Politicians aren't exactly the best loved members of society at the best of times. Lying in between tax auditors and the parking superintendents.
Looking beyond the hysteria, what's of concern is the system that's in place, which allows elected members to claim for all manner of expenses.
Quite rightly members are entitled to claim for day to day expenses as incurred as part and parcel of being an elected member. The line however is crossed when rather than claiming expenses, it appears that the 'honorable' members are milking the expense system as a personal cash cow to supplement their 'meager' salaries.
Unfortunately, none of the members as far as it can be determined have actually committed any crimes. All the expenses were submitted in line with the parliamentary guidelines.
Its particularly galling to see each and everyone of the parliamentarians admit to the claims, but for the love of god refuse to acknowledge any wrong doing. Technically they maybe correct, however an apology recognising the fact that what they claimed went against the 'spirit' of the system would have gone a long way to dampen the public's annoyance.
It'll be interesting to see what the fallout from this will be. More so on how the public view the serving members and what the ripple effects will be for the minority parties like the BNP.
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it"
Albert Einstein
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2 comments:
I'm not entirely sure they did act within the rules- especially with all the revelations on the "bullying" of Commons staff who had the "audacity" to question claims. Also, the rules state that the expenses must be incurred purely as a result of parliamentary business and not be luxury items. It's hard to see how much of this falls into that category.
I was quite impressed by Cameron over this. I'll be interested to see how much he actually makes them pay back.
Good point, and its even more pertinent with the fresh allegations. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, this has the potnetial to really bring down the government.
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