A SOLUTION TO MPs EXPENSES

The exposure of MPs expenses dominated the headlines throughout the summer and this week the Kelly Inquiry will be published. As many of you will know I have been a long-time supporter of Heather Brooke’s campaign for freedom of information therefore I wasn’t in the least bit surprised at the revelations. We had known long ago what had been going on, but the public were largely oblivious until the Daily Telegraph did the country a service and revealed what MPs themselves should have years ago instead of attempting to suppress their release at every opportunity.

The fallout has seen some cosmetic changes in Parliament but the lack of real reform has only served to demonstrate further the rottenness of our political system. A genuinely democratic Parliament listening to the public would have dissolved itself and given the public an opportunity to serve justice at the ballot box, instead Parliament continues to govern despite having no moral mandate to do so.

It must be said that we should not condone all MPs and this has gotten lost in the scandal. There are some, albeit far too few people in politics who are principled and do a good job, these people do not deserve to be on the receiving end of our anger. Those who have committed fraud however should be prosecuted, like you or I would.

One thing I cannot believe is that some are suggesting we solve the expenses issue by giving MPs a pay rise. The current annual salary for an MP is £64,766 per annum, MPs who hold other responsibilities within Parliament can earn up to £144,520 a year. Not bad for a job that doesn’t require any formal qualifications or experience.

The laughable but common argument put forth by the politicians themselves is that we risk not being able to attract or keep the best people in politics if we don't pay them more money. What rubbish! These same people have repeatedly exampled they are incapable of running Government departments never mind managing their own expenses. If this is the best they can offer us it doesn't matter what we're paying them.

As for a real solution I think the TaxPayers' Alliance have come up with one of the best ideas. We are currently building 3,000 affordable homes in the Olympic Village, the project has effectively been nationalised with Triathlon Homes being the only outside financer. They are expected to pay £268 million for 1,400 of the homes making the market value of each home roughly £191,500, therefore the cost for obtaining permanent homes for use by all 572 MPs outside London would be £110 million, quite modest when you consider the entire expenses system cost us over £11.5 million in 2007-08.

The expenses system could then be largely abolished and within a decade it would be reasonable to expect that savings we would make would recoup any costs associated with not selling the homes. This would put an end to MPs feathering their nests at the expense of the taxpayer.