Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/welsh_assembly_ipods_tory/
Welsh Tories ask taxpayers to pick up iPod tab
Apple fan boyos
Posted in Bootnotes, 12th December 2008 16:09 GMT
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Taxpayers will be baying for blood today after the Welsh assembly published a list of its members' expenses which included two claims for iPods.
According to the Beeb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7778721.stm), Tory leader Nick Bourne, who represents Mid and West Wales, and fellow Conservative Alun Cairns submitted the MP3 players, worth a combined £398, as 'office costs'.
Bourne also used his additional costs allowance to buy a £120 trouser press and has claimed a total of more than £5,000 over the past two years on his (presumably marble-floored) bathroom.
Music lover Cairns, who is a South West Wales Assembly Member, also claimed £250 for a Dyson vacuum cleaner bought for his office.
And it doesn’t end there, as the Tories are telly addicts too.
Monmouth Conservative AM Nick Ramsay bought his office a TV, stand and television insurance for £814.98, after spending £977.95 on a Sony LCD telly and surround-sound system in August this year.
And step forward former South Wales Tory AM Laura Ann Jones who bought a television costing more than £1,000 in January 2007. She lost her seat in the May election of that year.
A Conservative spokesman confirmed to the BBC that no one knows what became of that TV.
The assembly issued a breakdown of AM’s claims for their offices, living allowances and travel expenses today.
A Welsh Conservative spokesman said: "All of these claims are legitimate and within the rules."
However, he didn't explain how an iPod fits into an AM's working day. Presumably, they've been taking a leaf out of George Bush's picture book (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/12/bush.ipod/). ®