The expenses scandal

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1401674]
And while we're at it, I'll point you towards today's Matt:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

It would depend on what my local MP had been up to. As it happens, I didn't vote for her - she is Tory - but she seems to be pretty much in the clear. I am certainly not going to condemn all members of a party simply because other members have their noses in the trough. Nor do I think for a moment that any of the smaller parties wouldn't behave in exactly the same way given half a chance.

This has happened because the party leaders - and this is on Labour's watch, which makes it more their fault - have been reluctant to raise MPs pay to what would be the going rate for the job, They have therefore brought in a series of nudge-nudge wink-wink expense allowances.

Most people fiddle expenses at some stage of their lives, even if it is only a couple of quid. I, for one, am perfectly willing to forgive small and silly errors, whether they were actually errors (or can be blamed on an accountant or the scrutineers, or not.) What I cannot forgive is the 'switching'.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

I am not so sure about the going rate for the job. Some of them, I suspect, have the skills of a professional politician, but could not do a real world job very well.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

The problem is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

They may claim to be paid peanuts, but the vast majority of UK citizens have to get by on a fraction of their income. It does make sense to pay them enough so that they should have less incentive for corruption, but I also feel uncomfortabel that they have little real understanding of how normal peoplelive.

Some MPs could do a real-world job that paid as much or perhaps considerably more than they get as MPs, but I suspect that many would not manage to do any other job nearly as well paid as their present one. In that sense, pay lots more than peanuts, and still get monkeys.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Well, we could move the whole shebang out of London - probably to the Midlands - and save a whole lot of money.

On the other hand, there has been strong feeling against anyone holding another job outside parliament. You pays your money, you takes your choice.

I am really, really scared that we will go down the anti-intellectual American route.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I wholly agree.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

At my old firm (which paid very poorly for an accountancy firm), we made this point to one of the partners once. He replied "And if you pay truffles, you get pigs".