I genuinely thought this would be over by now. I had absolute faith that the Labour government (which we entrust with running our whole country) would have understood the will of the people and got their act together on expenses. Despite all their limitations and repeated failures I truly thought that they could get this one little thing right. I was totally wrong.
Today it’s revealed in the Derby Evening Telegraph that Mrs Beckett has stepped forward to defend the old expenses system. She says she doesn’t want us throwing the, “baby out with the bathwater”.
In one respect she’s right. We need a system that remunerates MPs fairly and that doesn’t preclude those of modest means from standing nor discourages those that have been professionally successful from standing. However, that isn’t the bit the public is cross about.
Mrs Beckett, let me spell this out for you. We want transparency, we want honesty and we want to know that you are all good value for money. In case you’re still confused, he’s what I mean:
Transparency: It is our money you’re spending. We want to know if it’s going on duck houses or legitimate travel expenses. At work, my boss demands to know this so, as politician’s bosses, its right that the public know it too.
Honesty: If you have a second income, fine. Maybe it shows you’re in touch with the world out of politics but we want to know how much you get from it, and how many hours you devote to it, and we want to see your bill to the taxpayer reduced accordingly.
Value for Money: I want to be able to contact my MP easily, I want to be able to see his or her diary, I want to see them in the streets and at council meetings and I want to be able to find out their views on local and national issues. They must have a website, must have an email address and must at least give the impression of understanding modern life. Mrs Beckett I’m afraid you fail on all of those counts. I don’t believe that you are dishonest but you are poor value for money. Derby deserves better.
Now, if the government still “doesn’t get it” and is still confused about how we can deliver all of this let me give them that answer too. At work, I have a corporate card onto which I charge my expenses. I get no blind allowances and every penny I claim back is accounted for by receipts. All expenditure must conform to a set of rules and if it falls out of the normal parameters it is subject to extra scrutiny. My returns are done online and can be accessed in real time by the accounts department.
My firm employs some 15,000 in the UK there are about 650 MPs. If the government can’t create a system to replicate the ones that the majority of the public have to cope with then there is truly no hope for them. All they have to do is put it online in real time (as the Conservative party have done for their Shadow Cabinet) and the public will be happy.
Now please, Gordon, Margaret just get it done so that we can move on and talk about solving problems in this City that actually are difficult like housing, education and crime.
