The expense confusion of MP QUENTIN DAVIES

News 15 12 2009: MP Quentin Davies laughs off the bell tower expense claim. The first letter accompanying his Fees Office invoice expressed: "an exceptional and very high (though very essential) repair bill which takes my claim to more than the annual limit". As to Mr Davies’ 2nd letter to the fees office the Telegraph picks up on that in the same week that Douglas Hogg decided to stand down after submitting billing to repair a moat - Mr Davies wrote again to the fees office. In 2008, his Member's Claim Form for Additional Costs Allowance was filled out with a figure of £20,700 relating to maintenance to a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Bell Tower to which it was later amended to read some £5,376. According to the Express posts Mr Davies admitted that at no point did he ask the fees office not to pay for the Bell Tower.

 

Given a General Election be on the horizon perhaps the Nation should drive down the middle of the road just like the Government do – taking lanes that then best suit their needs. As regards Mr Cameron for PM perhaps the Nation should follow the character assessment made by Mr Davies in 2007 when he resigned from the Conservatives the night before joining New Labour and in a letter he wrote to Mr Cameron: "Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything. It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda.". Davies went on, "I am looking forward to joining another party...which has just acquired a leader I have always greatly admired, who I believe is entirely straightforward, and who has a towering record, and a clear vision for the future of our country which I fully share.". He accused David Cameron of "superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions." He said that these qualities ought to "exclude you from the position of National leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative Party to achieve.".

As regard to Mr Brown’s character the then Conservative Member Mr Davies, two years earlier, summed him up in a speech given in the House of Commons to which he described Gordon Brown as "extraordinarily incompetent", "imprudent", "extraordinarily naïve" and said in conclusion "I trust and believe that something nasty will happen to the Chancellor in electoral terms before too long. He will have no one but himself to blame.".

 

In October 2008 Quentin Davies became Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) responsible for Defence Equipment and Support, replacing Lady Taylor as both Parliamentary Under-Secretary and Defence Procurement Minister. In less than a month after taking Office Mr Davies came under fire when an SAS reservist commander in Afghanistan resigned because of what he described as a 'chronic underinvestment' in troops' equipment and called the government's attitude to the consideration of the lack of military equipment 'cavalier at best, criminal at worst'. In response Mr Davies said: "Obviously, there may be occasions when, in retrospect, a commander chose the wrong piece of equipment, the wrong vehicle, for the particular threat that the patrol or whatever it was encountered and we had some casualties as a result.".

News 15 December 2009: Defence Minister Quentin Davies indicates that a number of RAF bases could be closed such that troops in Afghanistan have “kit” – inclusive of Chinook helicopters. As part of the cost cutting measures necessary part of the sovereign base areas in Cyprus may be sold – this following Mr Brown’s announcement to sell assets in coving debt. The announcement follows the publication of a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) which indicated the gap between the cost of planned weapons projects and what the MoD can actually afford could be as much as £36bn. On the 10th December 2009 it was reported that the Gov must find the same £36bn figure over the next 4 years. The NAO says that "The MoD has a multibillion-pound budgetary black hole which it is trying to fix with a 'save now, pay later' approach," ; "This gives a misleadingly negative picture of how well some major projects in MoD are managed, represents poor value for money and heightens the risk that the equipment our armed forces require will not be available when it is needed or in the quantities promised."

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, said: "This constant failure to contain cost and keep to timetable means that taxpayers' money is being wasted and our armed forces are being denied vital equipment which has meant a reduction in capability. It is shambolic."