MP Expense Saga Carries On!
April 24, 2009
As the general ager towards MP’s continues from all average Joe’s in the UK, Gordon Brown has had his proposal for MP expense reform thrown out of the arena.
Committee Standards in Public Life (CPSL) Chairman, Sir Christopher Kelly has said:
“This is not something that should be left to politicians to sort out for themselves. This the single most damaging issue for public trust in politicians in the last 15 years. There must be reform and it must be done properly. If public confidence is to be restored, there needs to be an independent inquiry by people with no political agenda of their own which can look hard at all the evidence and that is open to anyone who wants to contribute.”
Brown has looked to get second home allowances scrapped and a daily attendance allowance paid instead. Surely, as with any job, anywhere in the World, a daily allowance for work is a salary, which for MP’s is already more than triple the average UK salary.
Why do MP’s feel they need to be paid twice?! When they take on the role as MP, they must know that they will have to work from London some of the time. Why do I pay more that 50% of my salary, one way or another to tax, for MP’s to reap benefits on top of benefits?!
The whole situation makes my blood boil and I have no faith in the useless politicians, put in place by hard working British folk. Let’s face it; they spend more time bitching about each other, than fixing the mess that is the British economy. Things like our immigration policy clearly hasn’t worked and our education and health care systems are falling apart at the seams.
Politicians should get paid their salary; if they need to recoup the expense of nights in hotels then they should produce receipts. There should be a cap on the amount they can claim per night, or let’s face it; the likes of Jacqui Smith will be in the most expensive hotel in London every night.
With the recent budget taking even more money off the UK, politicians need to get real and under no circumstance should they decide their own pay and expense policies!
What Else: