back to article Taxpayer coughs for AOL Connie's flat

Readers hungry for an IT angle to the unfolding MPs' expenses scandal will be cheered by today's news that taxpayers have been paying thousands of pounds to tart up a flat occupied by AOL Connie, the star turn in a famed series of dotcom-era TV ads punting dial-up internet access. Connie was played by model/actress Rachel …

COMMENTS

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  1. Greg

    Another reason to hate her

    God, I spent 5 years wanting someone to drop a safe on her head or something. So annoying.

  2. Sabine Miehlbradt
    Joke

    That's a new one

    £1,036 for drain cleaning?

    So that's where she put all of those free AOL CDs.

    My dad just gave me some plumbing tools when I moved out.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Who's her ISP?

    Im guessing she has AOL as her ISP. Wonder if she gets it for free?

    Did he claim for that on expenses aswell. He might aswell.

  4. Scott
    Paris Hilton

    Rules

    If i hear one more MP say it was in the rules......

    Its also in the RULES that hackney cabs must carry around a bail of hay for there horses (arse-about-tit example but you get the idea) but common sense is used by taxi drivers and the police with this RULE, shame MPs didn't show the same common sense, then again if you leave children in charge of there dinner money they will generally spend it on other things than what they should.

    Funny thing is a guy at my work got caught fiddling the expenses he got fired straight away and the police where called in and he only fiddle a few hundred quid.

    PH - cause she likes to fiddle things like an MP.

    And someone needs to point out to these idiots just because teh speaker left doesn't mean there all in the clear now.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    re:That's a new one

    > £1,036 for drain cleaning?

    That was my reaction too.

    My first thought was "I'm in the wrong business," but then I remembered that over on your side of the pond your indigenous plumbers are being put out of work by cheap, imported Polish plumbers.

    Seems like for £1,036 you should get a whole lot of drain cleaning. Or something.

    Paris, because I'm told she's pretty good at working on the plumbing.

  6. James Pickett

    CGI

    "a futuristic, vivacious character"

    You mean she was real..?!

  7. Dave

    Drain Cleaning

    £1,036 seems a bit excessive. When my drains developed a blockage I went down to the local B&Q and bought a set of drain rods for £15. That fixed the problem.

    No I'm not going to use the Paris icon, it's too obvious.

  8. Gerard Krupa

    Be fair

    Of course all MPs should be able to claim expenses to pay for the upkeep of any children who aren't talented enough to fend for themselves. After all, not every MP is lucky enough to have children who are capable of racketeering a fortune large enough to start a military coup like Margaret Thatcher has.

    At least we can live in confidence that Wacky Jacqui's upcoming ID card will help to stop all this fraud malarkey.

  9. Rob
    Black Helicopters

    Exercise your rights

    "Its also in the RULES that hackney cabs must carry around a bail of hay for there horses (arse-about-tit example but you get the idea) but common sense is used by taxi drivers and the police with this RULE, shame MPs didn't show the same common sense, then again if you leave children in charge of there dinner money they will generally spend it on other things than what they should."

    Lets all bundle down to our local common on a Sunday and practise archery while we're at it, if we're lucky a few unfortunate MP's might get in the way. Either that or some of them are so think we could probably convince them that we need to practise shooting Apple's off their heads.

  10. Richard
    Pirate

    Hmm

    Let's just be glad that he didn't claim for extra security that time she got mugged.

    It's not as though he'll get voted out at the next election - he's retiring. Nice time to get found out if you ask me.

  11. Jon
    Thumb Down

    BAH!

    I hate Connie even more now.

    Grrrrr.

  12. N
    Paris Hilton

    £1036 for a good rodding?

    Im off to sign up for some plumbing courses!

    Paris as shes an expert in the field

  13. Elmer Phud

    Me Too?

    Back in the old distant days of chat, the posting of only 'me too' (similar to the modern LOL) was prevalent amongst the AOL community and lled to posters on other ISP's just bunging in 'AOL'.

    Looks like Connie's dad saw the gravy train and hopped on board - AOL.

  14. Adam Foxton
    Joke

    "members cannot claim for costs that benefit anyone other than themselves"

    So why are they able to claim for attending the house of commons? They're clearly of no benefit to anyone...

  15. Danny

    Ceefax

    I read this on Ceefax earlier and honestly thought it was Phil Willis who played Connie. What a relief.

    I see Gordon Brown is still not reading his petitions-

    Five most popular open petitions

    We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…

    * resign. (61139 signatures)

    http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On the other hand

    with so many MP's taking liberties with the rules on fivilous expenses, those benefit fraud adverts now look extremely hypocritical.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    word

    no no no no No No NO NO NO!

    FUCKERS, FUCKERS, FUCKERS, FUCKERS.

  18. Richard Johnson
    Thumb Up

    Phil Willis

    Phil Willis is my local MP and has been an excellent constituency MP all these years. Because of that, I'd be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt over expense claims unless the claims were manifestly unreasonable.

    Fortunately, he's got a post on his website explaining the claims he made:

    http://www.philwillis.org.uk/media/page1.asp

    After reading his response, I don't think the claims were unreasonable.

  19. Peter Mc Aulay
    Thumb Down

    Ignorance of the law is no excuse

    At least, not for us. For MPs, however...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Re: Phil Willis

    "Phil Willis is my local MP and has been an excellent constituency MP all these years. Because of that, I'd be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt over expense claims unless the claims were manifestly unreasonable."

    In which case, you will not mind me sending you my claim for having work done on my roof. Why should I pay for the upkeep of someone else's property? Will you also be paying for my fuel and food?

    Why do I have to pay for living expenses out of my wages? The only expenses I can claim are work related, and clearing drains is *NOT* work related.

    Jerk.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Peter Mc Aulay

    MPs are not ignorant of the law surrounding these issues, they made them up!

  22. Andy ORourke
    Happy

    Love the jokers.....

    Check out some of the signatories of http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/

    H Blears

    J Prescott

    G Fawkes

    A Blair

  23. Matthew
    Heart

    Oh, it's only me....

    I always thought she was rather fit in a school-marm/librarian sort of way.

    You know you would.

  24. Joe

    Oh no!

    Not Wiggy - he was my headteacher in high school, and a pretty damn good one too. Everyone liked and respected him, even the scallies. His rebuttal sounds reasonable, but I was so hoping he'd be one of the whiter-than-white ones!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She's been living there since at least 2002

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1975629.stm

    In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I found this while looking for pictures of Miss Willis with which to jog my memory. Of which there don't seem to be many

  26. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

    @Matthew

    She wasn't bad as a stewardess in Fifth Element...

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    One word.

    Wankers!

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    She looks as if...

    ...she's sucking on something.

    PH, because she doesn't - in this photo.

  29. Dark Ian
    Stop

    Boring

    Mr Willis may indeed have made claims 'by the rules' and 'in good faith', but there's no denying that these rules suck. Why should the taxpayer front the redecoration of two properties? What stinks here is that MPs are working within the rules in a manner that they can profit. They probably think they're doing nothing wrong because all their mates are at it too.

    It's boring, and it has to stop forthwith.

  30. Tris Hoar

    Ceefax?

    wtf? it still exists?

  31. Inachu
    IT Angle

    If I was living near there I would.....

    I would be going into these homes and removing anything paid with taxpayer money in these homes.

    If you can't use your own salary then you are a theif plain and simple.

    Really now dry cleaning $8,000 or more?

    Either he has a luandry basket so full he never does his own cleaning oe he owns 1 shirt that is so delicate he should be called a fancy boy and he should be wearing lipstick.

    Also when he send out drycleaning someone should be there to confirm he is using his own salary paycheck money and not from taxpayers money.

    If he can't use his own salary then he should not be dry cleaning in the first place!

    Petty govt theives..... take them out back and shoot them.

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