The Daily Mail reports:
A Tory MP has been learning Hebrew at the taxpayers' expense following his civil partnership to his Israeli partner, it was revealed today.
Nick Boles, who has called for pensioners to be stripped of their winter fuel payments, free prescriptions and bus passes, claims he is 'entitled' to grasp the ancient Jewish language even if he has got hitched to Shay Meshulam.
Instead of putting his hand in his own pocket he put £678.80p on his MP's expenses to cover the cost of his learning.
Mr Boles met Mr Meshulam on a Conservative Friends of Israel trip and they had a civil ceremony in London last March.
Critics said today the decision to take Hebrew lessons is simply to help him 'make conversation around the breakfast table'.
'Language instruction is a service available to Members of Parliament. I took some Hebrew lessons,' he said in a statement to MailOnline.
'It is something I’m entitled to do,' he said, 'I’ve done it and that’s that,' he added to the Mirror.
Mr Boles, who is MP for Grantham and Stamford in the East Midlands, is believed to be in David Cameron's inner circle.
Don't you just love the phrase 'It's something I'm entitled to do'.
Boles attended this year's 'elite' Bilderger conference and is also a signatory to the statement of principles of the neo-con Henry Jackson Society, so don't expect too much criticism, if any, of his actions from liberal interventionist/neo-con media commentators. If he'd been an anti-war MP charging the taxpayer for private language lessons, we'd never have heard the last of it.
10 comments:
Privilege begats entitlement which begats even more entitlement ad infinitum.
How to break that cycle for the good of society and the world is the question!
Let's hope the voters use their 'entitlement' to send him packing next election.
Dear Neil
As I could not find another way to contact you ( I tried through other channels without success ) I am using your Blog here. Please contact me ASAP URGENTLY! This is a matter of serious priority and it concerns something everyone dependent on the NHS should know about. You can call me at oh too oh ate, too for ate, seven high-five too for . I have read a number of your articles and consider you more than qualified to investigate this. I used to be a Journalist myself. Sincerely, JP
Absolutely agreed. He'll be hoping that they'll have forgotten this episode at the next election.
Let's hope the electorate are reminded!
Boles is a placeman in an incredibly safe seat so he will be in parliament for a long time.
I don't understand why he is claiming £700 when he is earning as much as his parliamentary wage in extra curricular work.
Really don't like the age-old "hidden hand" implications here - especially considering which newspaper this appeared in.
Hi Joga: It's called being a greedy so-and-so. It seems the more money people get the greedier they become.
Robin, what 'age-old hidden hand' implications are you going on about? Boles attended the Bilderberg conference. That's a fact. He's a supporter of the neo-con HJS Society- that's a fact. He's a high-up in todays Tory party and close to Cameron- that's a fact. He doesn't think all old folk are 'entitled' to free bus passes but he does think that he is 'entitled' to private langage lessons at OUR expense- that's a fact. R u saying that this story should not have been reported? And if not, why not?
Bravo to the Mail for exposing this greedy, arrogant man.
As to what paper it appeared in I think it was first in the Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-boles-conservative-mp-learning-1238155 with the DM copying, although the text seems to have changed since Neil repeated it in the blog.
I think it's excellent that Mr Boles has taken some Hebrew lessons - however I can't see any earthly reason why taxpayers should have to pick up the tab for this?
After all, it's not as if he couldn't very easily afford to pay for it out of his own pocket, is it?
(Quite honestly, it's also a bit of a farce to talk about "conversation around the breakfast table". I'm certain that you'd need one helluva lot more than £700 pounds worth of private lessons in order to achieve conversational fluency in an exotic foreign language like Hebrew!)
Neil Kinnock's son, as part of the new European aristocracy, is married to a Danish cabinit minister. Who thinks he learned Danish using money he had earned - even assuming anubody thought any of the Kinnocks ever earned anything of the millions the taxpayer has paid them?
Of course Kinnock isn't a Tory and Boles isn't having a relationship with a Dane.
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