Talk:Andy Reed (politician)

Untitled
I do not really understand why we have in the background section about his early life and then in the personal life section mention his adoption at the age of three months. I believe this should be combined into one paragraph and I propose that the paragraph should be in the background section. Any objections? --Stefanjcarney (talk) 15:44, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Structure?
The introduction appears much too short. The longest section, expenses seems disproportionately large considering it merited only 4 lines in the Telegraph and didn't involve "flipping". It doesn't allow me to compare his expenses with other MPs, nor does it tell me how accessible he is to his constituents etc. and what he does in Parliament. In short, it doesn't allow me to guage value for money. Anyone disagree? I'll try and expand existing sections -with proper references, and hopefully we'll have a more balanced article JRPG (talk) 19:27, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Expenses Claim.
Having read the Telegraph and other sources carefully, it seems that
 * He overclaimed for £847 -a mistake which any self respecting accounting system should have picked up and corrected but not an indication of fraud.
 * He appears to have mis-stated the cost of his second home on his website but this cost is ranked 266 i.e. nothing special.
 * He doesn't regard the expenses issue as worth a lot of time. MPs are busy people,responsible for an estimated £671B of HM Treasury expenditure and whilst rules needed to be established, MPs expenses are a tiny fraction of government costs.

I don't think the cost of telephones or discusions on boilers is worth including though the references can be left. Anyone disagree? JRPG (talk) 00:06, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Simplification
I note that Stephen Dorrell and Edward Garnier were both asked to repay rather more than Reed i.e. £1530 and £1221 respectively but have no section on expenses. Like Reed, neither was accused of flipping. This suggests most editors regard the sums involved as a simple mistake by accountants and not worthy of inclusion, a view I share. JRPG (talk) 07:33, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I've also removed the main article link as Manual of Style says 'If the topic of a section is also covered in a dedicated article, then this should be marked by inserting directly beneath the section heading' Neither Reed nor fees office errors are mentioned in the expenses scandal and it would be inappropriate to suggest they are. JRPG (talk) 11:23, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Expenses Claim:Libellous material. NPOV
The expenses claim appears to me to be libellous. There is no discrepancy. Reed claimed £490 a month on the mortgage, £105 a month for utilities including gas, electricity and water rates, £62 a month on council tax, there is a service charge of £450 per quarter, according to the Loughborough Echo. All unfortunately part of the cost of living in the centre of a very expensive city. JRPG (talk) 22:02, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The paper revealed that Reed had claimed thousands of pounds for home entertainment equipment. The Loughborough Echo revealed nothing of the sort.  The cost of the equipment was under £1000.
 * The Legg Report, published on 4 February 2010, revealed that Reed was asked to repay £891.48 of overclaimed expenses. No! The Fees office mistakenly paid the expenses twice.
 * when the Daily Telegraph obtained copies of MPs' expense claims they found a significant discrepancy in Reed's mortgage interest claims for his second home in Westminster. Reed's website stated that he claimed around £450 a month from taxpayers for mortgage interest on his Westminster home but the Telegraph's investigation discovered that his actual submitted claims were for between £727 and £1,180 a month

I'll amend this section and shorten it, ASAP and I hope everyone agrees.

JRPG - this material is not libellous. (1) The Echo revealed Reed had spent £1,000+ on home entertainment equipment. (2) The fees office DID order Reed to repay money - there is no question about this. Read the Legg report! (3) The Telegraph clearly stated they found a discrepancy!

This material should not be blanked in the way you suggest and to do so would affect the NPOV. Lboids (talk) 19:32, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Lboids,

Firstly thanks for your views and I appreciate the time and effort you must have spent on this. Theyworkfor you is a reliable source but frankly if his expenses and costs are in the middle order then the request to pay the £891,not yet paid is about the only thing 'notable'. Of course I included that but we don't want a list of everyday household items in an encyclopedia. I also think AR's public debate on boilers repairs wasn't very clever and its ridiculous for a highly paid MP to waste time saving £30 bargain hunting so I missed those bits out too.

Re Max Hunt. I know he works/has worked on immigration issues as a part time constituency worker. This is covered I believe by staff costs and really isn't notable.

Re libel, this is an area which I have some some knowledge, hence my concern. A good quality phone is a vital piece of office equipment not entertainment. "Reed had claimed thousands of pounds for home entertainment equipment". Sorry but we're not talking several thousand pounds here so this appears at least a misleading statement even though the source is clear. Libel apart, is it noteworthy compared to other MPs?

On a general point, a second home in London is expensive and the main criticism has been of MPs who flipped mortgages or improved homes just before moving. That would be noteworthy but Reed was at his present address for 11 years and hasn't been accused of that. His expenses are still way below the maximum allowance under new rules.

For the record, I've worked in Loughborough, ironically on gas boiler software. I've previously had meetings with 4 Labour and 3 Tory East Midland MPs, they all seem decent people, and all helped me -and their constituents. My priority is to give a fair description of policies and work to everyone including now of course to potential voters in this key marginal. If after reading this, you revert then I intend to ask for an urgent NPOV/BLP check. If you want to expand constituency work/views, fox hunting is probably the most controversial issue not covered, particularly as he lives in Quorn. I will attempt to get a photo and write something about tax. You may also want to write some more about the Loughborough constituency. Please also feel free to email me.

BTW, I note you seem to use quotes from Stephen Hodgson's blog. Do you have any quotes reported in newspapers from Nikki Morgan, the Loughborough PPCC on expenses? That of course might be notable.

You may also want to look at NPOV, No original research,Identifying reliable sources, and Notability. I haven't removed anything that is both notable and reliable.

Regards JRPG (talk) 10:03, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Partly Loyalty.
I'm in the process of providing more info on policies + good links and I'll increase the section on Iraq, Identity cards follows the party line. I don't think the reader is interested in seeing a typo. JRPG (talk) 18:07, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

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