Pot, Kettle, Fat.

Bit rich for George Foulkes to be lecturing Alex Salmond about claiming for food isn't it? Foulkes has done another one of his cringe worthy video blogs today where he lays into the expenses claims by SNP leader Alex Salmond. Given the extremely dodgy connections Foulkes has to various outside interests and the fact he claims multiple salaries at the taxpayers expense, AND the fact that he was the only person that would go on TV to defend the disgraced Michael Martin, doesn't really give him a leg to stand on.

Watch the video

here

if you have nothing better to do and are in a particularly masochistic mood.

Galloway Backs Boris

Good spot by the

TYC

, it seems those CF taxi receipts went far...

50 + 50 = 200

Think the maths says it all in this claim from Ian Stewart MP:

Jesus wept.

Sedition

PA are

reporting

a new low in the disgraceful behaviour of everyone's favourite jumped up pressure group - the Scottish National Party. They have been accused of "airbrushing" the Queen from a photograph of a group of nationalist traitors in a town council chamber. The "doctored" picture appears in an SNP leaflet being distributed in the Falkirk area, according to Labour. It captures Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson and an array of SNP heavies in the town's council chamber.

Rumour has it they replaced Her Majesty with images of the terrorist known as William Wallace.

Ben Bradshaw has an attitude problem...

TB is wondering exactly how buying some train reading at Exeter station, in the shape of

Attitude

magazine helped Ben Bradshaw MP with his parliamentary duties...?

P75

here

.

TB is working on some more serious, potentially criminal, larger scandals, but will try keep the smaller, funnier stuff coming.

Yawn...

TB work up with a bit of a groggy head this morning thanks to cocktails with a pretty lady.

Couldn't have asked for a nice hangover gift though:

Enjoy.

Calling all citizen journos...

At some point today the Parliamentary website will make five thousand odd .pdfs available of MPs expense claims and receipts. Although it is expected that these will be heavily censored, there may well yet be some things that the Telegraph have missed. Citizen journalists and wannabees out there - this is a golden opportunity.

TB sadly can't afford to take a whole room full of interns and researchers like the newspapers can, but that isn't to say that there can't be some fun to be had. If you fancy having a look through any of the stuff, why not email TB anything of interest or note that you find. Any MP you particuarly loath? Why not sniff around what they have been up to.

You can email TB here and if you think it's really juicy, send him your mobile number and he will give you a call straight back. TB has the facilities to get the stories out there to thousands of readers and push them further to the right places, (you never know you could even make a bit of cash if they can be sold onto newspapers, however as far as the bear is concerned, this is about lancing a boil, not taking advantage of an ill wind.)

So get sifting through the stuff.

Another Window Dressing Resignation

Kitty Ussher who, along with Caroline Flint, was one of the only vaguely attractive females in the government quit last night. Apparently she wants to spend more time with her family etc. Bear in mind this comes just twelve days after taking up a job in government.

She may look alright after a couple of pints, but that doesn't stop her being a

cheat and a liar

.

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.

A little birdy told TB that Jim Devine won't still be smiling on Sunday morning.

Vintage Boris:

Apologies for the shameless use of Twitter for amusing stories today, TB isn't

the only one

, but having a very busy afternoon knee deep in the law. Looking into the ins and outs of fraud by misrepresentation and the legal nightmare this entails. All will be revealed...

Anyway in the mean time this made TB laugh. A lot:

Ken was born?

TB always presumed he congealed in a gutter somewhere.

Follow Tory Bear on Twitter

Do you need a receipt?

Nice to see that the NUS, an organisation with an overdraft almost the size as UK plc, isn't cutting back on presidential perks:

Seems President Streeting has as an equally causal disregard for his member's subs as the rest of the trade union movement.

Media handling - Fail.

TB bets that whoever designed Brian Binley's

shockingly bad website

didn't factor in the thought that the scrolling BBC news feed might one day be leading with a scandal about their boss:

You'd think he would want his own spin on the scandal, that he is denying, to be the most prominent mention of it...

FFS

Seems those pesky Lib Dems have decided to ban Tory Bear from their

forums

, again. Apparently they don't appreciate a little bit of scrutiny and think that banning one his many points of access will stop this. TB would avoid reading the Mirror tomorrow if you are of the sandal wearing, bearded, yellow freak variety.

Not so Liberal now are you?

Smoke and mirrors?

Strange timing on the

Devine show trial announcement

from the Labour Party. Could they perhaps be wanting to deflect a few headlines from a certain Minister who has been under fire all day and could well be on his way to resigning twice in quick succession?

Perhaps Mr Malik will be swinging by the Star Chamber soon.

Who is TB?

If you are one of those readers often enthralled about who the mystical TB really is, then you should probably tune into BBC News 24 sometime around 19.15 tonight.

Will Malik stand down again?

Tory Politico

raises an excellent point:

"The last time the Mr Malik was investigated, he stepped down from his role as Justice Minister. Now that a fresh probe of his expenses claim’s is on the cards will he stand down again?"

Guess we will have to wait and see...

The COPs close in on Malik

The

web is closing

in around Shahid Malik and his dodgy expenses. Sky are now running with the story so fingers crossed the pressure can be sustained.

Some people just don't know how to resign with dignity.

Labour is broken.

TB had the misfortune of bumping into an old Labour friend on the train home last night. Having spent a lovely evening with Sister Bear, and even running into a former Lady Bear, the journey back to the sticks was made even more painful by having to endure the shit chat from this chap that was mainly focused on what "a larf" it was that Bercow was going to be elected Speaker.

TB was at the hustings yesterday afternoon and had to endure this pathetic little brown-noser winking, laughing and waving at his imaginary friends in the audience, (also why is it necessary to nod in agreement to everything your opponent says when behind the scenes you are phone banking through the night slagging them off?) If he sows up the victory it will be another dark milestone for the Labour Party.

The fact that apparently over one hundred Labour members are "supporting" him shows just how morally bankrupt the PLP has become. They don't like this man, but, the thought of scoring one over the Conservatives is too much for many of them to take. It's this mentality that proves just how unfit Labour are for government. They are more concerned with scoring party political points than doing what is best for the country. Labour is rotten to the core. As

this report

shows, there are far better candidates running for Speaker than Bercow, and greater candidates have dropped out of the race for being in Bercow's position- hated by half the House. The Tories could have kept Frank Field in the race but they saw the light and realised what a pathetic thing electing someone who is hated by half the organisation they must represent would be.

If the Labour Party elect their slimy little pet then they should hang their heads in shame. We can't go on like this. This bunch of tribal, vicious, partisan fools must be booted out before they cause irrevocable damage to this nation and forever destroy our once great institutions. If they can't even elect a decent Speaker, someone respected by both sides, someone who is suitable for the job, then they deserve to be routed even sooner than will already happen.

A Bercow victory?

Will the last person to leave Westminster turn off the light...

Lifting the lid on the sand pit...

The Independent

have written a deep feature on the youth wings of the British parties. The close-to-death Young Labour/Labour Students barely get a mention, though this is hardly a surprise given the decline in membership and the total rejection of socialism by the next generation who have grown up with twelve long years of lies. CF get the standard write up, not as right wing or embarrassing as we once were apparently. Which is nice. Liberal Youth are given plenty of room to spin their thang, but their failings are exposed too. Favourite opener from Bagshaw: "Errr nooo"

Helped along gently with the odd quote from TB.

Intriguing...

TB just found this in his inbox:

"Dear all,

The Daily Mail requires six people to work for them from Thursday 18th June through to Monday 22nd June. They need them to pore over the MPs Expenses which are being released sometime on the 18th/19th June. You will be paid and it should be possible to work from home. If you would like to share out the work of one person and do it as part of a group, this should also be fine.

If any of you would like to be considered or have any further questions, please contact blah blah blah"

Having been done over by The Telegraph for the last month you can put money on the Mail praying there is still some juice for their little room of helpers to find. Interesting they went through the

ASI

as well. There must be a hundreds of desperate hacks finishing various journo courses right now who would kill for a break on a national paper.

Not long till the second wave of expenses scandals...

UPDATE 1am: A commenter makes a very good point:

"This might have something to do with an article in the Daily Mail (pre-Telegraph revelations) which suggested that unredacted MPs expenses would show that a number of MPs were having affairs (i.e. claiming for the same hotel room). Just a thought."