Expenses committee
If they set up an expenses committee, it should comprise of lay-persons in the same vein as jury duty but lasts month rather than 2 weeks. One works from home, receives a delivery of receipts to process. Decide which ones are actually relevant to being an MP, discard those that are quite clearly a scam and send back the information.

A lot of people are frothing at the mouth, but when people are on jury duty, it is refreshing how lenient and unbiased they are.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 19 May 2009, 10:31, 14 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

That's a marvelous idea, I'll sign up for that.
Do you think I'll be able to claim for lunch and babysitting whilst I'm perusing said receipts..? :-)

Trouble with this whole argument though is that none of them have broken the rules they made for themselves.

I heard t'other day from a tabloid that the speaker was instrumental behind changing some of these rules to accommodate a lot of these wilder claims. Is this true?
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 19 May 2009, 10:44, Reply)

*tries really hard to care*
*fails*

NB not being rude here, I just think it's yet another media-driven mountain/molehill. The amounts being paid back are in total less than a couple of hundred grand,I believe - in govt funding terms a tiny drop in the ocean, particularly when you see the eyewatering budgets dished out for pointless electorate-pleasing enquiries etc.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 May 2009, 10:48, Reply)

This
The government spends a lot of good money, but wastes a fuckload too.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 19 May 2009, 10:54, Reply)

Hang on...
...if our politicians were forced to live within the means dictated by the general public, then maybe they'd think twice before allowing Council Tax, utility bills (through the strangely toothless QUANGO regulators like OFFWAT and OFGEN), fuel duty and rail fares to be hiked over and above even the most ambitious rate of inflation.

Those who are protected from the financial penalties imposed by their decision making have no place deciding policy for 60 million people in this country.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 19 May 2009, 10:59, Reply)

I agree.
And letting them have free reign on an expenses system intended to provide them with accommodation when they visit Westminster doesn't keep them in touch with what the average person has to pay out every month.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:07, Reply)

Doesn't sound rude
Quite agree, it's getting tedious now, they should all pay back what is morally right to and still get sacked, not drag this rubbish out.

But I've heard this argument about it being a drop in the ocean compared to other budgets a lot over the last few days. Sure it is, but on one hand that 100 grand is 5/6 nurses and on t'other it's still wrong: If you drop your wallet with £100 in it and I return it to you down a fiver, would you be happy with that? If I haven't eaten in a week and buy a sarnie with it is that ok? What if I buy a blowjob outside Kings Cross?

(That's not meant to sound arsey either, I've just had too much coffee and am stuck in a server room, bored :-) )
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:00, Reply)

I'm not saying for a moment it's not important
merely that the media and consequently the political response is somewhat disproportionate to the sums involved.

If you look at the money chucked at ID cards, for example: why isn't there a dozen pages of hyperbole in every paper every day of the week about that? It's the 'latest thing' for the papers - they're really milking it for all it's worth and I just think there are a great many other infinitely more outrageous wastes of public money going on all day every day, but you don't hear a peep from the press about them because the aren't the current 'buzz' topic.

Arsehole fucking press

*gets swine flu. Sneezes for a couple of days*
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:11, Reply)

Agreed
We don't want ID Cards. Nor do we want Road Pricing. We don't really want a national database of children either.

So why has this government spent billions on forcing these unwated policies through?

[edit] This arrogant attitude towards the electorate is being exploited by parties like the BNP and UKIP, which can only lead to no good...
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 19 May 2009, 11:14, Reply)

Definitely...piss poor excuses for journalists writing the same crap as yesterday and calling it news
You only have to read a single copy of Private Eye to find out who's pockets each journalist is in and why they're bitching about certain things, as well as finding out about all the scandals they're not even touching - PFI anyone? Money being plowed into roads and sometimes deisel trains instead of more carriages, lines and electrification for the whole network? Backhanders, "free" lunches from the paid lobbyists? Privatising our spy gadget makers then letting their new owners sell it for a pittance (though quite a few millions pittance, straight into private pockets)? Tabloids are utter shite.

I think I need to give up reading/listening to any more news for a while, I really get quite angry.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:21, Reply)

Sounds likely.
Bloody union men. Worse still, bloody shop stewards. Ruined this country. How? Gave Thatcher an excuse, that's how.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 19 May 2009, 10:48, Reply)

The right wing press
are making out that £45 - 160k goes straight into the pockets of the MPs. In some cases they were milking it for all it's worth. But not in all cases.

My MP claimed £80k or so for staff. That didn't go in her pocket, it went into a few office workers pockets and kept them in jobs.

It's like saying smug, grinning, punchable-faced council leader Carl Minns claimed £300m, when in reality he has to run Hull Council with it.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:09, Reply)

300m a year to look after Hull?!
I suppose it's quite expensive these days, what with the cost of gas for the fires, the shortage of tar for the pits and the lawyers queuing up to plead that eternal damnation is against our human rights...

/fetches cloak
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:13, Reply)

And what about the outdoor lavatories?
EH????
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:33, Reply)

Aw, do they lock them these days?
The bastards... ;-)
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 19 May 2009, 11:58, Reply)