MP EXPENSES FRAUD

The modern [politician] is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness..."

Plenty of column inches have been devoted to this subject and rightly so. It is a huge scandal and should go on for a lot longer yet.

The sheer audacity that these politicians have when it comes to using our taxes. Claiming expenses on everything from taps, bathrobes and kitchens to rent, repairs and redecorations. We are well and truly run by an unremorseful Kleptocracy.

Kudos must of course go to the UK Daily Telegraph which began printing MP’s expenses. Highlighting government waste and fraud is what good journalism is and always should be about. The Daily Telegraph resisted efforts by many to suppress the publication of names and expenses until later on in the year, when it would have been released in a more sanitised version wherein key information would possibly have been blanked out.

Let’s make no mistake about it, it IS fraud and the police should be investigating it to the fullest extent of the law. It is of such a serious nature that it should even bring down the Government, having abrogated the moral high ground with their thievery. Unfortunately, it is not just Labour MPs who are caught up in this whole shameful episode, Tory MPs have remained disgracefully silent knowing their turn will come whilst Labour MPs, already named in the leaks, have the sheer gall to suggest that the Daily Telegraph and its journalists should be investigated.

Politicians, including prominent cabinet members, have also lined up to say they have not broken the rules – of course they haven’t when it is they who make the rules to suit themselves. This is a real life case of the fox promising to guard the chickens. The trouble, of course, is that the existence of a rule or law doesn’t make it just or acceptable. It doesn’t make it right to squander hard earned taxpayers money at a whim and then justify it by the same circular logic on the basis that it is a rule.

This attitude is particularly nauseating at a time when the National Debt is at an all time high and ordinary citizens are told to “tighten their belts”. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that those involved should be made to pay back the money – they should also be sacked and forfeit their pensions pending criminal prosecution.

Some have suggested an expenses card for MPs, which may work but, consider that politicians already get a decent wage by virtue of continually giving themselves pay rises, then why do they need expenses at all, other than for fair lodgings and travel? Consider also that politicians once out of politics get a very nice pension and on top of that have the ability to work, often in lucrative directorships, whilst getting it, a circumstance not applicable to most of the rest of society. Forgive my quaint way of thinking, but politics should not be about “getting rich”, it should be about service to the country. Ordinary citizens cannot and should not be allowed to get away with larceny and fraud at their place of work, so why should politicians?

The Queen, I believe, must do the right thing now and dissolve Parliament, owing to the fact that the population has lost all confidence in their elected representatives and a general election is the only way to restore it.

Should that happen we should kick the morally bankrupt cronies of the Labour Party out, by all means, but the problem is we will vote in the Conservatives and be in same situation in 5 or 10 years time, if not sooner, begging the Labour party to save us from their sleaze, corruption, fraud and mismanagement!

One wonders to what extent it goes on in our local and county councils where establishment parties swap leadership roles on a regular basis and nothing ever changes.

So, will we ever learn?