Monday, May 25, 2009

Journalists and expenses tales

George Dearsley, a great journalist and a real character, has started blogging here.

There is a brilliant story about journalists claiming expenses, also mentioned on the excellent Grey Cardigan column on the Press Gazette website.

Legendary sportswriter Peter Batt submitted a receipt for a meal he’d had with his wife and two young kids on expenses, passing it off as a lunch with "contacts in the horse racing world". When quizzed as to why there were two “children’s portions” on the restaurant receipt, a straight-faced Peter said: “They were jockeys”.

There's another good one here, courtesy of the Spectator regarding Tory MP Michael Gove in his days as a BBC hack.

One of the receipts was for lunch with Ken Clarke. Gove's boss said he thought that was very interesting, as on the day of this lunch, he himself had lunch with Ken Clarke. Without missing a beat quick-witted Gove looked up and replied, "The greedy bastard... two lunches!"

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