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		Orange Kilroy "Taking the pith" Tuesday, 1st August 2007 Permatanned East Midlands MEP Robert Kilroy Silk has been accused of "Taking the Pith" by his fellow East Midlands MEPs, after statistics showed not only that he misses more than half the votes in the Strasbourg parliament -- but when he does vote, he almost always abstains. Under parliament rules, an MEP has to participate in at least 50% of recorded votes to claim his daily expense allowance, but "participation" can include voting Yes, or No, or abstaining. "He's not voting to represent his constituents", says Tory MEP Roger Helmer, "He's abstaining to get his expenses". Mr Kilroy Silk was elected on a UKIP ticket in June 2004, but left soon after and attempted to form his own new party, "Veritas". This proved a dismal failure, and since then, Kilroy has been an occasional visitor to the parliament (while still drawing his salary and most of his expenses). His participation in recorded votes in the 2005/6 year was 42.9%, declining to 41.1% in 2006/7. (For comparison, Mr Helmer's average over the period was above 80%). Kilroy is believed to reside in Spain, and is rarely seen in the East Midlands. In 2005, Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris offered a bottle of champagne for the first public sighting of Kilroy in the region. It was never claimed. But in a recent reallocation of seats in the plenary chamber in Strasbourg where the votes happen, Mr Helmer found himself overlooking Mr Kilroy Silk during the voting, and noticed that he almost always abstains. After checking the record, he found that in the May voting session for example, Mr Kilroy Silk had abstained in more than 87% of the votes. By contrast most members vote a clear Yes or No, and only abstain occasionally. In the May plenary session, by comparison, the Conservative delegation whip contained no abstentions at all Speaking today, Chris Heaton-Harris said: "I'm guessing he abstains because he has no idea what he's voting on, and would rather abstain than risk voting for something he disagrees with. But he's paid to represent the people of the East Midlands, and to vote in their interests, and he's just not doing his job".