The Wardman Wire

Garbo posted a video yesterday from German Television showing Members of the European Parliament signing in for their daily allowance, complete with packed up suitcases to facilitate (we are told) a quick and immediate getaway to the airport. It shows embarrassed MEPs hiding in lifts, covering their faces, and all sorts of fun and games. Irish MEP Kathy Sinnott is even shown claiming (at 7am) that she had already put in a full 7 hours work. That’s what we like to hear - midnight oil being burnt.

The video was also posted at EU Referendum and sundry other places, but seems unaccountably to keep vanishing from Youtube (unless I have a unique Youtube blocker in my connection).

Anyway, here it is as I have uploaded it again. I have also embedded this copy, and also uploaded several versions to my own space that you may download.

Don’t expect this to stay around for long, however.

Download MEP Expenses - Something for the Weekend

• Flash Format (.flv ~ 12Mb) - download here.
• Windows Media Format (.wmv ~ 38Mb) - download here.
• MP4 Format (.mp4 ~ 36Mb) - download here.

About the Video

This is the blurb copied from the previous version:

Hans-Peter Martin and RTL in the fight against abuse of expense allowances:

A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in Brussels earns approx. 14,700 euros per month (~£11,587), according to this RTL Report (in German with English subtitles). How much the MEPs have to work (or don’t work) for their €14,700 is the subject of this on-site RTL investigation in Brussels. The video is about MEPs who sign in on attendance lists and then disappear immediately for their weekend. RTL investigating journalists were thrown out of the EU building in Brussels during their work.

Some MEPs try to justify themselves, some to invent excuses, again others flee before the camera and dash off to lifts or also in their confusion bump into the wall (German MEP of the Green Party)!

One-man crusader Hans-Peter Martin, MEP from Austria:

“A Member of the European Parliament earns on an average more than the German Chancellor Frau Merkel and one wants to hide this from the electorate. Therefore, one obviously must get rid of reporters investigating this.”

Wrapping Up

Hat tip to Blinkx the video search engine, who had a copy in their cache.