Ghastly Paintings
I wouldn't pay £2 never mind £11,750 for this oil painting of Diane Abbott, the London Labour MP.
What's wrong with an end of term school-type photo to record for posterity who was in the Westminster Parliament during any given time - especially when the whole country is supposed to be tightening its collective belt?
I can just imagine the uproar is such a ridiculous waste of £250,000 was suggested by the Scottish Parliament, yet in Westminster anything seems to go and the public don't say boo to a goose.
Although I find it odd, I have to say, that Labour MPs who are supposed to be committed Socialists like Diane Abbott, Dennis Skinner and Tony Been agree to pose for this nonsense in the first place - and why is it that Diane's painting cost £11,750 while Tony Benn's set the taxpayer back by 'only' £2,000?
At least David Cameron was paying for his own haircuts at £90 a snip - and not dipping into public funds.
MPs splurge £250,000 of public money on 'expensive' vanity portraits
Tax payers' fund the ultimate MP vanity project – having specially commissioned portraits of themselves painted by the UK's leading artists
By JENN SELBY - The Independent
David Cameron’s extortionate £90-a-time haircut (and subsequent MBE for hairdresser Lino Carbosiero) might have set the average tax payer’s teeth on edge.
But that regular expense is but a snip compared to the £250,000 of public money that has been used to fund the ultimate MP vanity project – having specially commissioned portraits of themselves painted by the UK's leading artists.
According to an exclusive report published by the Evening Standard, these include spends of £10,000 on a portrait of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, £4,000 to preserve Foreign Secretary William Hague in oils and £8,000 for a painting of Kenneth Clarke.
Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott is said to have set the public funds back £11,750 for a seemingly topless oil painting of herself (pictured), while Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn each sat for portraits at costs of £2,180 and £2,000 respectively.
