Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

June 19, 2009

It's unclear whether a member of Britain's Parliament may have purchased a PlayStation game with his tax-funded expense account, reports Eurogamer.

A number of MPs have been found to have used public funds for questionable expenses in recent months. Eurogamer spotted the Labour Party's Nigel Griffiths (left) among a list of MP with oddball expenditures published by The Guardian. Griffiths strongly denied that he bought a game, however, and Eurogamer can't find one with the title as given:

According to a list of the stranger expense claims... Nigel Griffiths, Labour MP for Edinburgh South and former deputy leader of the House of Commons, expensed "GBP 29.99 for a PlayStation computer game, Premiership Arsenal".

Griffiths disputes the report, however, telling The Sun that the Dixons receipt in question is misleading. "It's not a game, it's a branded memory stick," said the beleaguered MP. "I'm well past playing video games."

We certainly don't recall a game called Premiership Arsenal and can't find any reference to one, either, although it's possible the title refers to Codemasters' PS2 offering, Club Football: Arsenal 2005.

Under somewhat more of a microscope than Griffiths is frequent video game critic Keith Vaz, also of the Labour Party. Bruce on Games cites a BBC report detailing Vaz's questionable use of public funds:

[Vaz] claimed more than £75,000 to fund a second home in Westminster, even though his family home is just 12 miles away in Stanmore. The Telegraph also suggested he changed his designated second home for a single year to property in his Leicester constituency, before claiming more than £4,000 on furnishings.


Comments

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

To those coming late to this story (i.e. everyone from outside the UK who isn't interested in the minutiae of British politics) (e.g. everyone) this is currently the Big Story in the UK. New revelations come out every five minutes, and it's rocking the house of cards hard enough to mix metaphors.

It's not a very good time to be a British taxpayer, and it's an even worse time to be an MP. It's a good time to be Ian Hislop though.

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

We were just talking about how 'Have I Got News for You' is going to have yet another open-season this week ;)

The latest part of the sage is the 'official' expenses release, which seems to add up to about 400 pages of black paper where it's been censored more heavily than some Official Secrets Documents...

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

Ironically, they've wasted more taxpayer money on the additional toner required to redact all that.

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

If he did , thats coruption. But he's an MP, if he can't afford a PS3 game-then they are underpaid and that leads to more coruption.

 

We don't need the government, all we need is Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security!

We don't need the government, all we need is Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security!

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

It wasn't corruption and they were not underpaid. The MPs created rules for themselves which basically let them charge anything they bought (including porn, duck islands, kit kats and even the kitchen sink) to the tax payer. Every MP was at it, whilst what they did was undoubtedly wrong it cannot be classified as corruption (because the rules let them get away with everything).

If we had the date of the expense we could easily see whether it was a game or a flash drive as claimed by seeing the relative release dates of both items.

I'm also surprised that no one has commented on his comments saying that he is too old for games.

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

They CAN afford stuff like that, they just prefer us to foot the bill.

--------------------------------------------------

I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

-------------------------------------------------- I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

Reminds me of GM in america, the government pays to own half and the government is funded by taxpayer money.

We don't need the government, all we need is Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security!

We don't need the government, all we need is Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security!

Re: Did MP Buy a PlayStation Game with Taxpayer Money?

I wish I were a MP.


Steam ID: canadakiller

Re: Did Member of Parliament Buy a PlayStation Game with ...

Probably something like this:

http://www.memorybits.co.uk/shop/usb-flash-drives/official-arsenal-2.0gb...

 

Means that when you lose them on a train, they are easier to find ;)

 
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