Those Expenses
We know there are some M.Ps who are now charged with crimes. We know half the rest have to pay back money, some quite a lot of money. Some of these are busy telling the media that they stuck to the rules as they were interpreted at the time and it is unfair to pillory them now.
Were these people working in some corporation which set out rules for them which it was habitually slack in policing and then, following an audit and complaints from shareholders, decided to get tough, such squeals might just be understandable if not acceptable.
But this is not the case here. These people set up their own rules and kept the details secret from the taxpayers who paid all these ridiculuous bills. The rules they established were preposterous and they knew would never pass public scrutiny so they kept mum. Until the Telegraph. They are collectively guilty of deceit and greed, they have brought our whole system of Government into disrepute, they have damaged our democracy not only in the voters’ eyes, but in the eyes of the whole world, which now greets our claim to be an open and honest democracy with a polite and knowing smile.
This Parliament is rotten. It was wrong and as I have said before, not to dissolve it was against the spirit of our unwritten Constitution. Her Majesty was very ill advised. The fallout may yet drift up Whitehall to the Palace. This affair is nowhere near its end.