The Tragedy of Angela Smith

This will be the last Liberal Democrat post for a while. Promise. But while indulging me, may I direct your sympathy to the disaster befalling poor old Angela Smith. Picture her funny tinge when it dawned that ditching Penistone and Stockbridge constituency for the bright lights and fun times of Altrincham and Sale West meant missing out on the £22k "resettlement allowance" conferred on MPs when they lose their seat at an election. Here, read all about it.

What tickles me about this affair is how Smith finds herself exposed for the money-grubbing non-entity we all knew her for. And yes, this was even the view shared on the Labour backbenches before she blazed a trail to irrelevance and a no hope seat. Writing to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Smith claims she's being unfairly "discriminated against". She says she had "no option" but to leave the Labour Party and then had "no choice" but to move constituency as the LibDems had already selected a candidate for her old seat. What a load of self-pitying bilge.

The only person who forced Angela Smith out of Labour was Angela Smith. She didn't have throw her toys out of the pram and go with the PLP flow as they rebelled against the membership in 2016, nor mark out a subsequent trajectory as a self-styled oppositionist. Nor did she have to sign on with the Independent Group and its rapidly evolving nomenclature. The option was there to stay and speak her branes in Labour as per other right wingers, such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips. And as Smith's 14 years in the Commons proved so undistinguished, she could have carried on without anyone noticing her existence too.

Therefore when she writes

To be honest it is terrifying me and cannot say loud enough that I feel aggrieved that after serving our country for last 14 1/2 years I could lose everything because of this rule that if implemented would cost me around £22,000 in loss of Office Payment and 2 months net pay.

the only emotion appropriate to her plight is an intermingling of schadenfreude and contempt. The sheer entitlement of her snivelling is enough to make anyone's lip curl in disgust. I mean, just how will she fare with only her privatised water interests to fall back on? I guess she'll muddle through like the rest of us. After all, she managed after getting caught claiming for four beds for a one bedroom flat under the old MPs expenses system.

But there is one realisation that really must sting Smith. It could not have failed to occur that someone among her LibDem friends knew about her pending disqualification from the Loss of Office payment, but for whatever reason chose not to tell her about it. Being useless, virtually anonymous and a little bit racist means you don't qualify for the silver service treatment afforded Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna, but we will take what little profile you have to buttress the impression the LibDems have momentum and are swelling its parliamentary ranks. And now you've served this meagre purpose, tatty-bye! In other words, the yellow party has played her like a banjo.

An ignominious end to an ignominious career then. And a fitting one at that.