MP's expenses seem to be taxing (no pun intended) a lot of people lately. However, I'm not particularly one of them. Whilst I do see the ridiculousness of being able to claim for such items as horse manure, dog food, lawnmower repairs (the sit in type of lawnmower, not the kind that most of us have to use) it does seem odd to me that we, the taxpayers, seem to think that being an MP is something that should be done as some sort of altruistic vocation. There does seem to be this view that an MP should really serve the country because of a devotion to duty and love of the people he or she represents. And they should do it for free.

That of course is utter fallacy. The majority of MP's still come through the public school and higher education routes. The majority of MP's view the role as a job much like an airline pilot or Tesco employee does. It pays, they get some measure of enjoyment from it, and whenever there's a chance to loaf or make some extra cash, they're in just like anyone else. It appears that morality is the issue at hand here, not legality. No-one seems to have fiddled any expenses. The rules are in place and all they have done is exploited them to the max. Lets be honest here...who wouldn't? It's human nature to feather ones own nest first. Call it part of the survival instinct. There is no such thing as true altruism, MP's like the rest of us operate in a mutual back scratching society whereby the do gooders often benefit themselves. And I've no problem with that. if a band wants to appear at a Geldof charity gig and their performance makes a few quid for the charity, BUT they get increased album sales or a career boost then that's fine for me.They scratch the charities back, and the public re-scratch their backs. That's our society.

So, the only way I see of resolving the expenses issues for MP's is to pay them a salary commensurate with the position. The salary is £64, 766. I appreciate that's not a bad wedge but I think a lot of MP's are hardworking people who not only attend Parliament, but run surgeries, attend Party gatherings and much more. many independent reviews have recommended a much higher salary for what in essence could be judged to be in the group of jobs containing Judges, Doctors, Barristers etc. I would quite happily accept MP's being on £200,000 per year (so they get to pay the 50% tax) and from that they fund researchers and second homes. Cabinet Ministers and The Prime Minister could earn say £100k a year above that to reflect seniority and additional responsibility. They can then, like most organizations allow, claim for legitimate business/travel mileage, reasonable hospitality to a limited cost, but would be restricted to a maximum expenses claims pot per year according to the average allowed by the top 25 FTSE companies....all who most likely, if The Company are anything to go by, have very stringent limits on what can be claimed and how much. The taxpayer knows the exact cost per year and everyone is in the same boat.

We live in an age of Information Technology. Surely something like this could be easily implemented.


Later, GJ