Expenses Footnote
This thing gets worse. The spectacle of protesting MPs, claiming ‘injustice’ over Sir Thomas’s review because ‘he changed the rules retrospectively’ is appalling. He did not change the rules. The Green Book states quite clearly the significant limitations of the Additional Costs allowance. It allowed MPs known as ‘Honorable Members’ to use their judgement in the spirit of the principles of this provision. What many, it seems most, did was to treat it as a salary suplement and charge any expenditure they possibly could to it. They did this because they knew the taxpayers, as voters, would not stand for big pay increases, so this scheme did the trick without the voters knowing.