Friday, January 16, 2009

It is Up to MPs to Restore Their Reputation

Yesterday the Leader of the House of Commons Harriet Harman brought further shame on the institution. She used the Heathrow announcement as cover and slipped out the news that MPs won't after all, be forced to publish receipts for all their expenses. David Hencke has the full details HERE, but here's the crucial part.

Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, got Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to table a parliamentary order that will exempt all MPs and peers from having to release detailed expenses under the Freedom of Information Act.

The order, which will come into force 24 hours after being debated next week in parliament, will stop in its tracks all the victories won by campaigners and journalists to bring full transparency to individual MPs' expenditure on travel, equipping their second or constituency homes, staffing, office details and individual travel receipts by air, rail and car.

The timing is extraordinary. The parliamentary authorities were poised to release a mindboggling 1.2m pieces of papers detailing three years' individual expenses after a two-year battle covering all but the Sinn Féin MPs. The public had already had a foretaste of what was come last year when a limited release of expenditure for a small number of MPs revealed lots of detail - from the £1,920 pergola and plants ordered by Margaret Beckett for her constituency home to Barbara Follett, the wife of the successful author, Ken Follett, and Labour MP for Stevenage claiming £1,600 for cleaning the windows of her London home.

Now none of this will become public, and all existing FOI requests will be blocked. There is an alternative disclosure scheme planned but it will not provide the detail. And the public suspicion of MPs will grow. Everyone will think their elected representatives have something to hide.

As Guido says...

They claim that it would be too expensive to account for all expenditure - try putting that on your tax return. Some MPs are taking it upon themselves to voluntarily publish ALL their expenses, some will not, draw your own conclusions. If they have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to hide...

Proper, transparent reform will clearly never come while the Old Guard retain power. After the next election it is very likely that there will be two hundred new MPs. Together with the 2005 intake, it is they who must insist on a proper reform of the system.

In the meantime I hope two things will happen. Firstly, that many more MPs will follow the example of Tory MP Ben Wallace and voluntarily publish the full details of their expenses. And secondly that individual voters put pressure on all parliamentary candidates to give a commitment that when they are elected they will do exactly that.

17 comments:

bayesian said...

It's time for some citizen action on this: I think its time that all MPs are harassed on a continuous basis, much as they propose that minor offenders should be. It wouldn't be too difficult to set up a website to which people could post pictures of MPs going about their daily lives, say in the pub or at a meal or shopping and query whether this is on expenses or not. They'll cry invasion of privacy but they need to see, the good and the bad alike, that they can be ridiculed continuously and with no recourse as long as they avoid accountability.

The other action would be to extend the Martin Bell approach and have a 'white suit' candidate in each constituency where all the candidates don't commit as part of their manifesto to clean up the Commons.

Dick the Prick said...

It will NEVER happen. They all treat us with contempt, disdain and hatred.

Dick the Prick said...

Tuesday and Wednesday could also be good days for us to get robbed by disgusting criminals, by weak, verminous wretches, by parasites who feed their fat, indolent, porcine entrails with the labour and toil of honest men's work. They use every opportunity to steal and thieve, to pilfer and plunder - they are wretches who have no place in this society - they nauseate me.

Anonymous said...

Why not a campaign to refuse to vote for a candidate of any party who refused to have published his/her expenses or (if not a sitting MP) who refused to agree to publish them in the next Parliament.

Old Holborn said...

I'm working on a plan to "name" 646 lamp posts near Westminster with the names of MP's.

I have a rope manufacturer on board as a sponsor

GreenJJ said...

I think you're a bit too kind to the 2005 intake, i used to work for one and i know for sure that he'd fight tooth and nail to keep his expenses from being published! The whole thing is a disgrace.

Piers said...

If anyone's interested there's a FB group here: http://bit.ly/NAv1 Not a lot of activity but hopefully there will be soon

Alan Douglas said...

By law, we are "all equal under the law".

I look forward to the first casse by HRMC against a businessman who enters all his expenses in the smae way as MPs will be able to do.

Alan Douglas

Andrew said...

Not difficult at all to disclose all expenses---MSPs in the Scottish Parliament do this (not sure about the Welsh Assembly).
Some MSPs have suffered for this transparency, but that's democracy, and it makes sure they don't do it again!

T England. Raised from the dead. said...

Spend, spend & give no accounts, sounds like our MP's are taking a leaf out of the EU's deceitful book!

Anonymous said...

The Taxpayers' Alliance should be mobilising for positive action, starting with a massive, co-ordinated refusal to pay council tax.

Then people should insist on their MPs detailing every penny of their allowances and expenses and if they don't they should name and shame them.

Harman is beyond parody. Wonder what positive spin Polly will try and put on it?

Jim Baxter said...

This might make you wonder some more about the mace protest.

not an economist said...

The processing of expense claims in a detailed, systematic way so as to ensure transparancy is always costly. Given that MP's are not going to be required to do this what about public sector workers up and down the country? Will the Local Govt Officers who regularly travewl the width and breadth of their county's/boroughs/unitary areas now be allowed to claim will nilly without threat of a come back if they go on the fiddle? If not why not? Parliament has led by example and told us such sytstems are expesnive and so unnecessary so lets ditch all such monitoring procedures forthwith.

jon dee said...

Is the government afraid that fraud will be revealed in MPs expenses?
Their proposal to block its scrutiny suggests signs of a very guilty conscience.
Harman should be seeking equality with other senior officers accross the public sector,not denying transparency.
If the House of Lords don't block this devious move then the Conservatives should make a manifesto commitment to overturn it.
It would get wide public support.

Roger Thornhill said...

The Old Guard will still be in.

The LPUK has a policy on expenses - open and transparent. We will not be taking up the gold-plated pension, either.

Trumpeter Lanfried said...

Why are there only 17 comments on this latest scam? Have we become so weary of institutional corruption that we no longer care?

Stephen Folan said...

Make it like the private sector where you need to supply receipts for anything you want to claim. They can be photocopied and scanned in and uploaded.

The public will scrutinse don't worry.