Thieves?

The press has it in for the MPs at the moment. It would seem that there has been a great dal of abuse of the expenses system and that most of the incumbents of the houses of parliament have been on the fiddle at the tax payers expense. Now the MPs themselves argue that they have done nothing wrong and that all the claims are within the law. As they make the laws then they ought to know what is within it and what is not. What most people think though is that they have been less than honourable in the manipulation of a system set up to allow our representatives to run homes within a reasonable distance of Parliament. The whole thing could be resolved by building a hall of residence somewhere in Westminster where MPs could be designated a small functional flat that would allow them to sleep over whenever the need arose. Thus whenever an Mp was voted out, that flat would immediately become vacant and there would be no need for us to fund all these second and third homes that are at the heart of this silly and corrupt system

MPs are human and like all humans they will make the most out of any system that exists. The fact that they constructed the system is moot. We are all capable of using or abusing the system. I remember as a student, claiming bus fares that i hadn't actually paid because I was getting a lift. I reused train tickets whenever i could get away with not handing mine in at the end of a journey, and if there was a way of claiming any other expense, i would make it. Everyone I knew did the same thing. We are talking very small change of course but to students, small change meant a few extras that would otherwise not be possible to buy. The only difference really between us and the MPs is one of magnitude, and of course opportunity. Most people have to pay all their own expenses when it comes to getting to work and running their homes. I do not believe that anyone can really justify the ownership of two homes in a world where many have no home at all. MPs are well paid in relation to most of us and the current state of affairs simply underlines the fact that the more you have, the more you want. Greed is a powerful drive and I think that it is time that our politicians lost the right to be addressed as "Honourable members".