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MPs' expenses: Our very democracy is at stake

A new week has begun, but the scandal over MPs’ expenses has refused to go away.

The Prime Minister and the other party leaders might have hoped that, following last week’s widespread claims and revelations, the worst might be over.

However the sheer enormity of the scandal is so serious that the public has lost no appetite for discovering what the politicians have been doing with their money. The MPs’ claims have ranged from the bizarre to the incredible, and others which may even have broken the law.

The former include an ice-cube tray, a toilet-roll holder, moat cleaning, a rocking chair, dog food and jellied eels. Bigger items range from expensive rugs and televisions to home cinema equipment, and among the most serious are claims for what are now being called “phantom mortgages”.

Since the Daily Telegraph broke the story, there has been a constant procession of politicians claiming they were “only obeying the rules”. This hollow

excuse has been rejected by the public who know the rules were created by the members themselves. Some politicians, however, have tried to brazen it out. However, in recent days, their attitudes have changed and the penny is beginning to drop even among the most thick-skinned. One Minister has stepped down pending an investigation, and other members have been suspended by their party.

Some politicians have shown themselves to be badly out of touch with their constituents, if not the real world. Rarely has there been such sustained public anger of the kind displayed last week on the live

BBC1 Question Time programme. Such a widespread loss of respect is a potential threat to the entire political system which depends on mutual trust between the politicians and the people. That is why it is incumbent on the party leaders to continue to take firm action on those who have behaved in an inappropriate manner, even allowing for the loose rules under which they operate.

The police and the prosecution service are meeting to discuss what action to take in response to widespread complaints of the misuse of Parliamentary expenses. The prospect of criminal prosecutions

will send a shiver across the green and red benches at Westminster, where the House of Lords is also embroiled in a different financial scandal.

The greatest retribution will come at grassroots level, where MPs will have to explain themselves to their constituents who will determine their future. Many Members will by now have held these painful meetings, and there will be more to come.

Nearer home, members of Sinn Fein, the UUP and the DUP have begun to shed some light on their expenses, and the only way forward for everyone at Westminster — and at Stormont too — is to create a system of total transparency and accountability. Anything less will be a nonsense and a sham.

Many of the politicians are hard-working and honourable people and they should not be dragged down by the shocking deviousness and, in some cases the sheer dubiousness, of the rest. Our very democracy is at stake, and the sooner this mess is cleaned up, the better it will be for all of us, the politicians included.

Belfast Telegraph

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