Snouts In The Trough
My view is the opposite of everyone else's. You'd expect nothing less from me!
Let them keep their expenses as they are.
The rules concerning what they can and cannot claim for are nicely vague. And as with most things legal there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The decent politician will abide by both, he is there to serve the people not to make a profit every which way. Their salaries are more than adequate for what they do. So the decent politician will claim for little, if there is any question about a claim then he will err on the side of caution. The greedy politician will do the opposite, and claim whatever he or she thinks he or she can get away with. Many such politicians seem to have legal training so they are well practiced in lying and prevaricating, justifying their greed. But no one's fooled. (Of course, this may all be 'theoretical' as the 'decent' politician became virtually extinct in the UK just over a decade ago.)
So the current system is a great way of 'signalling,' as economists say, something about the character of individual politicians. Change the system by taking away expenses and it becomes harder to tell which politicians to trust and which to distrust. Right now we all now who not to trust, we have a very long list. Come election time I hope UK voters will use that information.
Or maybe I'm being idealistic, it wouldn't be the first time. Because the system also gives information, signals, about the voters. If politicians can get away with what they are doing then it tells me that the British people are really no better than the politicians.
Plan B is to get rid of expenses, and insist that MPs stay in a cramped dormitory when in London and travel on public transport, bring them back down to earth. Either way it would be nice to know that politicians had the common person's interests in mind, rather than their own wealth and pension.
P
