politicians expense claims

This is just jaw-dropping.

A plague on both your houses - Times Online

Of course this is a symptom of the current generation of career politician we've now got. These are people who go straight from school - to university and then into politics. Consequently precious few of them have had much experience of real life - or even held down a real job (some of them might possibly have had a silly part time job during uni. but otherwise they probably interned for their chosen political party) or know much about how normal everyday people live their lives. This is apparent by the utter cluelessness they display when reporters confront them:

ANDREW SINCLAIR: And you would say, you haven’t broken any rules, this is all within the claims policy.

MARGARET MORAN: It is all within the claims policy and that’s why I’m angry about this because not only has it been very stressful for me and my family, it gives the incredibly misleading impression that somehow we’ve been dodgy, that we’ve been fraudulent or we’ve been corrupt. Nothing is further from the truth. As I say, there are – I’ve done everything by the rules. There are inaccuracies, some of which I think are probably actionable and I think that it’s deeply irresponsible and actually the evasion of privacy, not just my privacy but my partner’s privacy, the Daily Telegraph, now have and have circulated to all the media, details of my credit card, my bank statements, my mortgage statements, personal details relating to my partner, which I do not believe any responsible media should be dealing with.

ANDREW SINCLAIR: Some people are going to say you should resign over this.

MARGARET MORAN: Well I, I don’t want to resign. I want to continue to do a good job for my constituents; my Party doesn’t want me to resign. (interjection)

ANDREW SINCLAIR: Have you thought about resigning?

MARGARET MORAN: Well I, no, I haven’t because I haven’t done anything wrong. You know, if you haven’t done anything wrong, what is there to resign for.

See the clip here.


If I was in charge of the country - I'd have all mps put on minimum wage and if they're away from their constituencies for parliamentary business - they'd be halls of residence set up for them - with constant cctv surveillance in what would no doubt prove to be a futile attempt to stop them bonking each other senseless...

Of course what they should do is pay all the money back and give everyone a tax rebate. Don't hold your breath.