Why isn't Maria Miller in jail?

The_Abyss · 9 Apr 2014 at 07:34

DisrupTor75 said:
The vast majority of them are millionaires anyway

Whilst I don't disagree with much of the sentiment here towards Maria Miller, the above statement is nonsense.

Hades · 9 Apr 2014 at 07:38

Well she resigned 10 minutes ago and about time too.

ShakenNstirred · 9 Apr 2014 at 07:54

if you lock her up you would have to lock most of the other MP's also, there just as bad as she was, just they haven't been court yet.
there a bunch of low life's

doodah · 9 Apr 2014 at 07:56

Inevitable. Why has Wallace been surprisingly quiet/reserved abiut the whole affair? Where did they pluck £5800 from?

scorza · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:00

So she quits as culture secretary but remains an MP and will still be able claim expenses that got her into this mess in the first place. Good to see the Prime Minister still supporting her though, saying he wants her to return to the front benches in due course.

deuse · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:05

Give her a Public flogging then make her pay back the £45,000

The Geezer · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:05

It's called Parliamentary Privilege, technically no law has been broken.

The independent authority found mistakes not fraudulent activities to the tune of £54,000 which was then reduced via peer review to £5,800.

I would only ask one question - what is the difference between 'circumstances changes' when you are on benefits compared to an expenses claim as an MP ?

Appreciate this all happened under the old rules meaning technically she did nothing wrong but it is not in-keeping with the "Spirit of the Rules" which is not a criminal offence.

glenimp617 · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:34

She hasn't done anything illegal has she?

Meridian · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:41

Burnsy2023 said:
She needs to be convicted of a criminal offence for starters.

Stop being accurate, this is the OcUK lynch mob here.

But yes, technically she hasn't committed any criminal offence, just been very clever with her expenses claims. My personal beef is not with her, but the committee which decided to reduce the pay-back to a tenth of what she overcharged. I would also guess that this resignation was timed to exactly coincide with Cameron's second declaration of support. At the same time, Cameron would have told her that the support would expire in forty-eight hours if she didn't go.

scorza · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:41

glen8 said:
She hasn't done anything illegal has she?

I dunno, but if you or I claimed £45,000 worth of expenses we weren't entitled to I rather suspect we'd end up behind bars.

Uther · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:50

Excellent, now the government can turn the medias attention back on to all those disabled layabouts and benefit scroungers they are so fond of attacking whilst they themselves quietly carry on fiddling thousands...

estebanrey · 9 Apr 2014 at 08:56

Burnsy2023 said:
She needs to be convicted of a criminal offence for starters.

I never knew fraud was no longer a criminal offence.

Tuppy_Glossop · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:08

estebanrey said:
I never knew fraud was no longer a criminal offence.

I don't think that was his point. It was a very literal answer to the question in the thread title. To be jailed she would first have to be: accused, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a custodial term.

Uther · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:08

estebanrey said:
I never knew fraud was no longer a criminal offence.

Seems to depend who you are...

XeNoN89 · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:10

Tuppy_Glossop said:
I don't think that was his point. It was a very literal answer to the question in the thread title. To be jailed she would first have to be: accused, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a custodial term.

Seems the title of thread would make more sense as ' Why hasn't Maria Miller been charged with fraud?' or something similar.

Haggisman · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:18

arknor said:
Someone was in the news for stealing 50k in benefits recently right?
I think she got a pathetic prison sentence and only had to pay back a fraction but an MP should be made an example of surely because what they do in their position of trust is far worse

I think the story you're thinking of is the girl who had £52k put in her account by the council and decided to spend it. Which is somehow worse than someone actively trying to claim the money

aardvark · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:25

they need to go for the corrupt select committee, chaired by the equally dodgy labour mp who has done pretty much the same thing.

Burnsy2023 · 9 Apr 2014 at 09:39

Tuppy_Glossop said:
I don't think that was his point. It was a very literal answer to the question in the thread title. To be jailed she would first have to be: accused, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a custodial term.

Indeed, and actually getting a conviction isn't trivial. Proving dishonesty offences can be particularly difficult sometimes.

matt_fsr · 9 Apr 2014 at 10:03

And yet there are still politicians out there who seem baffled by the lack of interest in politics by the majority of people in this country, and the relatively low voter turn-out in elections.

They only have to look to themselves, to work out exactly why that is.

a1ex2001 · 9 Apr 2014 at 10:25

matt_fsr said:
And yet there are still politicians out there who seem baffled by the lack of interest in politics by the majority of people in this country, and the relatively low voter turn-out in elections.

They only have to look to themselves, to work out exactly why that is.

This a thousand times over!

I'm sick of the lot of them politics has a total disengage with the people of this country and it won't be fixed until we have real people at the top and the current ridiculous political elite who are only in it for what they can get are swept aside.

Sadly can't see it happening so we are stuck with old Etonians on both sides of the house and our money disappearing into the pockets of self serving snobs who have no idea what life is like for the rest of us!