MPs who blog are being censored by the Commons authorities - if they use the £10,000 Communications Allowance to pay for it.
A Labour MP says he has been stripped of a Parliamentary allowance for making fun of other MPs on his blog.
Paul Flynn was told to remove posts including ones calling ex-Labour minister Peter Hain a “shapeshifter” and Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik a “clown”.
When Mr Flynn refused he had part of his communications allowance removed.
Other MPs have complained of the Commons trying to “censor” their blogs but the authorities say there are rules on using public money for “propaganda”. (BBC)
There is one very very simple way around it for MPs: Pay for your blog yourself!
Blogging is not an expensive activity. It can be done for nothing with sites such as Blogger and Wordpress, or relatively cheaply with a self-hosted package that gives you far greater control over your blog.
It seems that Paul Flynn has had to go down that route, paying the £250 it costs to run his site each year himself, and has posted this at the botom of his website:
This website is NOT funded by the House of Commons Communication Allowance and is free to express uninhibited views that are not censored by Commons officials.
First comments on that: £250 seems pretty steep for running costs, and secondly: welcome to the real world where you have to actually pay for these sort of things yourself, rather than have the taxpayer pay for them.
I hate the communications allowance. It was only introduced to help incumbent Labour MPs keep their seats and the extent to which it is abused is outrageous.
They should just scrap the allowance and get MPs to pay for their own blogs like everyone else does.
http://www.lettersfromatory.com
Who Pays to run a blog these days? It only costs time. Isn’t this just yet another case of M.P.s claiming allowances for fictitious costs and overheads to “enlighten” the British public with their own biased brand of third rate propaganda and bile? - And as for Flynn…. Ever tried to post a comment that he doesn’t care for? - It either doesn’t appear at all, or he doctors it, to make out that he is right and you are an illiterate idiot.