. I bet MacKay wishes he had been able to rig his meeting like that now.

I spoke to Lucy Hurds, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for the newly formed North Herefordshire constituency earlier today that Mr Wiggin would be defending at the next election following boundary changes. She was distinctly unimpressed with the way he has conducted himself and finds it hard to understand why David Cameron has chosen to stand by him. She has called on Mr Wiggin to resign in a letter today.

I know I said that I wanted to move on from the MPs expenses story but I feel very strongly that Bill Wiggin should not be allowed to get away with this. He is clearly terrified of what will happen if he holds a proper public meeting. David Cameron should make him hold another meeting that is genuinely open to all. And if following this it is clear that his position is untenable then he should stand down.

Hattip to Guido for originally drawing my attention to the Youtube clip.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the original Telegraph story on Mr Wiggin's expenses and here is some coverage from the local Hereford Times about it. They also think he still has some explaining to do. Thanks to Lucy for the links.