Sir Bob Atkins takes the buscuit

Now I am not going to defend the actions of Tom Wise as reported in the NoTW last weekend, but the reaction of Sir Robert Atkins to his own inclusion in the article is extraordinary.

It appears he has taken legal advice on suing the Murdoch Sunday. Well good luck Bob, may the luck of the Dover's descend upon your pompous bonce.

So he says in in yesterday's Liverpool Evening Post, which seems to be a rehashed version of a note he sent to Con Home a day earlier.

Was he really upset about the article itself? Well it appears that he was disgusted that he was on the same page as Tom Wise, who though foolish is in many ways a decent cove.

The article gave details of how the Conservative member pays his wife, Lady Dulcie, more than £30,000 a year as his secretary.

And the newspaper also said Sir Robert paid his son James £2,513.23 a month in 2002.

However, Sir Robert is furious the story was placed alongside an investigation into "greedy Brit MEP" Tom Wise,

He defends himself thus,

"My son worked full-time in Brussels for a period after leaving university and was paid at the same – if not slightly lower rate – as other parliamentary assistants of his age and experience.

"He was head-hunted away on a much higher salary and ceased working for me in 2004".

Errr.. That isn't quite true is it Bob. I was working as a Tory Parliamentary Assistant at the time and you would have been lucky to make 2,513.23 in Euros, let alone in sterling - (According to the ECB figures that would put him on somewhere between 3,901 Euros pcm and 4,108 Euros. Slightly less than average, oh yes, are you sure? I only know of one person who was paid more than that, but he was employed by somebody independently wealthy and his money came from there, not the taxpayer. So that is a lie, and one that can be easily disapproved by any half competent lawyer.

Back then you were quite a cheese in the Tory delegation, and if I remember rightly James moved from your office into the Whip's office. The employment procedures of which are organised by, ahem senior members of the delegation. The job was well remunerated it is true, but it was in the gift of you and your colleagues. Then he was headhunted.

I wonder if was for his intrinsic abilities or for the fact that he was already very well connected with the Tory/EPP scene in the Parliament and the fact that his referees and godfathers were Sir John Major CH and Sir Christopher Gent? Dunno you decide.

Don't get me wrong I have no animus against James Atkins, he seems a friendly enough chap and a mainstay of the expat football and cricket community, but his father's arguments are bunk.

Then his excuses about Lady Dulcie. Well there does seem to be a discrepancy between what was reported in the Stern Magazine on 18th March 2004 by Hans Martin Tillack and what was reported in the NoTW. Stern has it that he was paying her 8,332 Euros per month (68,988 Sterling p.a.) whereas the NoTW only claims "over 30,000". Quite a lot over it seems.

I don't recall either Stern, or European Voice or indeed the European Law Review which repeated the claims being visited by Sue, Grabbitt and Runne.