Saturday 10 April 2010

Levitt's last words

Tom Levitt has this week written his last column* for your local newspaper in High Peak. It's basically a long list of what he sees as his acheivements, along with recollections about his time in Parliament.

Strangely missing from this is any mention on the expenses outrage, but perhaps that isn't surprising. However, he saves the most disingenuous part until last:
After thirteen years, I have decided to move on.
Tom doesn't make clear that he was moved on by the outrage in his Constituency Party, but his track record of being economical with the truth (if not with our money) is being upheld. His move to stand down was also no doubt motivated by the knowledge that the IPSA report spelt out that the 'golden parachutes' handed out to MPs upon retirement would no longer be anywhere near as generous as they were previously. Back in November last year, we outlined that Levitt would stand to gain £54,403 (£30K of that tax free) under the current system, along with an aptly-named 'winding up allowance' of over £42K.

So the end of Tom Levitt's career as an MP also means the end of this blog. It will remain in cyberspace as a record of his avarice and greed, but there's always our sister blog Levitt Watch, which will keep an eye on what he's up to.

In the words of Levitt "It has been a privilege. Thank you."

*if this link no longer works, try this screen grab

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