No expenses spared for our hard working MPs...
18/05/2009
It's no time to be an MP, what with the public and media baying for Parliament's collective blood. There they all are, trying hard to remember which lobby they've been told to go into and vote by their Whips, and everyone is saying they're on the make just because they've been ordering manure, or having their wisteria cut back, at the taxpayer's expense. They must be crying into their nightly bottle of Chateau Lafite.
But I guess, given the choice, I'd probably prefer to be an MP rather than someone who has lost their job in the recession and is faced with losing their home; or a pensioner living below the poverty line.
On one level, you have to feel some level of sympathy for them. The expenses system has evolved, unquestioned, over many years and the culture in the House has always been: "You're underpaid for the thankless task you do, so go ahead and fill your boots with expenses." It's had nothing to do with one political party or another - it's the prevailing culture. The system. The way it's always been done, old boy.
If we're all honest about it, many, if not most of us have worked in an environment where a certain amount of latitude has been allowed on what one could take advantage of without having our fingers rapped.
Journalists (the ones currently laying into the politicians with the most venom) have been in the vanguard - 'expenses' were for many years an area where they were actually expected to push the boat out a bit or being accused of spoiling it for everybody else.
Neither is it a modern phenomenon. When the Times were covering the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, their hack on the spot claimed £3,500 to hire boats and donkeys to get him to and from the dig site - around £135,000 in today's money.
It's the scale of things that irks so much - and the fact that, in almost every walk of life, the expenses culture was knocked on the head years ago.
However, if you think our MPs get a decent wodge and then lash on expenses for good measure, just look at the allowances than an MEP can claim for. The TaxPayers' Alliance has claimed that MEPs can expect to claim as much as £1m over and above their salaries over a five-year stint in Brussels. Their 'subsistence allowance' is 117,000 euros, they have a staff allowance of 489,840 euros, their office expenses can be up to 243,120 euros, with a further 60,000 euros for travel. Oh, and each cops for a pension contribution of 394,000 euros. But then, they do only receive £63,291 in salary. The expression 'gravy train' doesn't begin to cover it.
And for some, even that's not enough. MEP Den Dover is currently trying to clear his 'good name' after being expelled from the Tories political group last year for funnelling £750,000 of expenses into a family firm in just under ten years. He's been asked to return the money (but so far hasn't) and continues to receive his full salary and allowances. When he stands down as an MP he will qualify for a pension of £35,000 a year. The fact that you can claim £75,000 a year in expenses would make most people's eyes water.
Another of our hard working MEPs, UKIP's Tom Wise, is facing criminal charges over what happened to £40,000 that he claimed was paying his researcher - some of which, it is alleged, ended up in his own bank account. Mr Wise, who denies any wrongdoing, is a former policeman.
Remember all this for the European Elections next month: whoever gets the most votes will hardly be struggling to pay their bills for the next five years, so you can make someone very happy indeed by putting a cross against his or her name.
Tony Watts, Editor
YOU HAVE YOUR SAY
Thank you for your thought-provoking leader. I must admit that I
have long thought MPs overpaid. After all, when there is a vacancy [ie at
an election] there is no shortage of candidates - people are desperate for
the power and prestige of the position, so why do we pay them so highly? In
the "normal" world where there are more applications for firemen's jobs than
there are vacancies, the rate of pay is kept remarkably low when one
considers the disadvantages and dangers of the job. Let MPs be judged by
the economics of the market place - after all some of them are keen to use
"market forces" to their benefit when it suits them.
Paul Foss, Bristol
Your editorial was excellent with regard to the current fiasco of MPs expenses.
However,the bigger question is "What DO they do to earn the salary they get?"
Whenever we see Parliament on TV, apart from PMs Questions and The Budget, the place seems empty. Are they not simply expensive Social Workers in their Constituencies? Would it not be more productive to have half as many MPs and more Social Workers full time at the point of need?
John Beadle, Kent
Could there have been any more damning indictment of our present wretched administrators in Westminster that that which took place last Wednesday, 13th May? We were 'treated' to the spectacle of Prime Minister's Question time debating the ongoing scandal of MP's expenses claims, many of whom appear to have had their snouts in the gravy train trough for many years!
Whilst this debate was taking place, BBC TV news was showing the heart rending scenes of the bodies of four (more) of our military personnel being brought back from Afghanistan, (that other illegal war!!) and being honoured by crowds of people as the cortege was paraded through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire.
I wonder if any of our right honourable, ( I use the phrase loosely!) Members of Parliament took the time or trouble to attend to honour these brave souls? I doubt it. Bring back Oliver Cromwell I say, he'd soon sort them out!
Walter J. Bourne, Milton Keynes