Thursday, July 30, 2009

Witch hunts at Westminister need to focus on the real abuse


Dear All

The expenses scandal has done a lot of good and a lot of damage to those leected to Parliament but there comes a time when trivial is present as major wrongdoing.

There needs to be perspective by both the public and the House of Commons if Parliament is to rebuild the trust that it deserves as an institution.

The latest “outrage” is that MPs are still being allowed to claim £25 a night in expenses without even producing receipts.

This is hardly worth getting steamed up over as expenditure can be examined in total at the end of the financial year.

What we don’t need is a continual witch hunt.

This £25 can be claimed by an MP who is away from his or her "main home" on "parliamentary business".

That seems reasonable and fair, people do have to eat.

Mps have what is called the Green book which tells them what they are entitled to, the July edition of the book says;

"A flat-rate sum of £25 may be claimed for any night which a Member spends away from his or her main home on parliamentary business”.

"No receipt is necessary."

The change to the regulation was agreed last year and was passed without any real comment.

It seems that in the race to be “tough” by the political parties; they seem hell bent on being stupid, hurried laws are bad laws.

In April this year, the Commons backed a move to remove rules which said MPs could claim up to £25 without receipts.

Leader of the Commons Harriet Harman said;

"There would need to be receipts for all claims. That is something sensible which we could decide now."

In the space of less than a year, the rules change again which begs the question of competence and of the quality of some MPs who seem to be little better than sheep.

The new Speaker, John Bercow will be raising the issue at the next meeting of the Mp’s Committee on pay and allowances.

I would hope that he would find time to think of the wider picture and urge stability in this matter.

Not all MPs are bad members of Parliament but there is a lot who would benefit from being kicked out at the General Election.

The election should be used by the public to punish the guilty and protect the innocent.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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