Parliamentary perks

[Mr Chipps]

I have lost patience with MPs who routinely make outrageous claims and then say it was a mistake. They know and we know that there was no mistake.
Is there anything other than waiting for the next General Election that we can do to express our lack of confidence in the MPs who have blatatly commited fraud and got away with it?
I'm a civil servant and if I did what they are doing I'd be fired tomorrow - no second chance. There must be a way of setting the hounds on these thieves.

[milliezoe]

Pigs in a trough is too nice a description the only thing we can do is vote them out of office at the first opportunity and by that I mean Labour conservatives and liberals what a wake up call that would be to the government I do not think this would happen however it would be nice if it did like you if i commited fraud like them on my expenses I would be out on my ear with no compensation lets all down tools and bring the country to a standstill till they lock up a few bankers as well remember Nick Leeson who got eight years for Barings bank lets put Fred the shred behind bars for eight years maybe thats what needs to happen but I doubt it will ever come about

[Mr Chipps]

I agree millie and it's a shame that the whole country has to rely on the constituents of people like Jacqui Smith to vote her out next time.

[jake-the-peg]

Yeah she could be replaced by Eric Pickles Chairman of the Conservative party who lives 37 Miles from Westminster and still finds it necessary to claim for a second home.

Seriously - you can't call people thieves when they make claims within the rules you have to examine the rules.

Unless you're talking about the films - I find it very difficult to believe that if you put in an expense claim for say a hotel and forgot to delete films from the bill that you'd get fired for it.

A good kick up the rear end I'm sure.

Methinks you do protest too much.

Perhaps it's that cosy civil service pension sitting on your concience

[andy-hughes]

Jake makes a fair point - there is no actual theft involved, simply a deliberate and flagrent flouting of the spirit of the rules, of not the actual laws involved.

My employer - BT - advises that a 45 minute commute each way daily is considered a reasonable distance to travel to work, and can and has moved peoples' jobs within this rule. So because I live in Stoke, they could at any time move my office to Birmingham or Manchester, and there is nothing I can do.

What needs to be done is to sweep away the notion of MP's having 'homes' and let them receive a hotel allowance on a needs must basis with a strict limit, with all MP's required to attend a statutory number of sittings per session of parliament. that would soon separate the genuine MP's from the free-loaders.

[chakka35]

Yes, Jake and Andy are both right: very little of this trousering is a matter of breaking the rules, merely that the rules are ludicrously generous. Hardly surprising considering that it is MPs who have made those rules - a case of the depth of the trough being determined by those with the snouts.

There is little the voter can do about it - unlike the case of the European Parliament where the fraud and corruption is on a shocking scale. In their case we can simply refrain from voting for any of them in June. After all, we don't need the EU Parliament.

But we do need our own parliament to preserve our democracy, so we can't abstain in our millions next year. Ho hum...

[Mr Chipps]

Jake, again I don't agree. They're not within the rules. They are flouting those rules by claiming second homes when they aren't second homes at all.
And you can wind your neck in about my pension sunbeam. I pay for that, and have done through the years of pay restraints for civil servants. Now the private sector is feeling the pinch we are just something to hang its hat on.

[chakka35]

You're wrong there, Mr Chipps.

Commonsense says that the four-bedrom house you own in the country where you live with your spouse and children is your main home, but the rules say that you can call it your second home if you spend a few nights a week in the back bedroom of your sister's house in London.

If the rules are as potty as that I'm afraid our money-grubbing MPs will exploit them - perfectly legally.

[Mr Chipps]

Nah, she claimed to be staying for the requisite numer of nights but that was hotly - and seemingly reliably - disputed by independent witnesses. I'm sure that if a robust investigation was conducted she would be found to be a liar.

[chakka35]

You may be right, if investigation shows it, but it still means that the rules are ridiculously generous.