Loose Cannon
Labour MP Eric Joyce is in the news headlines again - but for a change not over his MP's expenses - which is just about his only claim to fame these days.
No, the former army major was arrested the other night over allegations of assaulting fellow MPs in the Strangers Bar - of the House of Commons.
The Falkirk MP has since been suspended by the Labour party.
But Joyce he has now been charged with thrree counts of common assault - so he will remain suspended until criminal proceedings are completed.
In 2010 Eric Joyce resigned as a shadow Labour spokesperson following a conviction for drink driving - after refusing to give a breath sample - which is often the sign of a belligerent person who's in denial.
So it sounds as if the man has gone completely downhill and is a bit of a loose cannon these days - which is a shame at a human level - but these things don't happen overnight and make you wonder where all his friends and parliamentary colleagues have been.
In any event the only thing Eric Joyce has been famous for these past few years - is his talent for claiming his MP's expenses
As far as I know - no one has ever heard a cheap out of him on the subject of equal pay.
Falkirk and MPs' Expenses (4 June 2009)
Readers in Falkirk fighting for equal pay will no doubt be as interested as everyone else - in the ongoing scandal about MPs’ expenses.
Eric Joyce, Labour MP for Falkirk, has been in the news recently.
On 31 May, the Mail on Sunday newspaper (not the Telegraph for a change) reported that in 2001 Eric Joyce bought a property, a family house, in London for a purchase price of £250,000.
In 2008 Eric Joyce sold the house for the sum of £383,000 - making a handsome profit of £133,000.
During that period the newspaper reports that Eric Joyce claimed a total of £120,334 in expenses to run the house – to cover the mortgage and maintenance costs.
So, it cost the MP little or nothing to live there – for all those years – because the tax payer picked up the tab via his MP’s expenses.
But the House of Commons rules also allow the MP to hold onto the profit made on the house – despite the fact that this ‘profit’ was made by using public funds.
No wonder so many people think the rules are crazy – and need to be changed.
The newspaper also reported Eric Joyce should have paid capital gains tax on the London property, as it was registered as the MP’s second home - but that he failed to do so.
Readers in Falkirk may wish to contact Eric Joyce to ask what he is doing to support his local constituents in their fight for equal pay. If so, his e-mail address is: joycee@parliament.uk
