Three months in which MPs and peers finally lost the plot?
I have two close friends who happen to be life peers. Upon entering the House of Lords they were button holed by those already there. One had a house in the Hampshire countryside; the other had a place in Scotland.
They joined the House in the last twelve years. In both cases their “button holers” suggested they claim the country pile as their main home and charge all their travel to these far flung places. They eschewed the opportunity, but they each report that the practice was and remains endemic.
Suffer no shock then that the kindly Lord Paul is accused of designating a flat in Oxfordshire he never slept in as his main home, thereby allowing him to claim expenses from the taxpayer for attending Parliament (total: £38,000). Lord Paul denies any wrongdoing, and insists his claims were within the rules.
How often have we sniggered down our sleeves at the French, the Spanish, Berlusconi, even the Congolese. We are as bad, we simply do it differently – smoke, mirrors, Pugin and name changing honours.
Into this orgy of expenses claiming is thrown the unlucky Tom Legg – “Sir Thomas” for his services to Whitehall – a decent hard working cove who ran Charlie Falconer’s department when he was Lord Chancellor.
Poor man, he has merely applied the prevailing standards for public life as they are administered in the civil service. But MPs over time devised a very uncivil service by which they imbursed themselves. Largely because they would not face up to the necessity of reforming every rule and practice by which they had functioned for most of the last century or more. No wonder they dared not ask the electorate for proper salaries and allowances, but chose instead to pursue dark practices behind the Speaker’s chair.
I suppose I should add that Tom Legg’s crime, if there is one, has been to make and apply new standards retrospectively. It would also be churlish not to accept that the media has played a role in not allowing MPs to sort their salaries out.
Make no mistake, their expenses culture was, some three or four decades ago, the very expenses culture by which journalists, lawyers and many business people lived. But times and standards changed. The MPs and Peers did not.
The scandal at Westminster is less what they did, than that the collective will of both houses that deemed what was going on acceptable. It wasn’t. Every Peer and MP is tainted by this affair. This summer they collectively decided to take their recess whilst the rest of the community got back to whatever work they could cling on to.
Three months of holiday for most Parliamentarians, during which they were happy to let Tom Legg toil. Three months in which they met not at all. Three months in which absolutely nothing was done to forge cross party agreement, sanctified by debate and resolution on the floors of both Houses, to bring Parliament and democratic behaviour into the twenty first century.
No wonder they still give every appearance of not getting it. I have in my journalistic career never known the political classes brought so low, despised, and derided so widely.
Related posts:
- Arise Lord Sugar of Clapton!
- Life still means life in the House of Lords
- Is it time to give the lords a peer review?
- Tony Blair's expenses un-shredded!
- MPs' expenses: there is much murkier gravy to come
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The scandal at Westminster is the expenses fracas was all perfectly kosher until the f******* were found out……
I always thought there was one overriding rule even for an organisation with such lax “rules” – the One Rule to bind them all is; to uphold the fiduciary duty of care owed to the Tax Payer.
So many Members of both Houses have failed miserably and they should all be turfed out upon their over broad backsides.
why this hue and cry about rules being applied retrospectively?
NHS dentists have had retrospective claw back of income apllied 3 times in the last 35 years. They registered more patients and hence more treatments were carried out. They did not press gang the patients from the street. But having exceeded the expected targets, NHS deducts whatever figure it feels as necessary.
get on your bikes MP’s!!!!
The term ‘dark practices’ encapsulates the scandal. Collective and incestuous receipt of power, money and privilege was always going to end in tears.
A civil servant charged with trying to create some accountability from a rotten swamp of disparate money laundering was always going to struggle.
Lower forms of life within the government machine might abuse the stationery cupboard but would baulk at the sight of bundles of cash……eek.
This shabby presentation of public life sits alongside the corrupt and all powerful machination of the monarchy, state and church.
The cement that holds it in place is the patronage that pervades life throughout politics, land ownership, the aristocracy and influence across industry and the media.
Unelected, prime minister, monarch, the lords and an unaccountable House of Commons all set within the jewel of the crown…no written constitution.
Hmm check out the coming election….the public will move this story on.
Un
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Good piece, Jon. I hope it is widely read in Westminster. This issue has permanently damaged the perception of our whole democracy, a situation which will not start to change unless and until substantial numbers of the thieves (for they are no better than that) are expelled by both the Houses and undergo criminal prosecutions for the blatant frauds they have carried out, starting with Jacqui Smith, Elliot Morley and numerous peers. But I’m not holding my breath……..
An observation about Jon Snow’s interview with Andrew Pearce (not sure of spelling here) of the Daily Telegraph. Could it be that the Telegraph, well known for its unremitting support of the Tory party and Big Business is using the current uproar about Legg’s letter to keep the spotlight aware from the REAL CRIMINALS of the last decade – the BANKERS and their INVESTMENT ANLYSTS and their BONUSES. THAT is what taxpayers SHOULD be up in arms about. Forget the pathetic sums spent on gardeners and cleaners, go for the multi-million Pound bonus bastards. Why no news on SIR Fred Goodwin with his huge retirement pot? Let’s get the real picture straight here please.
Fair point about the the comparison with “the French, the Spanish, Berlusconi, even the Congolese.”
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, whichever country you are in….
And what are the foreign media saying about all the Mother of All Swindles happening in the Mother of All Parliaments…
“I have in my journalistic career never known the political classes brought so low,despised and derided so widely” – that’s it, as far as I’m concerned. Perfect prose, perfect contempt.
You have to go back to Hogarth and stuff to better it.
“Endemic” – I said this months ago, but everyone laughed. Picture this:
Week One: somebody says “it’s only 20MPs – most MPs are straight”.
Week Two: somebody says “it’s only 70MPs – most MPs are straight”.
Week Seventeen: somebody says “letters have been sent to 600(out of 650) MPs, but most MPs are straight.
Endemic. WHERE IS THIS STRAIGHT MP? WHERE IS THE UNICORN?
Hi Jon
I enjoyed your news programme tonight. This issue of retrospectivity interests me on several levels.
Firstly I think Tom Legg has shocked MPs by being someone of ethics and standards who is trying to impose some order on the shambles which they created. I rather get the impression they were expected someone to “play the game”.
Secondly the type of legislation that this MPs and this administration has often been intrusive and in the field I work in has had retrospective elements. So their complaints to me sound like the biter bit.
Thirdly the issue of cleaning bills being examined whilst mortgage bills are not shows how they organise things. If this is not something organised incompetently I do not know what is.
So rather than making things better i suspect that this process will make it worse as our politician’s show their true calibre.
The “retrospective” aspect of the payment demand smells dodgy to me…. Could this be a way of setting a precedence in the legislative system such that any and all rules can be changed after the fact? Is this the end of the Contract? And if so, could there be another reason why the three stooges have committed so blindly?
Please check Jon… C4News is our only link to true democracy!
Respectfully, HT
First, what is the rule that MP’s are claiming to have been retrospectively changed? Surely Legg’s point is that there was no rule, that MP’s created a situation that allowed them to claim as much as they liked – a blank cheque.
Second, why should MP’s under any circumstances be allowed to make a profit from tax-payer funded second homes that were ‘essential’ to carry out their parliamentary duties? By doing so they use my taxes to make a profit for themselves. How can that possibly be allowable?
All I can personally add is that I lost my house and home and £40.000 , due to forgeries and a corrupt political system 25 years ago. I was wiped out , have had to live a life of ridicule and subservience due to the ruling of those with less insight or moral decency. Retrospectively debtors came for many years and when I attempted to get justice , I was quietened again.
Sorry for the chaps at Westminster.?. no not at all.. I dont think your lives will be torn to shreds , however I do take Ann Widdecombs point, but like all us who are frustrated and grovelling at the bottom in order to make a living, it’s not the point we are interested in but the money. Ihope they now GET IT.
Margaret: you summed it up. Summed it all up.
Dear Mr Snow,
I write to you from UKNDA, the UK’s only defence lobby group campaigning in support of the Armed Forces & their families.
We have just launched a brand new campaign to have a permanent memorial/ work of art erected on the vacant 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square to commemorate all those soldiers who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have received over 1,100 signatures in a couple of days and we are aiming for 10,000 (please see link below)
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TributeToForces/
We are looking to work with the Armed Forces, Art & Cultural community and most importantly the families and veterans of these conflicts.
Thankyou kindly for your time.
Best regards,
Martin
ndm@uknda.org
Hearing the screams from these people shows they are morally bankrupt.
We have millions of people suffering through losing their pensions through government theft and corrupt companies and they hardly get a mention.
We hear far more about the problems in far flung places but next to nothing about our own problems right here at home.
While these MPs whinge about a rule being applied retrospectively, they don’t explain why the tax payer should pay for their cleaning and gardening.
A lot of us lead busy lives that would be made much easier if we could afford to hire a clearner or gardener. As we can’t, we muddle along and do the best we can.
A clean house and tidy garden – even a scrupulously maintained moat – are not necessary to being a good MP
What a sight! As soon as PMQs finished around half our representatives scuttled off to get lunch or consult their lawyers abour protecting their cleaning and gardening expenses rather than listen to the Prime Minister’s statement on Afghanistan.
They are a disgrace
Retrospectively? I was under the impression that Tom Legg simply put in pounds the term ‘reasonable’ that so many MPs seem to have problems understanding.
When are we going to see prosecutions for fraudulent claims?
If there are none,those responsible will have an escape hatch by not standing at the next election
i am surprised the inland revenue and the law have not become involved in the majority of claims.MP’S acting fraudulently or suspected of doing so, should have to stand down until proven innocent.Surely flipping has to be a fraud perpetrated against the tax payer,and the revenue have a duty to persue it
Which begs the question; Has the Head of HM Revenue & Customs failed in his general duty towards the Tax Payer?
It’s the sort of thing that in a commercial organisation would lead to disciplinary action.
I am amazed at Channel 4 News reaction to MP’s having the rules on expenses changed retrospectively. These same MP’s have change rules, that applied to the voters, retrospectively on many a previous occasion. No one in the media cried foul or said it was against natural justice or our human rights. I know of someone who when they sold a business arranged their tax affairs according to the rules existing at the time and four years later, when the tax rules were changed retrospectively had to pay many thousand of pounds to H M Revenue. If The MP’s are successful in having the retrospective changes annulled then my friend should have his money returned plus interest.
Kind regard
Ray Willis: it’s happened with Child Support and Tax Credits – you end up owing money that was given you. In my own experience, every-so-often I get letters from Nuneaton’s Debt Agency saying I’ve been overpaid Jobseeker’s Allowance. There’s nothing-approximating an apology or a request-for-reimbursement – just “how-do-you-want-it-taken-from-your-bank-account?”
The word ‘debt’ sums up the way these organisations think: if we give a tramp 5quid instead of one, is he in our debt?
No, we just made a mistake.
Do you think you could tell the fools (technical term extortionists) to consult with the fools that overpaid you in the first place? Maybe you can write a little ‘contract’ and get the people to sign it stating that you are not responsible or liable for any overpayment made to you.
It’s very sad that us little people are the ones that have to, yet again, pick up the bill for incompetence!
talking of changing rules retrospectively i want to change my vote to join the europeanUNION as we were lied to
I trust ‘our’ fiddling MPs fully appreciate how lucky they are to be in Great Britain: many other countries would now be exacting a very different kind of revenge on them. Looks like the decades of repeatedly telling us how ‘tolerant’, ‘fair’ and ‘good-humoured’ we are have paid off, eh, guys?