Stephen Pound showing off his well known charm

They Work For You report an interesting exchange in the House of Commons yesterday. It seems that David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate, Conservative) having just entered the Chamber started to ask a question of the Minister:

"My hon. Friend makes a characteristically good case in support of his argument, and I join him in supporting-"

only to be interrupted by Mr Deputy Speaker Mr Lindsay Hoyle):

"Order. Some hon. Gentlemen have just come into the Chamber, but in fairness they ought to have been here for most of the debate. I am being quite lenient, but I really do think that we ought to think about that in future."

The Minister, Philip Davies (Shipley, Conservative) replied:

"Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will continue. I will have a chat outside with my hon. Friend; we can resolve our potential differences outside the Chamber."

To which the great wit and would be hardman Stephen Pound (Ealing North, Labour) retorted:

"See you outside."

Philip Davies (Shipley, Conservative)took the sensible line and replied

"My hon. Friend is much bigger than I am, so I would not want to get into an argument with him."

So is Stephen Pound a wag and humorist or does he really think he is a hard man? Here's Stephen Pound showing his more feminine side...



Here's some background on Stephen Pound that I feel every constituent should know, from his Wikipedia entry:

'In 2003 BBC’s Today Programme asked its listeners to suggest a law that they would like to see put onto the statute books. The BBC received 10,000 nominations and five were short-listed, from which listeners then voted to select their preferred choice. Stephen Pound agreed to sponsor in parliament whichever idea eventually won the final vote. On 1 January 2004 it was announced on air that first place with 37% of the vote had gone to the proposal to authorise homeowners to use any means to defend their home from intruders. (The controversial farmer Tony Martin was still very much in the news.) Stephen Pound’s on-air reaction to the result was that, "The people have spoken — the bastards".'

What a charmer...

Stephen Pound's voting record is worth a reminder:
* Voted against a transparent Parliament.
* Voted for introducing ID cards.
* Voted for Labour's anti-terrorism laws.
* Voted for the Iraq war.
* Voted against investigating the Iraq war.
* Voted for the hunting ban.
* Voted for laws to stop climate change.

And his expenses record is also worth recalling:

'In May 2009 it was discovered Pound had claimed a mileage allowance of £4,251, equating to 11,004 miles of travel between his constituency and Parliament 11 miles away. He explained this by saying he made the trip 'two or three times a day'.

Pound is one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret.'

I just don't see how Stephen Pound's explanation holds water. As I blogged back in June 2009:

'Let's take an average of 10 miles per one way trip for this West London MP which makes 20 miles a round journey for this Honourable Member. Now the House of Commons itself says that the House of Commons sat for 165 days in the 2007/08 session but let's be generous and assume that not only did Stephen Pound attend every sitting day they also went to the Palace of Westminster for other important Commons business on another 35 days (that's almost three days a month), thus making a nice round total of 200 travelling to Westminster days. Now 200 days at 20 miles a round trip makes 4,000 miles. So why the claim for 11,004 miles?

Could Stephen Pound please substantiate his claim of travelling two or three times a day to the Palace of Westminster? If he did do this regularly surely he would have diary entries to show he was frequently between his two places of work.

Completely coincidentally; I note that Stephen Pound voted 'Aye' in the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, Clause 1, Exemption Of House Of Commons And House Of Lords back in 2007. In other words he was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret. '