Stephen Hodgson

Archive for October, 2009

In a bizarre public admission, Loughborough MP Andy Reed has described himself as a “catastrophic MP”.

Either I’m missing something or it’s simply the amusing result of not proof-reading before posting.

Update (01/11/09): The reference to Reed as a “catastrophic MP” has now been removed from his website.

Mike Rouse has pointed out that one of his MPs in Coventry, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, has refused to reveal the contents of his “Legg letter” – the letter which was sent to all MPs by Sir Thomas Legg this week either giving their expenses the all-clear or requesting further information or a repayment.

Bob Ainsworth isn’t the only MP who doesn’t want to reveal his Legg letter. On Wednesday the Leicester Mercury ran a story about the contents of local MPs’ Legg letters but, along with Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, Loughborough MP Andy Reed wouldn’t tell the Mercury whether Sir Thomas has asked him to repay any money.

On Thursday I challenged Andy Reed, via Twitter, to publish his Legg letter. Mr Reed’s very telling response to my request was to not only ignore it but to also “block” me from following him on Twitter! I see two problems with Mr Reed’s response: (i) it betrays a misunderstanding of Twitter as a medium, which should be used for two-way communication (not simply broadcasting) and (ii) it is pointless because the andyreedmp Twitter feed is a public feed – so I can still read it anyway!